biodiversity concept essay

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Biodiversity includes not only species we consider rare, threatened, or endangered but also every living thing—from humans to organisms we know little about, such as microbes, fungi, and invertebrates.

At the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, we include humans and human cultural diversity as a part of biodiversity. We use the term “ biocultural ” to describe the dynamic, continually evolving and interconnected nature of people and place, and the notion that social and biological dimensions are interrelated. This concept recognizes that human use, knowledge, and beliefs influence, and in turn are influenced, by the ecological systems of which human communities are a part. This relationship makes all of biodiversity, including the species, land and seascapes, and the cultural links to the places where we live—be right where we are or in distant lands—important to our wellbeing as they all play a role in maintaining a diverse and healthy planet.

How do we study biodiversity?

Exploration and monitoring.

To study biodiversity, scientists conduct expeditions to survey and monitor species, habitats, and their interactions. On these expeditions, scientists ask questions about, measure, and collect data on various dimensions, such as population sizes and trends, distribution and habitat use, and impacts of management or other human activities. From primates in Southeast Asia to flamingos in the Andes, the CBC is engaged in numerous monitoring projects across the globe.

Tools of the trade 

Biodiversity scientists use a variety of tools for collecting and analyzing data at various scales. Landscape monitoring techniques , for instance, use imaging systems such as remote sensing and drones to capture images across an area. Machine learning can be used to identify and count species or classify landscape types captured in these images or in video or audio clips. Mathematical modeling with software such as Maxent enables scientists to model species niches and distributions across these landscapes and predict how they will respond to climate change. New technological advances enhance our ability to monitor biodiversity and implement conservation and management activities.

Read more about the CBC’s Biodiversity Informatics Program to learn how information technology can be used to collect, organize, and analyze biodiversity data.

Synthesizing evidence

The vast knowledge collected through these various methods forms the evidence that decision-makers need to enact effective and sustainable conservation approaches.

Learn more about our evidence-informed practice by reading about the CBC’s Evidence Initiative .

Building capacity

By strengthening the ability of community leaders, educators, managers, and other professionals to study biodiversity, we improve our ability to effectively manage and conserve the variety of life.

The CBC’s program in Southeast Asia develops capacity for conservation science through multidisciplinary research training of Vietnames graduate and undergraduate students, direct training of protected area staff in survey techniques, and co-leading training workshops on improving wildlife trade management.

The CBC’s Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP) improves training, teaching, and learning in biodiversity conservation with up-to-date, open-access resources for teaching and learning on a range of conservation topics, and by leading training and research initiatives to advance the field of conservation education.

Why is biodiversity important?

Biodiversity is important to most aspects of our lives. We value biodiversity for many reasons, some utilitarian, some intrinsic. This means we value biodiversity both for what it provides to humans, and for the value it has in its own right. Utilitarian values include the many basic needs humans obtain from biodiversity such as food, fuel, shelter, and medicine. Further, ecosystems provide crucial services such as pollination, seed dispersal, climate regulation, water purification, nutrient cycling, and control of agricultural pests. Biodiversity also holds value for potential benefits not yet recognized, such as new medicines and other possible unknown services. Biodiversity has cultural value to humans as well, for spiritual or religious reasons for instance. The intrinsic value of biodiversity refers to its inherent worth, which is independent of its value to anyone or anything else. This is more of a philosophical concept, which can be thought of as the inalienable right to exist. Finally, the value of biodiversity can also be understood through the lens of the relationships we form and strive for with each other and the rest of nature. We may value biodiversity because of how it shapes who we are, our relationships to each other, and social norms. These relational values are part of peoples’ individual or collective sense of wellbeing, responsibility for, and connection with the environment. The different values placed on biodiversity are important because they can influence the conservation decisions people make every day.

Developing community-based partnerships are crucial for supporting communities in the management and conservation of biodiversity that are vital to their wellbeing.

Threats to Biodiversity

Over the last century, humans have come to dominate the planet, causing rapid ecosystem change and massive loss of biodiversity across the planet. This has led some people to refer to the time we now live in as the “anthropocene.” While the Earth has always experienced changes and extinctions, today they are occurring at an unprecedented rate. Major direct threats to biodiversity include habitat loss and fragmentation, unsustainable resource use, invasive species, pollution, and global climate change. The underlying causes of biodiversity loss, such as a growing human population and overconsumption are often complex and stem from many interrelated factors.

The good news is that it is within our power to change our actions to help ensure the survival of species and the health and integrity of ecological systems. By understanding threats to biodiversity, and how they play out in context, we can be best prepared to manage conservation challenges. The conservation efforts of the last decades have made a significant difference in the state of biodiversity today. Over 100,000 protected areas—including national parks, wildlife refuges, game reserves, and marine protected areas, managed both by governments and local communities—provide habitat for wildlife, and help keep deforestation in check. Other types of conservation actions such as restoration, reintroduction, and the control of invasive species, have also had positive impacts on conservation efforts And these efforts have been bolstered by continuous efforts to improve environmental policies at local, regional, and global scales. It is vitally important that these policies recognize and center local values, needs, and realities to sustainably manage resources for healthy ecological as well as human communities.  By acknowledging the interconnections and feedbacks between people and nature, assessing our existing knowledge, and applying evidence to our conservation decisions, we can develop effective approaches for conservation and sustainability for all life on Earth.

Learn more about what we do and what you can do to make a difference today.

What Is Biodiversity?

Biodiversity.

Biodiversity is the extraordinary variety of life on Earth — from genes and species to ecosystems and the valuable functions they perform. E.O. Wilson, the noted biologist and author who coined the term “biodiversity,” explains it as “the very stuff of life.”

For at least 3.8 billion years, a complex web of life has been evolving on Earth. Millions of species inhabit land, freshwater, and ocean ecosystems. All species, including human beings, are intricately linked by their interactions with each other and the environments they live in.

Biodiversity — short for biological diversity — is the variety of all living things and their interactions. Biodiversity changes over time as extinction occurs and new species evolve.

Scientists often speak of three levels of diversity: species, genetic, and ecosystem diversity. In fact, these levels cannot be separated. Each is important, interacting with and influencing others. Changes at one level can cause changes at other levels.

What Is a Species?

Species come in all shapes and sizes, from organisms so small they can only be seen with powerful microscopes to huge redwood trees. They include bacteria, protozoa, fungi, flowering plants, ants, beetles, butterflies, birds, fishes, and large animals such as elephants, whales, and bears. Each species is a group of organisms with unique characteristics. An individual of a species can reproduce successfully, creating viable offspring, only with another member of that species.

We are still learning about how many species exist and how they relate to each other and their environment. Current estimates are of about 10 million species on Earth, of which only about 1.9 million have been named and catalogued. Scientists race to catalog species before they go extinct. An "endemic" species occurs in a particular area and nowhere else.

New species are still being discovered, for example by scientists from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Entomologist Dr. Jonathan Coddington and colleagues published the discovery of the largest web-spinning spider ( Nephila komaci ) in the world in 2009. In 2012, Dr. Terry Erwin and colleagues discovered 177 species of parasitic wasps . Using submersibles to study deep coral reefs, Icthyologist Dr. Carole Baldwin continues to encounter new species of fish . The study of fossils reveals new species from the past that are now extinct. For example, Paleobiologist Dr. Nick Pyenson and colleagues discovered that the diversity of sea cow species used to be higher on Earth.

When a new species is discovered, it is given a name. Scientific naming follows certain rules or conventions. A new species is assigned to a genus based on its relatedness to other organisms. Its unique species name may be related to one characteristic that makes the species different from others, the place it was found, or can have the name of a colleague.

In 2013, Smithsonian Mammalogist Dr. Kristofer Helgen and colleagues named the first new species of carnivorous mammal recorded from the Americas in 35 years. Its relatedness to "olingos" placed it in the genus Bassaricyon , while its species name, neblina , refers to the Andean cloud forests (neblina = "fog") in which it was found. A new species of jellyfish discovered by Dr. Allen Collins  was given the scientific name of Tamoya ohboya , thanks to a teacher's claim that people said "oh boy" when they saw it.

What Is Genetic Diversity?

Biodiversity includes the genes that every individual inherits from its parents and passes on to the next generation. Genetic diversity is found everywhere, from the variety of songs and feather colors of birds to the colors, tastes, and textures of apples and other foods. Genetic variation, which determines the extent to which individuals can adapt to their environments, is extremely important to their survival.

A genome is the complete set of genetic material (i.e., DNA) of an organism. To preserve Earth’s genomic diversity, scientists at the National Museum of Natural History are collecting and freezing hundreds of thousands of DNA samples. The collection will be used for the new field of genomics , a discipline that sequences, assembles, and analyzes the function and structure of genomes, providing information into the future about plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and protists, even those that are extinct. The Smithsonian's repository of DNA is just one of many that together make up the Global Genome Project that seeks to preserve genetic samples from every species on Earth.

What Is Ecosystem Diversity?

Genes determine the traits of individuals that form populations of a species. Individuals from different species interact to form communities. These interact dynamically with non-living environmental components, such as water or minerals, to form an ecosystem. Some ecosystems such as tropical forests and coral reefs are especially complex and host a large number of species. Other ecosystems such as deserts and Arctic regions have less complexity and thus a lower number of species, but all those species are ecologically important and some are endemic to that ecosystem.

Monitoring Biodiversity

Many Smithsonian scientists are working on ways to monitor and measure biodiversity over time. Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists Dr. Francisco Dallmeier  and Dr. Alfonso Alonso  developed a Framework for the Assessment and Monitoring of Biodiversity. The framework provides guidance about how to go about designing and implementing assessments and monitoring programs, how to report the information gathered, and how to use the gathered scientific information to track the conditions of ecosystems and the species that inhabit them.

For more than three decades, Smithsonian scientists and institutional collaborators with the Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) have been studying forest biodiversity and function at more than 60 sites around the world. A newer initiative, the Marine Global Earth Observatory (Marine GEO), brings together Smithsonian marine scientists from the U.S., Belize, and Panama to collaborate with colleagues from around the world to monitor ocean ecosystems.

Botanist Dr. John Kress  took a leadership role in 2006 when the Smithsonian and five other international scientific organizations founded what is now Consortium of Scientific Partners on Biodiversity and has grown to include 24 major scientific organizations as partners. The Consortium looks for innovative ways to investigate biodiversity and explore solutions to loss of biodiversity as humans continue to interact with the biosphere.

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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Biodiversity.

Biodiversity refers to the variety of living species on Earth, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi. While Earth’s biodiversity is so rich that many species have yet to be discovered, many species are being threatened with extinction due to human activities, putting the Earth’s magnificent biodiversity at risk.

Biology, Ecology

grasshoppers

Although all of these insects have a similar structure and may be genetic cousins, the beautiful variety of colors, shapes, camouflage, and sizes showcase the level of diversity possible even within a closely-related group of species.

Photograph by Frans Lanting

Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species  in one region or ecosystem . Bio diversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

Over generations , all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species . These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species . All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species .

Scientists are interested in how much biodiversity there is on a global scale, given that there is still so much biodiversity to discover. They also study how many species exist in single ecosystems, such as a forest, grassland, tundra, or lake. A single grassland can contain a wide range of species, from beetles to snakes to antelopes. Ecosystems that host the most biodiversity tend to have ideal environmental conditions for plant growth, like the warm and wet climate of tropical regions. Ecosystems can also contain species too small to see with the naked eye. Looking at samples of soil or water through a microscope reveals a whole world of bacteria and other tiny organisms.

Some areas in the world, such as areas of Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, the southwestern United States, and Madagascar, have more bio diversity than others. Areas with extremely high levels of bio diversity are called hotspots . Endemic species — species that are only found in one particular location—are also found in hotspots .

All of the Earth’s species work together to survive and maintain their ecosystems . For example, the grass in pastures feeds cattle. Cattle then produce manure that returns nutrients to the soil, which helps to grow more grass. This manure can also be used to fertilize cropland. Many species provide important benefits to humans, including food, clothing, and medicine.

Much of the Earth’s bio diversity , however, is in jeopardy due to human consumption and other activities that disturb and even destroy ecosystems . Pollution , climate change, and population growth are all threats to bio diversity . These threats have caused an unprecedented rise in the rate of species extinction . Some scientists estimate that half of all species on Earth will be wiped out within the next century. Conservation efforts are necessary to preserve bio diversity and protect endangered species and their habitats.

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Measuring biodiversity

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• WWF - What is biodiversity?
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Biodiversity, also called biological diversity, is the variety of life found in a place on Earth or, often, the total variety of life on Earth. A common measure of this variety, called species richness, is the count of species in an area. Biodiversity also encompasses the genetic variety within each species and the variety of ecosystems that species create.

Examining counts of species is the most common method used to compare the biodiversity of various places. A second way to weigh species biodiversity is to recognize the unique biodiversity of those habitats that contain few but unusual species, such as volcanoes, thermal vents, and hot springs. In practice, biodiversity is weighted differently for different species.

What has led to the decline in biodiversity in recent times?

The pace of decline and extinctions in biodiversity has risen dramatically over the last century, as the effects of climate change increased and human activities such as agriculture, fishing, and hunting continued to encroach into more remote natural areas all over the world.

Which year was named the International Year of Biodiversity?

The United Nations named 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. It was a yearlong celebration intended to raise public awareness about the importance of biodiversity and the need to reinforce conservation efforts.

How many species are on the extinction list in the biodiversity report for 2019?

A 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services noted that up to one million plant and animal species are facing extinction because of human activity.

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biodiversity , the variety of life found in a place on Earth or, often, the total variety of life on Earth. A common measure of this variety, called species richness , is the count of species in an area. Colombia and Kenya , for example, each have more than 1,000 breeding species of birds , whereas the forests of Great Britain and of eastern North America are home to fewer than 200. A coral reef off northern Australia may have 500 species of fish, while the rocky shoreline of Japan may be home to only 100 species. Such numbers capture some of the differences between places—the tropics, for example, have more biodiversity than temperate regions—but raw species count is not the only measure of diversity . Furthermore, biodiversity encompasses the genetic variety within each species and the variety of ecosystems that species create.

(Read E.O. Wilson’s Britannica essay on mass extinction.)

Although examining counts of species is perhaps the most common method used to compare the biodiversity of various places, in practice biodiversity is weighted differently for different species, the reason being that some species are deemed more valuable or more interesting than others. One way this “value” or “interest” is assessed is by examining the diversity that exists above the species level, in the genera, families, orders, classes, and phyla to which species belong ( see taxonomy ). For example, the count of animal species that live on land is much higher than the count of those that live in the oceans because there are huge numbers of terrestrial insect species; insects comprise many orders and families, and they constitute the largest class of arthropods , which themselves constitute the largest animal phylum. In contrast, there are fewer animal phyla in terrestrial environments than in the oceans . No animal phylum is restricted to the land, but brachiopods ( see lamp shell ), pogonophorans ( see beardworm ), and other animal phyla occur exclusively or predominantly in marine habitats.

Some species have no close relatives and exist alone in their genus, whereas others occur in genera made up of hundreds of species. Given this, one can ask whether it is a species belonging to the former or latter category that is more important. On one hand, a taxonomically distinct species—the only one in its genus or family, for example—may be more likely to be distinct biochemically and so be a valuable source for medicines simply because there is nothing else quite like it. On the other hand, although the only species in a genus carries more genetic novelty, a species belonging to a large genus might possess something of the evolutionary vitality that has led its genus to be so diverse .

A second way to weight species biodiversity is to recognize the unique biodiversity of those environments that contain few species but unusual ones. Dramatic examples come from extreme environments such as the summits of active Antarctic volcanoes (e.g., Mt. Erebus [ see Ross Island ] and Mt. Melbourne in the Ross Sea region), hot springs (e.g., Yellowstone National Park in the western United States), or deep-sea hydrothermal vents ( see marine ecosystem: Organisms of the deep-sea vents ). The numbers of species found in these places may be smaller than almost anywhere else, yet the species are quite distinctive. One such species is the bacterium Thermus aquaticus , found in the hot springs of Yellowstone. From this organism was isolated Taq polymerase, a heat -resistant enzyme crucial for a DNA -amplification technique widely used in research and medical diagnostics ( see polymerase chain reaction ).

More generally, areas differ in the biodiversity of species found only there. Species having relatively small ranges are called endemic species . On remote oceanic islands, almost all the native species are endemic . The Hawaiian Islands , for example, have about 1,000 plant species, a small number compared with those at the same latitude in continental Central America . Almost all the Hawaiian species, however, are found only there, whereas the species on continents may be much more widespread. Endemic species are much more vulnerable to human activity than are more widely distributed species, because it is easier to destroy all the habitat in a small geographic range than in a large one.

In addition to diversity among species, the concept of biodiversity includes the genetic diversity within species. One example is our own species, for we differ in a wide variety of characteristics that are partly or wholly genetically determined, including height, weight , skin and eye colour, behavioral traits, and resistance to various diseases . Likewise, genetic variety within a plant species may include the differences in individual plants that confer resistance to different diseases. For plants that are domesticated, such as rice, these differences may be of considerable economic importance, for they are the source of new disease-resistant domestic varieties.

The idea of biodiversity also encompasses the range of ecological communities that species form. A common approach to quantifying this type of diversity is to record the variety of ecological communities an area may contain. It is generally accepted that an area having, say, both forests and prairies is more diverse than one with forests alone, because each of these assemblages is expected to house different species. This conclusion, however, is indirect—i.e., it is likely based on differences in vegetation structure or appearance rather than directly on lists of species.

Forest and prairie are just two of a plethora of names applied to ecological assemblages defined in a variety of ways, methods, and terms, and many ideas exist regarding what constitutes an assemblage. Technical terms that imply different degrees to which assemblages can be divided spatially include association , habitat , ecosystem , biome , life zone , ecoregion , landscape , or biotype . There is also no agreement on the boundaries of assemblages—say, where the forest biome ends and the prairie biome begins. Nonetheless, especially when these approaches are applied globally, as with the ecoregions used by the World Wide Fund for Nature (World Wildlife Fund, WWF), they provide a useful guide to biodiversity patterns.

The catalog of Earth’s biodiversity is very incomplete. About 1.9 million species have scientific names. Estimates of the total number of living species cluster around 10 million, which means that most species have not been discovered and described. (These estimates omit bacteria because of the practical problems in defining bacterial species.) Simply counting species must be, at best, an incomplete measure of biodiversity, for most species cannot be counted within a reasonable time. At the present rate of describing new species, it will take about 1,000 years to complete the catalog of scientific names. Of the approximately 1.9 million species now described, perhaps two-thirds are known from only one location and many from examining only one individual or a limited number of individuals, so knowledge of the genetic variation within species is even more constrained. From just a few well-studied species, it is clear that genetic variability can be substantial and that it differs in extent between species.

It should be noted that the pace of species population declines and extinctions has risen dramatically over the last century, as the effects of climate change increased and human activities such as agriculture, fishing , and hunting continued to encroach into more-remote natural areas. A 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services noted that up to one million plant and animal species are facing extinction due to human activity. (The loss of biodiversity as a result of human activity and various methods aimed at preventing this loss are discussed in the articles conservation and biodiversity loss .)

To assist in the daunting challenge of protecting species, a number of biologically rich but threatened regions containing high numbers of endemic species have been identified and mapped. Such “ hot spots ” of biodiversity have been described to assist governments and nongovernmental organizations in the development of conservation priorities.

The United Nations named 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB)—a yearlong celebration intended to raise public awareness about the importance of biodiversity and to reinforce conservation efforts. Many of the conservation goals promoted by the IYB have resurfaced periodically in later United Nations awareness campaigns—such as the International Year of Forests (2011), the International Year of Soil (2015), and the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development (2017).

Biodiversity Explained: Facts, Myths, and the Race to Protect It

By MJ Altman on January 4, 2023

A baby sloth hangs in a tree at the Bosque da Ciência in Manaus, Brazil. PHOTO: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation

As ecosystems and habitats degrade and disappear worldwide, biodiversity — the interconnectedness of all forms of life on our planet — is in jeopardy. In light of a new global agreement to protect our lands, ocean, and waters, explore what biodiversity really means and what it will take to preserve life on Earth.

From microscopic fungi to mega forests, “biodiversity” is the collective term for the variety of life on Earth in all its forms. It is 4.5 billion years of evolution, embodied.

Biodiversity is responsible for our food, our soil, our water, our weather, even the air we breathe. Yet despite being a crucial foundation for our collective future, biodiversity is often lost amid conversations on climate change — until recently.

In December 2022, leaders from nearly 200 nations adopted a landmark UN agreement to reverse nature’s rapid decline before it’s too late. Known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework , it calls for protecting 30% of the planet’s land, ocean, and inland waters and includes 23 other targets to help restore and protect ecosystems and endangered species worldwide.

Here are 12 things you should know:

1. Biodiversity is more than just the total number of species on Earth.

“It is actually more complex than that,” Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, the late ecologist, told the United Nations Foundation in 2018. “It’s about the genetic diversity within species, the diversity of habitats, and the large biological units known as biomes.”

This includes the interactions that occur between species within ecosystems – primordial relationships that shape our environment in countless, often unseen ways.

“Without biological diversity, there is no other life on Earth — including our own,” he explained. “Even though we are often oblivious to it, this diversity of life is what provides clean water, oxygen, and all other things that end up being part of our diet, as well as clothing and shelter. It provides a lot of psychological benefits too, which are not much appreciated.”

2. We’re only just beginning to understand biodiversity’s influence and importance in our lives.

Earth’s many ecosystems rely on a delicate, complicated, and fascinating tangle of life that, in many ways, remains a mystery. In fact, the term “biological diversity” wasn’t introduced to the scientific community until 1980 in a research paper on species loss by Dr. Lovejoy. Scientists still haven’t identified all forms of life on the planet. New species are discovered every year.

A harbor seal swims through kelp off the coast of Southern California's Channel Islands. Seals are among the thousands of species that rely on kelp forests for food and shelter. PHOTO: Shutterstock/Joe Belanger

Take kelp, for example. These undersea forests provide sustenance and shelter for marine species like chinook salmon, which, in turn, serve as a staple food for orcas. And kelp also absorb excess carbon dioxide, which can help mitigate climate change.

3. The planet’s biodiversity holds enormous, untapped potential for medical and scientific breakthroughs.

Lovejoy described each species on the planet as a unique set of solutions for a particular set of biological problems. “Whoever would have thought a bacterium from a Yellowstone hot spring would revolutionize forensic and diagnostic medicine, make the human genome project possible, and confer benefits in the trillion-dollar range?” he wrote as a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation, citing a previously unknown and seemingly inconsequential microbe discovered in 1966 that revolutionized genetic testing and immunization development, including the COVID-19 vaccine.

A flowering plant grows from a tree in the Amazon Rainforest, near the research station known as Camp 41 north of Manaus, Brazil. PHOTO: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation

Today, one-fourth of all modern medicines are derived from tropical plants, and 70% of all cancer drugs are natural or bio-inspired products. In the past decade, researchers in Nova Scotia found a soil fungus that can disarm antibiotic-resistant bacteria — a discovery that could transform the fields of medicine and agriculture. The possibilities for discovery and innovation are monumental.

4. Climate change and biodiversity are interconnected.

Climate change is causing biodiversity loss, and biodiversity loss is causing climate change. Here’s how: Destroying and degrading ecosystems releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than burning fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, the consequences of burning fossil fuels — rising global temperatures, an increase in wildfires, and ocean acidification, to name a few — are threatening habitats and wildlife alike. In late 2019 and early 2020, for example, more than 60,000 koalas were killed by wildfires in Australia so massive that nearly 3 billion animals died or were displaced as a result. Earlier this year, the Australian government officially listed koalas as an endangered species.

At COP 27 last year, world leaders reached a historic agreement to create a “loss and damage” fund to support communities that are already feeling climate change’s disastrous impact, including biodiversity loss and its impact on livelihoods.

More than 60,000 koalas were killed by wildfires in Australia in late 2019 and early 2020. Increased wildfires and subsequent habitat loss are just one of the consequences of climate change. PHOTO: Patrick Kavanagh

5. Biodiversity can help us adapt to climate change.

The UN considers biodiversity our strongest natural defense against climate change. Land and ocean ecosystems currently absorb 60% of human-caused emissions , and they are the planet’s only way of storing massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Coastal wetlands, for example, protect against storm surges and flooding during extreme weather while also storing carbon dioxide and creating oxygen.

According to a joint estimate by the UN Development Programme and the Government of Papua New Guinea, every dollar invested in environmental protection generates more than $2,500 in so-called ecosystem services — water regulation, coastal protection, carbon storage, and other invisible functions that nature provides. It’s one of the reasons that Papua New Guinea launched the first-ever national, independent Biodiversity and Climate Fund to protect its status as one of just 17 “megadiverse” countries.

6. Less biodiversity means a higher risk of disease.

For decades, the scientific community has warned that biodiversity loss increases the spread of infectious disease . Why? Because extinction upsets the ecosystem in unpredictable ways, and the destruction of natural habitats increases interaction between humans and wildlife. Biodiversity essentially acts as a barrier between humans and animal-borne disease.

Species that tend to survive logging, farming, mining, wildlife trade and consumption, and other human activities behind widespread biodiversity loss are often “vectors of disease” like mice and mosquitoes, which host pathogens that are able to make the jump to humans. It’s one of the reasons why cases of Lyme disease in the northeast United States have spiked in recent decades: With fewer mammals to prey on, ticks are increasingly seeking out people. In fact, roughly 75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic .

It’s also why researchers like Dr. Alessandra Nava and her team of virus hunters at Brazil’s Fiocruz Amazônia are tracking the spread of disease in bats, monkeys, and rodents in the world’s largest rainforest. Their goal is to stay a step ahead of future pandemics by better understanding the pathogens contained within the jungle’s creatures before they come in contact with humans — encounters that become more likely as the human footprint expands.

A golden-backed squirrel monkey at the Bosque da Ciência, a rainforest park in Manaus, Brazil. PHOTO: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation

7. Biodiversity on land depends on biodiversity in water.

Maintaining the ocean’s ecological balance is crucial for protecting biodiversity on land, as well as maintaining our ability to feed future generations. The ocean plays a vital role in regulating the planet’s weather and water and the air we breathe. It is also the planet’s largest source of protein , feeding more than 3 billion people every day who rely on fish as a staple food.

Yet the ocean remains a vastly unexplored ecological frontier. While scientists have identified 200,000 marine species , the actual number is estimated to be in the millions. Unsustainable fishing practices, pollution, climate change, and habitat destruction are threatening creatures that may vanish before we even knew they existed.

8. Our planet’s biodiversity is on the brink.

Some 1 million species are threatened with extinction right now. That’s more than any other time in history, and they’re disappearing at a rate that is 1,000 times the norm. The culprit is the way most humans consume, produce, travel, and live.

A 2019 UN report found that we have altered 75% of the planet’s terrestrial environment, 40% of its marine environment, and 50% of streams and rivers. Nearly three-fourths of our freshwater resources are devoted to crop or livestock production, which often means using pesticides, fertilizers, fuels, and antibiotics that pollute our rivers, streams, seas, and soil. Every day we are destroying habitats and degrading massive amounts of soil and water through industrial manufacturing and agriculture while jeopardizing precious natural resources that could be lost forever in our lifetime; in the past two decades, we’ve lost half of the planet’s coral reefs . Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest hit a record high last year; some 18% is gone already, with scientists warning that we’re approaching a tipping point toward potential collapse .

9. Sustainability is the only way forward.

Such irresponsible production and consumption of our natural resources come at a catastrophic cost. We are destroying our planet at an unprecedented rate and losing a vast number of plants, animals, insects, and marine life in the process — to the detriment of our own future. Humanity’s health and well-being are dependent on a biodiverse planet.

Fortunately, examples are emerging of a greener, more sustainable way of doing business. Circular economic models are becoming more common as companies realize the economic and environmental value of reducing, reusing, and recycling their supply chain. At the same time, more citizens are demanding sustainable sourcing and socially just labor practices from their consumer goods. In 2022, the founder of the outdoor retailer Patagonia announced plans to invest all of the company’s profits toward combating climate change . “If we have any hope of a thriving planet — much less a business — 50 years from now, it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have,” Yvon Chouinard wrote .

Along Brazil’s Rio Negro, fourth-generation logger Roberto Brito de Mendonça stands in the dining lodge of his community’s ecotourism lodge. He retired from the family business to help start the operation, which includes a newly built classroom named in honor of Dr. Lovejoy. PHOTO: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation

10. Indigenous communities are crucial.

For thousands of years, Indigenous communities have served as the planet’s most effective environmental stewards. Today, according to the UN, Indigenous people manage more than 20% of the planet’s land and 80% of its biodiversity. “For us, it is not a passion, or a job,” Hindou Ibrahim of the Mbororo tribe in Chad, an SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) Advocate and Indigenous rights activist, told the UN last year. “It is our way of living. And that’s what we have done for all generations.”

In 2015, the UN created the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform to ensure their formal participation in global negotiations on climate change.

11. Conservation is critical.

One of our most promising solutions is preservation. Restoring degraded ecosystems alone could provide up to one-third of the climate mitigation needed to keep the Earth from warming too far above pre-industrial levels. This means creating protected areas, curbing extractive capitalism, and restoring the planet’s enormous amount of degraded land.

People across the globe are leading efforts to do just that. One inspiring example is Rita Mesquita, who expanded the amount of protected rainforest in Brazil by 76% during her time in the country’s Ministry of the Environment. Today, she oversees programs that encourage residents and visitors alike in Manaus to interact with the surrounding Amazon rainforest.

A Rhinoceros Beetle in Costa Rica’s National Park Tortuguero. The rhino beetle is one of the strongest insects in the world with relation to its body size, but because its tropical lowland habitat has been deforested and overcut, it is struggling to survive. PHOTO: GRID-Arendal/Peter Prokosch

12. We need cooperation — and revolution — at all levels.

We need partnerships among countries, communities, consumers, and corporations. And we’re seeing signs of progress every day. In fact, at COP 27, the Governments of Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia announced an alliance to protect their respective rainforests. Their historic agreement could pave the way for more multilateral action and impact. Coming just a month later, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework represents an enormous and long-awaited step toward halting extinction rates that some scientists are calling an existential crisis akin to climate change.

A huge part of the solution to the biodiversity challenge will be transforming how we approach the natural world and our place within it. As Dr. Lovejoy told the UN Foundation in 2018 , “There needs to be a major shift in perception from thinking of nature as something with a fence around it in the middle of an expansive, human-dominated landscape … to thinking about embedding our aspirations in nature.”

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21.1 Importance of Biodiversity

Learning objectives.

• Describe biodiversity as the equilibrium of naturally fluctuating rates of extinction and speciation
• Identify benefits of biodiversity to humans

Biodiversity is a broad term for biological variety, and it can be measured at a number of organizational levels. Traditionally, ecologists have measured biodiversity by taking into account both the number of species and the number of individuals in each of those species. However, biologists are using measures of biodiversity at several levels of biological organization (including genes, populations, and ecosystems) to help focus efforts to preserve the biologically and technologically important elements of biodiversity.

When biodiversity loss through extinction is thought of as the loss of the passenger pigeon, the dodo, or, even, the woolly mammoth there seems to be no reason to care about it because these events happened long ago. How is the loss practically important for the welfare of the human species? Would these species have made our lives any better? From the perspective of evolution and ecology, the loss of a particular individual species, with some exceptions, may seem unimportant, but the current accelerated extinction rate means the loss of tens of thousands of species within our lifetimes. Much of this loss is occurring in tropical rainforests like the one pictured in Figure 21.2 , which are especially high-diversity ecosystems that are being cleared for timber and agriculture. This is likely to have dramatic effects on human welfare through the collapse of ecosystems and in added costs to maintain food production, clean air and water, and improve human health.

Biologists recognize that human populations are embedded in ecosystems and are dependent on them, just as is every other species on the planet. Agriculture began after early hunter-gatherer societies first settled in one place and heavily modified their immediate environment: the ecosystem in which they existed. This cultural transition has made it difficult for humans to recognize their dependence on living things other than crops and domesticated animals on the planet. Today our technology smoothes out the extremes of existence and allows many of us to live longer, more comfortable lives, but ultimately the human species cannot exist without its surrounding ecosystems. Our ecosystems provide our food. This includes living plants that grow in soil ecosystems and the animals that eat these plants (or other animals) as well as photosynthetic organisms in the oceans and the other organisms that eat them. Our ecosystems have provided and will provide many of the medications that maintain our health, which are commonly made from compounds found in living organisms. Ecosystems provide our clean water, which is held in lake and river ecosystems or passes through terrestrial ecosystems on its way into groundwater.

Types of Biodiversity

A common meaning of biodiversity is simply the number of species in a location or on Earth; for example, the American Ornithologists’ Union lists 2078 species of birds in North and Central America. This is one measure of the bird biodiversity on the continent. More sophisticated measures of diversity take into account the relative abundances of species. For example, a forest with 10 equally common species of trees is more diverse than a forest that has 10 species of trees wherein just one of those species makes up 95 percent of the trees rather than them being equally distributed. Biologists have also identified alternate measures of biodiversity, some of which are important in planning how to preserve biodiversity.

Genetic and Chemical Biodiversity

Genetic diversity is one alternate concept of biodiversity. Genetic diversity (or variation) is the raw material for adaptation in a species. A species’ future potential for adaptation depends on the genetic diversity held in the genomes of the individuals in populations that make up the species. The same is true for higher taxonomic categories. A genus with very different types of species will have more genetic diversity than a genus with species that look alike and have similar ecologies. The genus with the greatest potential for subsequent evolution is the most genetically diverse one.

Most genes code for proteins, which in turn carry out the metabolic processes that keep organisms alive and reproducing. Genetic diversity can also be conceived of as chemical diversity in that species with different genetic makeups produce different assortments of chemicals in their cells (proteins as well as the products and byproducts of metabolism). This chemical diversity is important for humans because of the potential uses for these chemicals, such as medications. For example, the drug eptifibatide is derived from rattlesnake venom and is used to prevent heart attacks in individuals with certain heart conditions.

At present, it is far cheaper to discover compounds made by an organism than to imagine them and then synthesize them in a laboratory. Chemical diversity is one way to measure diversity that is important to human health and welfare. Through selective breeding, humans have domesticated animals, plants, and fungi, but even this diversity is suffering losses because of market forces and increasing globalism in human agriculture and migration. For example, international seed companies produce only a very few varieties of a given crop and provide incentives around the world for farmers to buy these few varieties while abandoning their traditional varieties, which are far more diverse. The human population depends on crop diversity directly as a stable food source and its decline is troubling to biologists and agricultural scientists.

Ecosystems Diversity

It is also useful to define ecosystem diversity : the number of different ecosystems on Earth or in a geographical area. Whole ecosystems can disappear even if some of the species might survive by adapting to other ecosystems. The loss of an ecosystem means the loss of the interactions between species, the loss of unique features of coadaptation, and the loss of biological productivity that an ecosystem is able to create. An example of a largely extinct ecosystem in North America is the prairie ecosystem ( Figure 21.3 ). Prairies once spanned central North America from the boreal forest in northern Canada down into Mexico. They are now all but gone, replaced by crop fields, pasture lands, and suburban sprawl. Many of the species survive, but the hugely productive ecosystem that was responsible for creating our most productive agricultural soils is now gone. As a consequence, their soils are now being depleted unless they are maintained artificially at greater expense. The decline in soil productivity occurs because the interactions in the original ecosystem have been lost; this was a far more important loss than the relatively few species that were driven extinct when the prairie ecosystem was destroyed.

Current Species Diversity

Despite considerable effort, knowledge of the species that inhabit the planet is limited. A recent estimate suggests that the eukaryote species for which science has names, about 1.5 million species, account for less than 20 percent of the total number of eukaryote species present on the planet (8.7 million species, by one estimate). Estimates of numbers of prokaryotic species are largely guesses, but biologists agree that science has only just begun to catalog their diversity. Even with what is known, there is no centralized repository of names or samples of the described species; therefore, there is no way to be sure that the 1.5 million descriptions is an accurate number. It is a best guess based on the opinions of experts on different taxonomic groups. Given that Earth is losing species at an accelerating pace, science knows little about what is being lost. Table 21.1 presents recent estimates of biodiversity in different groups.

There are various initiatives to catalog described species in accessible and more organized ways, and the internet is facilitating that effort. Nevertheless, at the current rate of species description, which according to the State of Observed Species 1 reports is 17,000–20,000 new species a year, it would take close to 500 years to describe all of the species currently in existence. The task, however, is becoming increasingly impossible over time as extinction removes species from Earth faster than they can be described.

Naming and counting species may seem an unimportant pursuit given the other needs of humanity, but it is not simply an accounting. Describing species is a complex process by which biologists determine an organism’s unique characteristics and whether or not that organism belongs to any other described species. It allows biologists to find and recognize the species after the initial discovery to follow up on questions about its biology. That subsequent research will produce the discoveries that make the species valuable to humans and to our ecosystems. Without a name and description, a species cannot be studied in depth and in a coordinated way by multiple scientists.

Patterns of Biodiversity

Biodiversity is not evenly distributed on the planet. Lake Victoria contained almost 500 species of cichlids (only one family of fishes present in the lake) before the introduction of an exotic species in the 1980s and 1990s caused a mass extinction. All of these species were found only in Lake Victoria, which is to say they were endemic. Endemic species are found in only one location. For example, the blue jay is endemic to North America, while the Barton Springs salamander is endemic to the mouth of one spring in Austin, Texas. Endemics with highly restricted distributions, like the Barton Springs salamander, are particularly vulnerable to extinction. Higher taxonomic levels, such as genera and families, can also be endemic.

Lake Huron contains about 79 species of fish, all of which are found in many other lakes in North America. What accounts for the difference in diversity between Lake Victoria and Lake Huron? Lake Victoria is a tropical lake, while Lake Huron is a temperate lake. Lake Huron in its present form is only about 7,000 years old, while Lake Victoria in its present form is about 15,000 years old. These two factors, latitude and age, are two of several hypotheses biogeographers have suggested to explain biodiversity patterns on Earth.

Career Connection

Biogeography.

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of the world’s species both in the past and in the present. The work of biogeographers is critical to understanding our physical environment, how the environment affects species, and how changes in environment impact the distribution of a species.

There are three main fields of study under the heading of biogeography: ecological biogeography, historical biogeography (called paleobiogeography), and conservation biogeography. Ecological biogeography studies the current factors affecting the distribution of plants and animals. Historical biogeography, as the name implies, studies the past distribution of species. Conservation biogeography, on the other hand, is focused on the protection and restoration of species based upon the known historical and current ecological information. Each of these fields considers both zoogeography and phytogeography—the past and present distribution of animals and plants.

One of the oldest observed patterns in ecology is that biodiversity in almost every taxonomic group of organism increases as latitude declines. In other words, biodiversity increases closer to the equator ( Figure 21.4 ).

It is not yet clear why biodiversity increases closer to the equator, but hypotheses include the greater age of the ecosystems in the tropics versus temperate regions, which were largely devoid of life or drastically impoverished during the last ice age. The greater age provides more time for speciation. Another possible explanation is the greater energy the tropics receive from the sun versus the lesser energy input in temperate and polar regions. But scientists have not been able to explain how greater energy input could translate into more species. The complexity of tropical ecosystems may promote speciation by increasing the habitat heterogeneity , or number of ecological niches, in the tropics relative to higher latitudes. The greater heterogeneity provides more opportunities for coevolution, specialization, and perhaps greater selection pressures leading to population differentiation. However, this hypothesis suffers from some circularity—ecosystems with more species encourage speciation, but how did they get more species to begin with? The tropics have been perceived as being more stable than temperate regions, which have a pronounced climate and day-length seasonality. The tropics have their own forms of seasonality, such as rainfall, but they are generally assumed to be more stable environments and this stability might promote speciation.

Regardless of the mechanisms, it is certainly true that biodiversity is greatest in the tropics. The number of endemic species is higher in the tropics. The tropics also contain more biodiversity hotspots. At the same time, our knowledge of the species living in the tropics is lowest and because of recent, heavy human activity the potential for biodiversity loss is greatest.

Importance of Biodiversity

Loss of biodiversity eventually threatens other species we do not impact directly because of their interconnectedness; as species disappear from an ecosystem other species are threatened by the changes in available resources. Biodiversity is important to the survival and welfare of human populations because it has impacts on our health and our ability to feed ourselves through agriculture and harvesting populations of wild animals.

Human Health

Many medications are derived from natural chemicals made by a diverse group of organisms. For example, many plants produce secondary plant compounds , which are toxins used to protect the plant from insects and other animals that eat them. Some of these secondary plant compounds also work as human medicines. Contemporary societies that live close to the land often have a broad knowledge of the medicinal uses of plants growing in their area. For centuries in Europe, older knowledge about the medical uses of plants was compiled in herbals—books that identified the plants and their uses. Humans are not the only animals to use plants for medicinal reasons. The other great apes, orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas have all been observed self-medicating with plants.

Modern pharmaceutical science also recognizes the importance of these plant compounds. Examples of significant medicines derived from plant compounds include aspirin, codeine, digoxin, atropine, and vincristine ( Figure 21.5 ). Many medications were once derived from plant extracts but are now synthesized. It is estimated that, at one time, 25 percent of modern drugs contained at least one plant extract. That number has probably decreased to about 10 percent as natural plant ingredients are replaced by synthetic versions of the plant compounds. Antibiotics, which are responsible for extraordinary improvements in health and lifespans in developed countries, are compounds largely derived from fungi and bacteria.

In recent years, animal venoms and poisons have excited intense research for their medicinal potential. By 2007, the FDA had approved five drugs based on animal toxins to treat diseases such as hypertension, chronic pain, and diabetes. Another five drugs are undergoing clinical trials and at least six drugs are being used in other countries. Other toxins under investigation come from mammals, snakes, lizards, various amphibians, fish, snails, octopuses, and scorpions.

Aside from representing billions of dollars in profits, these medications improve people’s lives. Pharmaceutical companies are actively looking for new natural compounds that can function as medicines. It is estimated that one third of pharmaceutical research and development is spent on natural compounds and that about 35 percent of new drugs brought to market between 1981 and 2002 were from natural compounds.

Finally, it has been argued that humans benefit psychologically from living in a biodiverse world. The chief proponent of this idea is entomologist E. O. Wilson. He argues that human evolutionary history has adapted us to living in a natural environment and that built environments generate stresses that affect human health and well-being. There is considerable research into the psychologically regenerative benefits of natural landscapes that suggest the hypothesis may hold some truth.

Agricultural

Since the beginning of human agriculture more than 10,000 years ago, human groups have been breeding and selecting crop varieties. This crop diversity matched the cultural diversity of highly subdivided populations of humans. For example, potatoes were domesticated beginning around 7,000 years ago in the central Andes of Peru and Bolivia. The people in this region traditionally lived in relatively isolated settlements separated by mountains. The potatoes grown in that region belong to seven species and the number of varieties likely is in the thousands. Each variety has been bred to thrive at particular elevations and soil and climate conditions. The diversity is driven by the diverse demands of the dramatic elevation changes, the limited movement of people, and the demands created by crop rotation for different varieties that will do well in different fields.

Potatoes are only one example of agricultural diversity. Every plant, animal, and fungus that has been cultivated by humans has been bred from original wild ancestor species into diverse varieties arising from the demands for food value, adaptation to growing conditions, and resistance to pests. The potato demonstrates a well-known example of the risks of low crop diversity: during the tragic Irish potato famine (1845–1852 AD), the single potato variety grown in Ireland became susceptible to a potato blight—wiping out the crop. The loss of the crop led to famine, death, and mass emigration. Resistance to disease is a chief benefit to maintaining crop biodiversity and lack of diversity in contemporary crop species carries similar risks. Seed companies, which are the source of most crop varieties in developed countries, must continually breed new varieties to keep up with evolving pest organisms. These same seed companies, however, have participated in the decline of the number of varieties available as they focus on selling fewer varieties in more areas of the world replacing traditional local varieties.

The ability to create new crop varieties relies on the diversity of varieties available and the availability of wild forms related to the crop plant. These wild forms are often the source of new gene variants that can be bred with existing varieties to create varieties with new attributes. Loss of wild species related to a crop will mean the loss of potential in crop improvement. Maintaining the genetic diversity of wild species related to domesticated species ensures our continued supply of food.

Since the 1920s, government agriculture departments have maintained seed banks of crop varieties as a way to maintain crop diversity. This system has flaws because over time seed varieties are lost through accidents and there is no way to replace them. In 2008, the Svalbard Global seed Vault, located on Spitsbergen island, Norway, ( Figure 21.6 ) began storing seeds from around the world as a backup system to the regional seed banks. If a regional seed bank stores varieties in Svalbard, losses can be replaced from Svalbard should something happen to the regional seeds. The Svalbard seed vault is deep into the rock of the arctic island. Conditions within the vault are maintained at ideal temperature and humidity for seed survival, but the deep underground location of the vault in the arctic means that failure of the vault’s systems will not compromise the climatic conditions inside the vault.

Visual Connection

The Svalbard seed vault is located on Spitsbergen island in Norway, which has an arctic climate. Why might an arctic climate be good for seed storage?

Although crops are largely under our control, our ability to grow them is dependent on the biodiversity of the ecosystems in which they are grown. That biodiversity creates the conditions under which crops are able to grow through what are known as ecosystem services—valuable conditions or processes that are carried out by an ecosystem. Crops are not grown, for the most part, in built environments. They are grown in soil. Although some agricultural soils are rendered sterile using controversial pesticide treatments, most contain a huge diversity of organisms that maintain nutrient cycles—breaking down organic matter into nutrient compounds that crops need for growth. These organisms also maintain soil texture that affects water and oxygen dynamics in the soil that are necessary for plant growth. Replacing the work of these organisms in forming arable soil is not practically possible. These kinds of processes are called ecosystem services. They occur within ecosystems, such as soil ecosystems, as a result of the diverse metabolic activities of the organisms living there, but they provide benefits to human food production, drinking water availability, and breathable air.

Other key ecosystem services related to food production are plant pollination and crop pest control. It is estimated that honeybee pollination within the United States brings in $1.6 billion per year; other pollinators contribute up to $6.7 billion. Over 150 crops in the United States require pollination to produce. Many honeybee populations are managed by beekeepers who rent out their hives’ services to farmers. Honeybee populations in North America have been suffering large losses caused by a syndrome known as colony collapse disorder, a new phenomenon with an unclear cause. Other pollinators include a diverse array of other bee species and various insects and birds. Loss of these species would make growing crops requiring pollination impossible, increasing dependence on other crops.

Finally, humans compete for their food with crop pests, most of which are insects. Pesticides control these competitors, but these are costly and lose their effectiveness over time as pest populations adapt. They also lead to collateral damage by killing non-pest species as well as beneficial insects like honeybees, and risking the health of agricultural workers and consumers. Moreover, these pesticides may migrate from the fields where they are applied and do damage to other ecosystems like streams, lakes, and even the ocean. Ecologists believe that the bulk of the work in removing pests is actually done by predators and parasites of those pests, but the impact has not been well studied. A review found that in 74 percent of studies that looked for an effect of landscape complexity (forests and fallow fields near to crop fields) on natural enemies of pests, the greater the complexity, the greater the effect of pest-suppressing organisms. Another experimental study found that introducing multiple enemies of pea aphids (an important alfalfa pest) increased the yield of alfalfa significantly. This study shows that a diversity of pests is more effective at control than one single pest. Loss of diversity in pest enemies will inevitably make it more difficult and costly to grow food. The world’s growing human population faces significant challenges in the increasing costs and other difficulties associated with producing food.

Wild Food Sources

In addition to growing crops and raising food animals, humans obtain food resources from wild populations, primarily wild fish populations. For about one billion people, aquatic resources provide the main source of animal protein. But since 1990, production from global fisheries has declined. Despite considerable effort, few fisheries on Earth are managed sustainability.

Fishery extinctions rarely lead to complete extinction of the harvested species, but rather to a radical restructuring of the marine ecosystem in which a dominant species is so over-harvested that it becomes a minor player, ecologically. In addition to humans losing the food source, these alterations affect many other species in ways that are difficult or impossible to predict. The collapse of fisheries has dramatic and long-lasting effects on local human populations that work in the fishery. In addition, the loss of an inexpensive protein source to populations that cannot afford to replace it will increase the cost of living and limit societies in other ways. In general, the fish taken from fisheries have shifted to smaller species and the larger species are overfished. The ultimate outcome could clearly be the loss of aquatic systems as food sources.

Link to Learning

Visit this website to view a brief video discussing a study of declining fisheries.

• 1 International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE), 2011 State of Observed Species (SOS) . Tempe, AZ: IISE, 2011. Accessed May, 20, 2012. http://species.asu.edu/SOS.

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• Authors: Samantha Fowler, Rebecca Roush, James Wise
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• Book title: Concepts of Biology
• Publication date: Apr 25, 2013
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• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/concepts-biology/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/concepts-biology/pages/21-1-importance-of-biodiversity

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1 (page 3) p. 3 C1 What is biodiversity, and why does it matter?

• Published: July 2023
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This chapter discusses the concept of biodiversity, the diversity of life at different scales. Biodiversity is crucial to safeguarding human well-being, as well as the well-being of nature and all its moving parts. The chapter begins by providing an overview of the astonishing range of life on Earth, before explaining how biodiversity is assembled into communities. Biomes are the regions of Earth that can be distinguished by their climate, fauna, and flora, with the organisms that live in each biome adapted to its circumstances. The five major types of biome include aquatic, grassland, forest, desert, and tundra. The chapter then considers biodiversity hotspots and the ecosystem services underpinned by biodiversity.

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Biodiversity & Human Well-being

• Level 1: Summary
• Level 2: Details
• Level 3: Source

1. Biodiversity: What is it, where is it, and why is it important?

• 1.1 What is biodiversity?

1.2.1 Spatial Patterns of Biodiversity

1.2.2 temporal patterns of biodiversity, 1.3.1 supporting services, 1.3.2 regulating services.

The source document for this Digest states:

Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species , between species, and of ecosystems. Biodiversity forms the foundation of the vast array of ecosystem services that critically contribute to human well-being . Biodiversity is important in human-managed as well as natural ecosystems. Decisions humans make that influence biodiversity affect the well-being of themselves and others. Biodiversity is the foundation of ecosystem services to which human well-being is intimately linked. No feature of Earth is more complex, dynamic, and varied than the layer of living organisms that occupy its surfaces and its seas, and no feature is experiencing more dramatic change at the hands of humans than this extraordinary, singularly unique feature of Earth. This layer of living organisms—the biosphere—through the collective metabolic activities of its innumerable plants, animals, and microbes physically and chemically unites the atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere into one environmental system within which millions of species , including humans, have thrived. Breathable air, potable water, fertile soils, productive lands, bountiful seas, the equitable climate of Earth’s recent history, and other ecosystem services (see Box 1.1 and Key Question 2 ) are manifestations of the workings of life. It follows that large-scale human influences over this biota have tremendous impacts on human well-being. It also follows that the nature of these impacts, good or bad, is within the power of humans to influence ( CF2 ). Defining Biodiversity Biodiversity is 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 part; this includes diversity within species , between species and of ecosystems.” The importance of this definition is that it draws attention to the many dimensions of biodiversity. It explicitly recognizes that every biota can be characterized by its taxonomic, ecological, and genetic diversity and that the way these dimensions of diversity vary over space and time is a key feature of biodiversity. Thus only a multidimensional assessment of biodiversity can provide insights into the relationship between changes in biodiversity and changes in ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services ( CF2 ). Biodiversity includes all ecosystems—managed or unmanaged. Sometimes biodiversity is presumed to be a relevant feature of only unmanaged ecosystems , such as wildlands, nature preserves, or national parks. This is incorrect. Managed systems—be they planta­tions, farms, croplands, aquaculture sites, rangelands, or even urban parks and urban ecosystems—have their own biodiversity. Given that cultivated systems alone now account for more than 24% of Earth’s terrestrial surface, it is critical that any decision concerning biodiversity or ecosystem services address the maintenance of biodi­versity in these largely anthropogenic systems ( C26.1 ). Measuring Biodiversity : Species Richness and Indicators In spite of many tools and data sources, biodiversity remains difficult to quantify precisely. But precise answers are seldom needed to devise an effective understanding of where biodiversity is, how it is changing over space and time, the drivers responsible for such change, the consequences of such change for ecosystem services and human well-being , and the response options available. Ideally, to assess the conditions and trends of biodiversity either globally or sub-globally, it is necessary to measure the abundance of all organisms over space and time, using taxonomy (such as the number of species ), functional traits (for example, the ecological type such as nitrogen-fixing plants like legumes versus non-nitrogen-fixing plants), and the interactions among species that affect their dynamics and function (predation, parasitism, compe­tition, and facilitation such as pollination, for instance, and how strongly such interactions affect ecosystems ). Even more important would be to estimate turnover of biodiversity, not just point estimates in space or time. Currently, it is not possible to do this with much accuracy because the data are lacking. Even for the taxonomic component of biodiversity, where information is the best, considerable uncertainty remains about the true extent and changes in taxonomic diversity ( C4 ). There are many measures of biodiversity ; species richness (the number of species in a given area) represents a single but important metric that is valuable as the common currency of the diversity of life—but it must be integrated with other metrics to fully capture biodiversity. Because the multidimensionality of biodiversity poses formidable challenges to its measurement, a variety of surrogate or proxy measures are often used. These include the species richness of specific taxa, the number of distinct plant functional types (such as grasses, forbs, bushes, or trees), or the diversity of distinct gene sequences in a sample of microbial DNA taken from the soil. Species- or other taxon-based measures of biodiversity, however, rarely capture key attributes such as variability, function, quantity, and distribution—all of which provide insight into the roles of biodiversity. (See Box 1.2 ) Ecological indicators are scientific constructs that use quantitative data to measure aspects of biodiversity , ecosystem condition, services, or drivers of change, but no single ecological indicator captures all the dimensions of biodiversity ( C2.2.4 ). (See Box 1.3 ) Ecological indicators form a critical component of monitoring, assessment, and decision-making and are designed to communicate information quickly and easily to policy-makers . In a similar manner, economic indicators such as GDP are highly influential and well understood by decision-makers . Some environmental indicators, such as global mean temperature and atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, are becoming widely accepted as measures of anthropogenic effects on global climate. Ecological indicators are founded on much the same principles and therefore carry with them similar pros and cons ( C2.2.4 ). (See Box 1.4 )."

Box 1.1 Linkages among Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Human Well-being

Box 1.2: Measuring and Estimating Biodiversity: More than Species Richness

Box 1.3: Ecological Indicators and Biodiversity

Box 1.4: Criteria for Effective Ecological Indicators

• 1.2 Where is biodiversity?

Biodiversity is essentially everywhere, ubiquitous on Earth’s surface and in every drop of its bodies of water. The virtual omnipresence of life on Earth is seldom appreciated because most organisms are small (<5 centimeters); their presence is sparse, ephemeral, or cryptic, or, in the case of microbes, they are invisible to the unaided human eye ( CF2 ). Figure 1.1 Estimates of the proportion of named species Documenting spatial patterns in biodiversity is difficult because taxonomic, functional, trophic, genetic, and other dimensions of biodiversity have been relatively poorly quantified. Even knowledge of taxonomic diversity , the best known dimension of biodiversity, is incomplete and strongly biased toward the species level, megafauna, temperate systems, and components used by people. (See Figure 1.1 ) This results in significant gaps in knowledge, especially regarding the status of tropical systems, marine and freshwater biota, plants, invertebrates, microorganisms, and subterranean biota. For these reasons, estimates of the total number of species on Earth range from 5 million to 30 million. Irrespective of actual global species richness, however, it is clear that the 1.7–2 million species that have been formally identified represent only a small portion of total species richness. More-complete biotic inventories are badly needed to correct for this deficiency ( C4 ).

Spatial Patterns of Biodiversity : Hotspots, Biomes ,1 Biogeographic Realms, Ecosystems , and Ecoregions Figure 1.3 Map of the different biomes While the data to hand are often insufficient to provide accurate pictures of the extent and distribution of all components of biodiversity , there are, nevertheless, many patterns and tools that decision-makers can use to derive useful approximations for both terrestrial and marine ecosystems . North-temperate regions often have usable data on spatial distributions of many taxa, and some groups (such as birds, mammals, reptiles, plants, butterflies, and dragonflies) are reasonably well documented globally. Biogeographic principles (such as gradients in species richness associated with latitude, temperature, salinity, and water depth) or the use of indicators can supplement available biotic inventories. Global and sub-global maps of species richness, several of which are provided in the MA reports Current State and Trends and Scenarios , provide valuable pictures of the distribution of biodiversity ( C4 , S10 ). Most macroscopic organisms have small, often clustered geographical ranges, leading to centers of both high diversity and endemism, frequently concentrated in isolated or topographically variable regions (islands, mountains, peninsulas). A large proportion of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity at the species level is concentrated in a small part of the world, mostly in the tropics. Even among the larger and more mobile species, such as terrestrial vertebrates, more than one third of all species have ranges of less than 1,000 square kilometers. In contrast, local and regional diversity of microorganisms tends to be more similar to large-scale and global diversity because of their large population size, greater dispersal, larger range sizes, and lower levels of regional species clustering ( C4.2.3 ). Figure 1.2 Species richness in different biomes Biomes and biogeographic realms provide broad pictures of the distribution of functional diversity . Functional diversity (the variety of different ecological functions in a community independent of its taxonomic diversity) shows patterns of associations (biota typical of wetlands, forests, grasslands, estuaries, and so forth) with geography and climate known as biomes (see Figure 1.2 ), with ecosystems and ecoregions being smaller divisions within biomes (see Figure 1.3 ). These can be used to provide first-order approximations of both expected functional diversity as well as possible changes in the distribution of these associations should environmental conditions change.

Temporal Patterns of Biodiversity : Background Rates of Extinction and Biodiversity Loss Knowledge of patterns of biodiversity over time allow for only very approximate estimates of background rates of extinction or of how fast species have become extinct over geological time. Except for the last 1,000 years, global biodiversity has been relatively constant over most of human history, but the history of life is characterized by considerable change. The estimated magnitude of background rates of extinction is roughly 0.1–1.0 extinctions per million species per year. Most measurements of this rate have come from assessing the length of species’ lifetimes through the fossil record: these range over 0.5–13 million years, and possibly 0.2–16 million years. These data probably underes­timate background extinction rates because they are necessarily largely derived from taxa that are abundant and widespread in the fossil record ( C4.4.2 ). Current rates of extinction are discussed in Key Question 3. A mismatch exists between the dynamics of changes in natural systems and human responses to those changes. This mismatch arises from the lags in ecological responses, the complex feedbacks between socioeconomic and ecological systems, and the difficulty of predicting thresholds . Multiple impacts (especially the addition of climate change to the mix of forcing functions) can cause thresholds, or rapid and dramatic changes in ecosystem function even though the increase in environmental stress has been small and constant over time. Understanding such thresholds requires having long-term records, but such records are usually lacking or monitoring has been too infrequent, of the wrong periodicity, or too localized to provide the necessary data to analyze and predict threshold behavior ( C28 , S3.3.1 ). Shifts to different regimes may cause rapid substantial changes in biodiversity , ecosystem services , and human well-being . Regime shifts have been commonly documented in pelagic systems due to thresholds related to temperature regimes and overexploitation ( C19.2.1, C18 ). Some regime shifts are essentially irreversible, such as coral reef ecosystems that undergo sudden shifts from coral-dominated to algal-dominated reefs ( C19.5 ). The trigger for such phase shifts usually includes increased nutrient inputs leading to eutrophic conditions and removal of herbivorous fishes that maintain the balance between corals and algae. Once the thresholds (both an upper and a lower threshold) for the two ecological processes of nutrient loading and herbivory are passed, the phase shift occurs quickly (within months), and the resulting ecosystem—though stable—is less productive and less diverse. Consequently, human well-being is affected not only by reductions in food supply and decreased income from reef-related industries (diving and snorkeling, aquarium fish collecting, and so on), but also by increased costs due to diminished ability of reefs to protect shorelines. (Algal reefs are more prone to being broken up in storm events, leading to shoreline erosion and seawater breaches of land) ( C19 .3). Such phase shifts have been documented in Jamaica, elsewhere in the Caribbean, and in Indo-Pacific reefs ( C19 , S3.3.1 ). Introduced invasive species can act as a trigger for dramatic changes in ecosystem structure, function, and delivery of services. For example, the introduction of the carnivorous ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi (a jellyfish-like animal) in the Black Sea caused the loss of 26 major fisheries species and has been implicated (along with other factors) in the subsequent growth of the oxygen-deprived “dead” zone ( C19.2.1 ).

• 1.3 What is the link between biodiversity and ecosystem services?

Biodiversity plays an important role in ecosystem functions that provide supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural services. These services are essential for human well-being . However, at present there are few studies that link changes in biodiversity with changes in ecosystem functioning to changes in human well-being. Protecting the Catskill watersheds that provide drinking water for New York City is one case where safeguarding ecosystem services paid a dividend of several billion dollars. Further work that demonstrates the links between biodiversity, regulating and supporting services , and human well-being is needed to show this vital but often unappreciated value of biodiversity ( C4, C7, C11 ). Species composition matters as much or more than species richness when it comes to ecosystem services . Ecosystem functioning, and hence ecosystem services, at any given moment in time is strongly influenced by the ecological characteristics of the most abundant species, not by the number of species. The relative importance of a species to ecosystem functioning is determined by its traits and its relative abundance. For example, the traits of the dominant or most abundant plant species—such as how long they live, how big they are, how fast they assimilate carbon and nutrients , how decomposable their leaves are, or how dense their wood is—are usually the key species drivers of an ecosystem’s processing of matter and energy. Thus conserving or restoring the composition of biological communities , rather than simply maximizing species numbers, is critical to maintaining ecosystem services ( C11.2.1, C11.3 ). Local or functional extinction, or the reduction of populations to the point that they no longer contribute to ecosystem functioning, can have dramatic impacts on ecosystem services . Local extinctions (the loss of a species from a local area) and functional extinctions (the reduction of a species such that it no longer plays a significant role in ecosystem function) have received little attention compared with global extinctions (loss of all individuals of a species from its entire range). Loss of ecosystem functions, and the services derived from them, however, occurs long before global extinction. Often, when the functioning of a local ecosystem has been pushed beyond a certain limit by direct or indirect biodiversity alterations, the ecosystem-service losses may persist for a very long time ( C11 ). Changes in biotic interactions among species—predation, parasitism, competition, and facilitation—can lead to disproportionately large, irreversible, and often negative alterations of ecosystem processes . In addition to direct interactions, such as predation, parasitism, or facilitation, the maintenance of ecosystem processes depends on indirect interactions as well, such as a predator preying on a dominant competitor such that the dominant is suppressed, which permits subordinate species to coexist. Interactions with important consequences for ecosystem services include pollination; links between plants and soil communities , including mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing microorganisms; links between plants and herbivores and seed dispersers; interactions involving organisms that modify habitat conditions (beavers that build ponds, for instance, or tussock grasses that increase fire frequency); and indirect interactions involving more than two species (such as top predators, parasites, or pathogens that control herbivores and thus avoid overgrazing of plants or algal communities) ( C11.3.2 ). Many changes in ecosystem services are brought about by the removal or introduction of organisms in ecosystems that disrupt biotic interactions or ecosystem processes . Because the network of interactions among species and the network of linkages among ecosystem processes are complex, the impacts of either the removal of existing species or the introduction of new species are difficult to anticipate ( C11 ). (See Table 1.1 ) Table 1.1: Ecological Surprises Caused by Complex Interactions As in terrestrial and aquatic communities , the loss of individual species involved in key interactions in marine ecosystems can also influence ecosystem processes and the provisioning of ecological services. For example, coral reefs and the ecosystem services they provide are directly dependent on the maintenance of some key interactions between animals and algae. As one of the most species-rich communities on Earth, coral reefs are responsible for maintaining a vast storehouse of genetic and biological diversity . Substantial ecosystem services are provided by coral reefs—such as habitat construction, nurseries, and spawning grounds for fish; nutrient cycling and carbon and nitrogen fixing in nutrient - poor environments; and wave buffering and sediment stabilization. The total economic value of reefs and associated services is estimated as hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet all coral reefs are dependent on a single key biotic interaction: symbiosis with algae. The dramatic effects of climate change and variability (such as El Niño oscillations) on coral reefs are medi­ated by the disruption of this symbiosis ( C11.4.2 )."

Figure 1.4 Biodiversity and ecosystem services Biodiversity affects key ecosystem processes in terrestrial ecosystems such as biomass production , nutrient and water cycling, and soil formation and retention—all of which govern and ensure supporting services (high certainty). The relationship between biodiversity and supporting ecosystem services depends on composition, relative abundance, functional diversity , and, to a lesser extent, taxonomic diversity. If multiple dimensions of biodiversity are driven to very low levels, especially trophic or functional diversity within an ecosystem, both the level and stability (for instance, biological insurance) of supportive services may decrease ( CF2 , C11 ). (See Figure 1.4 ) Region-to-region differences in ecosystem processes are driven mostly by climate, resource availability, disturbance, and other extrinsic factors and not by differences in species richness (high certainty). In natural ecosystems , the effects of abiotic and land use drivers on ecosystem services are usually more important than changes in species richness. Plant productivity , nutrient retention, and resistance to invasions and diseases sometimes grow with increasing species numbers in experimental ecosystems that have been reduced to low levels of biodiversity . In natural ecosystems, however, these direct effects of increasing species richness are usually overridden by the effects of climate, resource availability, or disturbance regime ( C11.3 ). Even if losses of biodiversity have small short-term impacts on ecosystem function, such losses may reduce the capacity of ecosystems for adjustment to changing environments (that is, ecosystem stability or resilience, resistance, and biological insurance) (high certainty). The loss of multiple components of biodiversity, especially functional and ecosystem diversity at the landscape level, will lead to lowered ecosystem stability (high certainty). Although the stability of an ecosystem depends to a large extent on the characteristics of the dominant species (such as life span, growth rate, or regeneration strategy), less abundant species also contribute to the long-term preservation of ecosystem functioning. There is evidence that a large number of resident species, including those that are rare, may act as “insurance” that buffers ecosystem processes in the face of changes in the physical and biological environment (such as changes in precipitation, temperature, pathogens) ( C11.3.2 ). As tragically illustrated by social conflict and humanitarian crisis over droughts, floods, and other ecosystem collapses, stability of ecosystems underpins most components of human well-being , including health , security, satisfactory social relations, and freedom of choice and action ( C6 ; see also Key Question 2).

Invasion resistance The preservation of the number, types, and relative abundance of resident species can enhance invasion resistance in a wide range of natural and semi-natural ecosystems (medium certainty). Although areas of high species richness (such as biodiversity hot spots) are more susceptible to invasion than species- poor areas, within a given habitat the preservation of its natural species pool appears to increase its resistance to invasions by non-native species. This is also supported by evidence from several marine ecosystems, where decreases in the richness of native taxa were correlated with increased survival and percent cover of invading species ( C11.3.1, C11.4.1 ). Pollination Pollination is essential for the provision of plant-derived ecosystem services , yet there have been worldwide declines in pollinator diversity (medium certainty). Many fruits and vegetables require pollinators, thus pollination services are critical to the production of a considerable portion of the vitamins and minerals in the human diet. Although there is no assessment at the continental level, documented declines in more-restricted geographical areas include mammals (lemurs and bats, for example) and birds (hummingbirds and sunbirds, for instance), bumblebees in Britain and Germany, honeybees in the United States and some European countries, and butterflies in Europe. The causes of these declines are multiple, but habitat destruction and the use of pesticide are especially important. Estimates of the global annual monetary value of pollination vary widely, but they are in the order of hundreds of billions of dollars ( C11.3.2 , Box C11.2). Climate regulation Biodiversity influences climate at local, regional, and global scales, thus changes in land use and land cover that affect biodiversity can affect climate. The important components of biodiversity include plant functional diversity and the type and distribution of habitats across landscapes . These influence the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to sequester carbon, albedo (proportion of incoming radiation from the Sun that is reflected by the land surface back to space), evapotranspiration, tempera­ture, and fire regime—all of which influence climate, especially at the landscape, ecosystem , or biome levels. For example, forests have higher evapotranspiration than other ecosystems, such as grasslands, because of their deeper roots and greater leaf area. Thus forests have a net moistening effect on the atmosphere and become a moisture source for downwind ecosystems. In the Amazon, for example, 60% of precipitation comes from water transpired by upwind ecosystems ( C11.3.3 ). In addition to biodiversity within habitats, the diversity of habitats in a landscape exerts additional impacts on climate across multiple scales. Landscape-level patches (>10 kilometers in diameter) that have lower albedo and higher surface temperature than neighboring patches create cells of rising warm air above the patch (convection). This air is replaced by cooler moister air that flows laterally from adjacent patches (advection). Climate models suggest that these landscape-level effects can substantially modify local-to-regional climate. In Western Australia, for example, the replacement of native heath vegetation by wheatlands increased regional albedo. As a result, air tended to rise over the dark (more solar-absorptive and therefore warmer) heathland, drawing moist air from the wheatlands to the heathlands. The net effect was a 10% increase in precipitation over heathlands and a 30% decrease in precipitation over croplands ( C11.3.3 ). Some components of biodiversity affect carbon sequestration and thus are important in carbon-based climate change mitigation when afforestation, reforestation, reduced deforestation, and biofuel plantations are involved (high certainty). Biodiversity affects carbon sequestration primarily through its effects on species characteristics, which determine how much carbon is taken up from the atmosphere (assimilation) and how much is released into it (decomposition, combustion). Particularly important are how fast plants can grow, which governs carbon inputs, and woodiness, which enhances carbon sequestration because woody plants tend to contain more carbon, live longer, and decompose more slowly than smaller herbaceous plants. Plant species also strongly influence carbon loss via decomposition and their effects on disturbance. Plant traits also influence the probability of disturbances such as fire, windthrow, and human harvest, which temporarily change forests from accumulating carbon to releasing it ( C11.3.3 ). The major importance of marine biodiversity in climate regulation appears to be via its effect on biogeochemical cycling and carbon sequestration . The ocean, through its sheer volume and links to the terrestrial biosphere, plays a huge role in cycling of almost every material involved in biotic processes. Of these, the anthropogenic effects on carbon and nitrogen cycling are especially prominent. Biodiversity influences the effectiveness of the biological pump that moves carbon from the surface ocean and sequesters it in deep waters and sediments. Some of the carbon that is absorbed by marine photosynthesis and transferred through food webs to grazers sinks to the deep ocean as fecal pellets and dead cells. The efficiency of this trophic transfer and therefore the extent of carbon sequestration is sensitive to the species richness and composition of the plankton community ( C11.4.3 ). Pest, disease, and pollution control The maintenance of natural pest control services, which benefits food security, rural household incomes, and national incomes of many countries, is strongly dependent on biodiversity . Yields of desired products from agroecosystems may be reduced by attacks of animal herbivores and microbial pathogens, above and below ground, and by competition with weeds. Increasing associated biodiversity with low- diversity agroecosystems, however, can enhance biological control and reduce the dependency and costs associated with biocides. Moreover, high-biodiversity agriculture has cultural and aesthetic value and can reduce many of the externalized costs of irrigation, fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide inputs associated with monoculture agriculture ( C11.3.4 , Boxes C11.3 and C11.4). The marine microbial community provides critical detoxification services, but how biodiversity influences them is not well understood. There is very little information on how many species are necessary to provide detoxification services, but these services may critically depend on one or a few species. Some marine organisms provide the ecosystem service of filtering water and reducing effects of eutrophication . For example, American oysters in Chesapeake Bay were once abundant but have sharply declined—and with them, their filtering ecosystem services . Areas like the Chesapeake might have much clearer water if large populations of filtering oysters could be reintroduced. Some marine microbes can degrade toxic hydrocarbons, such as those in an oil spill, into carbon and water, using a process that requires oxygen. Thus this service is threatened by nutrient pollution, which generates oxygen deprivation ( C11.4.4 ).

• 2. Why is biodiversity loss a concern?
• 3. What are the current trends in biodiversity?
• 4. What factors lead to biodiversity loss?
• 5. How might biodiversity change in the future under various plausible scenarios?
• 6. What actions can be taken to conserve biodiversity?
• 7. Can the 2010 biodiversity targets be met?
• 8. Conclusion: main findings

• Accidental poisoning
• Acrylamide in food
• Acupuncture
• Agriculture
• Aids Epidemic
• Air Pollution Europe
• Air quality in Europe
• Allergenic fragrances
• Aluminium exposure
• Animal testing
• Antibiotic resistance
• Antibiotics Research
• Antimicrobial resistance
• Aquatic environment
• Arctic Climate Change
• Artificial Light
• Artificial Light and Health
• Aspartame Reevaluation
• Aspirin & Cancer
• Benzodiazepines
• Biodiversity
• Biological Diversity
• Biosecurity
• Bisphenol A
• CO 2 Capture & Storage
• Cancer rates and mortality, types and causes
• Chemical Mixtures
• Children & Screens
• Chlorine Sodium Hypochlorite
• Chlorpyrifos pesticide
• Chronic Diseases on Labour Practices
• Circular Economy
• Climate Change
• Climate Change Mitigation
• Climate impact of shale gas
• Climate impacts adaptation
• Dental Amalgams
• Dental Fillings
• Desertification
• Diet & Nutrition
• Ecosystem Change
• Effects of cannabis
• Electromagnetic Fields
• Electronic Cigarettes
• Endocrine Disruptors
• Endocrine disrupting properties of pesticides
• Endocrine disruptors risks
• Energy Saving Lamps
• Energy Technologies
• Epidemic diseases
• Estrogen-progestogen cancer risk
• Europe Green Deal
• Evaluation of endocrine disruptors
• Exposure to chemical mixtures
• Fisheries and aquaculture
• Fluorinated gases
• Food & Agriculture
• Food Wastage
• Forests & Energy
• Forests & agriculture land use
• Fukushima Consequences
• Fukushima accident
• Genetically Modified Crops
• Geothermal Energy
• Global Biodiversity Outlook 4
• Global Public Health Threats
• Global Warming
• Gluten intolerance
• Glyphosate and cancer
• Hazardous chemicals
• Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields
• Health Environment Management
• Illicit drugs in Europe
• Impacts of a 4°C global warming
• India Millennium Development Goals
• Indonesian forests
• Indoor Air Quality
• Land Degradation and Desertification
• Lyme Disease
• Marine Litter
• Marine litter
• Mercury from dental amalgam
• Mercury in CFL
• Metal-on-Metal hip implants
• Methylene glycol
• Mineral extraction risks
• Multiple vaccinations
• Nano-silica
• Nanomaterials
• Nanotechnologies
• Neonicotinoids
• Nitrogen Dioxide
• Non-human primates
• Organic Food
• Ozone layer depletion
• Parabens used in cosmetics
• Particulate Matter
• Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)
• Personal Music Players & Hearing
• Pesticides occupational risks
• Pharmaceuticals environment
• Phosphate resources
• Phthalates Comparison
• Phthalates in school supplies
• Poly brominated flame retardant decaBDE
• Power lines
• Psychoactive Drugs
• Radiological nuclear emergency
• Respiratory Diseases
• Safety of Cosmetics
• Safety of sunscreens
• Sand Extraction
• Security Scanners
• Silver Nanoparticles
• Single-use plastics
• Soils degradation
• Solar Energy
• State of the European Environment
• Static Fields
• Substitution of harmful chemicals
• Sulfaxoflor Pesticide
• Sunbeds & UV radiation
• Sustainable oceans
• Synthetic Biology
• Thorium nuclear fuel
• Tidal Energy
• Titanium dioxide nanoparticles
• Tooth Whiteners
• Transgenic salmon
• Tuberculosis
• Wastewater management
• Water Disinfectants
• Water Resources
• Water Resources Assessments
• Water resources
• Wind Resources
• X-Ray Full-Body Scanners

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Why is biodiversity important?

Biodiversity is essential for the processes that support all life on Earth, including humans. Without a wide range of animals, plants and microorganisms, we cannot have the healthy ecosystems that we rely on to provide us with the air we breathe and the food we eat. And people also value nature of itself.

Some aspects of biodiversity are instinctively widely valued by people but the more we study biodiversity the more we see that all of it is important – even bugs and bacteria that we can’t see or may not like the look of. There are lots of ways that humans depend upon biodiversity and it is vital for us to conserve it. Pollinators such as birds, bees and other insects are estimated to be responsible for a third of the world’s crop production. Without pollinators we would not have apples, cherries, blueberries, almonds and many other foods we eat. Agriculture is also reliant upon invertebrates – they help to maintain the health of the soil crops grow in.  Soil is teeming with microbes that are vital for liberating nutrients that plants need to grow, which are then also passed to us when we eat them. Life from the oceans provides the main source of animal protein for many people.

Trees, bushes and wetlands and wild grasslands naturally slow down water and help soil to absorb rainfall. When they are removed it can increase flooding. Trees and other plants clean the air we breathe and help us tackle the global challenge of climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide. Coral reefs and mangrove forests act as natural defences protecting coastlines from waves and storms. 

Many of our medicines, along with other complex chemicals that we use in our daily lives such as latex and rubber, also originate from plants. Spending time in nature is increasingly understood to lead to improvements in people’s physical and mental health. Simply having green spaces and trees in cities has been shown to decrease hospital admissions, reduce stress and lower blood pressure.

Further reading

Plural valuation of nature matters for environmental sustainability and justice by Berta Martin-Lopez, Social-Ecological Systems Institute, Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany

Climate change and biodiversity

Human activities are changing the climate. Science can help us understand what we are doing to habitats and the climate, but also find solutions.

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133 Biodiversity Topics & Examples

🔝 top-10 biodiversity topics for presentation, 🏆 best biodiversity project topics, 💡 most interesting biodiversity assignment topics, 📌 simple & easy biodiversity related topics, 👍 good biodiversity title ideas, ❓ biodiversity research topics.

• Biodiversity loss.
• Global biodiversity conservation.
• The Amazon rainforest.
• Animal ecology research.
• Sub Saharan Africa.
• Marine biodiversity.
• Threats to ecosystems.
• Plant ecology.
• Importance of environmental conservation.
• Evolution of animal species.
• Biodiversity Hotspots: The Philippines The International Conservation has classified the Philippines as one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world. Additionally, the country is said to be one of the areas that are endangered in the world.
• Biodiversity Benefits for Ecology This variation of species in the ecosystem is a very important concept and factor that indeed is the basis for sustaining life on our planet. Moreover, the most important supporter of life, which is soil […]
• Aspects, Importance and Issues of Biodiversity Genetic diversity is a term used to refer to the dissimilitude of organisms of the same species. Species diversity is used to refer to dissimilitude of organisms in a given region.
• Climate Change’s Negative Impact on Biodiversity This essay’s primary objective is to trace and evaluate the impact of climate change on biological diversity through the lens of transformations in the marine and forest ecosystems and evaluation of the agricultural sector both […]
• Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions It is estimated that the number of species that have become extinct is greater than the number of species that are currently found on earth.
• Habitat Destruction and Biodiversity Extinctions The instance of extinction is by and large regarded as the demise of the very last character of the genus. Habitat obliteration has played a major part in wiping out of species, and it is […]
• Biodiversity Conservation: Tropical Rainforest The forest is not a threat to many species and that, therefore, helps in showing that conserving this forest will be of great benefit to many species. The disadvantage of conserving the Mangrove Forest is […]
• Coral Reef and Biodiversity in Ecosystems Coral reefs are formed only in the tropical zone of the ocean; the temperature limits their life – are from +18 to +29oS, and at the slightest deviation from the boundaries of the coral die.
• Loss of Biodiversity in the Amazon Ecosystem The growth of the human population and the expansion of global economies have contributed to the significant loss of biodiversity despite the initial belief that the increase of resources can halt the adverse consequences of […]
• The Importance of Biodiversity in Ecosystem The most urgent problem right now is to maintain the level of biodiversity in this world but it has to begin with a more in-depth understanding of how different species of flora and fauna can […]
• When Human Diet Costs Too Much: Biodiversity as the Ultimate Answer to the Global Problems Because of the unreasonable use of the natural resources, environmental pollution and inadequate protection, people have led a number of species to extinction; moreover, due to the increasing rates of consumerist approach towards the food […]
• Biology Lab Report: Biodiversity Study of Lichens As a consequence of these results, the variety of foods found in forest flora that include lichens may be linked to varying optimum conditions for establishment and development.
• Biodiversity: Aspects Within the Sphere of Biology Finally, living objects consist of cells, which are the basic units of their function and structure. The viruses’ structure depends on which nucleic acid is included, which denotes that there are DNA and RNA viruses.
• Biodiversity and the Health of Ecosystems Various opinions are revealed concerning biodiversity, including the human impact, reversal of biodiversity loss, the impact of overpopulation, the future of biodiversity, and the rate of extinction.
• Wild Crops and Biodiversity Threats However, out of millions of existing types of wild crop cultures, the vast majority have been abandoned and eradicated, as the agricultural companies placed major emphasis on the breeding of domesticated cultures that are easy […]
• Biodiversity, Interdependency: Threatened and Endhangered Species In the above table, humans rely on bees to facilitate pollination among food crops and use their honey as food. Concurrently, lichens break down rocks to provide nutrient-rich soil in the relationship.
• Invasive Processes’ Impact on Ecosystem’s Biodiversity If the invasive ones prove to be more adaptive, this will bring about the oppression of the native species and radical changes in the ecosystem.
• Conserving Biodiversity: The Loggerhead Turtle The loggerhead sea turtle is the species of oceanic turtle which is spread all over the world and belongs to the Cheloniidae family.
• Biodiversity and Dynamics of Mountainous Area Near the House It should be emphasized that the term ecosystem used in this paper is considered a natural community characterized by a constant cycle of energy and resources, the presence of consumers, producers, and decomposers, as well […]
• National Biodiversity Strategy By this decision, the UN seeks to draw the attention of the world community and the leaders of all countries to the protection and rational use of natural resources.
• Rewilding Our Cities: Beauty, Biodiversity and the Biophilic Cities Movement What is the source of your news item? The Guardian.
• Biodiversity and Food Production This paper will analyze the importance of biodiversity in food production and the implications for human existence. Edible organisms are few as compared to the total number of organisms in the ecosystem.
• Restoring the Everglades Wetlands: Biodiversity The Act lays out the functions and roles of the Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District in restoration of the Everglades.
• Biodiversity: Importance and Benefits This is due to the fact that man is evolving from the tendency of valuing long term benefits to a tendency of valuing short terms benefits.
• A Benchmarking Biodiversity Survey of the Inter-Tidal Zone at Goat Island Bay, Leigh Marine Laboratory Within each quadrant, the common species were counted or, in the case of seaweed and moss, proliferation estimated as a percentage of the quadrant occupied.
• Plant Interactions and Biodiversity: Ecological Insights The author is an ecologist whose main area of interest is in the field of biodiversity and composition of the ecosystem.
• Biodiversity: Population Versus Ecosystem Diversity by David Tilman How is the variability of the plant species year to year in the community biomass? What is the rate of the plant productivity in the ecosystem?
• Biodiversity Hotspots and Environmental Ethics The magnitude of the problem of losing biodiversity hotspots is too great, to the extend of extinction of various species from the face of the earth.
• Natural Selection and Biodiversity These are featured by the ways in which the inhabiting organisms adapt to them and it is the existence of these organisms on which the ecosystems depend and therefore it is evident that this diversity […]
• Scientific Taxonomy and Earth’s Biodiversity A duck is a domestic bird that is reared for food in most parts of the world. It is associated with food in the household and is smaller than a bee.
• Global Warming: Causes and Impact on Health, Environment and the Biodiversity Global warming is defined in simple terms as the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface including the air and oceans in recent decades and if the causes of global warming are not […]
• California’s Coastal Biodiversity Initiative The considered threat to California biodiversity is a relevant topic in the face of climate change. To prevent this outcome, it is necessary to involve the competent authorities and plan a possible mode of operation […]
• Biodiversity: American Museum of Natural History While staying at the museum, I took a chance to visit the Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life and the Hall of Reptiles and Amphibians.
• Biodiversity and Animal Population in Micronesia This means that in the future, the people living in Micronesia will have to move to other parts of the world when their homes get submerged in the water.
• Urban Plants’ Role in Insects’ Biodiversity The plants provide food, shelter and promote the defensive mechanisms of the insects. The observation was also an instrumental method that was used to assess the behavior and the existence of insects in relation to […]
• Biodiversity Markets and Bolsa Floresta Program Environmentalists and scholars of the time led by Lord Monboddo put forward the significance of nature conservation which was followed by implementation of conservation policies in the British Indian forests.
• Brazilian Amazonia: Biodiversity and Deforestation Secondly, the mayor persuaded the people to stop deforestation to save the Amazon. Additionally, deforestation leads to displacement of indigenous people living in the Amazonia.
• Defining and Measuring Biodiversity Biodiversity is measured in terms of attributes that explore the quality of nature; richness and evenness of the living organisms within an ecological niche.
• Biodiversity, Its Importance and Benefits Apart from that, the paper is going to speculate on the most and least diverse species in the local area. The biodiversity can be measured in terms of the number of different species in the […]
• Biodiversity, Its Evolutionary and Genetic Reasons The occurrence of natural selection is hinged on the hypothesis that offspring inherit their characteristics from their parents in the form of genes and that members of any particular population must have some inconsiderable disparity […]
• Biodiversity Hotspots: Evaluation and Analysis The region also boasts with the endangered freshwater turtle species, which are under a threat of extinction due to over-harvesting and destroyed habitat.
• Marine Biodiversity Conservation and Impure Public Goods The fact that the issue concerning the global marine biodiversity and the effects that impure public goods may possibly have on these rates can lead to the development of a range of externalities that should […]
• Natural Sciences: Biodiversity and Human Civilisation The author in conjunction with a team of other researchers used a modelling study to illustrate the fact approximately 2 percent of global energy is currently being deployed in the generation of wind and solar […]
• How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity The disturbance of the ecosystem has some effects on the dynamics of vectors and infectious diseases. Change of climate is a contributing factor in the emergence of new species and infectious diseases.
• How Biodiversity Is Threatened by Human Activity Most of the marine biodiversity is found in the tropics, especially coral reefs that support the growth of organisms. Overexploitation in the oceans is caused by overfishing and fishing practices that cause destruction of biodiversity.
• Biodiversity and Business Risk In conclusion, biodiversity risk affects businesses since the loss of biodiversity leads to: coastal flooding, desertification and food insecurity, all of which have impacts on business organizations.
• Measurement of Biodiversity It is the “sum total of all biotic variation from the level of genes to ecosystems” according to Andy Purvus and Andy Hector in their article entitled “Getting the Measure of Diversity” which appeared in […]
• Introduced Species and Biodiversity Rhymer and Simberloff explain that the seriousness of the phenomenon may not be very evident from direct observation of the morphological traits of the species.
• Ecosystems: Biodiversity and Habitat Loss The review of the topic shows that the relationship between urban developmental patterns and the dynamics of ecosystem are concepts that are still not clearly understood in the scholarly world as well as in general.
• The Impact of Burmese Pythons on Florida’s Native Biodiversity Scientists from the South Florida Natural Resource Center, the Smithsonian institute and the University of Florida have undertaken studies to assess the predation behavior of the Burmese pythons on birds in the area.
• Essentials of Biodiversity At the same time, the knowledge and a more informed understanding of the whole concept of biodiversity gives us the power to intervene in the event that we are faced by the loss of biodiversity, […]
• Threat to Biodiversity Is Just as Important as Climate Change This paper shall articulate the truth of this statement by demonstrating that threats to biodiversity pose significant threat to the sustainability of human life on earth and are therefore the protection of biodiversity is as […]
• Cold Water Coral Ecosystems and Their Biodiversity: A Review of Their Economic and Social Value
• Benchmarking DNA Metabarcoding for Biodiversity-Based Monitoring and Assessment
• Prospects for Integrating Disturbances, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Using Microbial Systems
• Enterprising Nature: Economics, Markets, and Finance in Global Biodiversity Politics
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• Globalization and the Connection of Remote Communities: Household Effects and Their Biodiversity Implications
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• Landscape, Legal, and Biodiversity Threats That Windows Pose to Birds: A Review of an Important Conservation Issue
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• Can Payments for Watershed Services Help Save Biodiversity?
• How Can Business Reduce Impacts on the World’s Biodiversity?
• Are National Biodiversity Strategies Appropriate for Building Responsibilities for Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Policy Sectors?
• How Does Agriculture Effect Biodiversity?
• Are There Income Effects on Global Willingness to Pay For Biodiversity Conservation?
• How Does the Economic Risk Aversion Affect Biodiversity?
• What Are the Threats of Biodiversity?
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• What Does Drive Biodiversity Conservation Effort in the Developing World?
• How Does the Plantation Affect Biodiversity?
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• How Does the United Nations Deal With Biodiversity?
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• How Are Timber Harvesting and Biodiversity Managed in Uneven-Aged Forests?
• When Should Biodiversity Tenders Contract on Outcomes?
• Who Cares About Biodiversity?
• Why Can Financial Incentives Destroy Economically Valuable Biodiversity in Ethiopia?
• What Factors Affect an Area’s Biodiversity?
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IvyPanda. (2024, February 22). 133 Biodiversity Topics & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/biodiversity-essay-topics/

"133 Biodiversity Topics & Examples." IvyPanda , 22 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/biodiversity-essay-topics/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '133 Biodiversity Topics & Examples'. 22 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "133 Biodiversity Topics & Examples." February 22, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/biodiversity-essay-topics/.

1. IvyPanda . "133 Biodiversity Topics & Examples." February 22, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/biodiversity-essay-topics/.

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IvyPanda . "133 Biodiversity Topics & Examples." February 22, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/biodiversity-essay-topics/.

Essay on Biodiversity for Students and Children

500+ words essay on biodiversity.

Essay on Biodiversity – Biodiversity is the presence of different species of plants and animals on the earth. Moreover, it is also called biological diversity as it is related to the variety of species of flora and fauna. Biodiversity plays a major role in maintaining the balance of the earth.

Furthermore, everything depends upon the biological diversity of different plants and animals. But due to some reasons, biodiversity is decreasing day by day. If it does not stop then our earth could no longer be a place to live in. Therefore different measures help in increasing the biodiversity of the earth.

Methods to Increase Biodiversity

Building wildlife corridors- This means to build connections between wildlife spaces. In other words, many animals are incapable to cross huge barriers. Therefore they are no able to migrate the barrier and breed. So different engineering techniques can make wildlife corridors. Also, help animals to move from one place to the other.

Set up gardens- Setting up gardens in the houses is the easiest way to increase biodiversity. You can grow different types of plants and animals in the yard or even in the balcony. Further, this would help in increasing the amount of fresh air in the house.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Protected areas- protected areas like wildlife sanctuaries and zoo conserve biodiversity. For instance, they maintain the natural habitat of plants and animals. Furthermore, these places are away from any human civilization. Therefore the ecosystem is well maintained which makes it a perfect breeding ground for flora and fauna. In our country, their various wildlife sanctuaries are build that is today spread over a vast area. Moreover, these areas are the only reason some of the animal species are not getting extinct. Therefore the protected areas should increase all over the globe.

Re-wilding – Re-wilding is necessary to avert the damage that has been taking place over centuries. Furthermore, the meaning of re-wilding is introducing the endangered species in the areas where it is extinct. Over the past years, by various human activities like hunting and cutting down of trees the biodiversity is in danger. So we must take the necessary steps to conserve our wildlife and different species of plants.

Importance of Biodiversity

Biodiversity is extremely important to maintain the ecological system. Most Noteworthy many species of plants and animals are dependent on each other.

Therefore if one of them gets extinct, the others will start getting endangered too. Moreover, it is important for humans too because our survival depends on plants and animals. For instance, the human needs food to survive which we get from plants. If the earth does not give us a favorable environment then we cannot grow any crops. As a result, it will no longer be possible for us to sustain on this planet.

Biodiversity in flora and fauna is the need of the hour. Therefore we should take various countermeasures to stop the reduction of endangering of species. Furthermore, pollution from vehicles should decrease. So that animals can get fresh air to breathe. Moreover, it will also decrease global warming which is the major cause of the extinction of the species.

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Biodiversity articles from across Nature Portfolio

Biodiversity is the variation in living forms and can be measured in ways that include the number of species, functional variety of species, evenness of species distribution or genetic diversity. Biodiversity science investigates levels of biodiversity, its functional effects, and how and why it changes over time.

Latest Research and Reviews

Sustainable land management enhances ecological and economic multifunctionality under ambient and future climate

Land management impacts ecosystem functions. Here, the authors conduct field experiments in Germany assessing ecosystem variables in cropland and grasslands showing that sustainable agricultural practices enhance ecological and economic benefits.

• Friedrich Scherzinger
• Martin Schädler
• Martin Quaas

Time series of freshwater macroinvertebrate abundances and site characteristics of European streams and rivers

• Ellen A. R. Welti
• Diana E. Bowler
• Peter Haase

Microbes as marine habitat formers and ecosystem engineers

Marine microbes can form habitats for animals and protists to colonize, promoting novel ecological interactions and also providing food and refuge. This Review surveys the ecology and biogeography of marine microbes as ecosystem engineers, and discusses their role in management and conservation.

• Roberto Danovaro
• Lisa A. Levin
• Cinzia Corinaldesi

Research needs on the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship in drylands

• Fernando T. Maestre
• Lucio Biancari
• Yelyzaveta Shpilkina

Understanding diversity–synchrony–stability relationships in multitrophic communities

Most diversity–synchrony–stability studies are conducted on a single trophic level. A multitrophic assessment of algae–herbivore assemblages across five long-term tropical and temperate marine system datasets demonstrates the varied and complex nature of diversity–synchrony–stability relationships.

• Griffin Srednick
• Stephen E. Swearer

Global shortfalls in documented actions to conserve biodiversity

A global assessment of conservation interventions for threatened species across a range of data sources finds that interventions for most species remain insufficient or absent.

• Rebecca A. Senior
• Ruby Bagwyn
• David S. Wilcove

News and Comment

Dune restoration must consider species that need open and early successional dune habitats

• Miguel Ángel Gómez-Serrano

How my research is putting blue crab on the menu in Croatia

Neven Iveša investigates the invasive species in the Adriatic Sea, and works out how to lessen its impact.

• Jack Leeming

China’s Yangtze fish-rescue plan is a failure, study says

Researchers have debated the best management plan for highly endangered fish species since the 1980s.

• Xiaoying You

Forestry social science is failing the needs of the people who need it most

Rich nations’ fixation on forests as climate offsets has resulted in the needs of those who live in or make a living from these resources being ignored. A broader view and more collaboration between disciplines is required.

Reconstructing end-Permian mass extinction conditions using the ostracod record

Monica Alejandra Gomez Correa describes how the ostracod fossil record provides insight into changes in environmental conditions and their impact on marine ecosystems.

• Monica Alejandra Gomez Correa

Uncovering drivers of global tree diversity

Plant species diversity declines from tropical to temperate latitudes. Local neighbourhood interactions among species that favour heterospecifics over conspecifics may have a role in shaping this latitudinal diversity gradient, but perhaps not as traditionally thought.

• Joseph A. LaManna

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University of phoenix issues comprehensive white paper series on belonging: fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education.

Series explores belonging from the perspectives of students, staff, faculty, and community

PHOENIX, June 10, 2024 --( BUSINESS WIRE )-- University of Phoenix proudly announces the release of a three-part series of white papers dedicated to exploring the concept of belonging within the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Authored by Alisa Fleming, Ph.D., and Jelisa Dallas, MSEd, these thought-provoking papers provide valuable insights for educators, administrators, and community leaders.

"Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are all critical components in creating welcoming and inclusive environments in classrooms, workplaces, and communities," shares Dr. Fleming. "Our examination focuses on how belonging is fostered, becomes integrated across environments and the impact it has on DEI efforts. We are pleased to share these findings and highlight the ways in which University of Phoenix fosters a sense of belonging for our students, faculty and staff."

Highlights from the white papers include:

An Exploration of Belonging at University of Phoenix: This inaugural white paper examines how belonging plays a pivotal role in fostering DEI. It highlights the importance of creating inclusive environments where individuals feel connected, valued, and free to express their authentic selves.

Cultivating Belonging in Higher Education: A Focus on Staff and Faculty: The second installment focuses on addressing belonging from the perspective of staff and faculty. It explores practical strategies for promoting a sense of belonging among those who shape the educational experience.

Building Belonging Through Community: The final white paper explores the strategies employed by the University of Phoenix in collaborating with communities to cultivate a larger sense of belonging. It emphasizes the impact on student success and overall well-being.

According to the authors, belonging is achieved when individuals experience deep connection, feel their ideas and contributions matter, and can authentically be themselves. An environment of belonging offers psychological safety, encouraging individuals to take risks, ask questions, and learn from mistakes without fear of interpersonal repercussions. The authors also found that a sense of belonging is crucial for students' academic and professional success, as it enhances motivation, engagement, and a sense of purpose.

Dallas says University of Phoenix is dedicated to cultivating environments where students feel a keen sense of belonging. "One successful initiative we have put into place at University of Phoenix is the Bravely Belong Student Café," Dallas shares. "We really wanted to establish a safe space for students to gather, share experiences, and receive support on their academic and professional journeys. What we found was the program encourages self-advocacy, a sense of belonging and provides opportunities for students and alumni to engage with subject matter experts on topics like mindfulness and gratitude."

The Bravely Belong Student Café is part of a series of offerings from the Office of Educational Equity (OEE) at University of Phoenix, aiming to foster cultural awareness, thought leadership and community alliances to promote and sustain educational equity and diversity initiatives. The OEE supports students and faculty year-round with programs like the Educational Equity Webinar Series, Inclusive Leadership Summit and an internal offering for staff and faculty, The Inclusive Café.

Dr. Alisa Fleming, Ph.D., is an academic leader with experience in higher education administration, business, consulting, and teaching. Dr. Fleming serves as Director of Assessment for Assessment & Institutional Research at University of Phoenix. She has served on boards for the Kyrene Foundation and the Association for Talent Development, Valley of the Sun Chapter. Dr. Fleming is the 2022 recipient of the Phoenix500 faculty award and is a 2019 recipient of the Achieving My Purpose Celebration of Women Award. She received a Ph.D. in Business with a specialization in Organizational Leadership from Northcentral University. She holds a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the workplace certificate from the University of South Florida. Her research interests include leadership, ethics, employee behaviors that contribute to healthy workplace culture. Dr. Fleming’s passion for developing and inspiring others to action has led to service roles in her organization and outreach within nonprofits and youth-based organizations in her local community.

Jelisa Dallas, MSEd., is the Program Manager for Recognized Student Organizations for the Office of Educational Equity at the University of Phoenix. With over twelve years of experience working in education, Jelisa has designed and implemented innovative resources and programming for student development and engagement in private, non-profit, and public institutions. Jelisa is DEI Workplace Certified through the USF Muma College of Business. She currently sits on of the board of the University of Phoenix African American Council for Excellence (employee resource group) and Warren/Youngstown Urban League Young Professionals.

The full white papers are available at University of Phoenix Thought Leadership hub.

About University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix innovates to help working adults enhance their careers and develop skills in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, skills-mapped curriculum for our bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, and a Career Services for Life® commitment help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit phoenix.edu .

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240610506770/en/

Michele Mitchum University of Phoenix [email protected]

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• Corpus ID: 270285710

Understanding the Limitations of Diffusion Concept Algebra Through Food

• E. Z. Zeng , Yuhao Chen , Alexander Wong
• Published 5 June 2024
• Computer Science, Art

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21 References

Concept algebra for (score-based) text-controlled generative models.

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Get What You Want, Not What You Don't: Image Content Suppression for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models

Closed-loop unsupervised representation disentanglement with β-vae distillation and diffusion probabilistic feedback, noiseclr: a contrastive learning approach for unsupervised discovery of interpretable directions in diffusion models, lego: learning to disentangle and invert concepts beyond object appearance in text-to-image diffusion models, concept sliders: lora adaptors for precise control in diffusion models, linguistic binding in diffusion models: enhancing attribute correspondence through attention map alignment, the hidden language of diffusion models, break-a-scene: extracting multiple concepts from a single image, parts of speech-grounded subspaces in vision-language models, related papers.

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Trump's potential VP picks just received vetting documents. Here's who got the papers.

By Fin Gómez , Jacob Rosen

Updated on: June 6, 2024 / 12:18 PM EDT / CBS News

Former President Donald Trump's search for a vice president is formally underway, and there's been an increased focus on four candidates, although his shortlist is not yet complete, and the vetting process is continuing.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio , North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum , South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance have received vetting materials and are the candidates most frequently discussed internally by Trump and his campaign, a source familiar with the process said, but added that the former president may still choose another candidate.  NBC News  first reported a winnowing of the field.

A source close to one contender downplayed the report, and a senior Trump official said of any narrowing of the shortlist, "Anyone who tells you they know who, how or when is a liar unless it's Donald J. Trump."

These four candidates have received vetting documents, including financial background inquiries, as part of the Trump campaign's search process, Republican sources familiar with the vetting said, but others have also received the comprehensive vetting materials: New York Rep. Elise Stefanik , Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton . However, the list may still grow, and others may also receive the vetting forms.

Burgum is especially well-liked and respected by the Trump campaign. It is not lost on Trump allies and his campaign that the North Dakota governor is the potential running mate who has traveled the most with Trump on the campaign trail. Burgum and his wife have traveled regularly on the former president's campaign plane. He and Vance are also the only two of the four most frequently discussed contenders who also went to Manhattan to attend and support Trump during the "hush money" trial, where he was convicted of falsifying business records related to a payment to buy the silence of adult film star Stormy Daniels.

• Marco Rubio
• Elise Stefanik
• Donald Trump

Fin Gómez is the political director for CBS News. Fin oversees the day-to-day political coverage for CBS News. He has covered five presidential political cycles and multiple presidential campaigns. He was formerly a member of the CBS White House unit.

More from CBS News

Trump proposes at Nevada rally ending taxes on tips

Trump and Biden neck and neck nationally and in battlegrounds — CBS News poll

Primary races to watch in Nevada, South Carolina, Maine

May tornadoes, derecho storm cause nearly $6 billion in damages

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How Pew Research Center will report on generations moving forward

Journalists, researchers and the public often look at society through the lens of generation, using terms like Millennial or Gen Z to describe groups of similarly aged people. This approach can help readers see themselves in the data and assess where we are and where we’re headed as a country.

Pew Research Center has been at the forefront of generational research over the years, telling the story of Millennials as they came of age politically and as they moved more firmly into adult life . In recent years, we’ve also been eager to learn about Gen Z as the leading edge of this generation moves into adulthood.

But generational research has become a crowded arena. The field has been flooded with content that’s often sold as research but is more like clickbait or marketing mythology. There’s also been a growing chorus of criticism about generational research and generational labels in particular.

Recently, as we were preparing to embark on a major research project related to Gen Z, we decided to take a step back and consider how we can study generations in a way that aligns with our values of accuracy, rigor and providing a foundation of facts that enriches the public dialogue.

A typical generation spans 15 to 18 years. As many critics of generational research point out, there is great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations.

We set out on a yearlong process of assessing the landscape of generational research. We spoke with experts from outside Pew Research Center, including those who have been publicly critical of our generational analysis, to get their take on the pros and cons of this type of work. We invested in methodological testing to determine whether we could compare findings from our earlier telephone surveys to the online ones we’re conducting now. And we experimented with higher-level statistical analyses that would allow us to isolate the effect of generation.

What emerged from this process was a set of clear guidelines that will help frame our approach going forward. Many of these are principles we’ve always adhered to , but others will require us to change the way we’ve been doing things in recent years.

Here’s a short overview of how we’ll approach generational research in the future:

We’ll only do generational analysis when we have historical data that allows us to compare generations at similar stages of life. When comparing generations, it’s crucial to control for age. In other words, researchers need to look at each generation or age cohort at a similar point in the life cycle. (“Age cohort” is a fancy way of referring to a group of people who were born around the same time.)

When doing this kind of research, the question isn’t whether young adults today are different from middle-aged or older adults today. The question is whether young adults today are different from young adults at some specific point in the past.

To answer this question, it’s necessary to have data that’s been collected over a considerable amount of time – think decades. Standard surveys don’t allow for this type of analysis. We can look at differences across age groups, but we can’t compare age groups over time.

Another complication is that the surveys we conducted 20 or 30 years ago aren’t usually comparable enough to the surveys we’re doing today. Our earlier surveys were done over the phone, and we’ve since transitioned to our nationally representative online survey panel , the American Trends Panel . Our internal testing showed that on many topics, respondents answer questions differently depending on the way they’re being interviewed. So we can’t use most of our surveys from the late 1980s and early 2000s to compare Gen Z with Millennials and Gen Xers at a similar stage of life.

This means that most generational analysis we do will use datasets that have employed similar methodologies over a long period of time, such as surveys from the U.S. Census Bureau. A good example is our 2020 report on Millennial families , which used census data going back to the late 1960s. The report showed that Millennials are marrying and forming families at a much different pace than the generations that came before them.

Even when we have historical data, we will attempt to control for other factors beyond age in making generational comparisons. If we accept that there are real differences across generations, we’re basically saying that people who were born around the same time share certain attitudes or beliefs – and that their views have been influenced by external forces that uniquely shaped them during their formative years. Those forces may have been social changes, economic circumstances, technological advances or political movements.

When we see that younger adults have different views than their older counterparts, it may be driven by their demographic traits rather than the fact that they belong to a particular generation.

The tricky part is isolating those forces from events or circumstances that have affected all age groups, not just one generation. These are often called “period effects.” An example of a period effect is the Watergate scandal, which drove down trust in government among all age groups. Differences in trust across age groups in the wake of Watergate shouldn’t be attributed to the outsize impact that event had on one age group or another, because the change occurred across the board.

Changing demographics also may play a role in patterns that might at first seem like generational differences. We know that the United States has become more racially and ethnically diverse in recent decades, and that race and ethnicity are linked with certain key social and political views. When we see that younger adults have different views than their older counterparts, it may be driven by their demographic traits rather than the fact that they belong to a particular generation.

Controlling for these factors can involve complicated statistical analysis that helps determine whether the differences we see across age groups are indeed due to generation or not. This additional step adds rigor to the process. Unfortunately, it’s often absent from current discussions about Gen Z, Millennials and other generations.

When we can’t do generational analysis, we still see value in looking at differences by age and will do so where it makes sense. Age is one of the most common predictors of differences in attitudes and behaviors. And even if age gaps aren’t rooted in generational differences, they can still be illuminating. They help us understand how people across the age spectrum are responding to key trends, technological breakthroughs and historical events.

Each stage of life comes with a unique set of experiences. Young adults are often at the leading edge of changing attitudes on emerging social trends. Take views on same-sex marriage , for example, or attitudes about gender identity .

Many middle-aged adults, in turn, face the challenge of raising children while also providing care and support to their aging parents. And older adults have their own obstacles and opportunities. All of these stories – rooted in the life cycle, not in generations – are important and compelling, and we can tell them by analyzing our surveys at any given point in time.

When we do have the data to study groups of similarly aged people over time, we won’t always default to using the standard generational definitions and labels. While generational labels are simple and catchy, there are other ways to analyze age cohorts. For example, some observers have suggested grouping people by the decade in which they were born. This would create narrower cohorts in which the members may share more in common. People could also be grouped relative to their age during key historical events (such as the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic) or technological innovations (like the invention of the iPhone).

By choosing not to use the standard generational labels when they’re not appropriate, we can avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes or oversimplifying people’s complex lived experiences.

Existing generational definitions also may be too broad and arbitrary to capture differences that exist among narrower cohorts. A typical generation spans 15 to 18 years. As many critics of generational research point out, there is great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations. The key is to pick a lens that’s most appropriate for the research question that’s being studied. If we’re looking at political views and how they’ve shifted over time, for example, we might group people together according to the first presidential election in which they were eligible to vote.

With these considerations in mind, our audiences should not expect to see a lot of new research coming out of Pew Research Center that uses the generational lens. We’ll only talk about generations when it adds value, advances important national debates and highlights meaningful societal trends.

• Age & Generations
• Demographic Research
• Generation X
• Generation Z
• Generations
• Greatest Generation
• Methodological Research
• Millennials
• Silent Generation

Kim Parker is director of social trends research at Pew Research Center .

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