The term "biodiversity" was popularised by:

The correct answer is Option (3) → Edward Wilson

Option (1) Paul Ehrlich — Incorrect. Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford ecologist, gave the ‘rivet popper hypothesis’. It compares an ecosystem to an airplane held together by rivets (species) to show why the loss of species is dangerous.

Option (2) Gause — Incorrect. Gause gave the ‘Competitive Exclusion Principle’: two closely related species competing for the same resources cannot live together for ever.

Option (3) Edward Wilson — Correct. The sociobiologist Edward Wilson popularised the term ‘biodiversity’. He used it for the variety of life at all levels, from genes to whole biomes.

Option (4) Ramdeo Mishra — Incorrect. Ramdeo Misra is called the Father of Ecology in India. He built up the teaching and research of ecology at Banaras Hindu University.

Note: A similar question was also asked in CUET (UG) 2025 on 23-05-2025 (Slot 2).

NCERT Extract:
Biodiversity – “In our biosphere immense diversity (or heterogeneity) exists not only at the species level but at all levels of biological organisation ranging from macromolecules within cells to biomes. Biodiversity is the term popularised by the sociobiologist Edward Wilson to describe the combined diversity at all the levels of biological organisation.”