Environment and Biodiversity
The environment refers to the natural surroundings and conditions in which living organisms exist. Biodiversity encompasses the variety of life forms, including different species, ecosystems, and genetic diversity within species. Together, they are crucial components of the Earth's ecosystems, providing essential resources and services that support life and human well-being.
8 Key excerpts on "Environment and Biodiversity"
eBook - ePub- Richard John Huggett(Author)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...PART I INTRODUCING BIOGEOGRAPHY 1 WHAT IS BIOGEOGRAPHY? Biogeographers study the geography, ecology, and evolution of living things. This chapter covers: • ecology – environmental constraints on living • history and geography – time and space constraints on living Biogeographers address a misleadingly simple question: why do organisms live where they do? Why does the speckled rangeland grasshopper live only in short-grass prairie and forest or brush-land clearings containing small patches of bare ground? Why does the ring ouzel live in Norway, Sweden, the British Isles, and mountainous parts of central Europe, Turkey, and southwest Asia, but not in the intervening regions? Why do tapirs live only in South America and southeast Asia? Why do the nestor parrots – the kea and the kaka – live only in New Zealand? Two groups of reasons are given in answer to such questions as these – ecological reasons and historical-cum-geographical reasons. ECOLOGY Ecological explanations for the distribution of organisms involve several interrelated ideas. First is the idea of populations, which is the subject of analytical biogeography. Each species has a characteristic life history, reproduction rate, behaviour, means of dispersion, and so on. These traits affect a population’s response to the environment in which it lives. The second idea concerns this biological response to the environment and is the subject of ecological biogeography. A population responds to its physical surroundings (abiotic environment) and its living surroundings (biotic environment). Factors in the abiotic environment include such physical factors as temperature, light, soil, geology, topography, fire, water, and air currents; and such chemical factors as oxygen levels, salt concentrations, the presence of toxins, and acidity. Factors in the biotic environment include competing species, parasites, diseases, predators, and humans. In short, each species can tolerate a range of environmental factors...
eBook - ePubThe Global Casino
An Introduction to Environmental Issues
- Nick Middleton(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...This chapter looks at some of the basic features of the physical environment, while Chapter 2 is concerned with the human factors that affect the ways in which the human race interacts with the physical world. Classifying the Natural World Geography, like other academic disciplines, classifies things in its attempt to understand how they work. The physical environment can be classified in numerous ways, but one of the most commonly used classifications is that which breaks it down into four interrelated spheres: the lithosphere, the atmosphere, the biosphere and the hydrosphere. These four basic elements of the natural world can be further subdivided. The lithosphere, for example, is made up of rocks that are typically classified according to their modes of formation (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary); these rock types are further subdivided according to the processes that formed them and other factors such as their chemical composition. Similarly, the workings of the atmosphere are manifested at the Earth’s surface by a typical distribution of climates; the biosphere is made up of many types of flora and fauna; and the hydrosphere can be subdivided according to its chemical constituents (fresh water and saline, for example), or the condition or phase of the water: solid ice, liquid water or gaseous vapour. These aspects of the natural world overlap and interact in many different ways. The nature of the soil in a particular place, for example, reflects the underlying rock type, the climatic conditions of the area, the plant and animal matter typical of the region, and the quantity and quality of water available. Suites of characteristics are combined in particular areas called ecosystems. These ecosystems can also be classified in many ways. One approach uses the amount of organic matter or biomass produced per year – the net production – which is simply the solar energy fixed in the biomass minus the energy used in producing it by respiration (see below)...
eBook - ePub- Michael J. Jeffries(Author)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The evolutionary concept defines a species by a single, distinct lineage with an identifiable evolutionary history and fate. Ecological diversity Taxonomic diversity classifies types of organisms and their relatedness but organisms do not live in isolation from one another or the physical world. Humans have long recognised different ecosystems of apparently interdependent life. Ecological science focuses on these patterns and processes, hence ecological diversity is the inclusive term for this third category. Ecological diversity covers a host of concepts; ecosystems, communities, assemblages, habitats, biomes and biogeographical regions. These are not one and the same, indeed some may not be biodiversity proper. The term ecosystem embraces the living organisms and non-living (abiotic) features such as climate and geology of a site. Some have argued that the inclusion of abiotic components excludes ecosystems from biodiversity. A community refers to organisms living together, essentially the live component of an ecosystem. Again this deceptively simple idea is problematic. The term implies a linkage, an interdependence of species that may not exist. Even tightly linked communities will harbour fleeting tourist species, moving through without necessarily playing any role whilst other communities may be very loosely tied assortments, often described as an assemblage. Habitat conjures up precise images such as the giant panda habitat, but the term may not mean anything if the species is not present; does giant panda habitat cease to exist should the giant panda become extinct? Biome is the term associated with global or continental scale, regional ecosystems defined by vegetation and fauna, in its turn largely determined by climate. A formation is a similar concept, relying solely on vegetation data...
eBook - ePubBiodiversity and Conservation
Characterization and Utilization of Plants, Microbes and Natural Resources for Sustainable Development and Ecosystem Management
- Jeyabalan Sangeetha, Devarajan Thangadurai, Goh Hong Ching, Saher Islam, Jeyabalan Sangeetha, Devarajan Thangadurai, Goh Hong Ching, Saher Islam(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Apple Academic Press(Publisher)
...World ecosystem biodiversity is divided into terrestrial biodiversity (land biomes/ecosystem) and aquatic biodiversity (water biomes/ecosystem). A biome can be described as an ecological community of organisms associated with particular climatic and geographic conditions that may often contain many ecosystems (Odum, 1971; De Blij et al., 2010). The distribution of life on Earth varies greatly across the global as well as within regions, providing different patterns (i.e., the latitudinal gradient biodiversity and the hotspots biodiversity regions (Benton, 2001). Generally, there are two types of biodiversity: terrestrial biodiversity and aquatic biodiversity. 1.2.1 TERRESTRIAL BIODIVERSITY As climate is a major factor in controlling which living organisms survive, biodiversity biomes are distributed across the Earth-based primarily on the climate (De Blij et al., 2010). Therefore, tropical areas play a central point in the understanding of the distribution of biodiversity (Heywood, 1995; De Blij et al., 2010). However, tropical areas that occur between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer are renowned for housing the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. The majority of the biodiversity tends to be close to the equator, due to be the warm climate and high productivity (Mora and Robertson, 2005; De Blij et al., 2010). The diversity of all creatures depend on some factors, for example, temperature, altitude, precipitation, geography, and the presence of other species. Ecologists are not certain about the existence of latitudinal gradient (Willig et al., 2003; Cardillo et al., 2005), possibly due to the greater mean temperature at the equator compared to that of the poles. Nevertheless, species diversity for most taxa is lowest near the poles, and increases toward the tropics, reaching a peak in tropical rain forests (may contain more than half the species on Earth)...
eBook - ePubExploring Environmental Issues
An Integrated Approach
- David D. Kemp(Author)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The interrelationships are complex, but they lead to the formation of characteristic communities of organisms that interact with each other and with the abiotic elements of their environment. Such groupings of organisms and the physical environment they inhabit are known as ecosystems. Ecosystems are dynamic entities, driven by the flow of energy within and through them, and being dynamic they can respond to a considerable degree of change while retaining sufficient equilibrium that the basic characteristics of the system are maintained. Despite this, major or prolonged environmental disruption, such as that caused by climate change or fire, may alter a specific ecosystem irreversibly, and bring about its replacement by a system with different characteristics. Human interference has become the most common cause of this type of change. Ecosystems are commonly divided into terrestrial and aquatic groups (Enger and Smith 2002). Terrestrial ecosystems incorporate continental flora and fauna and the land surface that they occupy, whereas aquatic ecosystems include salt-water and freshwater communities plus those in coastal and interior wetlands. Within any ecosystem, in theory, organisms occupy areas in which the physical conditions best meet their needs, although in practice they are often forced to tolerate conditions that may not be optimal. These areas are called habitats. Although the term may be linked with a particular species — the habitat best suited to elephants, for example — a specific habitat will be shared by a variety of organisms that have requirements in common. The nature of any habitat is determined by a large number of variables, but most can be grouped into climatic, topographic, edaphic and biotic categories. Of these, the climatic factors — light, heat, moisture and wind — are generally considered to be of most importance. The position of an organism within a habitat, defined by its role in the habitat, is its niche...
- Shunsuke Managi(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...It is defined in the CBD Article 2 as “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems” (UN 1992). In essence, biodiversity means the diversity of genes, species, and ecosystems; more precisely, biodiversity is the expression of the diverse “state” of those. On the other hand, an ecosystem, which tends to be recognized as similar to biodiversity, is defined as “a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the nonliving environment interacting as a functional unit” (MA 2005a: 8). In short, an ecosystem is the “function,” and diversity of ecosystems is a part of biodiversity. Biodiversity tends to provide people with the image of species diversity, because the concept of species is relatively clearly defined and is familiar to us. Although the difference between an African elephant (Loxodonta Africana) and an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is difficult to observe, for instance, an elephant can be easily distinguished from a rhinoceros. Likewise, the difference between an oak and a pine can be easily recognized, while it takes more technical expertise to tell a common oak (Quercus robur) from a Japanese oak (Quercus crispula). As for the relationship between species and ecosystems, Tilman et al. (2005) show that more diverse species generate higher productivity and stability of ecosystems, and Elmqvist et al. (2003) demonstrate that species diversity contributes to the enhancement of resilience in the face of disturbance. These relationships are not necessarily linear; however, upward rigidity is pointed out through the rivet hypothesis (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1981). This hypothesis likens an ecosystem to an airplane, which can continue its flight even if some rivets drop off, but cannot do so when a certain number of rivets are lost...
- Justin Garson, Anya Plutynski, Sahotra Sarkar, Justin Garson, Anya Plutynski, Sahotra Sarkar(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Diversity may be enhanced artificially at any organizational level, including genome (by gene transfer), assemblage (by exotic species), and landscape (by fragmentation) levels. … Artificial diversity should be explicitly excluded from conceptions of biodiversity … (Angermeier 1994: 600, 602) Contrasting views can also be found. Some writers define biodiversity to include any living entity regardless of its relation to human beings: Biodiversity … might be wherever you find it – including genetic labs, inner cities, zoos, the halls of office buildings, artificially constructed “landscapes” … Certainly, human design and intervention of the sort that destroys wilderness does not necessarily have a biodiversity-diminishing effect. Nor does the lack of discernible human design and intervention now and in the past have a biodiversity-enhancing one. In fact, human influence might just as well increase biodiversity, while human restraint might just as well decrease it. (Maier 2012: 114) The term biodiversity refers to the totality of species, populations, communities, and ecosystems, both wild and domesticated, that constitute the life of any one area or the entire planet … it specifically includes cultural modifications of natural world. (Dasmann 1991: 8) Limiting the scope of biodiversity to that which is native because of the value judgment about the importance of native biodiversity would allow a number of other biases to be built into definition of the term. (DeLong 1996: 743) Whether “unnatural living entities” should be included in the sphere of biodiversity partly depends on what is understood by (un)naturalness. The terms ‘‘natural’’ and ‘‘unnatural’’ are highly ambiguous (Mill 1969, Vogel 2011, Van Haperen et al. 2012, Heller and Hobbs 2014) and they are used in variety of different ways in biodiversity conservation and research (Willis and Birks 2006, Aplet and Cole 2010, Hobbs et al. 2010)...
- Michel Loreau, Andy Hector, Forest Isbell(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Wiley-ISTE(Publisher)
...Introduction The Ecological and Societal Consequences of Biodiversity Loss Michel LOREAU 1, Andy HECTOR 2, and Forest ISBELL 3 1 Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, France 2 University of Oxford, UK 3 University of Minnesota, St. Paul, USA One of the distinctive and fascinating features of ecological systems is their extraordinary complexity. An ecosystem is often composed of thousands of different species that interact in myriad ways at the scale of a single hectare. Each species is composed of many individuals that vary due to differences in their genetics and their particular experience of their local environment. These complex local systems are strongly connected to each other, and aggregate into larger and larger entities, from the landscape scale to that of the entire biosphere, where it becomes evident that they exert a major influence on the physical and chemical properties of our planet. How can such enormously complex systems be studied? During the second half of the 20th century, two increasingly divergent approaches to ecological systems developed within ecology, which have gradually led to two largely distinct disciplines, community ecology and ecosystem ecology. A community is defined broadly as a set of species that live together in some place. The focus in community ecology has traditionally been on species diversity: what exogenous and endogenous forces lead to more or less diverse communities? How do species interactions constrain the number of species that can coexist? What patterns emerge from these interactions? An ecosystem is the entire system of biotic and abiotic components that interact in some place. The ecosystem concept is broader than the community concept because it includes a wide range of biological, physical, and chemical processes that connect organisms and their environment...
