Benefits Of Biodiversity

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Biodiversity is the variety of life. It can be studied on many levels. At the highest level, you can look at all the different species on the entire Earth. On a much smaller scale, you can study biodiversity within a pond ecosystem or a neighborhood park. Identifying and understanding the relationships between all the life on Earth are some of the greatest challenges in science.

Rough skinned newt
Most people recognize biodiversity by species. A species is a group of living organisms that can interbreed. Examples of species include, blue whales, white-tailed deer, white pine trees, sunflowers and microscopic bacteria that you cannot even see with your eye. Biodiversity includes the full range of species that live in an area.

Biodiversity at a Glance

Let’s look at the species …show more content…

If a reptile species goes extinct, a forest with 20 other reptiles is likely to adapt better than another forest with only one reptile.
Genetic diversity prevents diseases and helps species adjust to changes in their environment.
Simply for the wonder of it all. There are few things as beautiful and inspiring as the diversity of life that exists on Earth.

Threats to Biodiversity

Extinction is a natural part of life on Earth. Over the history of the planet most of the species that ever existed, evolved and then gradually went extinct. Species go extinct because of natural shifts in the environment that take place over long periods of time, such as ice ages.

Today, species are going extinct at an accelerated and dangerous rate, because of non-natural environmental changes caused by human activities. Some of the activities have direct effects on species and ecosystems, such as:

Habitat loss/ degradation
Over exploitation (such as overfishing)
Spread of Non-native Species/ Diseases
Some human activities have indirect but wide-reaching effects on biodiversity,

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