Biodiversity
The term
The term biological diversity was used first by wildlife scientist and conservationist Raymond F. Dasmann in 1968,[1] where he advocated conservation. It was widely adopted only in the 1980s.[2]
The term biodiversity first appeared in a publication in 1988 when entomologist E. O. Wilson used it as a title.[3][4] Since then, the term has often been used by biologists, environmentalists, political leaders, and citizens. A similar term in the United States is "natural heritage." It predates the others and is more accepted by the wider audience interested in conservation. Broader than biodiversity, it includes geology and landforms.
Definitions
Biologists most often define biodiversity as the "totality of genes, species, and ecosystems of a region".[5] An advantage of this definition is that it seems to describe most circumstances. There are three levels at which biological variety can been identified:
- species diversity
- ecosystem diversity
- genetic diversity.
Threats
The idea can be used for tackling practical problems in conservation, for example:
- loss of species
- destruction of habitats
- introduced and invasive species
- genetic pollution
- over-exploitation
- effect of climate change
Biodiversity Media
An example of the biodiversity of fungi in a forest in Northern Saskatchewan (in this photo, there are also leaf lichens and mosses).
Discovered and predicted total number of species on land and in the oceans
Mother and child at an orangutan rehab facility in Malaysia
Distribution of living terrestrial vertebrate species, highest concentration of diversity shown in red in equatorial regions, declining polewards (towards the blue end of the spectrum)
Apparent marine fossil diversity during the Phanerozoic
Summer field in Belgium (Hamois). The blue flowers are Centaurea cyanus and the red are Papaver rhoeas.
The diverse forest canopy on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, yielded this display of different fruit
Agriculture production, pictured is a tractor and a chaser bin
Eagle Creek, Oregon hiking
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References
- ↑ Dasmann R.F. 1968. A different kind of country. MacMillan, New York. ISBN 0-02-072810-7
- ↑ Soulé M.E. and B. A. Wilcox. 1980. Conservation biology: an evolutionary-ecological perspective. Sinauer. Sunderland, Massachusetts.
- ↑ Edward O.Wilson, editor, Frances M.Peter, associate editor 1988. Biodiversity, National Academies Press. ISBN 0-309-03783-2; ISBN 0-309-03739-5 online edition Archived 2006-09-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Global Biodiversity Assessment. UNEP, 1995, Annex 6, Glossary. ISBN 0-521-56481-6, used as source by "Biodiversity", Glossary of terms related to the CBD Archived 2011-09-10 at the Wayback Machine, Belgian Clearing-House Mechanism. Retrieved 2006-04-26.
- ↑ Tor-Björn Larsson (2001). Biodiversity evaluation tools for European forests. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 178. ISBN 978-87-16-16434-6. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
Related pages
Further reading
- Levin, Simon A. 2013. Encyclopedia of biodiversity. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-384719-5
- Wilson E.O. 2016. Half-Earth: our planet's fight for life. Liveright. ISBN 978-1631490828