Understanding biodiversity and its impact on our surroundings
Hyderabad: What is Biodiversity? When we observe our surroundings, we find different kinds of organisms which vary in size, form, feeding habits, behaviour, etc.
For example, there are more than 20,000 species of ants, 3,00,000 species of beetles, 28,000 species of fishes and 20,000 species or orchids. This variation of life at various levels of biological organisation is termed as biodiversity.
Levels of Biodiversity
Biodiversity exists not only at the species level but at all levels of biological organisation ranging from macromolecules to biomes. The term biodiversity was popularised by the social-biologist Edward Wilson to describe the combined diversity at all levels of biological organisation.
The three levels of biodiversity are — Genetic diversity, Species diversity and Ecological diversity.
Genetic Diversity
It is the diversity of genes within a species; a single species may show high diversity at the genetic level over its distributional range.
For example, Rauwolfia vomitoria, a medicinal plant growing in the Himalayan range, show great genetic variation, which might be in term of potency and concentration of the active chemical reserpine that the plant produces.
India has more than 50,000 different strains of rice, and 1,000 varieties of mangoes. Genetic diversity increases with environmental variability and is advantageous for its survival.
Special Diversity
It is the diversity at the species level. For example, amphibian diversity in the Western Ghats is greater than that of the Eastern Ghats.
Ecological Diversity
Diversity at a higher level of organisation, i.e., at the ecosystem level, is called ‘Ecological Diversity’.
For example, India with its deserts, rain forests, mangroves, coral reefs, wetlands, estuaries and alpine meadows has greater ecosystem diversity than many other countries such as the Scandinavian country Norway.
Ecological diversity indices
The three indices of ecological diversity are — Alpha diversity, Beta diversity and Gamma diversity.
Alpha diversity is measured by counting the number of taxa (usually species) within a particular area, community/ecosystem.
Beta diversity is the species diversity between two adjacent ecosystems and is obtained by comparing the number of taxa unique to each of the ecosystems.
Gamma diversity is the measure of the overall diversity for different ecosystems within an ecological region.
Role of Biodiversity on human life
Biodiversity is beneficial to human beings as it plays an important role at various levels of development and to explain the role played, the different aspects are categorised into three types i.e., Narrowly utilitarian argument, Broadly utilitarian argument and Ethical argument.
Narrowly utilitarian argument: Humanbeings derive countless economic benefits from nature as biodiversity is a reservoir of resources.
Food (cereals, pulses and fruits), firewood, fibre, construction material, industrial products (tannis, lubricants, dyes, resins, perfumes, rubber, latex, cork, etc) and products of medicinal importance are obtained from diverse living organisms, which are economically important.
Bio-prospecting nations endowed with rich biodiversity can expect to reap enormous benefits.
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