Loss Of Biodiversity Essay

Biodiversity is shortened from biological diversity. It means that all lives are different; the earth is home to organisms that have different genes, live in different habitats and function in different ecosystem.

Biodiversity is built out of three interlinked features: Ecosystem diversity, Species diversity, and Genetic diversity. A species is a group of genetically distinct organisms that can have offspring. Today over 1.7 million species have been named and new kinds of plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms are being discovered all the time. Scientists have predicted that there are between 3 and 30 million species on earth.

Genetic biodiversity means that the genes within a species vary. For example all dogs belong to the same species but there are many different breeds that have genes for different traits, such as: size, color and coat type.

Ecosystem biodiversity means that ecosystem communities

An estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year, due in part to logging and other human practices, destroying the ecosystems on which many species depend.

Habitat loss is a result of deforestation, which is als caused from exploitation of resources, agricultural conversion, and urbanization. It is a largest factor contributing to the loss of biodiversity.

Large scale infrastructural developments and the expansion of settlements contribute to deforestation, therefore habitat loss. For example, between 1984 and 2017 about 30% of forests are cut for human settlements. This has contributed to the establishment of infrastructure such as houses in inappropriate areas like wetlands resulting in biodiversity loss and land degradation. Human settlements and infrastructural developments also affect traditional wildlife migratory routes because The consequent fragmentation of habitat results in small isolated patches of land that cannot maintain populations of species into