Final answer:
Increases in an ecosystem's biodiversity generally lead to greater ecosystem stability and resilience due to more complex interactions among species and a variety of services they provide. This enhanced species richness also contributes to the overall health and sustainability of the ecosystem.
Step-by-step explanation:
As biodiversity increases in an ecosystem, several aspects related to the functioning and stability of that ecosystem also increase. In particular, we tend to see an increase in both ecosystem stability and ecosystem resilience. Biodiversity can be closely related to species richness, which is a term used to describe the number of different species living within a habitat or biome.
Increased biodiversity leads to more complex and interconnected food webs, better nutrient cycling, improved pollination services, and helps maintain a balance of consuming and producer organisms. This complexity allows ecosystems to be more stable over time and more resilient to disturbances such as climate change, extreme weather events, and human impacts. The increased biodiversity also buffers against the decline of any one species, as there are typically others that can fulfill similar roles within the ecosystem.
It is critical to understand that increased biodiversity does not lead to artificial selection, which is a human-driven process where certain traits are chosen for propagation. In contrast, the natural interplay of species within a more biodiverse ecosystem is governed by natural selection and ecological pressures.