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Packaging can be a major environmental problem. The use of biodegradable packaging is an option to tackle this problem. When put in a landfill site it should decompose quickly, unlike a lot of currently used packaging.

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Biodiversity includes three main types: diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species (species diversity) and between ecosystems (ecosystem diversity).

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Biodiversity includes three main types: diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species (species diversity) and between ecosystems (ecosystem diversity).

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Changes in ocean temperature, length of seasons, and amount of precipitation are all factors that affect the level of biodiversity.

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Although many governments around the world have passed laws to ensure biodiversity, there are over 300 extremely endangered species that have no laws to protect them.

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There are three aspects to biodiversity: species diversity, genetic diversity and ecosystem diversity. All three interact and change over time and from place to place.

Species diversity refers to the variety of different living things.

Genetic diversity refers to the variations between individuals of a species — characteristics passed down from parents to their offspring.

Ecosystem diversity refers to the great variety of environments produced by the interplay of the living (animals and plants) and non-living world (earth forms, soil, rocks and water).

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Coral reefs have the most diversity of all ecosystems on Earth.

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Bees, birds, and other creatures pollinate 75 percent of the world's major crops. In areas with lots of biodiversity, insects and other creatures pollinate plants naturally. But when biodiversity is reduced, this is impossible. There are not enough insects to pollinate large fields of single crops, so farmers must truck in honeybees to do the job.

California almond farmers need about 1.5 million hives of honeybees to pollinate their crops. That's more than half of all the commercial beehives in the country.

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Although over time it has increased, biodiversity has steadily gone down in the past 35 years.

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Scientists have identified about 1.75 million different species. That includes 950,000 species of insects, 270,000 species of plants, 19,000 species of fish, 9,000 species of birds, and 4,000 species of mammals. This is only a small portion of the total number of species on Earth. There are millions more species yet to be discovered and named.

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Scientists have identified about 1.75 million different species. That includes 950,000 species of insects, 270,000 species of plants, 19,000 species of fish, 9,000 species of birds, and 4,000 species of mammals. This is only a small portion of the total number of species on Earth. There are millions more species yet to be discovered and named.

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The rate of extinction can be calculated from the presence or absence of higher animals and birds. Normal extinction rates for these animals are compared with current extinction rates.

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The rate of extinction can be calculated from the presence or absence of higher animals and birds. Normal extinction rates for these animals are compared with current extinction rates.

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Biodiversity is the term given to the variety of life on Earth. It is the variety within and between all species of plants, animals and micro-organisms and the ecosystems within which they live and interact.

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Extinction        Extinction is when a group of organisms fail to adapt to the environment and therefore cannot survive. This is a natural process.

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Extinction        Extinction is when a group of organisms fail to adapt to the environment and therefore cannot survive. This is a natural process.

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As the pH of rain falls (becomes more acidic) biodiversity decreases.

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Acid rain has devastating consequences for biodiversity as many plants and animal species cannot survive these conditions.

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Burning fossil fuels and sewage that is not treated cause biodiversity

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Burning fossil fuels and sewage that is not treated cause biodiversity

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Humans clearing away vast areas of natural forest for their own benefit. This can result in habitat destruction, a reduction in soil fertility and poor soil structure leading to a decrease in biodiversity.

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Humans clearing away vast areas of natural forest for their own benefit. This can result in habitat destruction, a reduction in soil fertility and poor soil structure leading to a decrease in biodiversity.

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The burning of fossil fuels leads to an increase in sulphur dioxide in the environment which makes acid rain.

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The burning of fossil fuels leads to an increase in sulphur dioxide in the environment which makes acid rain.

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Biodiversity is an important part of ecological services that make life livable on Earth.

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Biodiversity is the variety of life.  It can be studied on many levels.  At the highest level, you can look at all the different species on the entire Earth.  On a much smaller scale, you can study biodiversity within a pond ecosystem or a neighborhood park. Identifying and understanding the relationships between all the life on Earth are some of the greatest challenges in science.  

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Biodiversity is the variety of life.  It can be studied on many levels.  At the highest level, you can look at all the different species on the entire Earth.  On a much smaller scale, you can study biodiversity within a pond ecosystem or a neighborhood park. Identifying and understanding the relationships between all the life on Earth are some of the greatest challenges in science.  

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light intensity

soil moisture level

soil pH

temperature

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All of these threats have put a serious strain on the diversity of species on Earth.  According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), globally about one third of all known species are threatened with extinction. That includes 29% of all amphibians, 21% of all mammals and 12% of all birds.  If we do not stop the threats to biodiversity, we could be facing another mass extinction with dire consequences to the environment and human health and livelihood.

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Extinction is a natural part of life on Earth.  Over the history of the planet most of the species that ever existed, evolved and then gradually went extinct.  Species go extinct because of natural shifts in the environment that take place over long periods of time, such as ice ages.

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Researchers have estimated that there are between 3 - 30 million species on Earth, with a few studies predicting that there may be over 100 million species on Earth!  Currently, we have identified only 1.7 million species, so we have a long way to go before we can come close to figuring out how many species are on Earth!

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Human activities resulting in large areas of land covered by desert, which is a dry habitat for species leading to a decrease in biodiversity in these areas.

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Learn more about how we manage our woods

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Humans clearing away vast areas of natural forest for their own benefit.

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Biodiversity Facts. Biodiversity is the term used to describe the many different living things here on Earth. These living things include animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, and other living organisms. Biodiversity is often used to describe the total number of different species within an ecosystem.

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biodiversity shows how the human population affects the environment

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biodiversity shows how the human population affects the environment

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Biodiversity is the variety of life.  It can be studied on many levels.  At the highest level, you can look at all the different species on the entire Earth.  On a much smaller scale, you can study biodiversity within a pond ecosystem or a neighborhood park. Identifying and understanding the relationships between all the life on Earth are some of the greatest challenges in science. 

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Biodiversity is the variety of life.  It can be studied on many levels.  At the highest level, you can look at all the different species on the entire Earth.  On a much smaller scale, you can study biodiversity within a pond ecosystem or a neighborhood park. Identifying and understanding the relationships between all the life on Earth are some of the greatest challenges in science. 

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this is destroying species one by one and is harming wonderful, beautiful  animals. please help stop this crisis
donate here : george_p
add
worth the add
please help

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Habitat conversion and destruction;
Over-exploitation of species;

Disconnected patches of original vegetation;

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is bad for habitats and local environment

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the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable.

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Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.

Biodiversity forms the foundation of the vast array of ecosystem services that critically contribute to human well-being.

Biodiversity is important in human-managed as well as natural ecosystems.

Decisions humans make that influence biodiversity affect the well-being of themselves and others.

Biodiversity is the foundation of ecosystem services to which human well-being is intimately linked. No feature of Earth is more complex, dynamic, and varied than the layer of living organisms that occupy its surfaces and its seas, and no feature is experiencing more dramatic change at the hands of humans than this extraordinary, singularly unique feature of Earth. This layer of living organisms—the biosphere—through the collective metabolic activities of its innumerable plants, animals, and microbes physically and chemically unites the atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere into one environmental system within which millions of species, including humans, have thrived. Breathable air, potable water, fertile soils, productive lands, bountiful seas, the equitable climate of Earth’s recent history, and other ecosystem services (see Box 1.1 and Key Question 2) are manifestations of the workings of life. It follows that large-scale human influences over this biota have tremendous impacts on human well-being. It also follows that the nature of these impacts, good or bad, is within the power of humans to influence (CF2).

Defining Biodiversity

Biodiversity is defined as “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.” The importance of this definition is that it draws attention to the many dimensions of biodiversity. It explicitly recognizes that every biota can be characterized by its taxonomic, ecological, and genetic diversity and that the way these dimensions of diversity vary over space and time is a key feature of biodiversity. Thus only a multidimensional assessment of biodiversity can provide insights into the relationship between changes in biodiversity and changes in ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services (CF2).

Biodiversity includes all ecosystems—managed or unmanaged. Sometimes biodiversity is presumed to be a relevant feature of only unmanaged ecosystems, such as wildlands, nature preserves, or national parks. This is incorrect. Managed systems—be they plantations, farms, croplands, aquaculture sites, rangelands, or even urban parks and urban ecosystems—have their own biodiversity. Given that cultivated systems alone now account for more than 24% of Earth’s terrestrial surface, it is critical that any decision concerning biodiversity or ecosystem services address the maintenance of biodiversity in these largely anthropogenic systems (C26.1).

Measuring Biodiversity: Species Richness and Indicators

In spite of many tools and data sources, biodiversity remains difficult to quantify precisely. But precise answers are seldom needed to devise an effective understanding of where biodiversity is, how it is changing over space and time, the drivers responsible for such change, the consequences of such change for ecosystem services and human well-being, and the response options available.Ideally, to assess the conditions and trends of biodiversity either globally or sub-globally, it is necessary to measure the abundance of all organisms over space and time, using taxonomy (such as the number of species), functional traits (for example, the ecological type such as nitrogen-fixing plants like legumes versus non-nitrogen-fixing plants), and the interactions among species that affect their dynamics and function (predation, parasitism, competition, and facilitation such as pollination, for instance, and how strongly such interactions affect ecosystems). Even more important would be to estimate turnover of biodiversity, not just point estimates in space or time. Currently, it is not possible to do this with much accuracy because the data are lacking. Even for the taxonomic component of biodiversity, where information is the best, considerable uncertainty remains about the true extent and changes in taxonomic diversity (C4).

There are many measures of biodiversity; species richness (the number of species in a given area) represents a single but important metric that is valuable as the common currency of the diversity of life—but it must be integrated with other metrics to fully capture biodiversity. Because the multidimensionality of biodiversity poses formidable challenges to its measurement, a variety of surrogate or proxy measures are often used. These include the species richness of specific taxa, the number of distinct plant functional types (such as grasses, forbs, bushes, or trees), or the diversity of distinct gene sequences in a sample of microbial DNA taken from the soil. Species- or other taxon-based measures of biodiversity, however, rarely capture key attributes such as variability, function, quantity, and distribution—all of which provide insight into the roles of biodiversity. (See Box 1.2)

Ecological indicators are scientific constructs that use quantitative data to measure aspects of biodiversity, ecosystem condition, services, or drivers of change, but no single ecological indicator captures all the dimensions of biodiversity (C2.2.4). (See Box 1.3) Ecological indicators form a critical component of monitoring, assessment, and decision-making and are designed to communicate information quickly and easily to policy-makers. In a similar manner, economic indicators such as GDP are highly influential and well understood by decision-makers. Some environmental indicators, such as global mean temperature and atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, are becoming widely accepted as measures of anthropogenic effects on global climate. Ecological indicators are founded on much the same principles and therefore carry with them similar pros and cons (C2.2.4). (See Box 1.4)."

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the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable.