"Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth."
Biodiversity refers to the variety of living organisms on earth, including the diversity of genes, species, and ecosystems. It is important because it provides many ecosystem services and benefits, including food, water, air purification, and climate regulation.
"Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (genetic variability), species (species diversity), and ecosystem (ecosystem diversity) level."
"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."
"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."
"Yes, there are latitudinal gradients in species diversity."
"Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots."
"More than 99.9% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to be extinct."
"About 1.2 million have been documented."
"The total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 10^37."
"The age of Earth is about 4.54 billion years."
"The earliest undisputed evidence of life dates at least from 3.7 billion years ago."
"There are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia."
"Other early physical evidence of a biogenic substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland."
"More recently, in 2015, 'remains of biotic life' were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia."
"Since life began on Earth, five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity."
"The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, occurred 65 million years ago and has often attracted more attention than others because it resulted in the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs."
"The ongoing global biodiversity crisis not only involves biological extinctions but also the loss of experience and the gradual fading of cultural knowledge and collective memory of species. The reduction is caused primarily by human impacts, particularly habitat destruction."
"Biodiversity positively impacts human health in many ways."
"A few negative effects are studied."