The document discusses biodiversity, defined as the variety of life and its significance for ecosystem productivity and sustainability. Recent research highlights that biodiversity loss is as detrimental to ecosystem functionality as pollution and climate change, potentially decreasing plant productivity significantly. It urges global action to prioritize biodiversity conservation to prevent further extinctions and maintain essential ecosystem services for human health and prosperity.

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¿QUE ES LA BIODIVERSIDAD?
La biodiversidad o diversidad biológica es la variedad de la vida. Este reciente concepto incluye varios
niveles de la organización biológica. Abarca a la diversidad de especies de plantas y animales que viven en
un sitio, a su variabilidad genética, a los ecosistemas de los cuales forman parte estas especies y a los
paisajes o regiones en donde se ubican los ecosistemas. También incluye los procesos ecológicos y
evolutivos que se dan a nivel de genes, especies, ecosistemas y paisajes.
El concepto fue acuñado en 1985, en el Foro Nacional sobre la Diversidad Biológica de Estados Unidos.
Edward O. Wilson (1929 - ), entomólogo de la Universidad de Harvard y prolífico escritor sobre el tema de
conservación, quien tituló la publicación de los resultados del foro en 1988 como ―Biodiversidad‖.
Biodiversity Loss Seen as Harmful as
Pollution
Washington — When species in an ecosystem die off,
the productivity of the system declines, and the
damage done ranks with the harm caused by climate
change, pollution or other major forms of
environmental stress, according to new research.
Rain forests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on
Earth. The lush vegetation of this forest is found on Fatu Hiva
Island, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia.
This work, made public May 2, is the first
comprehensive examination of biodiversity loss as it
compares to other forms of environmental decline.
―Some people have assumed that biodiversity effects
are relatively minor compared to other environmental
stressors,‖ said biologist David Hooper of Western
Washington University, the lead author of the paper.
―Our results show that future loss of species has the
potential to reduce plant production just as much as
global warming and pollution. Previous work has
shown that the more biological diversity present in a
given system, the greater is the system’s productivity.
Funded by the Division of Environmental Biology of the
National Science Foundation (NSF), this work sought to
discover if the corollary would be true — the less the
diversity, the less productivity.
―Loss of biological diversity due to species extinctions
is going to have major effects on our planet, and we
need to prepare ourselves to deal with them,‖ said
ecologist Bradley Cardinale of the University of
Michigan, another co-author. ―These extinctions may
well rank as one of the top five drivers of global
change.‖
Hooper, Cardinale and researchers from other
institutions in the United States, Canada and Sweden
combined ecosystem data from a large number of
previously published studies and focused on two
system processes — plant growth and the
decomposition of dead plants by bacteria and fungi.
They built a database from existing research, drawing
on almost 200 experiments that examined these
processes.
―Within the range of expected species losses, we saw
average declines in plant growth that were as large as
changes in experiments simulating several other major
environmental changes caused by humans,‖ Hooper
said. ―Several of us working on this study were
surprised by the comparative strength of those
effects.‖
For example, plant growth could decline by 5 percent
to 10 percent in ecosystems where species loss fell

2. within 21 percent to 40 percent of the species. Where
species loss rises over 41 percent, the ecosystem
effect became comparable to the effects of climate
warming or increased ultraviolet radiation. The study
authors say the findings are strong enough that
policymakers should begin to take heed of how
adverse effects on biodiversity could have broader
consequences, but more research must be done to
understand how the combined effects of the
environmental problems might alter ecosystems.
The NSF supported the work through the National
Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, a
research center at the University of California, Santa
Barbara, where researchers use existing data to better
understand fundamental issues in ecology and allied
fields. ****
Biodiversity Is Crucial to
Sustainability, Scientists Report/ By
Charlene Porter
Washington — More than 1,000 environmental studies
conducted over the last 20 years led an international
group of scientists to conclude that a decline in
biological diversity reduces the productivity and
sustainability of ecosystems.
The Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Burma is rich in
biodiversity with life of the Himalayas, Malay Peninsula, the
Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
The group, including American, Canadian, French and
British researchers, published its findings in the June 7
edition of Nature, the international science publication.
The scientists also report their consensus that
declining biodiversity decreases ecosystems' ability to
provide humankind with the raw materials and services
that support us: food, wood and fertile soil, for
example.
―Water purity, food production and air quality are easy
to take for granted, but all are largely provided by
communities of organisms,‖ said George Gilchrist of
the National Science Foundation’s Division of
Environmental Biology, the financial backer of the
research.
The scientific group concludes that the variety of
species and the diversity of genetic traits and
characteristics that they bring to an ecosystem are
critical to its balance.
The research also shows that human actions leading to
species extinctions cause ecosystem breakdown in
many places at a faster rate than is recorded in the
fossil record.
―This is a consensus statement that loss of Earth’s wild
species will be harmful to the world’s ecosystems and
may harm society by reducing ecosystem services that
are essential to human health and prosperity,‖ said the
University of Michigan’s Bradley Cardinale, who is the
lead author of the Nature article, ―Biodiversity Loss
and its Impact on Humanity.‖ Cardinale specializes in
ecosystem study in the university's School of Natural
Resources and Environment.
Ecosystems are more abundant in producing those
goods and services when their natural genetic diversity
has been left intact. Drawing on the broad range of
research conducted on this topic since the Convention
on Biological Diversity took force in 1993, the article
finds that crop yields are greater, wood plantations
produce more and fisheries’ yields are sustained when
a diverse range of organisms coexist in an ecosystem.
Among plants, diversity supports greater resistance to
invasion by non-native species, inhibits plant
pathogens and increases the capability of biomass to
absorb carbon dioxide, the article says.
―Biodiversity underpins our ability to achieve
sustainable development,‖ said paper co-author Shahid
Naeem of Columbia University.
The article is published as the United Nations prepares
to convene a conference on sustainable development
in Rio de Janeiro June 20–22. The meeting is known as
Rio+20, commemorating the first Earth Summit held in
that city in 1992. That meeting set the stage for the
accession to the Convention on Biodiversity by 193
nations.
The authors of this scientific report urge nations of the
world to make biodiversity preservation an
international priority to prevent further extinctions,
preserve what still exists, and perhaps restore some of
the life forms that have been severely diminished.