Biodiversity - Species Richness Of The Biosphere, Why Is Biodiversity Important?, Biodiversity And Extinction, Protection Of Endangered Biodiversity
losses range ecosystems global
Biodiversity is the total richness of biological variation. The scope of biodiversity is usually considered to range from the genetic variation of individual organisms within and among populations of a species, to different species occurring together in ecological communities. Some definitions of biodiversity also include the spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of populations and communities on the landscape. The geographical scales at which biodiversity can be considered range from local to regional, state or provincial, national, continental, and ultimately to global.
Biodiversity at all scales is severely threatened by human activities; this is one of the most important aspects of the global environmental crisis. Humans have already caused permanent losses of biodiversity through the extinction of many species and extensive losses of distinctive, natural ecosystems. Ecologists predict that unless there are substantial changes in the ways that humans affect ecosystems, there will be much larger losses of biodiversity in the near future.
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About 1.7 million of Earth's species have been identified and designated with a scientific name. About 6% of the identified species live in boreal or polar latitudes, 59% in the temperate zones, and the remaining 35% in the tropics. However, the knowledge of Earth's species is highly incomplete, especially for tropical countries. According to some estimates, there could be as many as…
Biodiversity is valuable for the following classes of reasons: There are many cases of the discovery, through research on previously unexploited plants and animals, of bio-products useful to humans as food, medicine, or for other purposes. Consider the case of the rosy periwinkle (Catharantus roseus), a small plant native to the tropical island of Madagascar. During an extensive screening of wild …
Extinction refers to the loss of some species or other taxonomic unit (e.g., subspecies, genus, family, etc.; each is known as a taxon), occurring over all of its range on Earth. (Extirpation refers to a more local disappearance, with the taxon still surviving elsewhere.) The extinction of any species is an irrevocable loss of part of the biological richness of Earth, the only place in the univers…
Biodiversity can be protected in ecological reserves. These are protected areas established for the conservation of natural values, usually the known habitat of endangered species, threatened ecosystems, or representative examples of widespread communities. In the early 1990s there were about 7,000 protected areas globally, with an area of 2.5 million sq mi (651 million ha.) Of this total, about 2…
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User Comments
8 months ago
ahm.,cguro dag2an nyo p ng kaalaman ukol s biodiversity
12 months ago
hardi
species richness of biodiversity will not be able to come back when everyone was not aware of the benefits of each plant species itself soon is one example of the biodiversity of species on our earth but often destroyed by humans because it only benefits ekonomies think if we Think better then plant itself can be used better as we plant trees or shrubs then we will get benefits such as carbon stock and enjoy the fruits of which we enjoy by selling fruit from the tree.