On the Brink of Extinction

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Recommended: Effects on the environment from loss of biodiversity

Introduction

Biodiversity is the grand diversity of all life on Earth and the interconnections that support these forms of life. This astonishing diversity supports the human existence by providing numerous priceless resources such as food, fuel, and medicine. Many of these resources can not be duplicated by the human race. For these reasons it is obvious that the environment and the biodiversity that it supports are detrimental to human survival. There is one major problem that is growing each day, and that is the amount of biodiversity, along with the services and benefits that is provides is diminishing. The study of biodiversity becomes increasingly important in order to gain knowledge on how to prevent this catastrophe. The more knowledge that is available, the easier it becomes for others to learn of the problem and take significant actions to reduce and prevent further occurrences. A similar study was conducted by Kevin Shear McCann to research the diversity-stability debate. He discovered that one third of the plant and animal species in the United States are now at risk of extinction. Based on this and other devastating accounts, I hypothesized that if the plant biodiversity of a given area is observed over period of time, then the level of diversity will decrease over time due to human intervention and also water and air impurities. It can be predicted based on previous studies that the overall amount of diversity of the plant life at the sites to be studied will decrease over time. This will occur because of the destruction of plant life due to human recreational behavior and pollution either in the water or air because of human activities. The observation of plant life was most appropriate for this study...

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...els of biodiversity. It is important to learn from these results and the importance that is inherent in protecting biodiversity. Much more research needs to be done especially in the field of what types of reasons exist for why biodiversity is so rapidly declining. When more information on this topic is available more can be done to take preventative measure to stop this decline of the diversity of life.

Citations

Environmental Law Institute. "New Mexico's Natural Heritage". ELI, 1999.

Hendrey, George. "Biodiversity: buffer against climate change". Enviornmental News Network, 2001.

Iverson, Louis R. and Prasad, Anantha. "Estimating Regional Plant Biodiversity with GIS modeling". Diversity and Distributions, 1998.

McCann, Kevin Shear. "The biodiversity-stability debate". Nature Publishing Group.

11 May 2000.

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