Biodiversity

The biodiversity is defined as the degree of variation of life forms with in the ecosystem, Biome or planet. It is a measure of the health of ecosystem. * It is directly associated with climate.(Tropical regions are enriched with flora & fauna than compared with polar regions). Rapid environmental changes cause extinctions have appeared leading to sudden drop in biodiversity. Again in phanerozoic era (last 540 million years)rapid growth of biodiversity occurred. In Cambrian period explosion of metazoa followed by rain forest collapse, lead to the loss of plants and animals.

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Biodiversity cont.

The vertebrate recovery took 30 million years and recently it is suffered by Dinosaurs extinction. Fall of biodiversity got minimized ever since the human intervention. After some period human impact also caused loss in biodiversity, particularly through habitat destruction

Historical account : The term biodiversity was used by RAYMOND F. DASMANN (wild life scientist) in 1968 advocated the conservation of species and the branch was studied as CONSERVATION BIOLOGY. Officially the term is applied in 1985 by W. G. Rosen (National forum of biodiversity). Biodiversity can be interpreted as Species diversity and species richness. Ecosystem diversity and genetic diversity.

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Biodiversity cont

The biodiversity is not uniform as far as flora and fauna is concerned. The climate, soil and temperature and geography are not uniform of given place. Normally the terrestrial biodiversity is 25 times more than ocean biodiversity.

Latitudinal gradients: Mean the gradual increase of biodiversity from poles to tropics. The lower latitudes have more species, leading to LATITUDINAL GRADIENT SPECIES BIODIVERSITY. HOT SPOTS IN BIODIVERSITY : Featured by high level of endemic species (Dr. Norman Myer, 1988).They are near by human populations like majority of the forests located in tropics. Todays biodiversity is the result of 3.5 billions of years of evolution.

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Human benefits of biodiversity

1. It supports ecosystem

A. Air quality, B. Climate, C. Water. D. Pollution and prevention of erosion. 2. Other benefits include Agriculture Business and industry Species loss rate Habitat destruction Introduction of invasive species genetic pollution Over exploitation Hybridization and food security Climate change
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Human benefits of Biodiversity cont

Protection and species restoration techniques Legal status ( political and judicial decisions) Endangered species Genetic engineering Genetically modified organisms Global arguments Taxonomic and size relationship ( less than 1% of the species described on the basis of existence..Macroscopic) Vast majority of the earths species are microbial (Microbial life is physically simple and metabolically complex) forms, are more diverse than multicellular life.

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