Download biodiversity - WordPress.com

BIODIVERSITY
BIODIVERSITY
The United Nations Convention on Biological
Diversity states that the biodiversity is the
variety among living organisms from all sources
including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic
ecosystems and ecological complexes of which
they are a part includes diversity within species,
between species and of ecosystems.
 Sum total of species richness, i.e. number of
species of plants, animals and microorganisms
occurring in a given region, country, continent or
on the earth.

CLASSIFICATION




Genetic diversity: which is a measure of variety
available for the same genes within individual species
Species diversity: which describes the different kinds
of organisms within individual communities or
ecosystems
Ecological diversity: which is the richness and
complexity of a biological community, including rich
number of tropical levels and ecological processes that
capture energy, sustain food webs and recycles
materials within this system
Landscape diversity: involves more than just the
spatial arrangement of habitats across a large area
and include the flux of energy, nutrients,
disturbances and organisms across area
VALUE OF BIODIVERSITY




We get the following benefits from a rich biodiversity
Food: all of our food comes from other organisms
Drugs and medicines: living organisms provide us
many drugs and medicines
Ecological benefits: we are totally depending on the
ecological services, which in turn provided by other
organisms. These services are
Soil formatting
Air and water purification
Water disposal
Nutrient cycling
Food production
Aesthetic benefits: Millions of people enjoy
hunting, fishing, camping, wildlife watching and
other natural activities
 These activities provide stress relief and good
exercise
 In many religions, nature is considered as god’s
creation and particular species of plants/animals
is being worshipped
 Social value: people are enjoying wildlife,
including hunting and fishing, wildlife
photography
 Local biodiversity can bring cash to the remote
areas through ecotourism

BIODIVERSITY AT GLOBAL LEVEL
Based on the rate of new discoveries, around
three to fifty million species may be alive today
 Among these around 1.4 million species are
presently known
 About 70% of all known species are
invertebrates(animals without backbone such as
insects)

BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS
The richness of species concentration at a
particular region is called biodiversity hotspots
 Most of the world’s biodiversity concentrations
are near the equator
 Only 10 to 15% live in North America and Europe
when compared to the distribution of species
worldwide
 Area isolated by water, desert or mountains can
have high concentration of unique species and
biodiversity.
 There are 18 hotspots identified worldwide.
These cover about 0.745 million sq. km and house
roughly 0.45 million species

BIO GEOGRAPHICAL CLASSIFICATION OF
INDIA





Country is quite rich in biodiversity with a sizable
percentage of flora and fauna
Total number of plant species is 5150 and animals
1837
The richness in biodiversity is due to immense variety
of climatic and altitudinal conditions coupled with
varied ecological habitats
These vary from humid tropical Western Ghats to the
hot deserts of Rajasthan, from cold deserts of Ladakh
and icy mountain of Himalayas to the warm coast of
peninsular India
India with 2.45% of world’s area has 8.1% of world’s
total biodiversity with a species count of about 0.13
million
BIOSPHERE RESERVES
OF INDIA
Biosphere reserves are terrestrial and coastal
ecosystems, which are internationally recognized
within the framework of UNESCO’s Man and
Biosphere programme
 India has 13 biosphere reserve, 27 tiger reserves,
89 national parks and 497 wildlife sanctuaries
 The total protected area is about 0.145 million sq.
km

ENDANGERED AND ENDEMIC SPECIES OF
INDIA
India has several problems such as over
population, large number of cattle, growing
demand for land, energy and water supply which
threatens the rich biodiversity
 Timber extraction has affected many animal
species
 Faunal losses have been mainly because of over
exploitation of certain species for trading
purpose, habitat alteration and destruction,
pollution of streams, lakes and coastal zones






Extinct: species that are no longer known to exist in
the wild.
Endangered: taxa in danger of extinction and whose
survival is unlikely if the causal factors continue
operating. Included are taxa whose numbers have
been reduced to a critical level or whose habitats have
been so drastically reduced that they are deemed to
be in immediate danger of extinction
Vulnerable: taxa believed likely to move into the
endangered category in the future, if the casual
factors continue operating. Included are taxa of which
most or all the populations are decreasing because of
overexploitation, extensive destruction of habitat or
other environmental disturbances
Rare: taxa with small world population but that are
not at present endangered or vulnerable but are at
risk
Threatened: it is a general term to denote that are fall
into any of the above category
ENDANGERED AND ENDEMIC SPECIES OF
INDIA
Red data book: the name given to the book
dealing with threatened animals or plants of any
region
 In India the botanical survey of India, has
combined three volumes of red data book having
information on endangered plant species
 23 animal species including Cheetah have
become extinct
 There are about 1232 species of birds including
55 are endemic. Two of them has become extinct,
5 to 10 % are considered threatened
 Botanical survey of India estimated that about
10% of plant species are threatened

THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY
Except a few cases, most of the extinction
(elimination of a particular species) process is
caused by human. Some of them are:
 Habitat destruction
 Fragmentation
 hunting and fishing
HABITAT DESTRUCTION
Human disturbances of natural habitat is the
largest single cause of loss of biodiversity
 Over the past 10,000 years, billions of hectares of
forests, woodlands and grasslands have been
converted to commercial forests, croplands, or
grazing lands
 Humans now use about 10% of world’s land
surface for crop production, and about twice that
amount for pasture and grazing lands

FRAGMENTATION
In addition to habitat loss, a serious problem is
habitat fragmentation- the reduction of habitat
into smaller and smaller, more scattered patches
 Fragmentation reduces biodiversity because
many species, such as bears and large cats,
require large territories to subsist
 Other species like interior birds reproduce
successfully only in deep forests or other habitat
far from edges and human settlement
 Fragmentation also divides population into
isolated groups

HUNTING AND FISHING
Over harvesting is responsible for depletion or
extinction of many species
 Hunting of species for human consumption will
extinct the entire population
 For example, American passenger pigeon was
world’s most abundant bird with a population
between 3 and 5 billion, some 200 years ago.
Hunting and habitat destruction caused the
entire population to near extinct.
 Fish stocks have been seriously depleted by
overharvesting in many parts of the world

MAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT
Rapidly growing human population interfere with
wildlife creating man-wildlife conflicts. The reasons
are
 The domestic cattle compete with wild animals
for grass and water
 Agriculturists, especially in temperate highlands,
hill slopes and river beds encroach in wildlife
area
 Wildlife areas are disturbed by transport, resorts
and hunting that are related to tourism
 The glamour for products obtained from wildlife
such as skin, horns, tusks etc.
CONSERVATION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
Biological diversity is one of the important tools
for sustainable development
 One should take all necessary steps to preserve
biological diversity
 There is urgent need to educate people to adopt
environment friendly practices
 And re-orient activities in such a way that our
development is harmonious with other life forms
and is sustainable

CONSERVING BIODIVERSITY IN PROTECTED
HABITATS
Wildlife conservation efforts are mostly
concentrated on protecting animal and plant life in
zoos, sanctuaries, gardens biosphere reserves, etc.
The two basic approaches to the wild life
conservation in protected habitats are
 In-situ conservation
 Ex-situ conservation
IN-SITU CONSERVATION
The conservation is possible by allocating large
portion of earth’s surface for wildlife.
 These large pockets of protected zones are
essential for not only conserving vast number of
species of living organisms but also provide
opportunities to evolve
 In spite of such efforts being taken, many
protected habitats are used for logging, tourism
and other profitable activities and thus giving
less importance to wildlife conservation
 Many protected habitats are facing problems of
encroachment, maintenance monitoring and land
management

EX-SITU CONSERVATION

This programme involves conservation of wildlife
in captivity under human care. This involves
collection of endangered plants and animals and
birds under conditions in gardens, zoos,
sanctuaries, etc.
ADVANTAGES OF EX-SITU
Organisms are assured of food, water, shelter
and security and hence can have longer life span
and longer span of breeding activity.
 In case of endangered species, ex-situ offers the
possibility of using genetic techniques to improve
the species concerned
 Since the process of breeding takes place under
controlled conditions with modern facilities, the
chances of survival of endangered species are
very bright

DISADVANTAGES OF EX-SITU
Species under captivity are under set of
favourable environmental conditions, deprive the
opportunity to adapt to ever changing natural
environment. Thus new life forms cannot evolve
 The maintenance cost of breeding of plants and
animals are very expensive

OTHER STEPS FOR CONSERVATION








Biodiversity inventories: well documented inventories and
assessment of current conditions, abundances,
distributions and management directions are need for
genetic resources, species populations
Conserving biodiversity in seed banks and gene banks:
seeds of most of the plants can be stored in seed banks or
gene banks or germ banks
Imparting environmental education: importance of ecofriendly practices
Reviewing agricultural practices: avoiding non eco-friendly
crops and promoting organic farming
Controlling urbanization: rapid urbanization and
converting agricultural lands to residential places should
be controlled
Restoration of biodiversity
Population control
Environmental legislation