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Download in the ACCESS Habitable Planet story 2. What are Food webs? 5
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Biodiversity and Food webs in the ACCESS Habitable Planet story 1. What is Biodiversity? 2. What are Food webs? - ‘bio’ = LIFE - ‘diversity’ = VARIETY • Biodiversity describes the variety of life (organisms) in an area (ecological communities) and it is made up of 3 types: 3. Ecological/ecosystem diversity 2. Species diversity 1. Genetic diversity 4. Do you know what ecosystem services are? • Biodiversity has intrinsic value (something that has value in and of itself) and utilitarian value (goods, services, information) = FREE ecosystem services! • A series of overlapping food chains (i.e. feeding connections with a sequence of food (ENERGY) transfers in an ecological community) • Each link in a food chain = a trophic level 3. Why is this important in our Habitable Planet story? Need more than just one species; and interconnectivity of species through food webs to make Earth habitable Important because change on our planet is constant! Relationship between food webs and stability (resistance and resilience) of ecosystems: - Increase food web complexity, increase resilience to change = more stable 5. Can you think of reasons why South Africa is special? CASE STUDY: • Cape Floristic Region (CFR) in the south western area of SA is 1 of the world’s 6 floristic kingdoms • Fynbos biome of CFR – high plant biodiversity suited to Mediterranean climate and nutrient poor soils • SA has >20 300 plant species, of which 2 000 threatened found in Fynbos biome Foxey Question… why do you think South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot with it’s own floral kingdom? Why are we so special? 6. Conclusions and Implications Natural wealth & valuable ecosystem services under pressure due to human demands (economic development, agriculture, urbanisation, invasive alien species, wildlife trade) placed on the environment Threats to biodiversity: Habitat loss, fragmentation & degradation; Pollution; Invasive alien species; Over-exploitation; and Global Climate Change One solution to environmental crisis & future climate change: Biodiversity Conservation (protection, preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife and natural resources) Biodiversity is important and it helps make our planet habitable!