What is Biodiversity?
Biodiversity is a modern term which simply means " the variety of life on earth". This variety can be measured on several different levels.
Genetic - variation between individuals of the same species. This includes genetic variation between individuals in a single population , as well as variations between different populations of the same species. Genetic differences can now be measured using increasingly sophisticated techniques. These differences are the raw material of evolution.
Species - species diversity is the variety of species in a given region or area. This can either be determined by counting the number of different species present, or by determining taxonomic diversity. Taxonomic diversity is more precise and considers the relationship of species to each other. It can be measured by counting the number of different taxa (the main categories of classification) present. For example, a pond containing three species of snails and two fish, is more diverse than a pond containing five species of snails, even though they both contain the same number of species. High species biodiversity is not always necessarily a good thing. For example, a habitat may have high species biodiversity because many common and widespread species are invading it at the expense of species restricted to that habitat.
Ecosystem - Communities of plants and animals, together with the physical characteristics of their environment (e.g. geology, soil and climate) interlink together as an ecological system, or 'ecosystem'. Ecosystem diversity is more difficult to measure because there are rarely clear boundaries between different ecosystems and they grade into one another. However, if consistent criteria are chosen to define the limits of an ecosystem, then their number and distribution can also be measured.
Why Conservation of BiodiversityEcological Reasons
Individual species and ecosystems have evolved over millions of years into a complex interdependence. This can be viewed as being akin to a vast jigsaw puzzle of inter-locking pieces. If you remove enough of the key pieces on which the framework is based then the whole picture may be in danger of collapsing. We have no idea how many key 'pieces' we can afford to lose before this might happen, nor even in many cases, which are the key pieces. The ecological arguments for conserving biodiversity are therefore based on the premise that we need to preserve biodiversity in order to maintain our own life support systems.
 | Two linked issues which are currently of great ecological concern include world-wide deforestation and global climate change. Forests not only harbour untold numbers of different species, but also play a critical role in regulating climate. The destruction of forest, particularly by burning, results in great increases in the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. This happens for two reasons. Firstly, there is a great reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide taken in by plants for photosynthesis and secondly, burning releases huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. (The 1997 fires in Indonesia’s rain forests are said to have added as much carbon to the atmosphere as all the coal, oil and gasoline burned that year in western Europe.) This is significant because carbon dioxide is one of the main greenhouse gases implicated in the current global warming trend. |
| Average global temperatures have been showing a steadily increasing trend. Snow and ice cover have decreased, deep ocean temperatures have increased and global sea levels have risen by 100 - 200 mm over the last century. If current trends continue, scientists predict that the earth could be on average 1oC warmer by 2025 and 3oC warmer by 2100. These changes, while small, could have drastic effects. As an example, average temperatures in the last Ice Age were only 5oC colder than current temperatures. Rising sea levels which could drown many of our major cities, extreme weather conditions resulting in drought, flooding and hurricanes, together with changes in the distribution of disease-bearing organisms are all predicted effects of climate change. Forests also affect rainfall patterns through transpiration losses and protect the watershed of vast areas. Deforestation therefore results in local changes in the amount and distribution of rainfall. It often also results in erosion and loss of soil and often to flooding. Devastating flooding in many regions of China over the past few years has been largely attributed to deforestation. These are only some of the ecological effects of deforestation. The effects described translate directly into economic effects on human populations. Economic Reasons Environmental disasters such as floods, forest fires and hurricanes indirectly or directly caused by human activities, all have dire economic consequences for the regions afflicted. Clean-up bills can run into the billions, not to mention the toll of human misery involved. Susceptible regions are often also in the less-developed and poorer nations to begin with. Erosion and desertification, often as a result of deforestation, reduce the ability of people to grow crops and to feed themselves. This leads to economic dependence on other nations. Non-sustainable extraction of resources (e.g. hardwood timber) will eventually lead to the collapse of the industry involved, with all the attendant economic losses. It should be noted that even if 'sustainable' methods are used, for example when harvested forest areas are replanted, these areas are in no way an ecological substitute for the established habitats which they have replaced. Large-scale habitat and biodiversity losses mean that species with potentially great economic importance may become extinct before they are even discovered. The vast, largely untapped resource of medicines and useful chemicals contained in wild species may disappear forever. The wealth of species contained in tropical rain forests may harbour untold numbers of chemically or medically useful species. Many marine species defend themselves chemically and this also represents a rich potential source of new economically important medicines. Additionally, the wild relatives of our cultivated crop plants provide an invaluable reservoir of genetic material to aid in the production of new varieties of crops. If all these are lost, then our crop plants also become more vulnerable to extinction. There is an ecological caveat here of course. Whenever a wild species is proved to be economically or socially useful, this automatically translates into further loss of natural habitat. This arises either through large-scale cultivation of the species concerned or its industrial production/ harvesting. Both require space, inevitably provided at the expense of natural habitats. Perhaps the rain forests and the seas should be allowed to keep their secrets. Ethical Reasons Do we have the right to decide which species should survive and which should die out? Do we have the right to cause a mass extinction? Most people would instinctively answer 'No!'. However, we have to realise that most biodiversity losses are now arising as a result of natural competition between humans and all other species for limited space and resources. If we want the luxury of ethics, we need to reduce our populations. Aesthetic Reasons
Most people would agree that areas of vegetation, with all their attendant life forms, are inherently more attractive than burnt, scarred landscapes, or acres of concrete and buildings. Who wouldn't prefer to see butterflies dancing above coloured flowers, rather than an industrial complex belching smoke? Human well-being is inextricably linked to the natural world. In the western world, huge numbers of people confined to large urban areas derive great pleasure from visiting the countryside. The ability to do so is regarded not so much as a need, but as a right. National governments must therefore juggle the conflicting requirements for more housing, industry and higher standards of living with demands for countryside for recreational purposes. Source: http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/biodvy.htm |
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