2. BIODIVERSITY
• The term biodiversity (from “biological
diversity”) refers to the variety of living
species on Earth at all its levels, from genes to
ecosystems, and can encompass the
evolutionary, ecological, and cultural
processes that sustain life.
• Biodiversity is a measure of variation at
the genetic, species, and ecosystem level.
3. WHY IMPORTANT
• Biodiversity is important to most aspects of our
lives. We value biodiversity for many reasons,
some utilitarian, some intrinsic.
• Further, ecosystems provide crucial services such
as pollination, seed dispersal, climate regulation,
water purification, nutrient cycling, and control of
agricultural pests.
• Biodiversity has cultural value to humans as well,
for spiritual or religious reasons for instance.
4. • he 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.
5. • Scientists have found about 1.75 million
different species. That includes 950,000
species of insects, 270,000 species of plants,
19,000 species of fish, 9,000 species of birds
and 4,000 species of mammals. This is only a
small part of the total number of species on
Earth. There are millions more species that
have not been discovered and named yet.
6. • Biodiversity plays an integral role in the way
ecosystems work and in the benefits they
provide. Some of the benefits of biodiversity
include:
• Regulating elements such as climate, water
quality, disease, and pollination
• Provisioning resources such as food, clean water,
industrial raw materials, and genetic resources
• Cultural promotion such as recreational,
aesthetics, spiritual benefits
7. GENETIC LEVEL
• All species on Earth are somewhat related
through genetic connections. And the more
closer a species is related to another, the more
genetic information the two species will share.
These species will also look more similar.
• The closest relations of an organism are members
of its own species. Members of a species share
genes. Genes are the bits of biochemical
information that partly determine how an
organism looks, behaves, and lives.
8. • species have come from one, common ancestor.
However, they diverge and develop distinctive
attributes with time, and hence promote
biodiversity in their own unique way.
• Every individual of a particular species differs
from each other in their genetic constitution.
That is why every human looks different from
each other. Similarly, there are different varieties
in the same species of rice, wheat, maize, barley,
etc.
9. SPECIES DIVERSITY
• Species diversity refers to the variety of different types
of species found in a particular area. It is the
biodiversity at the most basic level. It includes all the
species ranging from plants to different
microorganisms.
• No two individuals of the same species are exactly
similar.
• The number of various species in a given ecosystem or
environment is described as Species Richness. The total
number of species in the world is about 10 million.
However, only 1.75 million species have been named
scientifically to date.
10. ECOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
• Ecological or ecosystem diversity is the variety of
ecosystems in an area. It involves the complex network
of various species present in the ecosystems and the
dynamic interactions between them. An ecosystem is
made up of organisms from several different species
living together in an environment and their
connections through the flow of nutrients, energy, and
matter.
• An ecosystem can cover a small area, like a pond, or a
large area, like an entire forest. The primary source of
energy in virtually every ecosystem is the sun whose
radiant energy is transformed into chemical energy by
the plants
11. ALPHA DIVERSITY
• Alpha diversity is a measure of species diversity in a
particular area or an ecosystem. Alpha diversity is
expressed as the number of species present in the area
of concern. Therefore, alpha diversity gives us species
richness in that particular ecosystem. It is a small scale
measure compared to beta and gamma diversity.
Species richness is a valuable measure when compared
to species diversity within different ecosystems.
Species richness can be measured through a transect
drawn within the ecosystem. The species we see along
the transect is counted, and the number of species is
taken.
12. BETA DIVERSITY
• Beta diversity is the term that refers to the change in
species diversity between communities or ecosystems.
Hence, beta diversity allows the comparison of
biodiversity between ecosystems. In beta diversity, the
number of species that are unique to each system is
counted. For example, if the beta diversity between
ecosystem A and ecosystem B is 10, it tells us that
there are a total of 10 species that are unique between
two ecosystems. Ecosystem A may have 8 unique
species which are not seen in ecosystem B, while
ecosystem B has 2 unique species that are not seen in
ecosystem A. Therefore, the beta diversity between the
two ecosystems is 10.
13. • Beta diversity increases when the interaction
between adjacent communities is low. Human
land use is one of the main reasons that
prevent the movement of species between
two ecosystems. Beta diversity can be
controlled by allowing the free movement of
species among communities.
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14. GAMMA DIVERSITY
• Gamma diversity is the measure of overall
biodiversity in a large geographic region.
Therefore, it measures the total diversity of
every ecosystem in that region. Total diversity
depends on two things: mean species diversity
in an ecosystem and differentiation of species
diversity among those habitats. Gamma
diversity is a type of geographic-scale species
diversity.
15. • Compared to alpha and beta diversity, gamma
diversity is a very large scale measure. Today,
we can observe a decline in gamma diversity
all over the world. Mass extinction in places
around the world is one of the main reasons
for decreased gamma diversity.
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18. Ecological economics
• Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary effort
to link the natural and social sciences broadly,
and especially ecology and economics. Its goal is
to develop a deeper scientific understanding of
the complex linkages between humans and the
rest of nature, and to use that understanding to
develop policies that will lead to a world which is
ecologically sustainable, has a fair distribution of
resources (both between groups and generations
of humans and between humans and other
species), and efficiently allocate scarce resources
including “natural” and “social” capital.
19. • it emphasizes critical work that draws on and
integrates elements of ecological science,
economics, and the analysis of values,
behaviors, cultural practices, institutional
structures, and societal dynamics.
20. • It includes valuation of natural resources, sustainable
agriculture and development, ecologically integrated
technology, integrated ecologic-economic modelling at
scales from local to regional to global, implications of
thermodynamics for economics and ecology, renewable
resource management and conservation, critical
assessments of the basic assumptions underlying current
economic and ecological paradigms and the implications of
alternative assumptions, economic and ecological
consequences of genetically engineered organisms, and
gene pool inventory and management, alternative
principles for valuing natural wealth, integrating natural
resources and environmental services into national income
and wealth accounts, methods of implementing efficient
environmental policies, case studies of economic-ecologic
conflict or harmony, etc
21. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
• Ecosystem services are the many and varied
benefits to humans provided by the natural
environment and from healthy ecosystems. Such
ecosystems include, for
example, agroecosystems, forest
ecosystems, grassland ecosystems and aquatic
ecosystems. These ecosystems, functioning in
healthy relationship, offer such things like natural
pollination of crops, clean air, extreme weather
mitigation, and human mental and physical well-
being. Collectively, these benefits are becoming
known as 'ecosystem services'
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24. • 1. Provisioning Services
When people are asked to identify a service
provided by nature, most think of food. Fruits,
vegetables, trees, fish, and livestock are available
to us as direct products of ecosystems. A
provisioning service is any type of benefit to
people that can be extracted from nature. Along
with food, other types of provisioning services
include drinking water, timber, wood fuel, natural
gas, oils, plants that can be made into clothes and
other materials, and medicinal benefits.
25. • Regulating Services
Ecosystems provide many of the basic services that
make life possible for people. Plants clean air and filter
water, bacteria decompose wastes, bees pollinate
flowers, and tree roots hold soil in place to prevent
erosion. All these processes work together to make
ecosystems clean, sustainable, functional, and resilient
to change. A regulating service is the benefit provided
by ecosystem processes that moderate natural
phenomena. Regulating services include pollination,
decomposition, water purification, erosion and flood
control, and carbon storage and climate regulation.
26. • Cultural Services
As we interact and alter nature, the natural world has in
turn altered us. It has guided our cultural, intellectual, and
social development by being a constant force present in our
lives. The importance of ecosystems to the human mind
can be traced back to the beginning of mankind with
ancient civilizations drawing pictures of animals, plants, and
weather patterns on cave walls. A cultural service is a non-
material benefit that contributes to the development and
cultural advancement of people, including how ecosystems
play a role in local, national, and global cultures; the
building of knowledge and the spreading of ideas; creativity
born from interactions with nature (music, art,
architecture); and recreation.
27. • Supporting Services
The natural world provides so many services,
sometimes we overlook the most fundamental.
Ecosystems themselves couldn't be sustained
without the consistency of underlying natural
processes, such as photosynthesis, nutrient
cycling, the creation of soils, and the water cycle.
These processes allow the Earth to sustain basic
life forms, let alone whole ecosystems and
people. Without supporting services, provisional,
regulating, and cultural services wouldn't exist.
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29. • Direct values
• Plants are an immediate incentive to sustainability since
they are the main advantage of supplying food that can
legally be harvested and spent.
• In terms of the fact that for a considerable period of time,
the forest has produced wood that is used as fuel that is
used for gas, fire, heating, as well as other mechanical
processes.
• Considering the fact that traditional medicinal practices use
plants, drugs and medications is an immediate incentive to
biodiversity.
• In view of the fact that fuel is an immediate incentive for
biodiversity for a substantial period of time.
30. • Indirect values
• In view of the fact that multiple plants and animals are
seen as holy and sacred and are cherished and respected in
some rigid nations, cultural and traditional beliefs are an
aberrant incentive for biodiversity.
• Ethical principles are a backhanded encouragement to its
biodiversity as it associates with biodiversity conservation
where the moral dilemma of ‘all living things must be
protected’ is enhanced.
• Aesthetic values are an abnormal motivation for
biodiversity as distinctive scenes at undisturbed spots are
excellent to watch and provide options for leisure exercises
that advance the eco-travel industry that further develops
zoological nurseries, national parks, structuring.
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31. • "option value" – the value placed on individual willingness to pay for
maintaining an asset or resource even if there is little or no likelihood of
the individual actually ever using it, occurring because of uncertainty
about future supply (the continued existence of the asset) and potential
future demand (the possibility that it may someday be used).[1][2][3][4]
• "bequest value" – values placed on individual willingness to pay for
maintaining or preserving an asset or resource that has no use now, so
that it is available for future generations.[5][6]
• "Existence value" – an unusual and somewhat controversial class of
economic value, reflecting the benefit people receive from knowing that a
particular environmental resource, such as Antarctica, the Grand Canyon,
endangered species, Sharri Dogs or any other organism or thing exists.
• "altruistic value" – the value placed on individual willingness to pay for
maintaining an asset or resource that is not used by the individual, so that
others may make use of it. Its value arises from others' use of the asset or
resource.
32. ETHICAL VALUE
• Ethical and moral values: Ethical values related to
biodiversity conservation are based on the
importance of protecting all forms of life against
illegal activities like cloning of animals, smuggling
of valuable biodiversity instances, bio-piracy, illicit
trade, etc. In India, several generations have
preserved nature through local traditions.
However, immediate benefit rather than ethics
appears to be modern man’s objective.
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