8 Key excerpts on "Forest Biodiversity"

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  eBook - ePub

  Biodiversity and Conservation

  • Michael J. Jeffries(Author)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  formation is a similar concept, relying solely on vegetation data. Even colloquially familiar biome terms such as rainforest or wetland become difficult to define precisely due to global variations or to give sharp boundaries where they grade into each other.

  Ecological biodiversity also includes geographical foci such as high diversity hot spots, continental and oceanic islands plus regions of endemism. If ecological diversity (whether ecosystem, community or any other tricky concept) was nothing more than the sum of its parts (e.g. the species list) this category of biodiversity could be largely ignored, but ecological diversity has its own importance. Ecological patterns emerge at the ecosystem and community level which are more than the sum of the parts of the species present. Ecosystems can (albeit rather mechanically) be said to provide ecosystem services (or functions) such as nutrient and gas cycling. An ecosystem that loses a species may not be merely minus one species but may function in a very different way with knock-on consequences to other ecosystems and perhaps globally. So the ecological category of diversity is important.

  Classifications of ecological diversity vary with scale, just like the genetic (nucleotide molecules up to differences between populations) and taxonomic (subspecies to domains). Three main scales are commonly for used ecosystems: global, regional and national. Global classifications rely on major vegetation types (biomes) typically defined by combinations of dominant vegetation, landscape and climate, sometimes plus biogeographical position. Regional classifications are often based on practical definitions. National classifications work at a finer scale, often based on precise species presence and abundance. Classifications of wetlands (global, regional or national) are good examples of ecosystem categorisation, the difficulties of definition and how resulting classifications can vary with the purpose of the systems used.

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  Biodiversity 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)

  The term biodiversity or biological diversity refers to all life forms together on earth such as unicellular fungi, protozoa, bacteria, and multicellular organisms such as flora and fauna. In Asia and Pacific region there are three bio-geographic realms include major ecosystems such as mountain, forest, grassland, desert, wetland, and seas which are significant to the whole (Mutia, 2009). The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defined biodiversity as “the variability among living organisms from all source including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and ecological complexes of which the part of this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.” Globally, biodiversity is unevenly distributed, and some places have greater diversity than others, for example, tropics have higher species diversity than poles. Factors such as soil type, climate, altitude, availability of water and species interaction has great influence on floral and faunal diversity. Certain areas which are not only biologically rich but also have endemic species and are under constant threat by human activities recognized as hotspots of biodiversity (Fisher and Christopher, 2007). At present, there are 35 biodiversity hotspots in the world. They include around 50% and 42% of endemic plant species and terrestrial vertebrates respectively. Human beings directly or indirectly depend on biodiversity for their food, fodder, fuel, leather, timber, rubber, medicines, liquor, fertilizer, and for several other raw materials. Generally, there are three levels of biodiversity which are closely interlinked because biological organisms are inseparable. These include genetic diversity (variety of genes and chromosomes among different species), species diversity (variation among the number and species richness of a region) and ecosystem diversity (a different ecosystem of a region). Biodiversity plays a vital role in existence, well being and also make the world a more attractive place to live (Chiras, 2012).

  Ecosystem performs a vital role in human survival by providing many goods and services. Especially rural and some indigenous community is directly dependent on the ecosystem for their livelihood. Ecosystems which are biologically rich will have high productivity and maintenance through nutrient cycling which provides physical protection from various environmental conditions and detoxification (Kumar and Asija, 2007). Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is a controversial topic because they are complicated in many ways including their types and diversity measurements. Biodiversity has great ecological value, when biodiversity is affected by any threat that will disturb the structure and functioning of the ecosystem, on the other hand, ecological balance is being maintained by biodiversity (Loreau et al., 2001). World population has been tremendously increasing since the 20th

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  Sustainable Forest Management

  From Concept to Practice

  • John L. Innes, Anna V. Tikina, John L. Innes, Anna V. Tikina(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 3 Forest Biodiversity

  Fred Bunnell

  The first criterion described by the Montreal Process is the conservation of biological diversity. Virtually all criteria and indicator schemes emphasize the importance of conserving biodiversity, and provide a number of indicators that might be used. The indicators listed in the Montreal Process are provided in Table 3.1 , but even a cursory look at these indicators reveals that their monitoring presents major problems for a forest manager. Within the context of ecosystem diversity, area and percent of forest by ecological and socio-economic classifications is relatively easy to assess, but as discussed later in the chapter, fragmentation is a much more difficult concept. Both species diversity and genetic diversity are required, yet there is no forest in the world where all species present have been listed. In fact, most invertebrates remain undescribed, so listing them is impossible. When many of the species have yet to be documented, it makes little sense to ask that genetic diversity within them should be documented. However, considerable advances have been made in genomics in recent years (see, for example, Allendorf et al ., 2011), and future indicators may take this new knowledge into account.

  The concept of biodiversity itself is vague: is biological diversity synonymous with biodiversity, and how does it relate to terms such as ‘wildlife’? This chapter starts off with an examination of these questions.

  Defining biodiversity

  The term ‘biological diversity’ was first used in a popular book advocating conservation by Dasmann (1968). ‘Natural diversity’ was more commonly used among the scientific community until Thomas Lovejoy used biological diversity in his introduction to Soulé and Wilcox’s book, Conservation Biology

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  Fundamentals of Soil Ecology

  • David C. Coleman, Mac A. Callaham, D. A. Crossley Jr.(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  Ettema and Yeates, 2003 ), that interact with elements of the microbiota such as mycorrhiza in several ways, including mutualistic ones (Wall and Moore, 1999 ). Much has been learned about prokaryotic genetic diversity in soils; see reviews by Hugenholtz et al. (1998) and Fierer and Jackson (2006) .

  7.2 Biodiversity in Soils and Its Impacts on Terrestrial Ecosystem Function

  There is increasing concern among biologists in the fates of the very diverse array of organisms in all ecosystems of the world. What do we know of the full species richness, particularly in soils, to make even any educated guesses about the total extent of the organisms, or how many of them may be in an endangered status (Coleman, 2001 ; Coleman et al., 1994b ; Hawksworth, 1991a , 2001 ; Orgiazzi et al., 2016 )? Soil biodiversity is best considered by focusing on the groups of soil organisms that play major roles in ecosystem functioning. Spheres of influence of soil biota are recognized, such as the root biota, the shredders of organic matter, and the soil bioturbators. These organisms influence or control ecosystem processes and have further influence via their interactions with key soil biota (e.g., plants) (Coleman, 2001 ; Lavelle et al., 2016 ; Wardle, 2002 ). Some organisms, such as the fungus and litter-consuming microarthropods, are very speciose. For example, there are up to 170 species in one order of mites, the oribatida, in the forest floor of one watershed in western North Carolina. Hansen (2000) measured increased species richness of oribatids as she experimentally increased litter species richness in experimental enclosures from one to two, four, and finally seven species of deciduous tree litter. This was attributed to the greater physical and chemical diversity of available microhabitats, which is in accord with the mechanisms suggested earlier by Anderson (1975a)

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  30-Second Ecology

  50 key concepts and challenges, each explained in half a minute

  • Mark Fellowes, Becky Thomas(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Ivy Press

    (Publisher)

  BIOMES & BIODIVERSITY

  BIOMES & BIODIVERSITYGLOSSARY

  benthic An ecological zone in freshwater and marine environments at the bottom of a body of water, including the sediment and sub-surface layers.

  biome A major region that is defined by the plants and animals living there and determined largely by climate and latitude. A biome differs from an ecosystem, which encompasses organisms and their interactions with each other and the environment, in a specific location. For example, tropical forest is a biome that includes ecosystems such as montane humid forest, seasonal dry forest and coastal-plain swamp forest.

  ecosystem services These are the direct or indirect benefits to people provided by ecosystems. These services may impact human survival or quality of life and are categorized into four service types: provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural.

  elevational diversity gradient An observed pattern in ecology where an increase in elevation leads to an increase in species richness, up to a certain point, where it begins to decrease again. This leads to a hump-shaped trend in diversity in mountain ranges, where the highest numbers of different species are found at mid-elevations.

  endemic/endemism Relating to an organism that is found only in a specific location.

  glaciation The process by which glaciers are formed as well as the movement and recession of glaciers and how they shape the surrounding landscape. In the past, glaciers covered a much larger extent of the Earth’s surface. A small glacier, less than 0.1 km2

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  Economic Valuation of Biodiversity

  An Interdisciplinary Conceptual Perspective

  • Bartosz Bartkowski(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Accordingly, there exist many approaches to defining biodiversity, which encompasses numerous levels and dimensions, including species diversity, genetic diversity, ecosystem diversity, functional diversity. In Chapter 5 we will return to the issue of defining biodiversity. In addition to a presentation of various definitions and the difficulties related to defining biodiversity, it was shown in this chapter how biodiversity can be measured. This discussion will feed into numerous arguments further on in this book, including the critical evaluation of biodiversity proxies used in economic valuation studies and the attempt to provide some insights about how the conceptual framework to be developed in Chapter 5 can be coupled with empirical data. An important subject of this chapter was biodiversity’s ecological value. Building upon current ecological literature, it was shown that biodiversity is correlated with ecosystem functioning, particularly with ecosystem stability

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  The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Biodiversity

  • Justin Garson, Anya Plutynski, Sahotra Sarkar, Justin Garson, Anya Plutynski, Sahotra Sarkar(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  et al. 2012).

  While living variation or variety is the core of these definitions, in practice, the term “biodiversity” continues to be used in many different ways. Current usage ranges from being very specific (e.g. equating it with a single species), very general (e.g. equating it with the “fabric of life”), or somewhat tangential (e.g. equating it with any ecological factor relevant to ecosystems). For example, Díaz et al. (2009: 55) described “biodiversity” as “the number, abundance, composition, spatial distribution, and interactions of genotypes, populations, species, functional types and traits, and landscape units in a given system.” Partly, this usage reflects interest in “ecosystem services” – the benefits that humans obtain from natural ecosystems (e.g. fresh water, timber; see Daily 1997). There now are at least ten different definitions of “ecosystem services” (Polasky et al. 2015). Ecosystem services may be delivered from transformed land, from the whole planet as an “ecosystem”, and from non-biotic components. In this context, “biodiversity” typically has ecological definitions (similar to that of Diaz et al. quoted above), in order to characterize it as something whose importance arises by underpinning ecosystem services (Gasparatos and Willis 2015).

  Reflecting the various definitions of “biodiversity,” discussions of the value of biodiversity sometimes have focused on the value of all of nature, or of the value of specific elements, such as individual species or traits. Individual elements often will have a clear value – but it is less clear how we describe the value of biodiversity, particularly given the range of different definitions. Recent reviews of the history of the term “biodiversity” consequently have expressed some disenchantment with the idea of assigning value to biodiversity. For example, Morar et al

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  Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation

  • Oswald J. Schmitz(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Island Press

    (Publisher)

  This simple container system is a powerful metaphor for the way species assemble and interact in nature.The processes of production and consumption are fundamental to sustaining the functioning of all ecological systems globally. Natural ecological systems differ from the container system in that they are comprised of vastly more species with many more interdependencies than those found in the glass container. Understanding these complex interdependencies is the fundamental purpose of that subfield of biology known as ecology.

  What Is Ecology?

  Ecology is a science aimed at understanding:

  • The processes by which living organisms interact with each other and with the physical and chemical components of their surrounding environment.
  • The way those processes lead to patterns in the geographical distribution and abundance of different kinds of organisms.

  The result of the process leading to a pattern is the assembly of a natural economy. In ecology such a natural economy is formally called an ecosystem.

  Ecosystems encapsulate many forms of biological diversity (also called biodiversity). Biodiversity results from a variety among individuals comprising a species owing to sex, age, and genetic differences among those individuals. It also stems from differences between species living together in a geographic location. For example, species may differ in their functional roles (e.g., plant, herbivore, carnivore) and the efficiency with which each carries out its function in different environmental conditions. Biodiversity also arises from the myriad ways that species are linked to each other in ecosystems. As a consequence of these many forms of biodiversity, there is considerable complexity underlying the structure of ecosystems.The challenge in ecology is resolving this complexity.

  Biodiversity results from a variety among individuals comprising a species due to sex, age, and ge- netic differences; from differences between species living together in a geographic location; and from the myriad ways that species are linked to each other in ecosystems. As a consequence of these many forms of biodiversity, there is consider- able complexity underlying the structure of ecosystems. The chal- lenge in ecology is resolving this complexity.

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