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Note on importance of biodiversity
Note on importance of biodiversity
Note on importance of biodiversity
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Earth holds a vast diversity of living organisms and immense varieties of Habitat and ecosystem. Biodiversity is the variety and variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic eco¬systems and the ecological complexes; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems (CBD 1992). The term biodiversity, the short form of biological diversity, was coined by Walter G. Rosen in 1985. The fundamental to ecologically sustainable development is conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. An environment rich in biological diversity offers the broadest array of options for sustainable economic activity, for sustaining human welfare and for adapting to change. Global Biodiversity Assessment estimates that a total number of animal and plant species to be between 13 and 14 million (Heywood 1995). It further records that so far only 1.75 million species have been described and studied. UNEP-WCMC (2000) estimated around 2, 70,000 species of vascular plants and 52,000 animals (vertebrates). Nearly 45% of the World’s vascular plant species occur …show more content…
So, there is a need of State Art technology for a holistic management of forests and biodiversity. The modern technology of remote sensing allows us to collect a lot of spatial data rather easily, with speed and on a repetitive basis. Remote sensing is the science and art of obtaining information about an object, area, phenomenon through the analysis of data acquired by a device that is not in contact with the object, area, or phenomenon under investigation. Remote sensing is facilitated with mapping, studying, monitoring and managing various resources like agriculture, forestry, geology, water, ocean etc. It has further enabled monitoring of the environment and thereby helping in conservation (Lillesand and Kiefer,
“Conservation and Globalization” written by Jim Igoe looks at issues brought upon by westerners such as not only enclosing lands belonging to the Maasai, but also installing their beliefs of economics and cultural construction brought on by private conservative companies in East Africa, more specifically Tanzania. Issues that are explained is the regulation of land that Maasai call home. Westerners did so by creating national parks, Maasai Mara, Amboseli Reserve, and Tarangire National Park. Igoe explains in the first chapter in his book of how the Maasai lived. Before colonialism, conservation, and regulation, the Maasai were pastoralist and had herds of cattle. Now the Maasai are struggling to keep their herding traditions and are forced into subsistence farming (Igoe 2004: 5). The Maasai believe that when God created Earth, they were entitled to all cattle on Earth. This leads to the Maasai to take cattle by force from other ethnic groups surrounding them. Conservation and Globalization are mentioned throughout the book. Westerners use these ideas to run the Maasai out of their homeland and lock them out of their grazing lands. The idea of these indigenous people couldn’t appreciate this land and didn’t know how to fully use their resources are heavily racist.
Remote sensing technology provides a cost-effective method to acquire biophysical information across the 2.5 million km2 area represented by the combined Queensland and New South Wales territories (Meier et al. 2011). SLATS commenced in 1995 to develop methods and technologies to provide environmental monitoring (Kuhnell et al. 1998). SLATS produce a Foliage Projective Cover (FPC) Product which is used to inform environment and climate change analysis and subsequent decision making (Huete 2012).
Overprotection of Biodiversity "Extinction is normal"(pg26, 1st paragraph). However, the rate this process is happening is up to us, to some extent. In this article, two sides are discussing this rate. One side is arguing that biodiversity is overprotected and the other the opposite. The first argument, against protection of biodiversity, states that "at a macro level, there is a tradeoff between production/consumption of timber and production/consumption of related environmental amenities"(pg28, 2nd paragraph).
In The Diversity of Life, Edward O. Wilson reflects on how the living world became diverse and how humans are destroying that diversity. In the book’s preface, Wilson defines biodiversity as “the totality of inherited variation in all organisms in a selected area” (Wilson ix). He adds that modern technology will allow for us to find many new species that were previously unknown to be in existence.
Deforestation is fast becoming one of the world’s worst environmental/geographical occurring disasters known to mankind, and is due to humankind’s greed, ignorance and carelessness when considering the future of our environment.
Environmental issues affect every life on this planet from the smallest parasite to the human race. There are many resources that humans and animal needs to survive; some of the most obvious resources come from the forests. Forests make up a large percentage of the globe. The forests have global implications not just on life but on the quality of it. Trees improve the quality of the air that species breath, determine rainfall and replenish the atmosphere. The wood from the forests are used everyday form many useful resources. Moreover, thinning the forests increases the amount of available light, nutrients and water for the remaining trees. Deforestation (forest thinning) is one of the most critical issues of environmental problems that are occurring today.
S Giller, P., Hillebr, Berninger, U., O Gessner, M., Hawkins, S., Inchausti, P., Inglis, C., Leslie, H., Malmqvist, B., T Monaghan, M. and Others. 2004. Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning: emerging issues and their experimental test in aquatic environments. Oikos, 104 (3), pp. 423--436.
Do we all know what biodiversity means? Well I think some of us do not know what biodiversity is, but it is important for us to know is the meaning of biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of life. Most of the people recognize biodiversity by species but biodiversity is more than just species. A species is a group of living organism that can interbreed for example white-tailed deer, blue whales, and bacteria that you cannot even see with your eyes. Species is only one part of biodiversity. Biodiversity can be studied on many levels and at the highest level you can look at all the different species in earth. Biodiversity occurs at multiple scales of ecological organization, from genes all the way up to the entire biosphere. The full range of species that lives in a particular area is included to biodiversity. Here in the Philippines, we are rich when it comes to biodiversity. As a paradise of biodiversity, our country the Philippines’s terrestrial ecosystems
Deforestation, defined by biologist Charles Southwick as "the destruction of forests; may involve clear-cutting or selective logging" (p. 365), is a predominantly human-driven process that is dramatically altering ecosystems worldwide. "Clear-cutting" involves the indiscriminant removal of every single plant and tree species from within a selected area. The other major process of deforestation, "selective logging," focuses removal efforts on only specific, predetermined tree species within a chosen area. The statistics gathered about human deforestation over time are considerable, and they can be somewhat controversial. Depending on the source and the location selected, the magnitude of deforestation varies. Southwick estimates that, approximately 10,000 years ago, 6.2 billion hectares (23.9 million square miles) of forest existed on earth (p. 117). That figure is equivalent to 45.5% of the earth's total land. He further estimates that, by 1990, this amount had declined 30%, with only 4.3 billion hectares of forest remaining (p. 117). Southwick also acknowledges other estimates that place the total amount of deforestation between 50% and 75% (p. 117). NASA has similar deforestation statistics that confirm these trends. According to their website, 16.5% of the Brazilian Amazon forests have been destroyed. They also note similar magnitudes of deforestation in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), despite the significantly smaller total area of forest within these countries. These grim figures are somewhat tempered by the NASA finding that, over the past ten years, the deforestation rate has declined from 6,200 square miles per year to 4,800 square miles per year. Though this trend is n...
Biological diversity or biodiversity is defined as the “variability among living organisms existing on the earth in various ecosystems and ecological complexes”. This variability among the living organisms is the basis for continuous evolution and maintaining life sustainability on earth. There is a widespread concern about protecting the biodiversity around the world and its seen evident among human beings. They are dependent on the biodiversity for their daily food, shelter and fuels. These resources are inevitable in human life for their living and survival. Most countries depend on the “plant genetic resource” as the major source of food for the world populations (Brahmi, Dua & Dhillon, 2004). The economic value of biological diversity and genetic resources range from “US$800 billion to US$ 1 trillion” it does not come from a single biological resource; it is from all products and services (Suneetha, Pisupati, & Kumar, 2009).
Biodiversity loss can lead to extinction, and hurt human life. It is our responsibility to take care of the environment. We bring in machines that harm the environment and destroy animal life. We need to limit ourselves on how much land and resources we consume. There are major issues that are causing species to become extinct and hurt our way of life and other animals do to the change in food chain.
Biodiversity crisis is the accelerating loss of species diversity and ecosystems mainly because of human actions. Biodiversity crisis is a greater threat to the survival of human beings on the earth because human beings are entirely dependent on biodiversity for livelihoods. The direct uses of biodiversity includes food, fiber, medicine, fuel wood, timber, building materials, industrial products (waxes, rubber, oils), and like. The indirect benefits of biodiversity are mainly the ecosystems services such as water purification, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, climate regulation, soil and water conservation, water quality, pollination, nutrient cycling and like. Currently, a large number of poor people in the developing world rely directly
Shah, Anup. “Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?” Global Issues. 19 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 April. 2014
Nowadays it is common to read articles in newspapers and magazines regarding biodiversity issues. Human beings have been knowingly and unknowingly destroying biodiversity since their existence. Biodiversity is the measure of the variety of species of animals living in an area. Forests are usually areas with high biodiversity while deserts are the opposite. Human beings have always destroyed biodiversity either by deforestation, or by some other means. Biodiversity depletion is a natural phenomenon. But the present levels of biodiversity depletion are many times higher than the natural rate. Recently the levels of loss in biodiversity have started causing global concern. Some of the main causes for loss in biodiversity are alteration of habitats, increasing levels of pollution and human population growth.
Biodiversity, generally refers to genetic diversity, species diversity, or ecosystem diversity within an area, including not only trees, but numerous kinds of animals and micro-organism. In a biologically diverse forest, this mechanism allows organisms to adapt to changing environment and to maintain ecosystem functions. If we emphasize the role of biodiversity as a connector, mainly we are discussing about the species diversity.