Why is biodiversity so important?
The definition of Biodiversity taken from the Merriam-Webster dictionary is the biological diversity in an environment as indicated by numbers of different species of plants and animals or in other words variety. As we learn in evolution, "survival of the fittest", and biodiversity by far gives us more outcomes for a successful species.
Also species are dependent on one another, if we take a look at food chains we see that organisms consume other organisms, in a widely diverse ecosystem a predator will have a variety of prey to choose from, take a look at the Gaboon viper, in a proper diverse habitat it could eat mice, rabbits, frogs, and other small mammals, thus raising the survival of the viper and promoting a healthy population. And if one thing were to happen to one of the Gaboon Viper's main food sources, it would still have a viable source of food to sustain itself. This can work both ways with prey and predator, lets say the Gaboon Viper was the only species at the top of the food chain, if the species were to die off from human interactions causing desertification destroying the Gaboons muddy habitat, then the mice, rabbits and other small mammals that the Gaboon used to consume would have no natural predator. The results of this are devastating and once again create the trophic cascade where the entire food chain of an ecosystem collapses due to the top consumer being killed off. And thus we require diversity, multiple consumers on the top of the food chain with multiple choices of prey, the higher the biodiversity in an ecosystem the more stable the food chain will be, and the more resilient the ecosystem will be. Biodiversity is also important not just for other species, but for the ecosystem as well, because biodiversity gives more variance for different kinds of species, eventually their will be a species that will greatly and positively affect an ecosystem. Take the African elephants for example: In grasslands when large woody plants emerge, they block out the sun for grass, without enough sunlight to survive the grasses dwindle and die. This causes a chain reaction and gazelles will migrate away due to having no food source. The elephant is a keystone species to the grasslands because they stop the progression of the grassland forest by weeding out shrubs and trees. Any sort of decline in population of the elephant will have drastic effects on the ecosystem, and every single species interacts with the ecosystem, thus an ecosystem depends on biodiversity in order to function properly. |
The Gaboon Viper
An African Elephant eating away at a tree - Are manatees and elephants related?. (n.d.). Beach Chair Scientist. Retrieved April 27, 2014, from http://beachchairscientist.com/2012/10/29/are-manatees-and-elephants-related/
Lemur-tailed Meerkat interacting with a friend
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It is that range of biodiversity that we must care for - the whole thing - rather than just one or two stars.
-David Attenborough
-David Attenborough