Tommy Morteboy Biology BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS

We tried to define biodiversity write down here what you now understand by the word BIODIVERSITY.

Biological diversity is the variety and variability among living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they occur. It consists of genetic, specie and ecosystem diversity. Bio diversity cam be defined as the full range of variety and variability within living organisms and ecological complexes.
The variety of interactions that occur between different species in a habitat. The range of genetic variation among individuals within a species

Around the world are various biodiversity HOTSPOTS. What do you understand by this term, hotspot? A hot spot is a place that is critical for all the world, for example if an animal dies there, it affects the entire world.

List some of the more famous biodiversity hotspots, and beside each, very briefly say what makes it a hotspot or why it is determined or conserved as a hotspot. 1. Madagascar : has many animals that are needed in that hotspot 2. Galapagos Islands : has many animals that are not found anywhere else 3. Hawaii : climate and jungle is perfect for many animals 4. Himalaya : has high mountains which is good for some animals 5. Tropical Andes : has many places for animals and climate is perfect for plants 6. Continental forest of east Africa : climate is perfect and has many animals that are adapted to the environment 7. Succulent Karoo : the large amount of flora and fauna 8. Mountains of southwest china : the cold windy climate is good for some animals 9. New Zealand : the large biodiversity and the different amount of animal and plant 10. Amazon rainforest : large biodiversity and flora and fauna, animals that are not found anywhere else in the world

Now go to www.biodiversityhotspots.org. Here you will find some useful definitions and some quite detailed descriptions of the worlds hotspots. Select any one of the hotspots from the dropdown menu and make a written summary with the following information: Where is the hotspot? In Africa, CAPE FLORISTIC REGION, COASTAL FORESTS OF EASTERN AFRICA, EASTERN AFROMONTANE, MADAGASCAR & THE INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS, ASIA-PACIFIC, EUROPE & CENTRAL ASIA, NORTH & CENTRAL AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA,GUINEAN FORESTS OF WESTERN AFRICA Why is it especially important? It has a lots of biodiversity and is home of many non-tropical concentration of plants and it has many animals that cant be found anywhere else, and every animal and plant is specially adapted to its environment and is needs to be there for everything to work

What important species are present? There are many species presented like: Angulate Tortoise, Bontebok, Hartlaubs Gull, Crowned
Plover, Pied Crow, and Sacred Ibis. All these animals are important for their hotspots; they need to be there in order maintain a flow in hotspot

Who looks after or is responsible for the conservation of this hotspot? There are many people who build and create organizations to preserve the animal and protect it, this is for the safety of the animal and to keep it alive and not to become extinct otherwise the hotspot will have many problems. The county have donated lots of money to be able to build a national park, this creates biodiversity and protection to many animals.

John Osborne

February