Florida panther photo: Hollingsworth/USFWS

It doesn’t make sense to think of the three levels of biodiversity—genes, species, and ecosystems—as separate categories, because each level influences the others in significant ways. And if one level is disrupted, the effects can ripple through the others.

The Florida Everglades provides a good example of this “ripple effect.” This unique ecosystem once covered more than 3,600 square miles and supported a tremendous diversity of wading birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, and other species. But as more and more people moved into the area, the Everglades ecosystem shrank and much of the slowly flowing “river of grass” was converted into a series of water management areas connected by canals.

These changes put pressure on many species, such as wood storks and Everglade kites. And for some species, such as the Florida panther (a relative of the cougar), the fragments of suitable habitat became so small that only a few individuals could survive in them. With fewer and fewer breeding partners, the genetic variety within the species declined. So the changes in the everglades ecosystem not only affected the diversity of species in the area, but also the genetic diversity within Everglades species.