The Land Tells the Story

NPS / Jacob W. Frank

Quick Facts

Location:

Mammoth to Tower Road

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Each species—no matter how small—has an important role to play in a functioning ecosystem. They all participate in various ecosystem processes like transferring energy, providing nutrient storage, or breaking down pollutants.

That is why biological diversity, or biodiversity, is a benchmark for measuring the health of an ecosystem.

Biodiversity can be measured two ways: the number of different species (also called richness) and the abundance of each species (also called evenness).