Introduction to Biodiversity
In this article we give a definition of biodiversity, discuss the distribution of biodiversity with three examples South African illustration, Brazil and Madagascar before commenting on the human benefits. The term was first used by the scientist and wildlife conservation Raymond F. Dasmann in a book advocating the conservation of nature.
Definition
Biodiversity is the variation life forms within a given ecosystem, biome or the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems. Biodiversity found on Earth today consists of many millions of different biologicalspecies. The year 2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity. Biodiversity is not is evenly distributed on Earth, but is consistent rich in the tropics and in certain localized regions, such as the Cape Floristic Province, is less rich regions polar where fewer species are found. Rapid environmental changes are causing extinctions. Of all the species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 percent have become extinct. Since life began on Earth, five major mass extinctions have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity of species.
The Phanerozoic eon (The last 540 million years ago) was a rapid growth of biodiversity in theCambrian explosion of a period during which nearly every phylum first multicellular organisms appeared. The next 400 million years was distinguished by newspapers, a massive loss of biodiversity events classified as mass extinction. The most recent, theCretaceous-Tertiary extinction event occurred 65 million years ago, and has attracted more attention than all other because it killed the dinosaurs.
Today there is concern that the period since the emergence of humans is part of a reduction mass of biodiversity, extinction of the Holocene, mainly caused by the impact humans have on the environment, including the destruction of materials and animalhabitats. In addition, human practices have caused a loss of genetic biodiversity. The importance of biodiversity for human health is becoming a major international problem, as scientific evidence is reflected in the global health implications of biodiversity loss.
Biologists most often defined biodiversity as the totality "of genes, species and ecosystems of a region." One advantage of this definition is that it seems to describe most circumstances and present a unified image of the traditional three levels at which biological variety has been identified: 1) the diversity of species 2) diversity ecosystem and 3) genetic diversity. But Professor Anthony Campbell of the University of Cardiff, United Kingdom and the Darwin Centre, Pembrokeshire, has defined a room, and a review: Molecular Diversity
Distribution
However, biodiversity is not evenly distributed on Earth. It always richer in the tropics and in other localized regions such as the Cape Floristic Province – please see example one below. Approaching regions polar generally finds fewer species. Flora and fauna diversity depends on climate, altitude, soils and the presence of other species. In 2006 large numbers of species on Earth were officially classified as rare or endangered orthreatened, on the other hand, many scientists have estimated that there are millions most endangered species in fact have not yet been officially recognized.
About 40 percent of the 40,177 species assessed using the IUCN Red List criteria, is now listed as endangered species – a total of 16 119 species. Although decreases biodiversity from Ecuador to the poles in terrestrial ecoregions, if this is true in aquatic ecosystems is still a hypothesis to be tested, especially in marine ecosystems, where the causes of this phenomenon are not clear. Please see the articles Dr. Simon Smith in marine life, the formation of oceans and food webs in the sea. In addition, especially in marine ecosystems, but noted there are several cases that diversity in higher latitudes actually increases. Therefore, the lack of information on biodiversity of the tropics and polar regions prevents scientific conclusions on the distribution of aquatic biodiversity in the world.
Let us consider now three examples of biodiversity:
Example One of the Cape Floral Province
Location and description
The region covers the Mediterranean climate region of southern Africa in the Western Cape in the southwest corner of the country, and extends eastward into the Eastern Cape, a transition zone between the region during the winter rainfall to the west and the summer rainfall region eastward in KwaZulu-Natal. Most the region is covered with fynbos, a sclerophyllous shrub occurring in acid sands or nutrient-poor soils derived from Table Mountain Sandstone (Cape Supergroup). Fynbos is home to an amazing diversity of plant species including many members of the Protea family (Proteaceae), Heath family (Ericaceae) and the Reed family of Restio (Restionaceae). Other types of vegetation are strandveld, a soft coastal scrubland found mostly on the coast looking west of the Western Cape, in the Tertiary sands.
Renosterveld is a clump of grass dominated by members of the daisy family (Asteraceae – particularly renosterbos, grasses and geophytes, that occur in shale-rich soil reference coastal forelands. Small pockets of Afromontane forest can be found in wetlands and protected.
Example two – Brazil's Atlantic Forest
Brazil's Atlantic Forest is considered a center of biodiversity and contains about 20,000 species of plant, vertebrate 1350, and millions of insects, about half of which occur nowhere else in the world.
The Atlantic Forest Atlantic (Portuguese:'') is a region of tropical and subtropical moist forest, tropical dry forest, tropical savannas, and mangrove forests which extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte, in the north to Rio Grande do Sulstate in the south, and inland as far as Paraguay and the province of Misiones Argentina.
The Atlantic Forest region includes forests of some variations. 1) The levees are low coastal forests that grow in coastal dunes stabilized. 2) The coastal forests, also known as Atlantic rain forests, tropical forests are evergreen with structures. 3) inside the interior forests are also known as the Atlantic semi-deciduous forests, where many trees lose their leaves during the dry season. 4) In the interior are dry forests of the Atlantic, form a transition between the arid northeastern Caatinga and Cerrado savannas to the east. 5) montane rain forests occur in the Serra do Mar and the mountains and plateaus of southern Brazil, and are home to Araucaria trees and evergreen laurel (Lauraceae) and myrtle (Myrtaceae) family. 6) mountain shrub savannas occur in the higher elevations. The Atlantic Forest is unusual in that it spreads like a true tropical rainforest to latitudes as high as 24 ° S. This is because the trade winds produce precipitation throughout the southern winter. In fact, the northern Zona da Mata of northeastern Brazil receives much more precipitation between May and August during the austral summer. The Dunas Park in Rio Grande do Norte is one of the largest conservation units of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. The Atlantic Forest is now designated a Biosphere Reserve, which contains a large number of highly threatened species such as marmosets and lion tamarins are well known. It has been extensively cleared since colonial times, mainly for sugar cane cultivation and urban settlements. The balance was estimated at less than 10% of the original and often is divided into islands summit of the hill.
Example Madagascar Three
The island of Madagascar including the unique Madagascar dry deciduous forests and lowland rainforests possess a very high species endemism and biodiversity, since the island separated from mainland Africa 65 million years ago, the majority of species and ecosystems have evolved independently producing unique species different in other parts of Africa. Madagascar's long isolation from neighboring continents has resulted a unique blend of plants and animals, many found nowhere else in the world, some ecologists refer to Madagascar as the continent "eighth." Of the 10,000 plants native to Madagascar, 90% are found nowhere else in the world. varied fauna and flora of Madagascar are endangered by human activity, such as third of its native vegetation has disappeared since the 1970s, and only 18% remains intact. Since the arrival of humans 2,000 years ago, Madagascar has lost more than 90% of its original forest.
Aepyornis elephant birds, which were giant ratites native to Madagascar, have become extinct, at least from 17th century. It was the world's largest bird, believed to have been more than 3 meters (10 feet) tall. Most lemur is endangered or threatened. Many species have become extinct in recent centuries, mainly due to habitat destruction and hunting. The eastern, or windward side of the island is home rainforests, while the western and southern sides, which are in the rain shadow of the central highlands, are home to tropical dry forests, thorn forests, and deserts and xeric shrublands. Madagascar dry deciduous tropical forest has been preserved generally better than the rain forests of eastern or central plateau, presumably due to historically low population densities. Madagascar has several national parks.
Human benefits of biodiversity
Biodiversity also supports a number of natural ecosystem processes and services. Some ecosystem services that benefit society are air quality, climate (CO2 sequestration both global and local), water purification, pollination, and erosion prevention. From the stone age, loss of species has accelerated over geological by human activity.
The rate of extinction of species is difficult to estimate, but it has been estimated that species are being lost at a rate of approximately 100 times faster than is typical in the geological record, or perhaps as high as 10 000 times faster. To feed a large population, more land is being transformed from a desert wildlife in agriculture, mining, lumbering, and areas urban areas for humans. Nonmaterial benefits obtained from ecosystems are spiritual and aesthetic values, knowledge systems and the value of education.
Agriculture
The economic value of the reserves of genetic traits present in wild types and varieties traditional local culture is extremely important in improving crop yields. Important crops such as potatoes and coffee, are often derived from genetic strains only a few. Improvements in crop plants over the last 250 years have been largely due to the use of genetic diversity in wild domestic plants and crops. Crossing cultures with different strains of positive features that have led to more than double the production of crops in the last 50 years as a result of the Green Revolution. For more information about agriculture please see the introductory article, Dr. Simon Harding in this series.
Crop diversity is also needed to help recover the system when the type of crop is attacked by a disease. We can see three examples for this: 1) The Irish potato blight of 1846 that was an important factor in the death of a million people and the migration of another million, was the result of planting only two varieties of potatoes, which were vulnerable. 2) When the rice dwarf virus hit rice fields in Indonesia to India in the 1970, 6273 varieties were tested for resistance. One was found to be resistant, an Indian variety, known to science only since 1966. The variety is a hybrid between varieties and is now widely grown. 3) The coffee rust attacked the coffee plantations in Sri Lanka, Central America and Brazil in 1970. A resistant strain was found in Ethiopia. Although the diseases are themselves a form of biodiversity.
Monoculture, the lack of biodiversity, it was a contributing factor to various disasters in the history of agriculture, the European wine industry collapse in the late 1800s, the U.S. and southern corn leaf blight epidemic of 1970. High biodiversity also controls the spread of certain diseases such pathogens must adapt to infect different species. Biodiversity provides food for humans. Although 80 percent of our food supply comes from only 20 types of plants such as rice and wheat, humans use at least 40,000 plant species and animal per day. Many people around the world depend on these species for food, shelter and clothes.
There is untapped potential to increase the product range food unfit for human consumption, provided that the high current rate of extinction can be stopped.
Human health
The importance of biodiversity for human health is becoming an important international political issue as scientific evidence is based on the consequences of overall health of biodiversity loss. This problem is closely linked to the climate change issue, as many of the expected health risks of climate change are associated with changes in biodiversity (eg, changes in populations and distribution of disease vectors, freshwater shortages, impacts on agricultural biodiversity and food resources, etc.) Some of the health issues influenced by biodiversity include health and nutrition security, infectious diseases, medical science and medical resources, social and psychological health. Biodiversity is also known to play an important role in reducing disaster risk and post-disaster relief and recovery activities. One of the major health problems related to biodiversity is the drug discovery and availability of medicinal resources.
A significant proportion of drugs are derived, directly or indirectly, from sources biological, Chivian and Bernstein report that at least 50% of pharmaceutical compounds on the market in the U.S. are derived from natural compounds found in plants, animals and microorganisms, while 80% of the world's population depends on natural medicines (used in either modern or traditional medical practice) to Primary Health Care. Furthermore, only a fraction of the total diversity of wild species has been investigated for potential sources of new drugs. Please Dr. Simon Harding see introductory article on botany in this series for more information.
It has been argued, based on the test specimen market and science of biodiversity, the decline in production of the pharmaceutical sector since the mid-1980s can be attributed to a departure from the exploration of natural products ("bioprospecting") to R & D programs based on genomics and synthetic chemistry, none of which have yielded expected results of the product, meanwhile, there is evidence that the chemistry of natural products can serve as a basis for innovation, which can result in benefits economic and health. Marine ecosystems are of particular interest in this regard, however, inadequate unregulated bioprospecting can be considered a form of over-exploitation that has the potential to degrade ecosystems and biodiversity loss increase, having a negative impact on the rights of communities and states where the resources are take.
Business and Industry
A wide range of industrial materials are derived directly from biological resources. These include construction materials, fibers, dyes, and oil resirubber. There is enormous potential for further research on the sustainable use of materials greater diversity of organisms. In addition, biodiversity and the goods and services that are considered essential to healthy economic system.
The extent to which diversity biological supports companies varies between regions and economic sectors, however the importance of biodiversity to the issues of resource security (Quantity and quality of water, wood, paper and textiles, food and medicinal resources, etc.) are increasingly recognized as universal. As a result, biodiversity loss is increasingly recognized as a significant risk factor in the development business and a threat to long-term economic sustainability. A number of case studies recently developed by the World Resources Institute show some of the risks identified by specific industries.
Other ecological services
Biodiversity provides many ecosystem services that are often not readily visible. It plays a role in regulating the chemistry of our atmosphere and water supply.
Biodiversity is directly involved in water purification, recycling nutrients and providing fertile soils. Experiments with controlled environments have demonstrated that humans can not easily build ecosystems to support human needs, for example insect pollination can not be followed by the construction made by man, and that activity alone represents tens of billions of dollars in ecosystem services per year for humanity. The stability of ecosystems is also related to biodiversity, with high biodiversity values produce greater stability over time, reducing the possibility that ecosystem services will suffer as a result of disturbances such as extreme weather events or human exploitation.
Leisure, cultural and aesthetic value
Many people get the value of biodiversity through leisure activities such as hiking, birdwatching or natural history study. Biodiversity has inspired musicians, painters, sculptors, writers and other artists. Many cultural groups themselves as an integral part of the natural world and show respect for other living organisms. Popular activities such as gardening, care of the tanks and the butterflies collecting are all heavily dependent on biodiversity. The number of species involved in activities such as the tens of thousands, although most do not fall into the mainstream commercialism. Relations between the original natural areas often these "exotic" animals and plants and commercial collectors, suppliers, breeders, propagators and those that promote understanding and enjoyment are complex and poorly understood. It seems clear, however, that the general public responds While exposure to rare and unusual-organisms to recognize their inherent value to a certain level. A family outing to the botanical garden or zoo is an experience both aesthetic or cultural and is a teacher. Philosophically one could argue that biodiversity has intrinsic aesthetic and spiritual value to humanity itself.
This idea can be used as a counterweight to the notion that tropical forests and other ecological realms are only worthy of preservation, as they can contain useful medicines or products. Conclusion We can see from the examples above that the understanding of biodiversity is essential for the survival of around the globe – not only physical but also cultural. Number of species, threats to biodiversity, habitat destruction, alien species, pollution genetics, climate change, and resources conservation will be discussed in Part Two of this series.
Dr. Simon Harding
www.chronosconsulting.com
www.coberongreen.com
About the Author
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