Biodiversity

Coral reefs are amongst the most diverse

ecosystems on earth.

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life. This

can refer to genetic variation, species variation, or
ecosystem variation within an area, biome, or
planet. Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be highest
near the equator, which seems to be the result of
the warm climate and high primary productivity.
Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along
coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface
temperature is highest and in mid-latitudinal band
in all oceans. Biodiversity generally tends to
cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing
through time but will be likely to slow in the future

Rainforests are an example of

biodiversity on the planet and
typically possess a great deal of
species diversity. This is the
Gambia River in Senegal's
Niokolo-Koba National Park.

Rapid environmental changes

typically cause mass extinctions.
One estimate is that <1%–3% of
the species that have existed on Earth are extant.

The earliest evidences for life on Earth are graphite found to be biogenic in 3.7 billion-year-
old metasedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland and microbial mat fossils found
in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. [14][15] Since life began on
Earth, five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden
drops in biodiversity. The Phanerozoic eon (the last 540 million years) marked a rapid growth
in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion—a period during which the majority of
multicellular phyla first appeared. The next 400 million years included repeated, massive

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biodiversity losses classified as mass extinction events. In the Carboniferous, rainforest
collapse led to a great loss of plant and animal life. The Permian–Triassic extinction event,
251 million years ago, was the worst; vertebrate recovery took 30 million years. The most
recent, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, occurred 65 million years ago and has
often attracted more attention than others because it resulted in the extinction of the
dinosaurs.

The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction
and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity. Named the Holocene extinction, the reduction
is caused primarily by human impacts, particularly habitat destruction. Conversely,
biodiversity impacts human health in a number of ways, both positively and negatively.

The United Nations designated 2011–2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity.

Definitions

A sampling of fungi collected during summer 2008 in

Northern Saskatchewan mixed woods, near LaRonge is
an example regarding the species diversity of fungi. In
this photo, there are also leaf lichens and mosses.

"Biodiversity" is most commonly used to replace the

more clearly defined and long established terms, species
diversity and species richness. Biologists most often
define biodiversity as the "totality of genes, species, and
ecosystems of a region". An advantage of this definition
is that it seems to describe most circumstances and
presents a unified view of the traditional three levels at
which biological variety has been identified:

 species diversity

 ecosystem diversity

 genetic diversity

In 2003 Professor Anthony Campbell at Cardiff University, UK and the Darwin Centre,
Pembrokeshire, defined a fourth level: Molecular Diversity.

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This multilevel construct is consistent with Dasmann and Lovejoy. An explicit definition
consistent with this interpretation was first given in a paper by Bruce A. Wilcox
commissioned by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources (IUCN) for the 1982 World National Parks Conference. Wilcox's definition was
"Biological diversity is the variety of life forms...at all levels of biological systems (i.e.,
molecular, organismic, population, species and ecosystem)..". The 1992 United Nations Earth
Summit defined "biological diversity" as "the variability among living organisms from all
sources, including, 'inter alia', terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems, and the
ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between
species and of ecosystems". This definition is used in the United Nations Convention on
Biological Diversity.

One textbook's definition is "variation of life at all levels of biological organization".

Genetically biodiversity can be defined as the diversity of alleles, genes, and organisms. They
study processes such as mutation and gene transfer that drive evolution.

Measuring diversity at one level in a group of organisms may not precisely correspond to
diversity at other levels. However, tetrapod (terrestrial vertebrates) taxonomic and ecological
diversity shows a very close correlation.

It is a combination of two words ‘bios’ which means life and ‘logos’ means happening. It
deals with all aspects of life in which different types of species involved. As environmental
science is a vast field which deals with all types of living things such as plants, animals or
insects etc. There are different branches of environmental science one of them is biodiversity.
The study of variation of different living organisms such as plants and animals in a specific
area for the sake of food, living, and shelter is called as biodiversity.

This branch deals with plants and animal variation because as we know that diversity means
numbers of species and different types of species present in a particular area. And when it
combines with ‘Bio’ then this is the study of different types and number of species of plants
and animals present in a specific area to built an ecosystem. Basically biodiversity is derived
to calculate the different aspects of biological system. It is very much developed in tropical
areas on Earth and prohibited in the Polar Regions. Due to the huge increase in the
biodiversity biologists declared the year of 2010 as the year of International Biodiversity.

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Distribution
A conifer forest in the Swiss Alps
(National Park).

Biodiversity is not evenly distributed,

rather it varies greatly across the globe as
well as within regions. Among other
factors, the diversity of all living things
(biota) depends on temperature,
precipitation, altitude, soils, geography
and the presence of other species. The
study of the spatial distribution of organisms, species, and ecosystems, is the science of
biogeography.

Diversity consistently measures higher in the tropics and in other localized regions such as
the Cape Floristic Region and lower in polar regions generally. Rain forests that have had wet
climates for a long time, such as Yasuni National Park in Ecuador, have particularly high
biodiversity.

Terrestrial biodiversity is up to 25 times greater than ocean biodiversity. [35] Although a recent
discovered method put the total number of species on Earth at 8.7 million of which 2.1
million were estimated to live in the ocean, however this estimate seems to under-represent
diversity of microorganisms.

Latitudinal gradients

Generally, there is an increase in biodiversity from the poles to the tropics. Thus localities at
lower latitudes have more species than localities at higher latitudes. This is often referred to
as the latitudinal gradient in species diversity. Several ecological mechanisms may contribute
to the gradient, but the ultimate factor behind many of them is the greater mean temperature
at the equator compared to that of the poles.

Even though terrestrial biodiversity declines from the equator to the poles, some studies claim
that this characteristic is unverified in aquatic ecosystems, especially in marine ecosystems.
The latitudinal distribution of parasites does not follow this rule.

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Hotspots

A biodiversity hotspot is a region with a high level of endemic species that is under threat
from humans. The term hotspot was introduced in 1988 by Dr. Sabina Virk. While hotspots
are spread all over the world, the majority are forest areas and most are located in the tropics.

Brazil's Atlantic Forest is considered one such hotspot, containing roughly 20,000 plant
species, 1,350 vertebrates, and millions of insects, about half of which occur nowhere else.
The island of Madagascar is also particularly notable. Colombia is characterized by high
biodiversity, with the highest rate of species by area unit worldwide and it has the largest
number of endemisms (species that are not found naturally anywhere else) of any country.
About 10% of the species of the Earth live in Colombia, including over 1,900 species of bird,
more than in Europe and North America combined, Colombia has 10% of the world’s
mammals species, 14% of the amphibian species and 18% of the bird species of the world. [47]
Madagascar dry deciduous forests and lowland rainforests, possess a high ratio of endemism.
Since the island separated from mainland Africa 66 million years ago, many species and
ecosystems have evolved independently. Indonesia's 17,000 islands cover 735,355 square
miles (1,904,560 km2) contain 10% of the world's flowering plants, 12% of mammals and
17% of reptiles, amphibians and birds—along with nearly 240 million people. Many regions
of high biodiversity and/or endemism arise from specialized habitats which require unusual
adaptations, for example alpine environments in high mountains, or Northern European peat
bogs.

The balance of evidence

"Ecosystem services are the suite of benefits that ecosystems provide to humanity."

These services come in three flavors:

1. Provisioning services which involve the production of renewable resources (e.g.:

food, wood, fresh water)
2. Regulating services which are those that lessen environmental change (e.g.: climate
regulation, pest/disease control)
3. Cultural services represent human value and enjoyment (e.g.: landscape aesthetics,
cultural heritage, outdoor recreation, and spiritual significance)

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There have been many claims about biodiversity’s effect on these ecosystem services,
especially provisioning and regulating services. After an exhaustive survey through peer-
reviewed literature to evaluate 36 different claims about biodiversity's effect on ecosystem
services, 14 of those claims have been validated, 6 demonstrate mixed support or are
unsupported, 3 are incorrect and 13 lack enough evidence to draw definitive conclusions.

Types of Biodiversity:

In biodiversity on the basis of variation and distribution, four types are evolved which deals
with living species separately. The types of biodiversity vary from place to place. These types
are as follows

1. Genetic Diversity

2. Species Diversity

3. Ecological Diversity

4. Functional Diversity

Genetic Diversity:

It is a type of biodiversity which deals with the living organisms genetically i.e. variation in
the genes of the species and the genetic make up of species differ from each other to produce
a new generation is categorized as genetic diversity.

Species Diversity:

The change happening in the variety of different types of living organisms present in different
places in the same geographical area is referred as specie diversity.

Ecological Diversity:

As we know that ecology is the study of different communities among their environment so,
it is that branch of biodiversity which deals with variation in the ecological area or
environment such as desert, forests, grassland, streams and coral reefs etc. is known as
ecological diversity.

Functional Diversity:

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Functional diversity is that type of biodiversity which is the study of different types of
chemical processes of species fir their survival on the land. These processes include such as
energy flow and cycling of matter etc.

Importance of Biodiversity:

Biodiversity has very much important ecologically and economically and it also plays an
important role in our daily life because it is applicable in different fields for the sake of better
development in the modern World. Some of the important fields on which biodiversity is
applicable are as follows

1. Importance in Agriculture:

In agricultural field biodiversity plays an important role to produce a new variety of

plants or crops by producing a change in their genetic traits and it also help in preventing
the crops from diseases such as coffee plants, rice plants etc. it is also called as
agricultural biodiversity.

2. Importance in Human Life:

Biodiversity plays a major role in our lives because they are very useful for the
production of different useful products such as food, water and different type of
medicines. It also involves in fighting against different disasters. It produces a great
variety of pharmaceutical products which help in recovery.

3. Industrial Importance of Biodiversity:

In the field of industry it is also used to produce different kinds of materials such as
building material which derived from different kinds of biological resources and through
biodiversity. The industrial products which are produce as a result of biodiversity are
fibers, dyes, oil, rubber etc.

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Strategies for biodiversity conservation in forests

There are several approaches to nature conservation in forest landscapes. Areas have since
long been set aside as national parks or nature reserves. During the last decades new steps
have been taken by incorporation of conservation actions into forestry operations, mainly by
retaining trees to promote biodiversity at logging. Thus, conservation today implies that trees
are set aside to benefit the environment at widely different scale levels, from individual trees
at logging to millions of trees in large protected areas. We analyse ecological aspects of
different strategies, and also include studies on their cost-efficiency.

Retention approaches in forestry

The research on tree retention is mainly conducted within the large multidisciplinary research
program Smart Tree Retention with researchers on ecology, political science, forest planning,
conservation planning, and landscape architecture, and with participants from SLU Uppsala,
Alnarp, Umeå, Umeå university and Skogforsk. The research at our unit here at SLU Uppsala
includes a global overview on practice and research on retention forestry, and structural
changes in young forests (National Forest Inventory data). Ecological studies embrace
saproxylic beetles on clearcuts as well as lichen epiphytes on retention trees. We are also
conducting a study on the survival of red-listed species on clearcuts, based on observations
before and after logging, and with a special focus on the role of retained structures. Further,
we are working with a systematic review embracing the large number of studies on the
retention approach conducted during the last two decades, on the relation between retention
amounts and biodiversity response. Apprehensions have been raised that biofuel harvest
(slash and stumps) may damage and reduce living as well as dead retained trees. We are
studying this in a nation-wide field study by comparing types and amount of retention in a
number of stands with and without biofuel extraction.

Conservation Planning

The research on conservation planning at the unit is mainly focused on forests and woodlands
and includes studies on the optimal age distribution of forest reserves and how to select
retention trees in a cost-effective way. We also work with more specific methodological

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aspects of spatial planning such as how to combine multiple biodiversity criteria when
designing forest reserve networks.