Logo of State of the Environment 2011; Photo by Andrew Griffiths, Lensaloft

State of the Environment 2011 (SoE 2011)

State of the Environment 2011 Committee. Australia state of the environment 2011.
Independent report to the Australian Government Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
Canberra: DSEWPaC, 2011.

8 Biodiversity

1 Introduction

Biodiversity is the variety of life. It includes not only the diversity of species of plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and viruses that inhabit our planet, but also the genetic material within those species, the diversity of ecosystems, habitats and communities within which they live, and the diversity of processes that are performed by genes and species and the interactions among them.

Parry Lagoons Nature Reserve, the Kimberley, Western Australia. Photo by Steve Parish