Biodiversity Case

According to the Convention on Biodiversity website, "At least 4 percent of the world's economy and 80 percent of the needs of the poor are delivered from biological resources. In addition, the richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to such new challenges as climate change."

To completely understand the significance of biodiversity and how it affects us all in bigger ways than we fail to realize, we must first have some type of knowledge of what biodiversity is. The California Biodiversity Council defines biodiversity as "the diversity or variety of plants and animals and other living things in a particular area or region. Biodiversity also means the number, or abundance of different species living within a particular region." Most people may relate biodiversity by just species when in fact it goes way beyond that. Species are only a portion of biodiversity and to analyze every living thing organism that resides here on Earth, one must be willing to dig deeper to gain knowledge about the variation in genes that exists within species as well as the diversity of ecosystems, natural communities, and the habitats of such living organisms.

For years researchers have worked hard to seek the problems that many species in ecosystems all over the world face. Biodiversity is fundamental to the existence of life on Earth, and the significance that biodiversity has on the natural environment should not be ignored. Although we absolutely need and should all want biodiversity, we, as careless human beings, continue to harm the environment without being aware of the negative effects that we are contributing to the threats of it. We are all guilty of not taking better care of the beautiful place that we call home and this is most likely a result of the ignorance that we hold about biodiversity as a whole.

Proceeding is some random and very resourceful facts about biodiversity. 1 Biodiversity has declined by more than a quarter in the last 35 years. 2 The extinction of species is 1,000 times the natural rate and it is estimated that 34,000 plant and 5,200 animal species face extinction in the future. 3 Each year 5,000-1,000 new species are discovered by scientist, most being insects. 4 The areas that have the richest biodiversity on our planet are tropical forests, which support two-thirds of the estimated 250,000 plant species. 5 Scientists believe that according to the fossil records, there have been five historical mass extinctions and Earth is currently facing the sixth mass extinction.

There are probably a million and one facts about biodiversity and the influence that humans, animals, ecosystems, and many other factors have on it. Understanding the relationships between the various factors and biodiversity will make it a lot easier to identify all the reasons why biodiversity is important.

Why is biodiversity so important and why should we care? This is a question that most people do not think twice about considering. "Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play." (Globalissues.org) an ecosystem is a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. Ecosystems include plants, animals, microorganisms, water, soil, and human beings. In an ecosystem, it is very crucial for species to depend on other species and other ecological elements that makes up a healthy and sustainable ecosystem. Each species of vegetation has its own significant purpose for being on Earth and therefore plays a major role in the on-going process of the circle of life. Biodiversity provides foods and materials for us while contributing to the economy at the same time. For example, one reason why supermarkets contain a lot of produce is because our economy has a diversity of pollinators, plants, and soil. (Natural wildlife Federation)

It is imperative that we try to protect biodiversity and the natural environment to the very best of our abilities. Humans are the main reason for the destruction of ecosystems, the loss of biodiversity, and the extinction of many animals and plants. Of course the environment is expected to change over the course of time, but human beings are rapidly speeding the process of evolutionary changes, which are bringing forth real danger to individual species and ecosystems. (SerendipUpdate Biology 103) To sum up the importance of biodiversity, it is "an important part of ecological services that make life livable on Earth." Without biodiversity, neither human beings nor any species of any kind would have clean water, a good oxygen source for us to breathe, or the basic ecological elements that every living thing need to survive in an ecosystem.

Currently, ecosystems and species are constantly facing threats and being negatively affected due to the loss of biodiversity. Land use is a huge problem that is often disregarded by most. The largest amount of diversity is typically found in places like tropical rainforests and cloud forests because of their incomparable climates. In such places with such climates, farmers are anxious to use spaces that were once home to many trees as a starting point for a farm. Farmers must treat their crops well in order to maintain them but the fertilizers and pesticides that the farmers use are very detrimental to the land and they serve as a repellant to keep