Why does a meadow need more than one kind of living thing?

A meadow may look like a single green carpet. Close up, it contains grasses, flowering plants, insects, fungi and many other organisms. The variety of living things is called biodiversity. It includes different species and differences within species, as well as different kinds of habitat.

Different organisms use resources in different ways. Some plants flower early, while others flower later. A visiting insect may therefore find food during more of the growing season. Roots can reach different depths. Decomposers break down dead material, returning substances that other organisms can use. These activities connect the meadow's living parts.

Diversity can also affect how a community responds to change. If a dry period harms one plant more than another, the second may continue growing and providing food or shelter. That does not make a diverse meadow invulnerable. A severe drought, harmful pollution or loss of habitat can damage many species at once, and some relationships depend on a particular partner.

Counting species is one way to describe biodiversity, but the numbers of each species and the connections between them matter too. A field with one flowering plant among thousands of a single grass differs from a varied meadow. The richness lies both in which organisms are present and in what they make possible together.