"Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth."
Biodiversity refers to the variety of living organisms on earth, including plants, animals, and microorganisms. It encompasses genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity, and is essential to the health of the planet.
Definition of Biodiversity: Understanding the meaning and scope of biodiversity, including the different types- genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity.
Importance of Biodiversity: Studying the ecological, economic, and social significance of preserving biodiversity, and the consequences of its loss.
Biodiversity hotspots: Identifying areas with a high concentration of endemic species, their conservation importance, and threats they face.
Threats to Biodiversity: Recognizing the causes of species decline, including habitat loss, climate change, pollution, overfishing, poaching, and invasive species.
Biodiversity conservation: Exploring the different strategies adopted for keeping different species from extinction, including legislation, protected areas, restoration, and management.
Ecosystem services: Understanding the critical role biodiversity plays in the services and processes provided by ecosystems, such as carbon sequestration, water purification, and pollination.
Biogeography: Analyzing the patterns and distribution of species across different regions, determining the factors that influence them and studying the impacts of historical events on current patterns.
Climate Change and Biodiversity: Understanding the effects of climate change on ecosystems and species distribution, the adaptation mechanisms, and mitigation measures.
Ethnobiology: Studying how humans interact with biodiversity, including traditional and cultural knowledge and practices, and conservation approaches.
Wildlife management: Examining the science and techniques used for managing wildlife populations, including the impact of human activities, genetic issues and diseases.
Genetic diversity: It refers to the variety of genes within a species that help it to adapt to changes in its environment. This type of biodiversity is important to ensure the resilience of populations against environmental challenges such as disease, climate change and habitat loss.
Species diversity: It refers to the variety and abundance of different species in a particular ecosystem. It reflects the complexity of the web of life, making an ecosystem more stable and resilient to changes.
Ecosystem diversity: It refers to the variety of different habitats and ecosystems that are found in an area. For example, wetlands, forests, grasslands and oceans all provide unique ecological functions and support different species.
Functional diversity: It refers to the variety of ecological functions that species perform within an ecosystem. Each species has its own role, such as nutrient cycling, pollination, prey and predator relationships, and seed dispersal.
Landscape diversity: It refers to the variety of landscapes and land uses in a region. This includes natural areas such as forests, lakes and mountains, as well as urban and agricultural areas.
Temporal diversity: It refers to the changes that occur over time in ecological and biological cycles. This includes seasonal fluctuations, long-term climate changes and the evolution of species over geological time.
Socio-cultural diversity: It refers to the diversity of human cultures and how they relate to and utilize biodiversity for their livelihoods, food, and cultural traditions. This includes traditional ecological knowledge, and the variety of cultural practices that are associated with different ethnic groups around the world.
"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."