Biodiversity Meaning

Scientists are interested in how much biodiversity there is on a global scale, given that there is still so much biodiversity to discover. They also study how many species exist in single ecosystems, such as a forest, grassland, tundra, or lake. A single grassland can contain a wide range of species, from beetles to snakes to antelopes. Ecosystems that host the most biodiversity tend to have ideal environmental conditions for plant growth, like the warm and wet climate of tropical regions. Ecosystems can also contain species too small to see with the naked eye. Looking at samples of soil or water through a microscope reveals a whole world of bacteria and other tiny organisms.

Biodiversity holds ecological and economic significance. It provides us with nourishment, housing, fuel, clothing and several other resources. It also extracts monetary benefits through tourism. Therefore, it is very important to have a good knowledge of biodiversity for a sustainable livelihood.

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Species diversity refers to the variety of different types of species found in a particular area. It is the biodiversity at the most basic level. It includes all the species ranging from plants to different microorganisms.

An ecosystem is a collection of living and non-living organisms and their interaction with each other. Ecological biodiversity refers to the variations in the plant and animal species living together and connected by food chains and food webs.

All species have a right to exist. Humans should not cause their voluntary extinction. Biodiversity preserves different cultures and spiritual heritage. Therefore, it is very important to conserve biodiversity.

Many Smithsonian scientists are working on ways to monitor and measure biodiversity over time. Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists Dr. Francisco Dallmeier and Dr. Alfonso Alonso developed a Framework for the Assessment and Monitoring of Biodiversity. The framework provides guidance about how to go about designing and implementing assessments and monitoring programs, how to report the information gathered, and how to use the gathered scientific information to track the conditions of ecosystems and the species that inhabit them.

For more than three decades, Smithsonian scientists and institutional collaborators with the Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) have been studying forest biodiversity and function at more than 60 sites around the world. A newer initiative, the Marine Global Earth Observatory (Marine GEO), brings together Smithsonian marine scientists from the U.S., Belize, and Panama to collaborate with colleagues from around the world to monitor ocean ecosystems.

Botanist Dr. John Kress took a leadership role in 2006 when the Smithsonian and five other international scientific organizations founded what is now Consortium of Scientific Partners on Biodiversity and has grown to include 24 major scientific organizations as partners. The Consortium looks for innovative ways to investigate biodiversity and explore solutions to loss of biodiversity as humans continue to interact with the biosphere.

As a 'developed' nation, Australia has a special responsibility for biodiversity conservation and management. Other megadiverse countries include Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. It is estimated that there are 13.6 million species of plants, animals and microorganisms on Earth. Australia has about one million of these, which represents more than 7% of the world's total and is more than twice the number of species in Europe and North America combined.

Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (genetic variability), species (species diversity), and ecosystem (ecosystem diversity) level.[1] Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth; it is usually greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10% of earth's surface and contain about 90% of the world's species. Marine biodiversity is usually higher along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest, and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, but will be likely to slow in the future as a primary result of deforestation. It encompasses the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life.[2]

The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity loss and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity. This process is often referred to as Holocene extinction, or sixth mass extinction. Biodiversity loss is also "one of the most critical manifestations of the Anthropocene"[4] a new proposed geological epoch which is thought to have started around the 1950s. The reduction is caused primarily by human impacts, particularly habitat destruction.

"Biodiversity" is most commonly used to replace the more clearly-defined and long-established terms, species diversity and species richness.[15]Biologists most often define biodiversity as the "totality of genes, species and ecosystems of a region".[16][17] An advantage of this definition is that it presents a unified view of the traditional types of biological variety previously identified:

Duing the last century, decreases in biodiversity have been increasingly observed. It was estimated in 2007 that up to 30% of all species will be extinct by 2050.[42] Of these, about one eighth of known plant species are threatened with extinction.[43] Estimates reach as high as 140,000 species per year (based on Species-area theory).[44] This figure indicates unsustainable ecological practices, because few species emerge each year.[citation needed] The rate of species loss is greater now than at any time in human history, with extinctions occurring at rates hundreds of times higher than background extinction rates.[43][45][46] and expected to still grow in the upcoming years.[46][47][48] As of 2012, some studies suggest that 25% of all mammal species could be extinct in 20 years.[49]

In absolute terms, the planet has lost 58% of its biodiversity since 1970 according to a 2016 study by the World Wildlife Fund.[50] The Living Planet Report 2014 claims that "the number of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish across the globe is, on average, about half the size it was 40 years ago". Of that number, 39% accounts for the terrestrial wildlife gone, 39% for the marine wildlife gone and 76% for the freshwater wildlife gone. Biodiversity took the biggest hit in Latin America, plummeting 83 percent. High-income countries showed a 10% increase in biodiversity, which was canceled out by a loss in low-income countries. This is despite the fact that high-income countries use five times the ecological resources of low-income countries, which was explained as a result of a process whereby wealthy nations are outsourcing resource depletion to poorer nations, which are suffering the greatest ecosystem losses.[51]

Rates of decline in biodiversity in the current sixth mass extinction match or exceed rates of loss in the five previous mass extinction events in the fossil record.[67] Biodiversity loss is in fact "one of the most critical manifestations of the Anthropocene" (since around the 1950s); the continued decline of biodiversity constitutes "an unprecedented threat" to the continued existence of human civilization.[4]

Loss of biodiversity results in the loss of natural capital that supplies ecosystem goods and services. Species today are being wiped out at a rate 100 to 1,000 times higher than baseline, and the rate of extinctions is increasing. This process destroys the resilience and adaptability of life on Earth.[68]

According to the IUCN the main direct threats to conservation (and thus causes for biodiversity loss) fall in eleven categories: Residential and commercial development; farming activities; energy production and mining; transportation and service corridors; biological resource usages; human intrusions and activities that alter, destroy, disturb habitats and species from exhibiting natural behaviors; natural system modification; invasive and problematic species, pathogens and genes; pollution; catastrophic geological events, climate change.[71]

Some studies have however pointed out that habitat destruction for the expansion of agriculture and the overexploitation of wildlife are the more significant drivers of contemporary biodiversity loss, not climate change.[78][79]

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 Yasun National Park in Ecuador, have particularly high biodiversity.[83][84]

Terrestrial biodiversity is thought to be up to 25 times greater than ocean biodiversity.[85] Forests harbour most of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity. The conservation of the world's biodiversity is thus utterly dependent on the way in which we interact with and use the world's forests.[86] A new method used in 2011, put the total number of species on Earth at 8.7 million, of which 2.1 million were estimated to live in the ocean.[87] However, this estimate seems to under-represent the diversity of microorganisms.[88] Forests provide habitats for 80 percent of amphibian species, 75 percent of bird species and 68 percent of mammal species. About 60 percent of all vascular plants are found in tropical forests. Mangroves provide breeding grounds and nurseries for numerous species of fish and shellfish and help trap sediments that might otherwise adversely affect seagrass beds and coral reefs, which are habitats for many more marine species.[86] Forests span around 4 billion acres (nearly a third of the earth's land mass) and are home to approximately 80% of the world's biodiversity. About 1 billion hectares are covered by primary forests. Over 700 million hectares of the world's woods are officially protected.[89][90] 2351a5e196