Biodiversity ...........

BIODIVERSITY
BIODIVERSITY
Biodiversity
Defination –
Biodiversity is all the different kinds of life you’ll find in one area—the
variety of animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria
that make up our natural world.
Each of these species and organisms work together in ecosystems, like
an intricate web, to maintain balance and support life.
Biodiversity supports everything in nature that we need to survive:

food, clean water, medicine, and shelter.
Biodiversity is a complex term that includes not

only the variety of different animals (
species diversity) but also the difference between
animals of the same species (genetic diversity)
and between ecosystems (ecosystem diversity).
Genetic Diversity is the diversity of genetic
characteristics (expressed or recessive) within a
species (i.e. between individuals and populations of the
same species).
This component of biodiversity is important because it

allows populations to adapt to environmental changes
through the survival and reproduction of individuals
within a population that have particular genetic
characteristics that enable them to withstand these
changes.
The maintenance of high genetic diversity within

populations is therefore a conservation and
management priority as this provides the greatest
capacity for any population to adapt to a broad range
of environmental changes.
Conversely, failure to maintain genetic diversity limits

the capacity for a population to adapt, making it
vulnerable to even small changes in the environment
and increasing the likelihood of extinction.
Species Diversity
is simply the number and relative abundance of
species found in a given biological organisation
(population, ecosystem, Earth).
Species are the basic units of biological

classification and hence, this is the measure most
commonly associated with the term 'biodiversity'.
Worldwide, about 1.75 million different species

have been identified. However, many
environments and groups of organisms are not
well studied and estimates of species numbers
range from 3 to 100 million.
Diversity in species is important for economic,

biological, social and cultural reasons. Major
threats to species diversity are loss of habitat and
fragmentation, over exploitations (fishing,
hunting, extraction), pollution, the introduction of
invasive species (e.g Asian Green Mussels) and
global climate change. In order to conserve
species diversity, natural resource management
and habitat protection are vital.
Ecological diversity
It defines the diversity observed among the ecosystems in a particular

region. Different ecosystems like mangroves, rainforests, deserts, etc.,
show a great variety of life forms residing in them.
Value of Biodiversity
Consumptive Use Value.
Productive Use Value.
Social Value.
Ethical And Moral Value
Aesthetic Value
Option Value.
Consumptive Use Value
• A straightforward example is the direct utilization of

timber, food, fuel wood and fodder by local
communities.
• The biodiversity contained in the ecosystem provides
forest dwellers with all their daily needs, food, building
material, fodder, medicines and a variety of other
products.
• They are well-known about the qualities and different
uses of wood from different species of trees, and
collect
a large number of local fruits, roots and plant material
that they use as food, construction material or
medicines.
• Fisher folks are completely dependent on fish and
know
where and how to catch fish and other edible aquatic
animals and plants.
Productive use value
•This category comprises of marketable goods.
•The biotechnologist uses bio-rich areas to ‘prospect’ and search for potential genetic properties in plants or animals
that can be used to develop better varieties of crops .
•For the pharmacist, biological diversity is the raw material from which new drugs can be identified from plant or
animal products.
•For industrialists , biodiversity is a rich storehouse to develop new products.
•For the agricultural scientist, the biodiversity is the basis for developing better crops.
• Genetic diversity enables scientists and farmers to
selectively develop better crops and domestic animals
through careful breeding programs.
• New crop varieties (cultivars) are being developed
using the genetic material found in wild relatives
of crop plants through biotechnology.
• New species of plants and animals are being
constantly discovered in the wild. These wild
species are the building blocks for the
betterment of human life and their loss is a
great economic loss to mankind.
Social Use Value
• While traditional societies had valued and preserved their
biodiversity and its resources, modern man has depleted it
up to the extent leading to irrecoverable loss due to
extinction of several species.
• ‘Ecosystem people’ value biodiversity as a part of their

livelihood , as well as through cultural and religious
sentiments.
• A great variety of crops have been cultivated in traditional

agricultural system which spread widely and marketed
throughout and acted as insurance against the failure of one
crop(‘today’s ‘monoculture’ ).
• In recent years , farmers have begun to receive incentives to

grow cash crops for national/international markets, rather
than to supply local needs which resulted in local food
shortages, unemployment, landlessness, and increased
vulnerability to drought and floods.
Ethical and Moral Values
• Ethical values of biodiversity are based on the
importance of protecting all form of life .
• Most religious and secular creeds believe that all
form of life have the right to exist on Earth.
• Man is only a small part of the Earth’s great family of
species; plants and animals have an equal right to live and exist
on our planet.
• There are several cultural, moral and ethical values,
associated with the sanctity of all forms of life.
• Indian civilizations has, over several generations,
preserved nature through local traditions.
• We have in our country a large number of sacred
groves or ‘deorais’ preserved by tribal people in several States.
These sacred groves around ancient sacred sites and temples
act as gene banks for wild plants.

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BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity supports everything in nature that we need to survive:

Biodiversity is a complex term that includes not

This component of biodiversity is important because it

The maintenance of high genetic diversity within

Conversely, failure to maintain genetic diversity limits

Species are the basic units of biological

Worldwide, about 1.75 million different species

Diversity in species is important for economic,

It defines the diversity observed among the ecosystems in a particular

Consumptive Use Value.

Productive Use Value.

Ethical And Moral Value

• A straightforward example is the direct utilization of

• ‘Ecosystem people’ value biodiversity as a part of their

• A great variety of crops have been cultivated in traditional

• In recent years , farmers have begun to receive incentives to

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