Biodiversity and Conservation

Biodiversity

- It is a term that describes combined diversity at all levels of biological

organisation
- The term ‘biodiversity’ was popularised by sociobiologist Edward
Wilson
- Genetic Diversity:
● Single species showing high diversity at genetic level over its
distribution
● India has 50,000 strains of rice and 1,000 varieties of mango
● Rauwolfia vomitoria varies in the concentration of reserpine chemical
- Species Diversity:
● Diversity at species level/within same genus
● Western ghats have greater Amphibian species diversity than
eastern ghats of India
- Ecological Diversity:
● Diversity at ecosystem level
● India has more of this than a scandinavian country like Norway

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Species on Earth and in India

- As per International Union Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources (IUCN) 2004 report:
● Total number of plant and animal species is a bit more than 1.5 million
● As per living world the figure is between 1.7 and 1.8 million
- Species inventories are more complete in temperate regions than
in tropical regions for many taxonomic categories.
- There is high potential for new species to be found in the tropics
- Some scientist estimate the the number of species on earth to be
between 20 and 50 million
- As per Robert May, global species diversity is at about 7 million. Thus
only 22% has been found so far.
- Of the names species, > 70% are animals and of them > 70% are
insects
- Plants (includes fungi and algae) comprise no more than 22%
- Fungi has more species than all of the vertebrates (fishes,
amphibians, reptiles and mammals) combined

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 - Insects are the most species rich group making up more than 70%. Out
of every 10 animals, 7 of them are insects

Invertebrates Vertebrates
I indian F face
O originated B book par
M mango R
C candy A
M
Plants
A andy
I is
F fun (fungi)
A as
M mother

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F from (ferns)
L london
- Conventional taxonomic methods are not suitable for identifying
microbial species: Reasons:
1. Many species are not culturable in labs
2. On accepting the biochemical or molecular criteria of delineating
species for this group, then the diversity might run into millions

- Data pertaining to India:

1. India has 2.4 % of world's land area but its share in global species
diversity is at 8.1%
2. India is one of the 12 mega diversities of the world
3. India has nearly 45,000 plants species and 90,000 animal species
4. Thus, applying May’s estimates, there are about 1 lakh plants and 3
lakh animal species yet to discovered in India alone

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Patterns of Biodiversity

1. Latitudinal Gradients:
- Diversity is not uniform throughout the globe
- Species diversity decreases as we move away from equator towards
the poles
- Tropics (23.5 N to 23.5 S) bears more number of species than
temperate or polar regions
- Examples to remember:
1. Columbia (near equator) has 1400 bird species, India has 1200, New
York (41 N) has 105 and lastly Greenland has 56 bird species only
2. Tropical forest in a country like Ecuador has 10 times more species of
vascular plants than a temperate forest in the midwest of US
3. Amazon rainforest has the greatest biodiversity on earth

Reasons for tropics having higher biodiversity:

a. Speciation is a function of time. Tropics have had more evolutionary
time leading to species diversification
b. Tropics are less seasonal, more constant and predictable. Constant
environment promotes niche specialisation
c. Tropics have more solar energy which leads to higher productivity and
this indirectly contributes to greater biodiversity

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 2. Species- area relationship:
- German naturalist and geographer Alexander Von Humboldt
- Within a region, species richness increases with increasing explored
area but only up to a limit
𝑍
- It is a rectangular hyperbola ( 𝑆 = 𝐶 𝐴 )
- On a log scales it is a straight line with the following equation
LogS = logC + ZlogA
S = species richness
C = Y intercept
Z = slope
A = A rea

- More the value of Z, higher the slope and thus higher the area and
species richness.
- Steeper slopes imply higher species diversity.
- At small regions level, value of Z lies between 0.1 to 0.2
- Among large regions like continents, Z ranges from 0.6 to 1.2
- Example: fruit eating birds (frugivorous) and mammals across
continents have Z values of 1.1.5

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Stable Ecosystem

- There is no definitive answer for the question that number of species

matter for a stable ecosystem
- Features of stable community:
● High productivity and species diversity
● Not much variation in productivity per year
● Resistant to natural, man made disturbances and aliens pieces
invasion
● Resilient (ability to revive back)

- David Tilman’s Outdoor plot experiment:

● Plots with more species showed less year to year variation in biomass
● Increased biodiversity led to higher productivity

- Pual Ehrlich’s Analogy:

● In an aeroplane (stable ecosystem) all parts are joined by many rivets
(species)

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 ● If passengers start popping rivets (species extinction) may not initially
affect plane’s functioning but over time it becomes dangerous
● When certain key rivets like that on the wings are removed then the
plane would crash. Key rivets symbolise key species which are the
ones that drive major ecosystem functions

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Loss of Biodiversity
Negative Effect of loss of Biodiversity:
1. Decline in plant production
2. Less resistance to environmental changes
3. Increased variation in certain processes such as plant productivity,
water use, pest and disease cycles

Data
- Key factor is human activities
- Colonisation of tropical pacific islands has led to loss of 2000 bird
species
- As per IUCN Red list (2004), 784 (338 vertebrates, 359 invertebrates
and 87 plant) species have gone extinct in the last 500 years.
- In last 20 years, 27 species have gone extinct
- 15,500 species face threat to extinction globally (12% birds, 23%
mammals, 32% amphibians and 31% of gymnosperms)
- Dodo (Mauritius), quagga (africa), thylacine (Australia) , steller’s sea
cow (russia) and 3 subspecies of tigers (Bali, Javan and Caspian)
- Amphibians are more vulnerable to extinction than other groups

- Mass extinction have happened 5 times earlier in pre human times as

well
- The current 6th extinction is different in progress than the past
- The current rates of species extinction are about 100 to 1000 times
higher than the ones before humans existed
- Half of all (50%) species on earth may become extinct within 100 years

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Causes of Biodiversity Loss

- The Evil Quarter is the sobriquet used to describe them. It includes:

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 1. Habitat loss and fragmentation
- Most important factor leading to the most loss of diversity globally
- Examples:
a. Tropical rainforest once covered more than 14% of land area and now
only covers about 6%. Amazon rainforest is being cut for soya beans
and grasslands for beef cattle.
- Due to habitat fragmentation (large broken into small), migratory bird
are affected the most and so are the species needing large territories

2. Over exploitation
- Need turns into greed
- Over last 500 years, steller’s sea cow and passenger pigeon got
extinct due to over exploitation by humans

3. Alien species invasion

- An invasive alien species can cause a decline or extinction of
indigenous species
- Nile perch in lake victoria led to extinction of 200 species of cichlid fish
- Native weed species are harmed by invasive ones like carrot grass
(Parthenium), Lantana and water hyacinth (Eicchornia)
- African catfish Clarias gariepinus is threat to our indigenous catfishes

4. Co-extinctions:
- When one species becomes extinct, the other plant or animal species
associated with it in an obligatory way also becomes extinct
- Host fish dies then so will the parasite in it
- Plant pollinator mutualism
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Why Conserve Biodiversity

Narrowly Utilitarian
- These are obvious based on direct economic benefits humans get from
nature
- We get food, fibre, woods, etc and products of medicinal importance
from plants
- More than 25% of drugs in market are derived from plants and 25,000
plant species contribute to this purpose

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 - Bioprospecting is the exploration for genetic, molecular and species
level diversity for products of economic importance

Broadly Utilitarian
- Biodiversity plays a key role in many ecosystem services that nature
provides
- Amazon forest contributes to 20% of total Oxygen on earth
- Pollinators (which help plants in making fruits and seed) do it for free,
- Thus, nature also gives certain intangible benefits such aesthetic
pleasures

Ethical
- Philosophically or spiritually every species has an intrinsic value to it
- It is our moral duty to care for millions of plants and animal species on
earth.
- Passage of biological legacy to the next generation

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How to Conserve Biodiversity

In situ/On site Conservation

- 14 Biosphere reserves, 90 national parks, and 448 wildlife
sanctuaries
- Hotspot:
● Region of high biodiversity
● Endemism (species only found in that region)
● At high risk of extinction
● 34 hotspots across the globe
● India has 3 hotspots, western ghats with sri lanka, Indo-Burma,
Himalayas
● All hotspots together cover about 2% of land area but can reduce
species extinction rate by about 30%
- Sacred groves:
● In many cultures, certain forest tracts were set aside and protected

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 ● Khasi and jaintia hills in meghalaya, aravalli hills of rajasthan,
western ghats karnataka and maharashtra, surguja, chandar and
bastar areas of madhya pradesh

Ex situ/Off site Conservation

- Animals taken out of their habitat and placed in special settings
- Botanical gardens, zoological parks, wildlife safari parks, pollen
and see banks

Note: best way to conserve plant varieties is to grow them in their

natural habitat only

- The Earth Summit (1992) in Rio De Janeiro called upon nation to take
measures for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development

- The World Summit (2002) in Johannesburg where 190 countries

pledged to meet goals by 2010.
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