Biodiversity

Saturday, June 22, 2024 7:03 PM

Introduction
There is enormous diversity on the
planet earth.
The data of the given species is listed
below:-
Ants:- 20,000
Orchids:- 20,000
Beetles:- 3,00,000
Fish:- 28,000
1. Biodiversity
• In our biosphere heterogeneity does not just exist at species level but
all levels biological organization. i.e. from macromolecules to biomes.
• Sociobiologist Edward Wilson popularized the word biodiversity to
describe the combined diversity at all the levels of biological
organization.
• Three types of biological organization:-
1. Genetic diversity:- A single species shows high diversity at the genetic
level over its distributional range. E.g.:- Potency of a medicinal in the
Himalayas known as Rauwolfia Vomitoria differs in terms of the
concentration of the active chemical reserpine. India has more than
10,000 strains of rice and 1000 varieties of mangoes
2. Species Diversity:- Describes the variation at the species level.
western ghats are home to more amphibians than the eastern ghats.
3. Ecological Diversity:- At the ecosystem level, India is extremely
diverse as it comprises Mountains, deserts, mangroves coral reefs etc.
On the other hand, Scandinavian country like Norway lacks this
diversity.

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Number of Species
Saturday, June 22, 2024 7:40 PM

1. Since all the discovered species have been published INFERENCES:-

and catalogued it is easy to answer the question of how many • In Invertebrates, Insects occupy highest position
species have been found so far but when it comes to • Fishes occupy highest position followed by birds
answering how many species are there on earth, the answer is not • In plants, fungi occupy highest position followed by angiosperms
that straightforward.
2. The IUCN {International Union For Conservation of Nature and Natural
resources} has proposed that there are more than 1.5 million species on the
planet
3. Estimates of how many species exist on earth have been made time and time
again and these numbers show large variation from one perspective to
another.
4. For many taxonomic groups species inventories are more complete in
temperate regions than in tropical regions.
Scientists have made some comparisons to estimate total number of species
on earth
• Some data is extreme:- 20-50 million and a more scientifically sound estimate
by Robert May is about 7 million

Analyzing current species inventory

• 70% is animals out of which 70% are insects
• 22% plants including algae, fungi, bryophytes, gymnosperms and
angiosperms
• Number of fungi species greater than amphibians, mammals, fishes and
reptiles

Estimates do not include prokaryotic organisms this is because:-

1. Taxonomic methods are not suitable for microbial species
2. Not culturable under laboratory conditions
3. High molecular variability

Biodiversity In India:-
India occupies 2.4% of the world's land area, its share of the global species diversity is 8.1%
This makes our country one of the 12 mega diversity countries in the world
45,000 plants and 90,000 animals discovered in India
22% of total species in India has been recorded thus far according to May.
This means there are 3,00,00 animal and 1,00,000 plant species have to be discovered
Some species may already have gone extinct described as a library burning even before the names have
been catalogued.

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 Patterns of Biodiversity
Saturday, June 22, 2024 8:06 PM

i. Latitudinal gradient
Diversity of plants and animals is not uniform throughout the planet, the distribution is rather uneven
and varies from one place to the other.
There are many interesting patterns of diversity, the most well-known being the latitudinal gradient.

• In general species diversity decreases as we move from equator to the poles

• Exception 23.5N to 23.5S harbors more species than temperate and polar areas
• Some info:-
Birds variability:-
Greenland 71* has 56 species
New York 41* has 105 species
India (Tropical) has 1200
Colombia (Equator) has 1400
Forest Variability:-
• Tropical forest in Ecuador has up to 10 times as many species as vascular plants in a temperate
region like Midwest of the USA
Amazon Forest stats:-
• 40,000 species of plants
• 3000 species of fishes
• 1300 of birds
• 427 mammals and amphibians each
• 378 reptiles
• 1,25,000 of invertebrates
• Rain forests could have 2 million insect species waiting to be discovered.

ii. Species-Area relationships

Alexander Von Humboldt, a German naturalist during his explorations in the wilderness of South
American jungles found out that
Area ∝ species richness (to an extent)
The relation between species richness and area for a variety of species like angiosperms, birds, plants,
bats and freshwater fish comes out to be a rectangular hyperbola
On a logarithmic scale it is a straight line

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 Log S = log C + Z log A
Where
S = Species richness
Z = slope of the line (regression coefficient)
C = Y-intercept

Z AND WHAT IT MEANS

➢ Variation of Z values in terms of species
Ecologists have discovered that value of z lies between 0.1 to 0.2, regardless of the region or
taxonomic group.
Example:- Z value is same for:-
1. Plants in Britain
2. Birds in California
3. Mollusca in New York state
➢ Variation of Z values in terms of area
⚫ Among very large areas like the entire continents, slope is much steeper {0.6 - 1.2}
Example:- For frugivorous birds and mammals in the tropical forests slope is highest 1.5

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Importance of Species Diversity to The Ecosystem
Sunday, June 23, 2024 12:36 PM

While scientists aren't exactly sure whether the number of species in a given region plays a role in the
smooth functioning of the ecosystem there is substantial evidence that species richness does play a role in the stability
of an ecosystem.

What is stability in a biological community?

1. Consistency in productivity:- Does not show significant changes in the amount of biomass
produced per year
2. Resistant:- Withstand and recover from man-made or natural disasters
3. Resilient:- Less susceptible to invasions by alien species.

David Tilman's outdoor plant experiment

• His studies using outdoor plots demonstrated that plots with higher species richness showed less
year-to-year variation in total biomass.
• This suggests that more diverse communities are more stable in terms of productivity.
• Additionally, his experiments indicated that increased diversity often leads to higher productivity
within the ecosystem..

The Rivet Popper Hypothesis

Paul Ehrlich’s rivet popper hypothesis provides an analogy to understand the impact of species loss:

Airplane Analogy: An ecosystem is likened to an airplane, with species represented by rivets that hold
the plane together.
Rivet Removal: If each passenger (human activities) starts removing rivets (causing species to go
extinct), initially, the airplane (ecosystem) might still function.
Threshold Effect: However, as more rivets are removed, the airplane becomes weaker and the risk of
catastrophic failure increases.
Critical Species: Some rivets (species) are more critical than others. For instance, the loss of rivets on the
wings (key species) poses a greater threat to flight safety (ecosystem function) than the loss of rivets
from less critical parts.
Implications for Conservation
While the loss of a single species, such as a tree frog in the Western Ghats, might seem inconsequential
in isolation, the cumulative effect of many such losses can lead to significant ecosystem degradation.
This, in turn, can affect human quality of life, even if the immediate impact is not always apparent.

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Loss Of Biodiversity
Monday, June 24, 2024 6:42 PM

• Doubtful if new species are being added but it is sure that the population of species is
declining.
• Due to human activities
Example:- In Tropical Pacific Islands colonization led to extinction of more than 2000 species of
birds
IUCN RED LIST OF 2004
• Documents extinction of 784 species
1. 338 vertebrates
2. 359 invertebrates
3. 87 plants
• Last 500 years
• Recent extinctions:-
Animal Location
Dodo Mauritius
Quagga Africa
Thylacine Austria
Steller's sea cow Russia
3 sup-species of tiger Bali, Javan and Caspian

• Last 20 years alone we have seen the extinction of 27 species

• These extinctions are not random and some groups like amphibians are more vulnerable to
extinction.
15,500 species are facing threat to extinction
12% birds, 23% Mammals, 32% amphibians 31% gymnosperms
• Mass extinctions have occurred before humans' origin
• During the long period of since origination and diversification of species (3 billion years) there
have been 5 mass extinctions
• 6th extinction is in process and is different from the previous mass extinctions in the following
ways:-
Rates:- estimated to be 100 to 1000 times faster than in pre-human times
If these trends continue half of the species will be wiped in the next 100 years
Outcomes of Loss of Biodiversity:-
a) Lowered resistance to environmental perturbations
b) Decline in plant production
c) Increased variability in production, water use etc.
Causes of biodiversity losses
• Habitat loss and fragmentation:- Most important cause of extinction.
Examples:-
1. Habitat loss in Tropical rainforests once used to cover 14% of earth's land and now cover 6%
2. Soya bean cultivation in Amazon rainforest for beef cattle
• Fragmentation leads to bad effect on migratory birds and mammals.
• Over-exploitation:- Humans depend on nature for resources but when need turns into greed
It leads to over-exploitation of resources.
Examples:-
Steller's sea cow, Passenger pigeon over last 500 years
Marine Fishes
• Alien-species extinctions:- When alien species are introduced into a certain area they become

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 • Alien-species extinctions:- When alien species are introduced into a certain area they become
invasive
Cause extinction of native species.
Examples:-
1. Nile Perch introduced into Lake Victoria lead to extinction of 200 species of native cichlid fish
species
2. Invasive weed like Parthenium, Water hyacinth, Lantana
3. Recent illegal introduction of African Catfish clarias gariepinus for agricultural purposes caused
threat to indigenous catfish.
• Co-extinctions:- Host-parasite, prey-predator, plant-pollinator mutualism

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Biodiversity Conservation
Monday, June 24, 2024 7:21 PM

Why Should we conserve Biodiversity?

There are many reasons but we can broadly classify them into
3 main categories:-
1. Narrowly utilitarian
2. Broadly utilitarian
3. Ethical

1. Narrowly Utilitarian argument:-

• Humans derive countless direct economic benefits from nature.
• More than 25% of drugs currently sold in the market are derived from plants.
And 25,000 species contribute to the traditional medicines used by native people
Around the world.
• Bioprospecting:-
Exploring molecular, genetic and species-level diversity for products of economic
Importance
2. Broadly Utilitarian argument:-
• Says that biodiversity plays an important role in many ecosystem services that nature provides
Examples:- Amazon forest:- produces 20% of total O2 in the earth's atmosphere, pollination
services
3. Ethical Argument:-
Relates to what we owe to millions of plants, animals, microbes etc. Moral duty to care of
the well-being of biodiversity and pass the legacy to the next generation

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Human Health and Disease
Monday, July 1, 2024 8:38 PM

History of health:
Health was once considered as state of body and mind where there is a balance of certain
"humors"
It was thought that people with 'blackbile' belonged to hot personality and would have fevers
William Harvey disproved the 'good humor hypothesis' with an experiment
Health is generally affected by:-
i. Genetic disorders
ii. Infections
iii. Lifestyle
The term health doesn’t just mean absence of a disease
It can also be described as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.
Disease:-
When functioning of one or more organs or systems of the body is adversely affected,
characterized by appearance of various symptoms we can conclude that the person is not
healthy
This could then mean the person has been affected by a disease which retards the normal
functioning of a person.
Common Diseases in Human
• Disease causing organisms are called pathogens
• Most parasites are considered as disease
• They have special adaptability mechanism to the host's body
E.g.:- Acclimatizing itself to the human gut's pH and resist digestive enzymes
TYPES OF PATHOGENS AND THEIR DISEASES
1. Bacterial Pathogens
i. Typhoid fever
Causative bacterium:- Salmonella Typhi
Attacks:- Small intestine
Symptoms:-
1.Headache 2. High temperature 3. loss of appetite 4. Constipation 5. Stomach pain 6.
Weakness
Severe symptoms include:- Intestinal perforation and even death
Means of spread:- Contaminated food and water
ii. Pneumonia
Causative bacterium:- Streptococcus pneumoniae or Haemophiles influenzae
Attacks:- Alveoli of the lungs which leads to buildup of fluid leading to severe respiratory
issues
Symptoms:
1.Fever 2.Chills 3.Cough 4. headache Severe:- Skin and nails turn blue and gray
respectively
Means of spread:- Air-borne disease
Other examples of Bacterial diseases are dysentery, plague and diphtheria.
2. Virus
i. Common cold
Causative virus:- Rhino viruses
Attacks:- Nose and nasal passage only
Symptoms:-
1.Nasal congestion and discharge 2. Sore throat 3. Hoarseness 4. Headache 5. cough 6.
Tiredness
Means of spread:- Air, touch
3. Protozoan
i. Malaria
Causative protozoan:- Plasmodium (P. vivax, P. falciparum)
Attacks (humans):- Liver
LIFE CYCLE:-

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LIFE CYCLE:-
Plasmodium enters the human body as sporozoites it is spread by bite of infected female
Anopheles Mosquito.
The parasite initially multiply within the liver cells the parasite then attacks the RBCs
resulting in their rupture
The structure of RBC is associated with release of a toxic substance called hemozoin which
is responsible for the symptoms malaria
Now, the female Anopheles Mosquito bites an infected person and enter the mosquito's
body and undergo further development.
The sporozoite undergoes its sexual cycle by fusion of male and female gametes and after
multiplication are stored inside the salivary glands of mosquitoes

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