BIODIVERSITY

BIODIVERSITY

Definition:

Biodiversity refers to the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and microbiological organisms that dwell on Earth, as well as the ecosystems in which they live. According to scientists, Earth is home to about 10 million diverse species.

Explanation:

Everything from food production to medical research is based on biodiversity. Daily, humans use at least 40,000 different plant and animal species. Many people still rely on wild species for some or all of their food, shelter, and clothing around the world. All of our tamed plants and animals descended from wild relatives. Furthermore, nearly 40% of medications used in the United States are derived from or manufactured from natural chemicals found in plants, animals, or microorganisms.

 An ecosystem is the collection of living species existing in a given environment, as well as the physical and environmental conditions that influence them. Ecosystems are essential to existence because they manage many of the chemical and climatic systems that provide us with clean air, clean water, and plenty of oxygen. For example, forests manage carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, create oxygen as a consequence of photosynthesis, and regulate rainfall and soil erosion. Ecosystems, in turn, rely on the health and vitality of the individual creatures that make up their composition. Even removing one species from an ecosystem can prevent it from functioning efficiently.

Perhaps biodiversity's greatest value has yet to be discovered. Only 1.75 million species have been identified and named by scientists, accounting for less than 20% of all species predicted to exist. Only a small percentage of those found have been investigated for potential medicinal, agricultural, or industrial value. Much of Earth's rich variety is rapidly vanishing, even before we realize it. Most biologists agree that life on Earth is currently experiencing the most severe extinction event since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Plants, animals, fungus, and minute species like bacteria are all disappearing at frightening rates. The research focuses on biodiversity preservation and monitoring environmental quality and change.

BIODIVERSITY'S BENEFITS

Biodiversity is crucial to the functioning of ecosystems and the services they provide. The following is a list of some of the biodiversity's benefits or services:

1.       Food, clean water, lumber, fiber, and genetic resources are examples of provisioning services.

2.       Climate, floods, illness, water quality, and pollination are all regulated services.

3.       Recreational, artistic, and spiritual benefits are all provided through cultural services.

4.       Soil formation and nutrient cycling are examples of supporting services.

 BIODIVERSITY TYPES:

There are three types of biodiversity: genetic diversity within species, species diversity across species, and ecological diversity between habitats (ecosystem diversity).

Genetic Variation

Every species on the planet is genetically linked to every other species. The closer two species are genetical, the more genetic information they share and the more similar they appear. Members of an organism's species, or organisms with which it has the potential to mate and have children, are its closest relatives. Members of a species share genes, which are biological information bits that affect how animals look, act, and live.

For example, whether they live in the same location or thousands of miles apart, one eastern grey squirrel shares the great majority of its genes with other eastern grey squirrels. Members of a species have intricate mating activities that allow them to recognize one another as possible mates.

In almost every ecosystem, there is a species that is comparable and closely related to it. Gray squirrels are located west of the Rocky Mountains, not east of them. Although western grey squirrels are more similar to their eastern counterparts than distinct, they do not share a common mating behavior. Eastern and western grey squirrels do not mate even when brought close together, hence there are two species.

Each species has other, distantly related species with which it has a common set of features. Gray squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, and prairie dogs are all members of the squirrel family because they have similar tooth numbers and shapes, as well as the similar skull and muscular architecture. All of these creatures are rodents, a wide group of animals with chisel-like incisor teeth that develop continually. All rodents are members of the mammalian family. Mammals have hair, milk-fed babies, and three bones in their middle ear.

All rodents are members of the mammalian family. Mammals have hair, milk-fed babies, and three bones in their middle ear. All mammals, in turn, are more distantly related to other vertebrates, or animals with backbones. These species are all mammals, but they all have the same cell structure as plants, fungi, and some microorganisms. Finally, ribonucleic acid (RNA) is found in all living organisms, and most also have deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) (DNA).

While all species descend from a single common ancestor, species diverge over time and develop their unique characteristics, contributing to biodiversity.

Diverse Species

The diversity of species within a habitat or region is referred to as species diversity. Species are the fundamental units of biological taxonomy and, as such, the standard unit of biological diversity measurement. The word "species richness" refers to the number of different species found in a specific location. The total number of species on the planet is estimated to be between five and ten million, while only 1.75 million have been scientifically named.

 

Many species can be found in some ecosystems, such as rainforests and coral reefs. Tropical North and South America, for example, has over 85,000 blooming plant species, tropical and subtropical Asia has over 50,000, and tropical and subtropical Africa has approximately 35,000. Europe, on the other hand, has 11,300 vascular plants.

There are fewer species in some places, such as salt flats or dirty streams. Species are classified into families based on shared traits.

Ecological Variation:

The intricate network of diverse species present in particular ecosystems, as well as the dynamic interplay between them, is referred to as ecological variety. An ecosystem is made up of organisms from various species living nearby in a given area, as well as their interactions through the exchange of energy, nutrients, and matter. Interactions between organisms of different species result in these links. The sun is the ultimate source of energy in practically every ecosystem.

Plants transform the sun's light energy into chemical energy. When animals eat plants and are then devoured by other creatures, that energy travels through the system. Decomposing creatures provide energy to fungi, which release nutrients back into the soil. As a result, an ecosystem is a collection of living (microbes, plants, animals, and fungi) and nonliving (climate and chemicals) components linked by energy flow. Because each of Earth's ecosystems dissolves into the ecosystems around it, measuring ecological variety is challenging.

ISSUES CONNECTED

Agreements on Biodiversity

Concerns about environmental damage prompted various national and international agreements to be signed. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment 1972 decided to create the UN Environment Programme. Several regional and worldwide agreements have been signed by governments to address specific issues such as wetlands protection and the regulation of international commerce in endangered species. These accords, together with limitations on harmful chemicals and pollutants, have slowed but not stopped the flood of destruction.

In 1975, the Convention on International Trafficking in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora was signed into law, making the trade of endangered animals and animal parts illegal. The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 in the United States to protect endangered or vulnerable species and their habitats.

The Brundtland Commission on Environment and Progress stated in 1987 that economic development must become less environmentally harmful. Then, in 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Convention on Biological Diversity signed a set of legally binding accords.

It was the first global accord on biological diversity protection and sustainable usage. At that summit, more than 150 states signed the document, and more than 187 countries have ratified it since then. The treaty has three basic goals: biodiversity protection, sustainable use of biodiversity components, and equitable sharing of benefits emerging from commercial and other uses of genetic resources.

CONSIDERATIONS OF ETHICS AND SOCIETY

Human Effects

Most scientists agree with American evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson's estimate that Earth loses 27,000 species per year. His prediction is based on the rate at which ecosystems, particularly tropical forests and grasslands, are disappearing, as well as our understanding of the species that dwell in these environments. Only five times in Earth's history has there been such a high rate of extinction. Catastrophic physical calamities, such as climate change or meteorite impacts, devastated and changed global ecosystems, causing mass extinctions in the past.

The sixth extinction is similarly predominantly caused by ecological disruption, but this time the destroying agent is people rather than the physical environment. The human change of the Earth's surface has the potential to be as catastrophic as any previous great natural event.

The underlying cause of biodiversity loss is the human population growth, which has now reached seven billion people and is anticipated to double by 2050. Nearly half of all food, crops, medicines and other useful goods created by Earth's creatures are consumed by humans, yet more than one billion people lack access to sufficient fresh water. The issue is not just the sheer number of people; it is also the unequal allocation and utilization of resources.

Consumption of resources and other types of wealth on the globe must also be considered. According to some estimates, the average middle-class American consumes 30 times as much as someone in a developing country. To obtain an appropriate comparative evaluation of the influence of such industrialized nations on the world's ecosystems, the impact of the almost 300 million Americans must be multiplied by 30.

Human loss of natural habitats is the single greatest threat to global biodiversity. The human population has grown from roughly five million to six billion people since the introduction of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. Humans have drastically altered Earth during that time, particularly in the last several centuries.

The physical alteration of ecosystems has resulted from the conversion of forests, grasslands, and wetlands for agricultural reasons, as well as the expansion and growth of urban centers, the construction of dams and canals, highways, and railways.

Conservation

Positive approaches to stem the tide of the sixth mass extinction have been proposed and, to some extent, embraced as the scale and severity of biodiversity loss have been increasingly known. Several countries have passed legislation to safeguard endangered species.

 

In the last three decades, attention has turned from individual species preservation to the protection of broad swaths of habitat connected by corridors that allow animals to migrate between them. Thus, a campaign to rescue the spotted owl of the Pacific Northwest has evolved into a campaign to safeguard enormous swaths of old-growth forest.

However, no matter how promising these ideas are, conservation efforts will never succeed in the long run if the local economic demands of people living in and around threatened ecosystems are ignored. This is especially true in emerging countries, which contain the majority of the world's remaining undeveloped territory. International institutions such as the World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund initiated a drive at the end of the twentieth century to encourage all developing countries to set aside 10% of their forests as protected areas. However, for thousands of years, many populations living in those protected areas have relied on the rainforest for food and firewood. With few economic options, those communities may be left without enough food.

Conservation biology emphasizes interaction with individuals who are directly impacted by conservation efforts to address the problem. These biologists support these individuals to find sustainable economic alternatives to damaging land use and harvesting. Harvesting and marketing renewable rainforest products, such as tagua nuts and Brazil nuts (vegetable ivory seeds from palms), is one option. Rain forest communities may engage in sustainable rain forest logging operations, in which carefully selected trees are removed with minimal influence on the forest ecology, where protective measures allow. Others are looking into medicinal plants for drug development as a method to diversify and enhance their economies.

Conservation biologists also collaborate with established industries to create procedures that ensure the health and long-term viability of the resources they rely on. Conservation biologists, for example, collaborate with anglers to figure out how many fish they can catch without harming the population or the ecosystem as a whole. Trees, plants, animals, and other natural resources are harvested using the same techniques.

The conservation of genetic variation is another way of preserving biodiversity at the molecular level.

Around the world, efforts are being done to gather and conserve the DNA of endangered organisms. These collections, often known as gene banks, may contain frozen blood or tissue samples or, in certain situations, live organisms. Biologists use gene banks to expand a species' gene pool, improving the possibility that it will adapt to the environmental difficulties it faces. Many zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens collaborate to ensure the genetic variety of endangered animals and plants in captivity, such as the giant panda, orangutan, and rose periwinkle. Captive animals are bred with wild populations or periodically released to enhance genetic variety by breeding freely with members of the wild population. These gene banks are also critical for replenishing crop genetic variety, allowing plant breeders and bioengineers to improve their stocks' resistance to disease and changing climate conditions.