Understanding and Managing Biodiversity

• Biodiversity is the great variety of life on Earth, used by humans for millennia for growth and development.
• Sustainable users of biodiversity survived, while those who overused or misused it disintegrated.
• Science classifies and categorizes nature's variability, understanding organizations of plants and animals.
• This informs humans how to utilize Earth's biological wealth, which is integral to the process of development.
• Development includes improved health care, crops, and the use of life forms as raw materials for industrial growth, raising living standards.
• However, this has produced a consumerist society, negatively affecting biological resources on which it is based.
• If used sustainably, biodiversity can support the development of new products for generations.
• Managing biodiversity prevents species extinction.
• Biological diversity includes genetic differences among species, variety/richness of plants/animals, and various types of ecosystems (terrestrial and aquatic).
• Biological diversity is the degree of nature's variety in the biosphere, observed at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.

Genetic Diversity

• Members of animal/plant species differ genetically due to gene combinations, giving individuals specific characteristics.
• Genetic variability is essential for healthy breeding populations.
• Reduced breeding individuals decreases genetic dissimilarity, causing in-breeding and possible extinction.
• Wild species' diversity forms a 'gene pool,' the basis for developing crops and domestic animals over thousands of years.
• Modern biotechnology uses wild crop relatives to create productive crop varieties and improve domestic animals.
• Biotechnology manipulates genes for better medicines/industrial products.

Species Diversity

• The number of plant and animal species in a region is its species diversity, seen in natural and agricultural ecosystems.
• Natural undisturbed tropical forests have greater species richness than timber plantations.
• Natural forest ecosystems offer various non-wood products (fruit, fuel, fiber, medicines) crucial for local consumption.
• Conservation scientists have identified and categorized ~1.8 million species on Earth.
• New species are still identified, especially flowering plants/insects.
• India is among the world's 15 nations exceptionally rich in species diversity, as known as diversity 'hotspots'.

Ecosystem Diversity

• The earth houses a variety of ecosystems, each having distinctive interlinked species per habitat differences.
• Ecosystem diversity describes specific geographical or political regions (country, state, taluka).
• Distinctive ecosystems include landscapes (forests, grasslands, deserts, mountains) and aquatic ecosystems (rivers, lakes, sea).
• Regions also have man-modified areas (farmland/grazing pastures).
• Natural ecosystems are relatively undisturbed by humans, while modified ecosystems change through human uses (farmland/urban).
• Ecosystems are most natural in wilderness areas.
• Overuse or misuse degrades natural ecosystems, decreasing productivity.
• India has exceptional ecosystem diversity.

Evolution and Biodiversity Origins

• The origins of life on Earth some 3.5 billion years ago are obscure.
• It was probably as results from organic reactions in Earth's primordial seas.
• Alternative theories are life beginning in muddy ooze, or seeded from outer space.
• Once life took hold, it gradually diversified.
• Unicellular and unspecialized forms evolved into complex multicellular plants and animals.
• Ability of organisms to adapt to changing environments relates to evolution.
• Abiotic changes such as climate and atmosphere upheavals, glaciations, continental drift, formation of geographical barriers led to new species formation over millions of years.
• Species appear to have a life span over several million years.
• Adaptability to habitat changes and interactions with new species produces groups of interlinked, evolving organisms.
• Food chains, predator-prey relationships, parasitism, commensalism are important examples of inter action.
• Behavioural patterns link different species community, like breeding, feeding, and migrations.
• Geological upheavals caused ancient species extinction which left behind empty niches that stimulates existing species to fill these through new species formation.
• Earth's history includes mega extinctions followed by new species formation.
• Despite repeatedly leading to a species number reduction, life diversity recuperated each time by rising number of species.
• This took millions of years, as evolution is slow.
• Thus when man came on the scene ~2 million years ago, Earth had more species richness than ever before.
• Recently, modern man has caused rapid extinctions that nature does not have the time to evolve new species.
• The Earth is losing species more rapidly than ever before.
• Modern man is rapidly modifying diversity of life at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.
• Great loss to future generations.

Biogeographic Classification of India

• India is divided into ten major regions, based on geography, climate, vegetation, and communities of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and other invertebrates.
• Each region contains various ecosystems (forests, grasslands, lakes, rivers, wetlands, mountains, hills) with specific plant and animal species.
• India's Biogeographic Zones:
• Cold mountainous snow-covered Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh.
• Himalayan ranges/valleys of Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, and other North Eastern States.
• Terai, the lowland where Himalayan rivers flow into the plains.
• Gangetic and Brahmaputra plains.
• Thar Desert of Rajasthan.
• Semi-arid grassland region of Deccan plateau - Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu.
• Northeast States of India.
• Western Ghats in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala.
• Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Long western and eastern coastal belt with sandy beaches, forests, and mangroves.

Value of Biodiversity

• Environmental services from species and ecosystems are essential at global, regional, and local levels.
• Important services include oxygen production, carbon dioxide reduction, water cycle maintenance, and soil protection.
• Biodiversity loss contributes to global climate change.
• Forests convert carbon dioxide into carbon and oxygen.
• Loss of forest cover and rising carbon dioxide releases from industrialization contribute to the 'greenhouse effect'.
• Global warming melts ice caps and rises sea levels (submerging low-lying areas).
• It causes major atmospheric changes, increased temperatures, droughts, and floods.
• Biological diversity helps preserve ecological processes like nutrient fixing/recycling, soil formation, water/air circulation, and global life support (plants absorb CO2, give out O2). Supports:
  • Water balance within ecosystems.
  • Watershed protection.
  • Maintaining stream/river flows throughout the year.
  • Erosion control.
  • Local flood reduction.
• Food, clothing, housing, energy, and medicines are resources directly/indirectly linked to the biological variety in the biosphere.
• This is most obvious in tribal communities (forest resources) and fisherfolk (marine/freshwater ecosystems).
• Agricultural communities use biodiversity to grow crops suitable for their environment.
• Urban communities use greatest amount of goods/services, all indirectly drawn from natural ecosystems.
• Preservation of biological resources is essential for mankind's well-being and long-term survival.
• Living organisms diversity in wilderness, crops, and livestock plays a major role in human 'development'.
• 'Biodiversity' preservation is integral to improving human life quality.

Man and the Web of Life

• Biodiversity influences every aspect of the lives of people who inhabit it.
• Their living space and livelihoods depend on the ecosystem type.
• People in urban areas rely on ecological services from wilderness in PAs.
• These are links with every service nature provides us.
• Wide variety of living organisms (plants/animals) as well as an ecosystem influences:
• Quality of drinking water.
• Air we breathe.
• Soil our food grows on.
• Fungi, small soil invertebrates, and microbes are essential for plants to grow just like plant reduces oxygen and releases carbon.
• A forest maintains river water after monsoon and an absence of ants destroys all on earth.
• The wilderness is a process that created an unimaginably large diversity of living species, their genetic differences and the various ecosystems on Earth where all creatures live.

Consumptive Use Value

• It is the direct utilization of timber, food, fuelwood, fodder by local communities.
• The ecosystem provides forest dwellers their daily needs (food, material, medicines, products).
• Forest dwellers know tree species' qualities, use of different woods, collect fruits/roots/plant for food, construction, or medicine.
• Fisherfolk are dependent on fish, know how to catch fish/edible aquatic animals.

Productive Use Value

• The marketable goods found in an area
• The Value of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is more than Timber for sustainable use.
• Biotechnologists use biorich areas to prospects using genetic properties in plants/animals to develop better crops, farming/plantation programs.
• Biodiversity is essential to pharmaceutical, industrialist, farmer, and scientist.
• Genetic diversity enables scientists/farmers to develop better crops/domestic animals through careful breeding.
• Originally crops were selected and pollinated artificially to get a strain which is productive or disease resistant.
• Genetic engeneering has been replacing strains selecting genes from one plant and introducing into another.
• New crop varieties uses wild relatives to ensure crops have disease resistance.
• Only a fraction of value is known in species known.
• Preservation of biodiversity is now essential for industrial growth and economic development.

Social Values

• Population/less resource traditional societies can preserve biodiversity through life support because modern man has depleded
• This leads to irrecoverable loss due to extinction of several species.
• Apart from local use, affluent society uses more resources.
• The biodiversity has been preserved by traditional societies.
• Close links to consumptive and productive value in to social concerns in traditional communities.
• ‘Ecosystem people' value biodiversity as livelihood, culture, or religious sentiments.
• Crops (traditionally agricultural systems can grow or market them throughout year).
• Farmers receive incentives for cash crops rather than local.
• Local food shortages, increased unemployment, landlessness and increased vulnerability to drought/floods are the results.

Ethical and Moral Values

• Ethical values link directly to importance of protecing all forms of life
• All life forms have rigth to exist.
• Man is only one peice of life's puzzle.
• Do species have equal right to exist whether here or elsewhere.

Aesthetic Value

• Knowledge preserves.
• Biodiversity is beautiful.
• Wonderous nature.
• Is magnificant and fasinating.

Option value

• Keeping future options open is option value.
• Predict which species will be of great use in future.

Biodiversity at global, national and local levels

• 1.8 million species known
• 1.5 to 20 billion animal species may be the true amount.
• The majority of species are yet to be discovered.
• Rich nations are in south, but more developed are in the north.

India as a mega diversity Nation

• India is in top 10-15 nations for plants and aminals
• A lot are not found elsewhere.
• 350 mammals
• 1200 birds
• 453 retiles
• 45000 plant species
• High plant species including ferns and orchids
• High endemic
• Many species are not known, so it is important to value and conserve.

Hotspots

• Over 1000 in world
• 200 named called global 200
• 50000 comprises 20 global plant life may only fall in 18 hotspotsin world.

Threats

• Poaching
• Man-wildlife conflicts
• Habitat loss
  • Man overuses ecosystems
  • Ecosystems turn into deserts
  • Mangroves being cleared
  • Overharvesting
  • Increasing populatons
  • Exotic species introductions
  • Global warming

Conservation

• In-situ conservation protects their natural habitat alongside others
• Ex-situ species are rapidly driving.
• The strategy aims to protect rare breed.