Biodiversity
The natural environment is the source of all our resources for life. Environmental processes provide a wealth of services to the living world -- providing us with air to breathe, water to drink and food to eat, as well as materials to use in our daily lives and natural beauty to enjoy.
Complex ecosystems with a wide variety of plants and animals tend to be more stable. A highly diverse ecosystem is a sign of a healthy system. Since all the living world relies on the natural environment, especially us, it is in our best interests and the interests of future generations to conserve biodiversity and our resources.
I know that some may argue that some species have become extinct, with no obvious effect on the environment. I put forth an answer to that statement; the Earth's systems are so complex that we are still learning about environmental processes and resources and the roles they play. The careless loss of any part of the natural environment means that we may never know what use it was or could have been in terms of future technologies, say, or for medical science, or indeed for the health of the planet itself.(Meadows, DH, Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. & Behrens III, W.W. 1972. Limits to Growth. London, Potomac Associates Book)
According to me it is important to understand that environments are constantly changing. A healthy, robust environment evolves and adapts to naturally changing conditions. I have found it fascinating to observe the far-reaching effects even small changes can make and the importance of genetic
Our future is not only for us. Humans are selfish creatures, we must oversome this and look forward and save the earth for our future generations.Preservation of biodiversity is not necessarily about preserving everything currently in existence. It's more a question of 'walking lightly' on the Earth -- a balance of respecting the natural changes that occur and of protecting species and environments from wanton extinction and destruction.Life on Earth would not be the same if our planet's biodiversity were to be radically affected.
In The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the real state of the world Bjorn Lomborg addresses the question of biodiversity and concludes that "the background rates of extinction currently accepted by the majority of biologists are grossly exaggerated and that, therefore, the need to preserve biological diversity is likewise exaggerated."(Lomborg Bjorn The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the real state of the world..)
Furthermore, Lomborg essentially concludes that efforts to conserve some species (e.g., many invertebrates and most microbes) to be of little economic benefit since these organisms do not factor into an aesthetic need (i.e., most of us would not mourn the extinction of the green alga Pediastrum, but many would care deeply if the beloved African Elephant disappeared) nor are these organisms likely to offer any economic incentives for preservation (i.e., they don't produce any economically important byproducts). Interestingly, this topic allowed me to examine the limits of scientific evidence in this grand debate. Besides which we cannot play GOD and decide the fate of another species.(Meadows, DH, Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. & Behrens III, W.W. 1972. Limits to Growth. London, Potomac Associates Book) wealth of data regarding changes over time in the diversity of organisms can be assembled with relative ease. I found that, the inherent uncertainty associated with these data, however, can allow for varied interpretations regarding, for example, the background extinction rate. More importantly, one cannot test hypotheses about the economic or ecological effects of a given extinction event, since one cannot…
Biodiversity: Interdependence of Species Results: Round Species Missing (Bead Color and Name) Species Color Red Flowers Yellow Bees Orange Trees Blue Humans If trees and flowers were not part of the ecosystem, then there would be a lack of food for bees, lack of pollination for flowers, and then lack of agriculture for humans. Explain how the ecosystem was affected by the missing species for each round of the demonstration. Round 1 = Flowers removed Round 2= Bees removed Round 3= Trees removed Round 4= Humans removed In
When increased funding is made available via investments and tourism, the space problem can also be managed with greater ease. It is vitally important to preserve as much biodiversity as possible, and to do so particularly in countries where biodiversity is richest. For this reason, conservation managers need to put practices in place to target potential investors for the future preservation of the earth and its resources. Sources Brown, David. 1998.
Many nations have developed their own laws aimed at protecting and even increasing biodiversity when possible; some well-known pieces of legislature in the United States include the Endangered Species Act, which was actually passed more than a decade before the term biodiversity was coined, and the Soil and Water Conservation Act and Clean Air Act, both of which were not specifically aimed at maintaining levels of biodiversity or slowing the
These forests "loose their leaves during the dry winter but are lush and verdant in the summer rainy season" (Lewis 82). Some of the varieties of flora in these regions include the pink trumpet, cardinal sage and the spider lily. Along the dry Pacific coastal plain, from the southern end of the Sonora desert to the state of Guerrero, the predominant vegetation is thorny bushes and small trees, including morning
Extinction Events or Environmental Catastrophes Many uncertainties exist over the acts and roles of extinction in the world today. Nonetheless, with all these uncertainties, it is possible to formulate reasonable statements that depict the probable role of extinction. The role of extinction can be thought to have some elements, most of which are instrumental in striking the relationship and power seen in evolution and extinction in the earth's history up
Front-line Application The most obvious front-line application of this study is in the conceptualization of the relative needs of the respective species in connection with human efforts to prevent extinction, especially extinction that is directly attributable to human activity. The traditional approach to species conservation emphasizes the data establishing declining populations. That approach ignores species that are equally at risk by virtue of human activity. Therefore, continued reliance on that approach
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