UNIT-2

ECOSYSTEMS

Concepts of Ecosystem

 The term Ecology was coined by Earnst Haeckel in 1869. It is derived from the
Greek words Oikos- home + logos- study.
 So ecology deals with the study of organisms in their natural home interacting
with their surroundings.
 An ecosystem is a group of biotic communities of species interacting with one
another and with their non-living environment exchanging energy and matter.
 Now ecology is often defined as "the study of ecosystems".
 The ecosystem is a unit or a system which is composed of a number of subunits
that are all directly or indirectly linked with each other.
 They may be freely exchanging energy and matter from outside—an open
ecosystem or may be isolated from outside—a closed ecosystem.

Structure of an ecosystem

The structure of an ecosystem explains the relationship between the abiotic

(nonliving) and the biotic (living) components.

1. Biotic Structure
a. The plants, animals and microorganisms present in an ecosystem from the
biotic component.
b. These organisms have different nutritional behaviour and status in the
ecosystems and are accordingly known as Producers or Consumers, based
on how they get their food.
2. Abiotic structure
a. The physical and chemical components of an ecosystem constitute its
abiotic structure.
b. It includes climatic factors, edaphic (soil) factors, geographical factors,
energy, nutrients and toxic substances.

Functional Attributes

Every ecosystem performs under natural conditions in a systematic way. It

receives energy from the sun and passes it on through various biotic components and in
facts, all life depends upon this flow of energy.

The major functional attributes of an ecosystem are as follows:

1) Food chain, food webs and trophic structure

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 2) Energy flow
3) Cycling of nutrients (Biogeochemical cycles)
4) Primary and Secondary production
5) Ecosystem development and regulation

Producers:

 Producers are mainly the green plants, which can synthesize their food themselves
by making use of carbon dioxide present in the air and water in the presence of
sunlight by involving chlorophyll, the green pigment present in the leaves,
through the process of photosynthesis.
 They are also known as photo Autotrophs (auto=self; troph=food, photo=light).
 There are some microorganisms also which can produce organic matter to some
extent through oxidation of certain chemicals in the absence of sunlight.
 They are known as chemosynthetic organisms or Chemo-Autotrophs.
 For instance in the ocean depths, where there is no sunlight, chemoautotrophic
sulphur bacteria make use of the heat generated by the decay of radioactive
elements present in the earth's core and released in ocean's depths.
 They use this heat to convert dissolved hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and carbon
dioxide (CO2) into organic compounds.

Consumers:

All organisms which get their organic food by feeding upon other organisms are
called consumers, which are of the following types.

i. Herbivores (plant eaters): They feed directly on producers and hence also
known as primary consumers. E.g. rabbit, insect, man.
ii. Carnivores (meat eaters): They feed other consumers. If they feed on herbivores
they are called secondary consumers (e.g. frog) and if they feed on the carnivores
(snake, big fish etc.) they are known as tertiary carnivores/consumers.
iii. Omnivores: They feed on both plants and animals. E.g. humans, rat, fox, many
birds.
iv. Detritivores (Detritus feeders or Saprotrophs): They feed on the parts of dead
organisms, wastes of living organisms, their castoffs and partially decomposed
matter e.g. beetles, termites, ants, crabs, earthworms etc.

Decomposers:

 Decomposers derive their nutrition by breaking down the complex organic

molecules to simpler organic compounds and ultimately into inorganic nutrients.
 Various bacteria and fungi are decomposers.
 In all the ecosystems, this biotic structure prevails.
 However, in some, it is the primary producers which predominate (e.g. in forests,
agro ecosystems) while in others the decomposers predominate (e.g. deep ocean).
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Food Chains

 The sequence of eating and being eaten in an ecosystem is known as food chain.
 All organisms, living or dead are potential food for some other organism and thus,
there is essentially no waste in the functioning of a natural ecosystem.
 A caterpillar eats a plant leaf, a sparrow eats the caterpillar, a cat or a hawk eats
the sparrow and when they all die, they are all consumed by microorganism like
bacteria or fungi (decomposers) which break down the organic matter and convert
it into simple inorganic substances that can again be used by the plants-the
primary producers.
 Some common examples of simple food chains are:
o Grass → grasshopper→ Frog → Snake →Hawk (Grassland
ecosystem)
o Phytoplankton’s → water fleas → small fish → Tuna (Pond
ecosystem)
o Lichens → reindeer → Man (Arctic tundra)
 Each organism in the ecosystem is assigned a feeding level or trophic level
depending on its nutritional status.
 Thus, in the grassland food chain, grasshopper occupies the 1st trophic level, frog
the 2nd and snake and hawk occupy the 3rd and the 4th trophic levels, respectively.

In nature, we come across two major types of food chains:

1. Grazing food chain: It starts with green plants (primary producers) and
culminates in carnivores. Example: Grass→ Rabbit→ Fox
2. Detritus food chain: It starts with dead organic matter which the Detritivores
and decomposers consume. Partially decomposed dead organic matter and even
the decomposers are consumed by Detritivores and their predators.
Examples: Leaf litter→ algae→ crabs→ small carnivorous fish→ large
carnivorous fish (Mangrove ecosystem)
Dead organic matter→ fungi→ bacteria (Forest ecosystem)

Both the food chains occur together in natural ecosystems, but grazing food chain
usually predominates.

Food Web

 Food web is a network of food chains where different types of organisms are
connected at different trophic level, so that there are a number of options of eating
and being eaten at each trophic level.
 In a tropical region, the ecosystems are much more complex.
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  They have rich species diversity and therefore, the food webs are much more
complex.
 Food webs give greater stability to the ecosystem.
 In a linear food chain, if one species becomes extinct or one species suffers then
the species in the subsequent trophic levels are also affected.
 In a food web, on the other hand, there are a number of options available at each
trophic level.
 So if one species is affected, it does not affect other trophic levels so seriously.

For Example: Hawk eats both mice and birds. Coyote eats mice, rabbits and birds.

Significance of food chains and food webs:

 Food chains and food webs play a very significant role in the ecosystem because
the two most important functions of energy flow and nutrient cycling take place
through them.
 They help maintain the ecological balance.
 Food chains show a unique property of biological magnification of some
chemicals.

Ecological Pyramids

Graphic representation of trophic structure and function of an ecosystem, starting

with producers at the base and successive trophic levels forming the apex is known as an
ecological pyramid.

Ecological pyramids are of three types:

I. Pyramid of numbers:
a. It represents the number of individual organisms at each trophic level.
b. We may have upright or inverted pyramid of numbers, depending upon the
type of ecosystem and food chain as shown in Fig.1
c. A grassland ecosystem (Fig. 1) and a pond ecosystem show an upright
pyramid of numbers.

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 d. The producers in the grasslands are grasses and that in a pond are
phytoplankton (algae etc.), which are small in size and very large in
number.
e. So the producers form a broad base.
f. The herbivores in grassland are insects while tertiary carnivores are hawks
or other birds which are gradually less and less in number and hence the
pyramid apex becomes gradually narrower forming an upright pyramid.

Fig: 1. Grassland ecosystem

II. Pyramid of biomass:

a. It is based upon the total biomass (dry matter) at each trophic level in a
food chain.
b. The pyramid of biomass can also be upright or inverted. Fig.2. show
pyramids of biomass in an aquatic ecosystem.
c. The pond ecosystem shows an inverted pyramid of biomass (Fig. 2).
d. The total biomass of producers (phytoplankton’s) is much less as
compared to herbivores (zooplanktons, insects), carnivores (Small fish)
and tertiary carnivores (big fish). Thus the pyramid takes an inverted
shape with narrow base and broad apex.

Fig: 2 Pyramid of biomass in pond

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 III. Pyramid of Energy:
a. The amount of energy present at each trophic level is considered for this
type of pyramid of energy gives the best representation of the tropic
relationships and it is always upright.
b. There is a sharp decline in energy level of each successive trophic level as
we move from producers to top carnivores. Therefore, the pyramid of
energy is always upright as shown in Fig.3.

Fig:3. Pyramid of energy

Energy Flow in an Ecosystem

Flow of energy in an ecosystem takes place through the food chain and it is this
energy flow which keeps the ecosystem going. The most important feature of this energy
flow is that it is unidirectional or one-way flow. Unlike the nutrients, (like carbon,
nitrogen, phosphorus etc.) energy is not reused in the food chain. Also, the flow of energy
follows the two laws of Thermodynamics:

1st law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor be
destroyed but it can be transferred from one form to another. The solar energy captured
by the green plants (producers) gets converted into biochemical energy of plants and later
into that of consumers.

2nd law of Thermodynamics states that energy dissipates as it is used or in other

words, it gets converted from a more concentrated to dispersed form. As energy flows
through the food chain, there occurs dissipation of energy at every trophic level.

Nutrient Flow in the Ecosystems

Carbon Cycle

Nitrogen Cycle

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Ecological Succession

Ecological succession is defined as an orderly process of changes in the

community structure and function with time mediated through modifications in the
physical environment and ultimately culminating in a stabilized ecosystem known as
climax.
Ecological successions starting on different types of areas or substrata are named
differently as follows:

(i) Hydrarch or Hydro sere: Starting in watery area like pond, swamp, bog
(ii) Mesarch: starting in an area of adequate moisture.
(iii) Xerarch or Xero sere: Starting in a dry area with little moisture. They can be
of the following types:
Litho sere : starting on a bare rock
Psammo sere : starting on sand
Halo sere : starting on saline soil
Process of Succession

The process of succession takes place in a systematic order of sequential steps as

follows:

i. Nudation: It is the development of a bare area, without any life form. The bare
area may be caused due to several anthropogenic activities.
ii. Invasion: It is the successful establishment of one or more species on a bare area
through dispersal or migration, followed by ecesis or establishment.
iii. Competition and coactions: As the number of individuals grows there is
competition, for space, water and nutrition. They influence each other in a number
of ways, known as coactions.
iv. Reaction: The living organisms have a strong influence on the environment
which is modified to a large extent and this is known as reaction.
v. Stabilization : The succession ultimately culminates in a more or less stable
community called climax which is in equilibrium with the environment

Let us consider very briefly two types of succession.

A. Hydro sere (Hydrarch): This type of succession starts in a water body like pond.
A number of intermediate stages come and ultimately it culminates in a climax
community which is a forest.
B. Xero sere (Xerarch): This type of succession originates on a bare rock, which
lacks water and organic matter. Interestingly, here also the climax community is a
forest, although the intermediate stages are very different.

Forest Ecosystem
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 Depending upon the climate conditions, forest may be classified as:

(a) Tropical Rain Forests: They are evergreen broadleaf forests found near the
equator. They are characterized by high temperature, high humidity and high
rainfall, all of which favor the growth of trees.
(b) Tropical deciduous forests: They are found a little away from the equator and
are characterized by a warm climate the year round. Rain occurs only during
monsoon.
(c) Tropical scrub forests: They are found in areas where the day season is even
longer.
(d) Temperate rain forests: They are found in temperate areas with adequate
rainfall. These are dominated by trees like pines, firs, redwoods etc.
(e) Temperate deciduous forests: They are found in areas with moderate
temperatures.
(f) Evergreen coniferous forests (Boreal Forests): They are found just south of
arctic tundra. Here winters are long, cold and dry. Sunlight is available for a few
hours only.

The abiotic environment of forest ecosystem includes the nutrients present in the
soil in forest floor which is usually rich in dead and decaying organic matter.

Producers: Producers are mainly big trees, some shrubs and ground vegetation.

Primary consumers: Primary consumers are insects like ants, flies, beetles, spiders, and
big animals like elephants, deer, squirrels etc.

Secondary consumers: Secondary consumers are carnivores like snakes, lizards, foxes,
birds etc.,

Tertiary consumers: Tertiary consumers are animals like tiger, lion etc.

Decomposers: Decomposers are bacteria fungi which are found in soil on the forest
floor. Rate of decomposition in tropical or sub-tropical forests is more rapid than that in
the temperate zones.

Grassland Ecosystem:
The grassland ecosystem occupies about 10% of the earth's surface. The abiotic
environment includes nutrient like nitrates, sulphates or phosphates and trace elements
present in the soil, gases, like CO2 present in the atmosphere and water etc.

Three types of grasslands are found to occur in different climatic regions:

(a) Tropical grasslands: They occur near the borders of tropical rain forests in
regions of high average temperature and low to moderate rainfall.

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 (b) Temperate grasslands: They are usually found on flat, gentle sloped hills,
winters are very cold but summers are hot and dry.
(c) Polar grass lands: they are found in arctic polar region where severe cold and
strong, frigid winds along with ice and snow create too harsh a climate for trees to
grow.

Producers: Producers are mainly grass and some herbs, shrubs, and few scattered trees.

Primary consumers: Primary consumers are grazing animals such as cow, sheep, deer,
house, kangaroo, etc. Some insects and spiders have also been included as primary
consumers.

Secondary consumers: Secondary consumers are animals like fox, jackals, snakes,
lizards, frogs and birds etc.

Tertiary consumers: Decomposers are bacteria, moulds and fungi, like Penicillium,
Aspergillus etc. The minerals and other nutrients are thus brought back to the soil and are
made available to the producers.
Flow chart: Food chain
Grass→ Grass hoper →Lizard
Grass → Rabbit→ Fox → Lion

Desert Ecosystem
 Desert occurs in the region where the average rainfall is less than 25 cm.
 The abiotic environment of a desert ecosystem includes water which is scarce.
 The atmosphere is very dry and hence it is a poor insulator.
 That is why in deserts the soil gets cooled up quickly, making the nights cool.

Desserts are of three major types, based on climatic conditions:

i. Tropical deserts like Sahara in Africa and Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India are the
driest of all with only a few species.
ii. Temperature deserts like Mojave in Southern California where day time
temperatures are very hot in summer but cool in winters.
iii. Cold deserts like Gobi desert in China have cold winters and warm summers.

Producers: the chief producers are shrubs, bushes and some trees whose roots are very
extensive and stems and leaves are modified to store water and to reduce loss of water as
a result of transpiration. Low plants such as mosses and blue green algae are minor
producers.

Primary consumers: Primary consumers are animals like rabbits which get water from
succulent plants. They do not drink water even if it is freely available. Camel is also a
primary consumer of the desert.

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Secondary consumers: Secondary consumers are carnivores like reptiles having
impervious skin which minimize loss water from the surface of body.

Tertiary consumers: The tertiary consumers are mainly birds which conserve water by
excreting solid uric acid.

Decomposers: Decomposers are bacteria and fungi which can thrive in hot climate
conditions. Because of scarcity of flora and fauna, the dead organic matter available is
much less and therefore decomposers are also less in number.
Flow Chart: Food chain

Shrub→ Rabbits→ Reptiles→ Birds

Aquatic ecosystems
Aquatic ecosystems dealing with water bodies and the biotic communities present
in them are either freshwater or marine. Let us consider some important aquatic
ecosystems.

(i) Lake ecosystems:

a. Lakes are usually big freshwater bodies with standing water.
b. They have shallow water zone called Littoral zone, an open-water zone
called Limnetic zone and deep bottom area where light penetration is
negligible, known as profundal zone (Fig.4).

Fig: 4 Zonation in a lake ecosystem

Organisms: Lakes have several types of organisms:

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 (i) Planktons that float on the surface of waters e.g. phytoplankton’s like algae and
zooplanktons like rotifers.
(ii) Nektons that swim e.g. fishes.
(iii) Neustons that rest or swim on the surface.
(iv) Benthos that is attached to bottom sediments e.g. snails.
(v) Periphytons that are attached or clinging to other plants or any other surface
e.g. crustaceans.

Stratification:
The lakes show stratification or zonation based on temperature differences.
During summer, the top waters become warmer than the bottom waters. Therefore, only
the warm top layer circulates without mixing with the colder layer, thus forming a
distinct zonation:

Epyilimnion: Warm, lighter, circulating surface layer.

Hypolimnion: Cold, viscous, non-circulating bottom layer

Types of lakes:

(a) Oligotrophic lakes which have low nutrient concentrations.

(b) Eutrophic lakes which are over nourished by nutrients like nitrogen and
phosphorus, usually as a result of agricultural run-off or municipal sewage
discharge. They are covered with "algal blooms" e.g. Dal lake.
(c) Dystrophic lakes that have low pH, high humic acid content and brown waters
e.g. bog lakes.
(d) Endemic lakes that are very ancient, deep and have endemic fauna which are
restricted only to that lake e.g. the Lake Baikal in Russia.
(e) Artificial lakes or impoundments that are created due to construction of dams
e.g. Govindsagar Lake at Bhakra-Nangal.

(v) Oceans:

 These are gigantic reservoirs of water covering more than 70% of our earth's
surface and play a key role in the survival of about 2,50,000 marine species,
serving as food for humans and other organisms, give a huge variety of sea-
products and drugs.
 Oceans provide us iron, phosphorus, magnesium, oil, natural gas, sand and gravel.
 Oceans are the major sinks of carbon dioxide and play an important role in
regulating many biogeochemical cycles and hydrological cycle, thereby
regulating the earth's climate.

The oceans have two major life zones: (Fig: 5)

Coastal zone: It is relatively warm, nutrient rich shallow water. Due to high nutrients and
ample sunlight this is the zone of high primary productivity.
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Open sea: It is the deeper part of the ocean, away from the continental shelf. It is
vertically divided into three regions:
 Euphotic zone which receives abundant light and shows high photosynthetic
activity.
 Bathyal zone receives dim light and is usually geologically active.
 Abyssal zone is the dark zone, 2000 to 5000 meters deep. The abyssal zone has
no primary source of energy i.e. solar energy. It is the world's largest ecological
unit but it is an incomplete ecosystem.

BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION

Introduction to Biodiversity

Definition

Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability among all groups of living
organisms and the ecosystem complexes in which they occur.
In the convention of Biological diversity (1992) biodiversity has been 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 a
part.

Genetic diversity

 Genetic Diversity is the basic source of biodiversity.

 The genes found in organisms can form enormous number of combinations each
of which gives rise to some variability.
 Genes are the basic units of hereditary information transmitted from one
generation to other.
 When the genes within the same species show different versions due to new
combinations, it is called genetic variability.
 For example, all rice varieties belong to the species oryza sativa, but there are
thousands of wild and cultivated verities of rice which show variations at the
genetic level and differ in their color, size, shape, aroma and nutrient content of
the grain. This is the genetic diversity of rice

Species diversity
 Species Diversity is the variability found within the population of a species or
between different species of a community.
 It represents broadly the species richness and their abundance in a community.
 There are two popular indices of measuring species diversity known as Shannon-
wiener index and Simpson index.

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What is the number of species in this biosphere?

 The estimates of actual number vary widely due to incomplete and indirect data.
 The current estimates given by Wilson in 1992 put the total number of living
species in a range of 10 million to 50 million.
 Till now only about 1.5 million living and 300,000 fossil species have been
actually described and given scientific names.

Ecosystem diversity
 Ecosystem diversity is the diversity of ecological complexity showing variations
in trophic structure, food-webs, nutrient cycling etc.
 The ecosystems also show variations with respect to physical parameters like
moisture, temperature, altitude, precipitation etc.
 The ecosystem diversity is of great value that must be kept intact.
 This diversity has developed over millions of years of evolution.
 If we destroy this diversity, it would disrupt the ecological balance.
 We cannot even replace the diversity of one ecosystem by that of another.
 Coniferous trees of boreal forests cannot take up the function of the trees of
tropical deciduous forest lands and vice versa.

Biogeographical classification of India:

Biogeography comprising of phytogeography and zoogeography deals with the
aspects of plants and animals. There are around ten biogeographic regions in India.
S.No Biogeographic Zone Biotic province Total area
(sq.km.)
1 Trans-Himalayan Upper Regions 186200
2 Himalayan North-West Himalayas 6900
West Himalayas 720000
central Himalayas 123000
East Himalayas 83000
3 Desert Kutch 45000
Thar 180000
Ladakh NA
4 Semi-Arid Central India 107600
Gujarat-Rajwara 400400
5 Western Ghats Malabar Coast 59700
Western Ghat Mountains 99300
6 Deccan Peninsula Deccan Plateau South 378000
Central Plateau 341000
Eastern Plateau 198000
Chotta Nagpur 217000
Central Highlands 287000
7 Gangetic Plain Upper Gangetic Plain 206400
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 Lower Gangetic Plain 153000
8 North-East India Brahmaputra Valley 65200
North-Eastern Hills 106200
9 Islands Andaman Islands 6397
Nicobar Islands 1930
Lakshadweep Islands 180
10 Coast West Coast 6500
East Coast 6500

Value of biodiversity
The value of biodiversity in terms of its commercial utility, ecological services,
social and aesthetic value is enormous. The multiple uses of biodiversity value have been
classified by McNeely et al in 1990 as follows:

(i) Consumptive use value: these are direct use values where the biodiversity
product can be harvested and consumed directly e.g. fuel, food, drugs, fibre
etc.
a. Food: A large number of wild plants are consumed by human beings as
food. About 80,000 edible plant species have been reported from wild.
About 90% of present day food crops have been domesticated from wild
tropical plants. A large number of wild animals are also our sources of
food.
b. Drugs and medicines:
i. About 75% of the world's population depends upon plants or plant
extracts for medicines.
ii. The wonder drug penicillin used as an antibiotic is derived from a
fungus called penicillium.
iii. Likewise, we get Tetracycline from a bacterium. Quinine, the cure
for malaria is obtained from the bark of Cinchona tree, while
Digitalis is obtained from foxglove which is an effective cure for
heart ailments.
iv. Recently vinblastin and vincristine, two anticancer drugs, have
been obtained from periwinkle plant, which possesses anticancer
alkaloids.

Our forests have been used since ages for fuel wood. The fossil fuels coal, petroleum
and natural gas are also products of fossilized biodiversity.

(ii) Productive use values:

a. These are the commercially usable values where the product is marketed
and sold.
b. These may include the animal products like tusks of elephants, musk from
musk deer, silk from silk-worm, wool from sheep, and lac from lac insects
etc, all of which are traded in the market.

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 c. Many industries are dependent upon the productive use values of
biodiversity e.g. –the paper and pulp industry, plywood industry, railway
sleeper industry, silk industry, ivory-works, leather industry, pearl industry
etc.

(iii) Social value:

a. These are the values associated with the social life, customs, and religion
of the people.
b. Many of the plants are considered holy and sacred in our country like
Tulsi, peepal, Mango, and Lotus etc.
c. The leaves, fruits or flowers of these plants are used in worship or the
plant itself is worshipped.
d. Many animals like Cow, Snake, and Peacock also have significant place in
our psycho-spiritual arena.

(iv) Ethical value:

a. It is also sometimes known as existence value. It involves ethical issues
like "all life must be preserved".
b. The ethical value means that we may or may not use a species, but
knowing the very fact that this species exists in nature gives us pleasure.
c. We are not deriving anything direct from Kangaroo, Zebra or Giraffe, but
we all strongly feel that these species should exist in nature.

(v) Aesthetic value:

a. No one of us would like to visit vast stretches of barren lands with no
signs of visible life.
b. People from far and wide spend a lot of time and money to visit
wilderness areas where they can enjoy the aesthetic value of biodiversity
and this type of tourism is now known as eco-tourism.
c. Ecotourism is estimated to generate about 12 billion dollars of revenue
annually.

(vi) Option values:

a. These values include the potentials of biodiversity that are presently
unknown and need to be explored.
b. There is a possibility that we may have some potential cure for AIDS or
cancer existing within the depths of a marine ecosystem, or a tropical rain
forest.
c. Thus option value is the value of knowing that there are biological
resources existing on this biosphere that may one day prove to be an
effective option for something important in the future.

(vii) Ecosystem service value:

a. It refers to the services provided by ecosystems like prevention of soil
erosion, prevention of floods, maintenance of soil fertility, cycling of
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 nutrients, prevention floods, cycling of water, their role as carbon sinks,
pollutant absorption and reduction of the threat of global warming etc.

Global Biodiversity
 Following the 1992 “Earth summit” at Rio de Janeiro, it become evident that there
is a growing need to know and scientifically name, the huge number of species
which are still unknown on this earth.
 Tropical deforestation alone is reducing the biodiversity by half a percentage
every year.
 Terrestrial biodiversity of the earth is best described as biomes, which are the
largest ecological units present in different geographic areas and are named after
the dominant vegetation e.g. the tropical rainforests, tall grass prairies, savannas,
desert, tundra etc.
 Out of the 3000 plants identified by National Cancer Research Institute as sources
of cancer fighting chemicals, 70% come from tropical rain forests.
 There is an estimated 1, 25, 000 flowering plant species in tropical forests.
 However, till now we know only 1-3% of these species.
 Temperature forests have much less biodiversity, but there is much better
documentation of the species. Globally, we have roughly 1, 70, 000 flowering
plants, 30,000 vertebrates and about 2, 50, 000 other groups of species that have
been described.
 Table 1 shows the estimated number of some known living species in different
taxonomic groups:

Table: 1 Living species estimates (World Resource Institute, 1999)

Taxonomic group Number
Bacteria & Cyanobacteria 5,000
Protozoan’s 31,000
Algae 27,000
Jelly fish, Corals etc. 10,000
Amphibians 4,000
Reptiles 5,000
Birds 9,000
Mammals 4,000

Biological diversity at National Level

 Every country is characterized by its own biodiversity depending mainly on its
climate.
 India has a rich biological diversity of flora and fauna. Overall six percent of the
global species are found in India.
 It is estimated that India ranks 10th among the plant rich countries of the world,
11th in terms of number of endemic species of higher vertebrates and 6th among
the centers of diversity and origin of agricultural crops.
 The total number of living species identified in our country is 1, 50, 000.
 Out of a total 25 biodiversity hot-spots in the world, India possesses two.
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  India is also one of the 12 mega-biodiversity countries in the world.

Regional or local biodiversity

Biodiversity at regional level is better understood by categorizing species richness
into four types, based upon their spatial distribution as discussed below:

(i) Point richness refers to the number of species that can be found at a single
point in a given space.
(ii) Alpha () richness refers to the number of species found in a small
homogenous area.
(iii) Beta () richness refers to the rate of change in species composition across
different habitats.
(iv) Gamma () richness refers to the rate of change across large landscape
gradients.

- Richness is strongly correlated with physical environmental variables. -

Richness means that the cumulative number of species increases as more heterogonous
habitats are taken into consideration.

India as mega diversity nation

India is one of the 12 mega diversity countries in the world. The Ministry of
Environment and forests, Govt. of India (2000) records 47,000 species of plants and
81,000 species of animals which is about 7% and 6.5% respectively of global flora and
fauna

Endemism: Species, which are restricted only to a particular area, are known as
endemic. India shows a good number of endemic species.

Center of origin: A large number of species are known to have originated in India.
Nearly 5000 species of flowering plants had their origin in India.

Marine diversity: Along 7500 km long coastline of our country in the mangroves,
estuaries, coral reefs, back waters etc. there exists a rich biodiversity. More than 340
species of corals of the world are found here.

A large proportion of the Indian Biodiversity is still unexplored. There are about 93
major wet lands, coral reefs and mangroves which need to be studied in detail.

Hot spots of biodiversity

 Areas, which exhibit high species richness as well as high species endemism, are
termed as hot spots of biodiversity.
 The term was introduced by Myers (1988).
 There are 34 such hot spots of biodiversity on a global level out of which two are
present in India, namely the Eastern Himalayas and Western Ghats.

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  These hot spots covering less than 2% of the world’s land are found to have about
50% of the terrestrial biodiversity.
 About 40% of terrestrial plants and 25% of vertebrate species are endemic and
found in these hotspots.
 After the tropical rain forests, the second highest number of endemic plant species
is found in the Mediterranean.
 Earlier 12 hot spots were identified on a global level.
 Later Myers et al (2000) recognized 25 hot spots.
 Two of these hotspots lie in India extending into neighboring countries namely,
Indo-Burma region (covering Eastern Himalayas) and Western Ghats – Sri Lanka
region.
 The Indian hot spots are not only rich in floral wealth and endemic species of
plants but also reptiles, amphibians, swallow tailed butterflies and some
mammals.

(a) Eastern Himalayas:

a. They display an ultra-varied topography that fosters species diversity
and endemism.
b. Certain species like Sapria himalayana, a parasitic angiosperm was
sighted only twice in this region in the last 70 years.
c. Out of the world’s recorded flora 30% are endemic to India of which
35,000 are in the Himalayas.

(b) Western Ghats:

a. It extends along a 17,000 Km2 strip of forests in Maharashtra,
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and has 40% of the total endemic
plant species.
b. 62% amphibians and 50% lizards are endemic to Western Ghats.
c. The major centers of diversity are Agastyamalai Hills and Silent
Valley-_the New Amambalam Reserve Basin.
d. It is reported that only 6.8% of the original forests are existing today
while the rest has been deforested or degraded.
e. Although the hotspots are characterized by endemism, interestingly, a
few species are common to both the hotspots in India.

Threats to Biodiversity
 Extinction or elimination of a species is a natural process of evolution.
 In the geologic period the earth has experienced mass extinctions.
 During evolution, species have died out and have been replaced by others.
 The process of extinction has become particularly fast in the recent years of
human civilization.
 One of the estimates by the noted ecologist, E.O. Wilson puts the figure of
extinction at 10,000 species per year or 27 per day! This starling figure raises an
alarm regarding the serious threat to biodiversity.

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Let us consider some of the major causes and issues related to threats to biodiversity.

(i) Loss of Habitat

 Destruction and loss of natural habitat is the single largest cause of biodiversity
loss. Billions of hectares of forests and grasslands have been cleared over the past
10,000 years for conversion into agriculture lands, pastures, settlement areas or
development projects.
 There has been a rapid disappearance of tropical forests in our country also, at a
rate of about 0.6% per year.
 With the current rate of loss of forest habitat, it is estimated that 20-25% of the
global flora would be lost within a few years.
 Marine biodiversity is also under serious threat due to large scale destruction of
the fragile breeding and feeding grounds of our oceanic fish and other species, as
a result of human intervention.

(ii) Poaching
 Illegal trade of wildlife products by killing prohibited endangered animals i.e.
poaching is another threat to wildlife.
 Despite international ban on trade in products from endangered species,
smuggling of wild life items like furs, hides, horns, tusks, live specimens and
herbal products worth millions of dollars per year continues.
 The cost of elephant tusks can go up to $100 per kg; the leopard fur coat is sold at
$ 100,000 in Japan while bird catchers can fetch up to $ 10,000 for a rare hyacinth
macaw, a beautiful colored bird, from Brazil.

(iii) Man-Wildlife conflict

 Instances of man animal conflicts keep on coming to lime light from several states
in our country.
 In Sambalpur, Orissa 195 humans were killed in the last 5 years by elephants.
 In retaliation the villagers killed 98 elephants and badly injured 30 elephants.
 Several instances of killing of elephants in the border regions of Kote-
Chamarajanagar belt in Mysore have been reported recently.
 The man-elephant conflict in this region has arisen because of the massive
damage done by the elephants to the farmer’s cotton and sugarcane crops.
 The agonized villagers electrocute the elephants and sometimes hide explosives in
the sugarcane fields, which explode as the elephants intrude into their fields.
 In the early 2004, a man-eating tiger was reported to kill 16 Nepalese people and
one 4-year old child inside the Royal Chit wan National Park of Kathmandu.
 In June, 2004 two men were killed by the leopards in Powai, Mumbai.

Cause of Man-animal conflicts:

(i) Dwindling habitats of tigers, elephants and bears due to shrinking forest cover
compels them to move outside the forest and attack the field or sometimes
even humans.

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 (ii) Usually the ill, weak and injured animals have tendency to attack man. Also,
the female tigress attacks the human if she feels that her newborn cubs are in
danger. But the biggest problem is that if human-flesh is tasted once then the
tiger does not eat any other animal.
(iii) Earlier, forest departments used to cultivate paddy, sugarcane etc. within the
sanctuaries when the favorite staple food of elephants i.e. bamboo leaves were
not available. Now due to lack of such practices the animals move out of the
forest in search of food.
(iv) Very often the villagers put electric wiring around their ripe crop fields. The
elephants get injured, suffer in pain and turn violent.
(v) The cash compensation paid by the government in lieu of the damage caused
to the farmer’s crop is not enough. The agonized farmer therefore gets
revengeful and kills the wild animals.

Remedial Measures to Curb the Conflict:

(i) Tiger Conservation Project (TCP) has made provisions for making available
vehicles, tranquillizer guns, and binoculars to tactfully deal with any imminent
danger.
(ii) Adequate crop compensation and cattle compensation scheme must be started.
(iii) Solar powered fencing should be provided along with electric current proof
trenches to prevent the animals from straying fields.
(iv) Cropping pattern should be changed near forest borders and adequate fruits
and water should be made available for the elephants within forest zones.
(v) Wild life corridors should be provided for mass migration of big animals
during unfavorable periods.

Endangered species of India

 The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
(IUCN) publishes the Red Data Book which includes the list of endangered
species of plants and animals.
 The red data symbolizes the warning signal for those species which are
endangered and if not protected are likely to become extinct in near future.
 In India, nearly 450 plant species have been identified in the categories of
endangered, threatened or rare.
 Existence of about 150 mammals and 150 species of birds is estimated to be
threatened while an unknown number of species of insects are endangered.

A few species of endangered reptiles, birds, mammals and plants are given below:
o Reptiles: Green sea turtle, tortoise, python
o Birds: Great Indian bustard, Peacock, Pelican, Great Indian Hornbill,
Siberian
o Carnivorous Mammals: Indian wolf, red fox, red panda, tiger, leopard,
Indian, lion, golden cat, desert cat
o Primates: Hoolock gibbon, capped monkey, golden monkey

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 o Plants: A large number of species of orchids, Rhododendrons, medicinal
plants like Rauvolfia serpentina, the sandal, wood tree santalum, cycas
beddonei etc
.
The Zoological Survey of India reported that Cheetah, Pink headed duck and
mountain quail have already become extinct from India.
 A species is said to e extinct when it is not seen in the wild for 50 years at a
stretch e.g. Dodo, Passenger pigeon.
 A species is said to be endangered when its number has been reduced to a critical
level. If such a species is not protected and conserved, it is in immediate danger of
extinction.
 A species is said to be in vulnerable category if its population is facing continuous
decline due to overexploitation or habitat destruction.
 Species which are not endangered or vulnerable at present, but are at a risk are
categorized as rare species.

Endemic species:
 The species are only found among a particular people or in a particular region are
knows as endemic species.
 Out of about 47, 00 species of plants in our country 7000 are endemic.
 Some of the important endemic flora includes orchids and species like Sapria
himalayana, Uvaria lureda, Nepenthes khasiana etc.
 A large number out of total of 81,000 species of animals in our country is
endemic.
 The Western Ghats are particularly rich in amphibians and reptiles.
 About 62%amphiians and 50% lizards are endemic to Western Ghats.
 Different species of monitor lizard, reticulated python are some important
endemic species of our country.

Conservation of Biodiversity
The enormous value of biodiversity due to their genetic, commercial, medical,
esthetic, ecological and optional importance emphasizes the need to conserve
biodiversity.

There are two approaches of biodiversity conservation:

(a) In situ conservation (within habitat): This is achieved by protection of wild flora
and fauna in nature itself. E.g. Biosphere Reserves, National Parks, Sanctuaries, Reserve
Forests etc
(b) Ex situ conservation (outside habitats): This is done by establishment of gene
banks, seed banks, zoos, botanical gardens, culture collections etc.

In Situ conservation:
At present in our country we have:
 7 major Biosphere reserves,
 80 National Parks,
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  420 wild-life sanctuaries and
 120 Botanical gardens
 They totally cover 4% of the geographic area.

The Biosphere Reserves conserve some representative ecosystems as a whole for

long-term in situ conservation. In India we have:
 Nanda Devi (U.P.),
 Nokrek (Meghalaya),
 Manas (Assam),
 Sunderbans (West Bengal),
 Gulf of Mannar (Tamil Nadu),
 Nilgiri (Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu),
 Great Nicobars and Similipal (Orrisa)

A National Park is an area dedicated for the conservation of wildlife along with
its environment. It is also meant for enjoyment through tourism but without impairing
the environment. Grazing of domestic animals, all private rights and forestry activities
are prohibited within a National Park. Each National Park usually aims at conservation
specifically of some particular species of wildlife along with others.

Some major National Parks of our country are enlisted in the Table 2 below:
Table: 2. Some important National parks in India

Name of National Park State Important Wildlife

Kaziranga Assam One horned Rhino

Gir National Park Gujarat Indian Lion
Bandipur Karnataka Elephant
Periyar Kerala Elephant, Tiger
Sariska Rajasthan Tiger

Wildlife sanctuaries are also protected areas where killing, hunting, shooting or
capturing of wildlife is prohibited except under the control of highest authority. Some
major wildlife sanctuaries of our country are shown in table 3.

Table 3 Some Important Wildlife Sanctuaries of India

Name of Sanctuary State Major Wild Life

Ghana Bird Sanctuary Rajasthan 3oo species of birds

(including migratory)
Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary Haryana Migratory birds
Mudamalai Wildlife Tamil Nadu Tiger, elephant, Leopard
Sanctuary
Vedanthangal Bird Tamil Nadu Water birds
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 Sanctuary
Wild Ass Sanctuary Gujarat Wild ass, wolf, nilgai,
chinkara

For plants, there is one gene sanctuary for Citrus (Lemon family) and one for
pitcher plant (an insect eating plant) in Northeast India.

Ex Situ Conservation:
This type of conservation is mainly done for conservation of crop varieties. In India, we
have the following important gene bank/seed bank facilities:

(i) National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) is located in New

Delhi. Here agricultural and horticultural crops and their wild relatives are
preserved by cryo-preservation of seeds, pollen etc. by using liquid
nitrogen at a temperature as low as – 196 degree Celsious. Varieties of
rice, turnip, radish, tomato, onion, carrot, chilli, tobacco etc. have been
preserved successfully in liquid nitrogen for several years without losing
seed viability.
(ii) National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR) located at
Karnal, Haryana. It preserves the semen of domesticated bovine animals.
(iii) National Facility for Plant Tissue Culture Repository (NFPTCR) for the
development of a facility of conservation of varieties of crop plants/trees
by tissue culture. This facility has been created within the NBPGR.

For the protection and conservation of certain animals, there have been
specific projects in our country e.g. Project Tiger, Girl Lion Project, Crocodile
Breeding Project, Project Elephant, Snow Leopard Project etc.

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