Biodiversity and Conservation

 Biodiversity: the term biodiversity refers to the totality of genes, species, and
ecosystems of a region. Types of biodiversity described by Edward Wilson:
 The most important forms of biodiversity are:
(a) Genetic diversity (diversity at the genetic level)
(b) Species diversity (diversity at the species level)
(c) Ecological diversity (diversity at the ecosystem level)
Genetic diversity: A single species might show high diversity at the genetic level over
its distributional range.
1.Medicinal plant Rauwolfia vomitoria of Himalayan range produces active
chemical reserpine shows genetic variation.
2.India has more than 50000 different strain of rice.
3.1000 varieties of mango.
Species diversity: Example Western Ghats have greater amphibian species diversity than
the Eastern Ghats.
Ecological diversity: diversity in the ecosystem level like desert, rain forest, mangroves,
coral reef, wetlands, estuaries etc.
How many species are there on Earth and How many in India?
 According to IUCN (2004), 1.5 million of plants and animals are in our
biosphere.
 Robert May places global species diversity at about 7 millions.
 More than 70 percent of all the species recorded are animals.
 All plants constitute about 22 percent.
 Among animals insects constitute 70 percent.
 India has only 2.4 percent of the world’s land area; its share of global species
diversity is impressive 8.1 percent.
 India is considered one of the mega diversity countries of the world.

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Pattern of Biodiversity
Latitudinal gradients:
Species diversity decreases as we move away from the equator towards the pole.
 Tropic (23.5o N to 23.5o S) harbors more species than temperate and pole
 The largely tropical Amazonian rain forest in South America has the greatest
biodiversity on earth:
Why tropical rain forest has greater biodiversity:
 Unlike temperate regions subjected to frequent glaciations in the past, tropical
latitudes have remained relatively undisturbed for millions of years and thus, had
a long evolutionary time for species diversification.
 Tropical environments. Unlike temperate ones, are less seasonal, relatively more
constant and predictable, promotes niche specialization and lead to greater species
diversity.
 There is more solar energy available in the tropics, which contribute to higher
productivity.
Species area relationship

 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT observed within a region species richness

increased with increasing explored area but only up to a limit.
 The relation between species richness and area for a wide variety of taxa turns out
to be a rectangular hyperbola.
 On a logarithmic scale the relationship is a straight line describe by the
equation
LogS = logC +Z log A
Where S= species richness,
A = Area,
Z = slope of the line (regression coefficient),
C =Y- intercept
Value of Z is found to lie in the range of 0.1 to 0.2 for comparatively smaller areas
such as countries while for very large areas such as entire continents, the slope of the
line is much steeper with Z value lying from 0.6 to 1.2.

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Importance of species diversity to the Ecosystem:
 Community with more species generally tends to be more stable than those with
less species.
 A stable community should not show too much variation in productivity from
year to year; it must be resistant or resilient to occasional disturbances (natural or
man- made)
 Stable community must be resistant to invasion by alien species.
Rivet Poper Hypothesis: given by Paul Ehrlich
In an airplane (ecosystem) all parts are joined together using thousands of rivets
(species). If every passenger travelling in it starts popping a rivet to take home (causing a
species to become extinct), it may not affect flight safety (proper functioning of the
ecosystem) initially, but as more and more rivets are removed, the plane becomes
dangerously weak over a period of time. Furthermore, which rivet is removed may also
be critical. Loss of rivets on the wings (key species that drive major ecosystem functions)
is obviously a more serious threat to flight safety than loss of a few rivets on the seats or
windows inside the plane
David Tillman’s long-term field experiment finds that:
 Plots with more species showed less year to year variation in biomass
 Increased diversity contributed to higher productivity.
Loss of Biodiversity:
The IUCN Red List (2004) documents the extinction of 784 species.
 Recent extinction includes:
 Dodo (Mauritius).
 Quake (Africa)
 Thylacine (Australia)
 Stiller’s cow (Russia)
 Three subspecies of tiger (Bali, Java, Caspian).
 Since the origin and diversification of life on earth there were five episodes of
mass extinction of species.
 The sixth mass Extinctions in progress now.
How the’ sixth Extinction’ is different from the previous five extinctions.

 The current extinction rate is 100 to 1000 times faster.

 All others are pre-human period, this one is anthropogenic.
Effect of biodiversity loss:
 Decline in plant production.
 Lowered resistance to environmental perturbations such as drought.
 Increased variability in certain ecosystem processes such as plant productivity,
water use, and pest and disease cycle.

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Causes of biodiversity loss:
 The present loss is all due to human activity (anthropogenic)
 There are four major causes “The Evil Quartet” are as follows:
1. Habitat loss and fragmentation
2. Over-exploitation:
3. Alien species invasion:
4. Co-extinction:
1. Habitat loss and fragmentation:
 Most important cause driving animals and plants to extinct.
 The tropical rain forest reduced to 6 % from 14 % of earth land surface.
 The Amazonian rain forest is called as ‘lungs of the planet is being cut cleared
for cultivating soya beans.
 Degradation of many habitat by pollution is also threatens the loss of diversity.
 Large areas are broken into figments also the cause of diversity loss.
2. Over-exploitation:
 When need turns to greed it leads to over- exploitation of natural resources.
 Many species extinctions in the last 500 years Stillers cow, passenger pigeons
were due to over-exploitation.
 Many marine fish populations around the world are over harvested.
3. Alien species invasion:
 The alien species became invasive and cause decline or extinction of indigenous
species.
 Nile perch introduced into Lake Victoria in east Africa led to extinction of 200
species of cichlid fish in the lake.
 Parthenium, (carrot grass), Lantana, and water hyacinth (Eichornia) posed a
thread to indigenous species.
 African cat fish Clarias gariepinus for aquaculture purposed is posing a threat to
indigenous catfishes in our rivers.
4. Co-extinction:
 When a species becomes extinct, the plant and animal species associated with it
an obligatory way also become extinct.
 Extinction of Host species leads to extinction of the parasite also.
 Co-evolved plant-pollinator mutualism where extinction of one invariably lead
to the extinction of the other.
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION:
Reason for conservation biodiversity is grouped into three categories.
1. Narrowly utilitarian.
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 2. Broadly utilitarian
3. Ethical
Narrowly utilitarian
 Human derive countless direct economic benefits from nature-
 Food (cereals, pulses, fruits), firewood, fiber, construction material.
 Industrial products (tannins, lubricants, dyes, resins, perfumes)
 Products of medicinal importance.
 Bioprospecting: exploring molecular genetic and species- level diversity for
products of economic importance.
Broadly Utilitarian
 Amazonian forest along produce 20% of oxygen during photosynthesis.
 Pollinator layer: bees, bumblebees, birds and bat that pollinate the plant without
which seed cannot be produced by plants.
 Aesthetic pleasure we get from the biodiversity.
CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY
In situ conservation:
 When we conserve and protect the whole ecosystem, its biodiversity at all level is
protected – we save the entire forest to save the tiger. This approach is called in
situ (on site) conservation.
Biodiversity hot spot: regions with very high levels of species richness and high degree
of endemism. (Species confined to that region and not found anywhere else)
 Hot spot in biodiversity is also regions of accelerated habitat loss.
 Out of 34 hot spot in the world, three hot spot located in India:
Western Ghats and Srilanka. Indo-Burma. Himalaya.
Sacred groves: tract of forest were set aside, and all the trees and wildlife within were
venerated and given total protection
Ex situ conservation
Threatened animals and plants are taken out from their natural habitat and placed in
special setting where they can be protected and given special care.
 Zoological Park.
 Botanical garden
 Wildlife safari.
 Conservation of gamete by cryopreservation.
 Genetic strains are preserved in seed bank.

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Convention on Biodiversity:
1. “The earth Summit” held in Rio de Jeneiro in 1992 called upon all nations to
take appropriate measures for conservation of biodiversity and sustainable
utilization of its benefits.
2. World Summit on Sustainable development held in 2002 in Johannesburg, South
Africa, 190 countries pledged their commitment to achieve by 2010 a significant
reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and local level.