Secundaria Bilinge Albert Einstein

Biodiversity

Lourdes Sofia Gonzlez Silva

Ecology

Vctor Urizabel

February 8th of 2011

Introduction: Biodiversity Since life began on Earth, five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Greater biodiversity implies greater health. The number of species of plants, animals, and microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes in these species, the different ecosystems on the planet, such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth. Rapid global warming can affect an ecosystem chances to adapt naturally. The Arctic is very sensitive to climate change and already seeing lots of changes. Ocean biodiversity is already being affected as are other parts of the ecosystem.

Environmental issues are negative aspects of human activity on the biophysical environment. Major current environmental issues may include population growth, pollution, non-renewable resources and much other. Population growth is used informally for the more specific term population growth rate, and is often used to refer specifically to the growth of the human population of the world. Anything in the environment that is used by people is called a natural resource; Natural resources are derived from the environment. Natural resources can be categorized as: renewable resources and non-renewable resources. Renewable resources can be restored by natural processes at a rate similar to human consumption some examples of renewable resources are materials such as wood, paper, leather. If they are harvested sustainably. Some renewable resources such as geothermal, fresh water, wood and biomass should be handled carefully to avoid exceeding the regenerative capacity of the same world. Non-renewable resources is a natural resource which cannot be produced, grown, generated, or used on a scale which can sustain its consumption rate. These resources often exist in a fixed amount, or are consumed much faster than nature can create them. Fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, and nuclear power (uranium) are examples of nonrenewable resources. The population growth can cause problems such as pollution and traffic congestion. With the industrial revolution came advances in agriculture and industry that gave way to individual families being able to afford more children. With a constantly increasing population, the first and most significant crisis that the world will face is a shortage of. There are many measures of food security from the personal to the global. The two most useful global indicators are grain production per person and carryover stocks of. Pollution is the release of harmful environmental contaminants, or the substances so released. Generally the process needs to result from human activity to be regarded as pollution. The nitrogen oxides produced by industry are often referred to as pollution; Pollution can take two major forms: local pollution and global pollution. In the past, only local pollution was thought to be a problem. For example, coal burning produces smoke. Traditional forms of pollution include air pollution, water pollution, and radioactive contamination. A forest is an area with a high density of trees. Logging is the felling, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks, the above operations can be carried out by different methods, of which the following three are considered industrial

methods: Tree-length logging, Full-tree logging, Cut-to-length logging and Springboards. Fishery is an area with a large population of valuable ocean organisms Fisheries are harvested for their value. They can be saltwater or freshwater, wild or farmed. Managing fisheries for a sustainable yield includes strategies such as setting fishing limits, changing fishing methods, developing aquaculture techniques, and finding new resources. There are many fishing methods for catching fish. The term can also be applied to methods for catching other aquatic animals such as mollusks and others. Fishing techniques include hand gathering, spear fishing, netting, angling and trapping. Recreational, commercial and artisanal fishers use different techniques, and also, sometimes, the same techniques. Recreational fishers fish for pleasure or sport, while commercial fishers fish for profit. Artisanal fishers use traditional, low-tech methods, for survival in third-world countries, and as a cultural heritage in other countries. Aquaculture is the practice of raising fish and other water dwelling organisms for food. Biodiversity in our world is so valuable because we depend on it, because we get food from animals, plants get oxygen and without oxygen we couldnt live. As In addition, biodiversity has both economic value and ecological value within an ecosystem. Economic value many plants, animals and others organisms are economically valuable for humans, in the provision of products and services: for example, provision of food, fuel, building materials, medicines, genetic resources for agriculture, etc. Ecological value: All species are supported by the interactions among other species and ecosystems, each providing an ecological value to one another. Loss of species makes ecosystems less resilient and often less productive. Not all species within an ecosystem are of the same importance. Species that are important due to their sheer numbers are often called dominant species. Species that have important ecological roles that are greater than one would expect based on their abundance are called keystone species. Keystone species are the species that have important ecological roles that are greater than one would expect based on their abundance. Gene pool diversity is a large gene pool indicates extensive genetic diversity, which is associated with robust populations that can survive bouts of intense selection. Meanwhile, low genetic diversity cause reduced biological fitness and an increased chance of extinction. Extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms, normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the group. The causes of extinction are taking

animals for profit, hunting and trapping, overharvesting, introduced species, destruction of habitat, and pollution. Some animals that are permanently extinct are: African elephant, American alligator, bald eagle, Atlantic salmon, cheetah, Florida manatee, giant armadillo, gorilla, Indian rhinoceros, leopard, jaguar, imperial parrot, grizzly bear, green turtle, Eskimo curlew, chimpanzee and so much others.. To protect our biodiversity what we have to do is: protect the natural landscape of the flora and fauna, finishing creating industries that pollute the environment, learning the importance of reduce, reuse and recycle, dont throwing garbage and much other things that we can do to protect our biodiversity, our world. In conclusion, our biodiversity is the most important thing that we have, because we live of it, of the animals, plants and the entire ecosystem. We have to care the biodiversity because if we dont we can lose all we have all our animals because the pollution, population growth and those other things that affect our ecosystem can destroy permanently our biodiversity. We have to stop the forest logging, the pollution; we have to tell all those industries that they have to find a solution to de substance they are throwing to our seas or rivers. The biodiversity is our live our world we have to take care of it.

Sources of information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth_climate/environmental_issues/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiversity#Number_of_species http://www.globalissues.org/issue/169/biodiversity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resource http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_growth#External_links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_resource http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-renewable_resource

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Pollution http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/populationgrowth.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishery#Types

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing#Techniques http://www.globalissues.org/article/170/why-is-biodiversity-importantwho-cares#Puttinganeconomicvalueonbiodiversity http://cnx.org/content/m12154/latest/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_pool http://www.mce.k12tn.net/animals/biological_change/major_causes_of_e xtinction.htm http://www.animalport.com/extinct-animals/Trumpeter-Swan.html Book PRENTICE HALL, Science Explorer