Importance of Biodiversity

Importance of Biodiversity Locally, Regionally, Nationally and Internationally

Biodiversity on an international level provides humans with the natural resources to survive. There are five values that the human population places on biodiversity: economics, ecological life support, culture, recreation, and science. Globally, we take a closer look at the ecosystem, including the animals, plants, and microorganisms. We must value the nature we live in and keep the environment healthy as it maintains the air we breathe and the food we eat. (A Warning Sign: Where Biodiversity Loss Is Happening around the World, 2021) However, globally we have had a 68% drop since the 1970s in species from habitat destruction from logging and unsustainable agriculture. With climate change, habitat loss, and species loss, the ecosystem will eventually adapt, but it could be detrimental to numerous species, including the human species. 

(Importance of Biodiversity, 2018) Biodiversity regionally provides functioning ecosystems that provide clean air, water, pest control, wastewater treatment, oxygen, pollination, etc. It also offers recreational use and the enjoyment of nature. When we break biodiversity down to a regional level, the focus is on mapping a particular area to maintain the health of the ecosystem. The maps track the environmental values across the regional landscape and improve upon areas of degradation, habitat loss, and fragmentation. These mapping systems provide good resources for the regional and local areas. (Importance of Biodiversity, 2018) Local biodiversity focuses on the reasons and solutions affecting the area's ecosystem due to pollution, climate change, habitat change, invasive species, and overexploitation. At a local level in biodiversity, you can then assimilate the exact total of species in an area at a particular time.

                                            (4 Different Ways To Measure Biodiversity - Student Center | Britannica.Com, 2020)

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mapping

  Google My Map I enjoyed learning how to map out Ray Roberts Lake State Park using My Maps. I used two layers, one for trails and biodiversity and the other for campsites. Most of my experience using this for the first time was very easy. However, I ran into some issues finding trails on My Maps.  It could be that this state park is rather small and not everything is well documented but it would have been nice to include all the trails for reference.   The overall structure of my maps is very easy to read and it will be very helpful in the future.
Read more

Species Identification Mobile Apps

Image
Seek by iNaturalist   Seek is a fun, easy, and reliable app that identifies trees, fish, plants, fungi, reptiles, amphibians, arachnids, mammals, mollusk, and insects. It has high accuracy in identification as long as you take a picture close to your species. Many times it will be able to identify the entire taxonomy. While playing around with this app in my backyard, it included me in one of their "backyard challenge" challenges. You can participate in numerous challenges that you can get medals for every time you get a species. What I find brilliant about this app is that users are contributing to a citizen science project, where the public is contributing to scientific research while learning and having fun on the app. All the information on this app is public, which helps scientists learn where and when organisms are found and could potentially lead to a discovery of an organism.  The pros for Seek is that it has a wide variety of organism you can search for, it's for
Read more

Ray Roberts Lake State Park

Image
  Ray Roberts Lake State Park is a beautiful thirty-minute drive from my house, located in northern Texas between the towns of Pilot Point and Sanger, Texas. The land within the park is made up of three ecoregions, making it a unique, diverse ecosystem. The ecoregions within the park are the Eastern Cross Timbers, Blackland Prairie, and Grand Prairie. There are over 300 plant species, 229 bird species, a mix of different trees within each ecosystem, and an abundant amount of animals and insects in all the ecoregions. The park has four units: Isle du Bois, Johnson Branch, Jordon, and Sanger, covering 29,350 acres. There are nine hiking trails within the park, and depending on what path you are in the park, you may see wetlands, woodlands, or prairie grass. It will be captivating to see the different mammals, fish, birds, butterflies, insects, dragonflies, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes, and rodents living together in a symbiotic relationship.   My genuine fascination will be the amphib
Read more