BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION

 Biodiversity: the term biodiversity refers to the totality of genes,

species, and ecosystems of a region.
 Diversity ranges from macromolecules within cells to biomes.
 Biodiversity is the term popularized by the sociobiologist Edward
Wilson to describe the combined diversity at all the levels of
biological organisation.
 Types of biodiversity:
a) Genetic diversity: A single species might show high diversity at the
genetic level over its distributional range.
 Medicinal plant Rauwolfia vomitoria of Himalayan range
shows genetic variation in terms of concentration and potency of
the active chemical reserpine.
 India has more than 50000 different strain of rice.
 1000 varieties of mango.
b) Species diversity: The diversity at the species level, for example, the
Western Ghats have a greater amphibian species diversity than the
Eastern Ghats.
c) Ecological diversity: At the ecosystem level
India, for instance, with its deserts, rain forests, mangroves, coral reefs,
wetlands, estuaries, and alpine meadows has a greater ecosystem
diversity than a Scandinavian country like Norway.
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.
These estimates do not give any figure for prokaryotes for the
following reasons:
1.The conventional taxonomic methods are not sufficient for identifying these
microbial species
2. Many of these species cannot be cultured under laboratory conditions.
3. Biochemical and molecular biology techniques would put their diversity
into millions.

BIODIVERSITY IN INDIA
• India is one of the 12 mega biodiversity countries of the world.
• India has only 2.4% of the land area of the world, it has 8.1% of the global
species biodiversity.
• There are about 45,000 species of plants and about 90,000-1,00,000
species of animals.
• New species are yet to be discovered and named.
• Applying Robert May’s global estimate, only 22% of the total species have
been recorded, India has probably more than 1,00,000 species of plants and
3,00,000 species of animals to be discovered and described.
Pattern of Biodiversity:

1. 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
 Example- Colombia (near equator) has 1400 species of birds
whereas New York(41° N) has 105 species, Greenland(71 ° N) has
56 species and India(tropical region) has 1200 species.
 A forest in a tropical region like Equador has up to 10 times as
many species of vascular plants as a forest of equal area in a
temperate region like the Midwest of the USA.
 The largely tropical Amazonian rain forest in South America has
the greatest biodiversity on earth: 40,000 species of plants, 3000
species of fishes, 1300 of birds, 427 amphibians, 378 reptiles,
more than 1, 25,000 invertebrates.

Why tropical rain forest has greater biodiversity:

 Speciation is generally a function of time, 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.
 2. Species area relationship:

 During his pioneering and extensive explorations in the wilderness

of South American jungles, Alexander von Humboldt observed
that 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(angiosperm plants, birds, bats, freshwater fishes)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.

 It has been noted that regardless of the taxonomic group or

region the slope of the regression line are amazingly similar(Z
value ranges between 0.1 & 0.2).
 However, for a very large area like the entire continent the
slope of the line is steeper(Z value ranges between 0.6 & 1.2).
 For example, for frugivorous (fruit-eating) birds and mammals
in the tropical forests of different continents, the slope is found
to be 1.15.

Importance of species diversity to the Ecosystem:

  Community with more species generally tends to be more stable
than those with less species.
 Attributes of a stable community:
1. It should not show too much variation in productivity from
year to year.
2. It must be either resistant or resilient to occasional
disturbances (natural or man-made)
3. It must be resistant to invasion by alien species.

 David Tilmans long-term field experiment finds that:

o Plots with more species showed less year to year variation
in biomass
o Increased diversity contributed to higher productivity.
Hence, we realize that species richness and diversity are essential
for ecosystem health as well as survival of human race on earth.

 The rivet popper hypothesis:

o Used by Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich.
o In an airplane (ecosystem) all parts are joined together by
thousands of rivets (species).
o If every passenger starts popping a rivet to take home

(causing a species to become extinct), it may not affect

flight safety (proper functioning of ecosystem) initially but
as more and more rivets are removed the plane becomes
dangerously weak.
o Furthermore which rivet is removed may also be critical.
o 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.

Loss of Biodiversity:

 The colonisation of tropical Pacific Islands by human has led to

the extinction of more than 2000 species of native birds.
 The IUCN Red List (2004) documents the extinction of 784
species. (Including 338 vertebrates, 359 invertebrates and 87
plants) in the last 500 years.
 Recent extinction includes:
 o Dodo (Mauritius).
o Quagga (Africa)
o Thylacine (Australia)
o Steller’s cow (Russia)
o Three subspecies of tiger (Bali, Java, Caspian).
 Careful analysis of records shows that extinctions across taxa
are not random; some groups like amphibians appear to be
more vulnerable to extinction.
 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.

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:

 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 or conversion to grasslands for
raising beef cattle.
 Degradation of many habitat by pollution is also threatens the loss of
diversity.
 When large habitats are broken up into small fragments due to various
 human activities, mammals and birds requiring large territories and
certain animals with migratory habits are badly affected, leading to
population declines.
2. Over-exploitation:

 When ‘need’ turns to ‘greed’ it leads to over-exploitation of natural

resources.
 Many species extinctions in the last 500 years (Steller’s 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:

Why should we conserve Biodiversity?

Reason for conservation biodiversity is grouped into three categories.

 Narrowly utilitarian.
 Broadly utilitarian
 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. More than 25% of the drugs are
derived from plants and more than 25,000 species of plants are used
by natives for medicine
 Bioprospecting: exploring molecular genetics and species-level
diversity for products of economic importance. Nations endowed with
rich biodiversity can expect to reap enormous benefits.

Broadly Utilitarian

 Biodiversity plays an important role in maintaining and sustaining

supply of goods and services.
 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.

Ethical
• There millions of plant, animal and microbe species with whom we
share this planet
• Each one has some intrinsic value even if it is not of any economic
value to us.
• It is therefore our moral duty to ensure well-being of all the living and
pass on our biological legacy in good order to future generations
How do we conserve 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.
 Total number of biodiversity hotspots in the world ts 34.
 Out of 34 hot spot in the world, three hot spot located in India:
o Western Ghats and Srilanka.
 o Indo-Burma.
o Himalaya.

 In India, ecologically unique and biodiversity-rich regions are legally

protected as biosphere reserves, national parks and sanctuaries.
 India now has:
o 14 biosphere reserve
o 90 national park
o 448 wild life sanctuary
 Sacred groves: tract of forest were set aside, and all the trees and
wildlife within were venerated and given total protection.
Ex. Western Ghats, Khasi and Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya.

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.
 Recent developments in ex situ conservation:
 Gametes of threatened species can be preserved in viable and
fertile condition for long periods using cryopreservation
techniques
 eggs can be fertilized in vitro
 Plants can be propagated using tissue culture method.
 Seeds of different genetic strains are preserved in seed bank.

Convention on Biodiversity:

 The historic Convention on Biological Diversity (‘The Earth

Summit’) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 called upon all nations to
take appropriate measures for conservation of biodiversity and
sustainable utilization of its benefits.

 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.