Ryan, I think you understand the issue just right. And agree you should change your dissertation :)

Here's something I never understood about biological diversity, wondering maybe if you can explain...

Something like a human seems to take a very long time to show genetic variation and become another species. Hundreds of thousands of years at least.

Something like a fish seems to take pretty long to show genetic variation and become another species. Some fish don't seem to evolve at all (Coelacanth - 65 million yrs) but others vary a lot over shorter periods (golden trout - 15,000 years)

Something like a knat at Clear Lake can evolve resistance to pesticide in a few generations. (5 years?)

Something like a virus can similarly morph and change in to something else in a short period of time. (few months?)

Which of these evolutionary pieces of progress is considered "Biodiversity"?

And the follow on question... If people stock fish in isolated bodies of water and those fish begin to show biodiversity over time, is that valuable or bad?

If it is valuable, should those populations of fish get protection for their future, potential value?

It's interesting to think about.