BIODIVERSITY AND

CONSERVATION
 Index
 Introduction
Levels of Biodiversity
 Number of Species on Earth
 Patterns of Biodiversity
 Loss of Biodiversity
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 INTRODUCTION
• Biodiversity is the term popularized by the sociobiologist Edward Wilson to describe
the combined diversity at all the levels of biological organization.

• In our biosphere immense diversity (or heterogeneity) exists at all levels of

biological organization ranging from macromolecules within cells to biomes.

20,000 species of 28,000 species of

ants fishes
3,00,000 species 20,000 species of
of beetles orchids
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LEVELS OF BIODIVERSITY

Genetic Species Ecological

Diversity Diversity Diversity
 Genetic
Diversity
Diversity shown by a species at the genetic level over its distributional range.
Rauwolfia vomitoria growing in different Himalayan ranges shows genetic diversity
in terms of the potency and concentration of the active chemical (reserpine) that the
plant produces.
India has more than 50,000 genetically different strains of rice, and 1,000 varieties of
mango.
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 Species
Diversity

Diversity at the species level.

Species diversity is caused by evolution. A region becomes diverse with the evolution of
different species in an area.
The Western Ghats have a greater amphibian species than the Eastern Ghats.
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 RAIN
DESERT FOREST MANGROVES

Ecological
CORAL REEFS WETLANDS Diversity
ALPINE
MEADOWS

Diversity at the ecosystem level.

India, has deserts, rain forests, mangroves, coral reefs, wetlands, estuaries, and alpine
meadows
A greater ecosystem diversity than a Scandinavian country like Norway.
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 NUMBER OF SPECIES ON
EARTH
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
(IUCN) (2004) –

Total no. of plant and animal species described so far is slightly more than 1.5
million.

Estimates vary widely and many of them are only educated guesses regarding how
many total species are present on earth including those already discovered.

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Assumptions taken to make educated guesses regarding total number of species
on earth are -

Species inventories are more complete in

temperate than in tropical countries.

An overwhelmingly large proportion of

the species waiting to be discovered are
in the tropics.

Large number of insects are still undiscovered.

Some extreme estimates range from 20 to 50 million.

Robert May places the global species diversity at about 7 million. (Considered most
scientific.)
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SOME IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF BIODIVERSITY
ALL THE
SPECIES

8%
70% Others
22%
(Not
Animals Bacteria) Plants
Out of every 10 (including algae,
animals on this fungi, bryophytes,
planet, 7 are insects. gymnosperms and
angiosperms)
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Representing global biodiversity:
proportionate number of species of major
taxa of plants, invertebrates and vertebrates

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 Why are prokaryotes not included
in biodiversity ?
Conventional taxonomic methods are not suitable for identifying microbial species.

Many species are simply not culturable under laboratory conditions.

If we accept biochemical or molecular criteria for delineating species for this group,
then their diversity alone might run into millions.

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 BIODIVERSITY IN INDIA
 India has only 2.4 per cent of the world’s land area, its share of the global species
diversity is an impressive 8.1 per cent.
 It makes India one of the 12 mega diversity countries of the world.
 Nearly 45,000 species of plants and twice as many of animals have been recorded
from India.
 According to May’s global estimates, only 22 per cent of the total species have been
recorded so far.
 There are probably more than 1,00,000 plant species and more than 3,00,000
animal species yet to be discovered and described.
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PATTERNS OF BIODIVERSITY
1. Latitudinal Gradient:
 Species diversity decreases as we
move away from the equator
towards the poles.
 Tropics (latitudinal range of 23.5° N
to 23.5° S) harbor more species than
temperate or polar areas.

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Examples of Latitudinal Gradient

Colombia located India, with much of its

near the equator land area in the tropical
has nearly 1,400 latitudes, has more than
species of birds. 1,200 species of birds.

Greenland at New York at

71° N only 56 41° N has 105
species. species .
EQUATOR

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 FACTS & FIGURES
A forest in a tropical
region like Equador has up
to 10 times as many
species of vascular plants
as a forest of equal area in
a temperate region like the 40,000
Midwest of the USA. 1,25,000 species of
invertebrates plants
3,000 of
The largely tropical fishes
Amazonian rain forest in
378 of South America has the
reptiles greatest biodiversity on 1,300 of
earth. birds
427 of
427 of
mammals
amphibians
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Reasons for highest Biodiversity in
the Tropics
 Speciation is generally a function of time, unlike temperate regions subjected
to frequent glaciations in the past, tropical latitudes have remained relatively
undisturbed for millions of years and thus, had a long evolutionary time for
species diversification.

 Tropical environments, unlike temperate ones, are less seasonal, relatively

more constant and predictable. Such constant environments promote niche
specialization and lead to a greater species diversity.

 There is more solar energy available in the tropics, which contributes to higher
productivity; this in turn might contribute indirectly to greater diversity.
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2. Species-Area Relationships :
During his extensive explorations in the South
American jungles, the great German naturalist and
geographer Alexander von Humboldt observed that
within a region species richness increased with
increasing explored area, but only up to a limit.

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Relation between species richness and area gives a
rectangular hyperbola.

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 IMPORTANCE OF
SPECIES DIVERSITY
 David Tilman found that plots with more
species showed less year-to-year variation in
total biomass.
 He also showed that in his experiments,
increased diversity contributed to higher
productivity which is not only essential for
ecosystem health but imperative for the very
survival of the human race on this planet.
Rivet Popper Hypothesis : by Paul Ehrlich
Airplane Ecosystem

Popping of Rivet Extinction of Species

Wings Keystone Species

Stability of Airplane Stability of Ecosystem

Passengers of airplane while

travelling back home take some
parts of the airplane. Initially this
did not have much impact. But
ultimately plane gets weak.
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 LOSS OF
BIODIVERSITY
 The IUCN Red List (2004)
documents the extinction of 784
species (including 338 vertebrates,
359 invertebrates and 87 plants) in
the last 500 years.

 The colonization of tropical Pacific

Islands by humans is said to have led
to the extinction of more than 2,000
species of native birds.
EXAMPLES : Quagga
(Africa)

Tiger
(Bali, Javan,
Caspian)
Dodo
(Mauritius) 23
Steller’s Sea Cow
(Russia)

Thylacine
24 (Australia)
FACTS & FIGURES : The current species
extinction rates are estimated
to be 100 to 1,000 times faster
than in the pre-human times.
If the present trends continue,
nearly half of all the species
on earth might be extinct
23 % of all within the next 100 years.
mammal
species
32 % of all
Threat of amphibian The last twenty
12 % of all extinction species years alone have
bird species witnessed the
3 % of all disappearance of
gymnosperm 27 species.
species More than 15,500
species world-wide
are facing the
threat of extinction.
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Impacts of loss of Biodiversity
Increased variability in
Lowered resistance to certain ecosystem
Decline in plant environmental processes such as plant
production perturbations such as productivity, water use,
drought. and pest and disease
cycles.

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Causes of biodiversity losses

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1. Habitat loss and fragmentation :

 Most important cause.

 Eg: Tropical rain forests ( loss from 14% to 6% )

 Thousands of hectares of rain forests are being lost

within hours.

 The Amazon rain forest (‘lungs of the planet’) is being cut and cleared for
cultivating soya beans or for conversion to grasslands for raising beef cattle.

 When large habitats are broken up into small fragments, mammals and birds
requiring large territories and certain animals with migratory habits are badly
affected, leading to population declines.
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2. Over-Exploitation :

 Many species extinctions in the last 500 years (Steller’s sea cow,
passenger pigeon) were due to overexploitation by humans.

 Presently many marine fish populations around the world are

over harvested, endangering the continued existence of some
commercially important species.

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3. Alien species invasions :

 When alien species are introduced unintentionally or deliberately,

some of them turn invasive, and cause decline or extinction of
indigenous species.

 The Nile perch introduced into Lake Victoria (East Africa)

caused extinction of more than 200 species of cichlid fish in the
lake.

 Invasive weed species like carrot grass (Parthenium), Lantana WATER HYACINTH
and water hyacinth (Eicchornia) caused damage to our native
species.

 Illegal introduction of the African catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

for aquaculture is posing a threat to the indigenous catfishes in
our rivers. 30 CARROT GRASS
4. Co-Extinctions :

 When a species becomes extinct, the plant and

animal species associated with it in an
obligatory way also become extinct.

 Extinction of parasites when host is extinct.

 In co-evolved plant-pollinator mutualism ,

extinction of one causes extinction of other.

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 Case Study on
Raphus cucullatus
(Dodo)
 Extinction
The termination of a kind of
organism or of a group of
kinds, usually a species.

The moment of extinction is

generally considered to be the
death of the last individual of
the species.
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 A large, flightless bird. Physical
 The dodo was bigger than a turkey Characteristic
and weighed about 23 kilograms.
 It had blue-gray feathers, a large
head and beak, and small, useless
wings.
 Although the birds were terrestrial,
their bone structure was hollow like
that of birds that fly.

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 The dodo was endemic to the island of
Mauritius, 500 miles from the Eastern
coast of Madagascar.

 The dodo was primarily a forest bird,

occasionally venturing closer to the
shoreline. Habitat
 More than 26 million years ago, these
pigeon-like birds found paradise while
exploring the Indian Ocean: the
Mascarene Islands.

 With abundant food and no predators,

the birds had no reason to leave.
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 The dodo most likely ate nuts, seeds, and roots.

 It's also been suggested that they may have eaten crabs
and other shellfish, but nothing about this has been
definitely proven. Food
 It lived and nested on the ground and ate fruits that had Resource
fallen from trees.

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 Extinction Story of dodo
The sailors quickly
The birds were The birds had no decimated the dodo
discovered by natural predators, so population as an
Portuguese sailors they were unafraid of easy source of fresh
around 1507. humans. meat for their
voyages.

Humans also
As humans settled on brought animals, The last dodo was
the island, loss of which ate the killed in 1681, and
habitat further vulnerable eggs and the species was lost
threatened the birds. competed with them forever to extinction.
for food.

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Major Causes of dodo’s Extinction

Over- Habitat loss Losing

harvesting of due to human competition
the birds for settlement on with the newly
food by the the Islands. introduced
sailors animals

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 Closest Living
Relative of
Dodo

Nicobar
Pigeon

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 Recreating the full genome of an ancient,
dead animal
1. You need a specimen of the animal that has not been fossilized over the ages. Icy
places like permafrost may contain remains of living beings in such a preserved form.
2. A small piece about the size of a finger-nail is taken from these specimens, and broken
into small pieces.
3. In an absolutely uncontaminated state, this is added to a PCR kit which multiplies the
genome and makes many, many copies.
4. From these fragments, the entire genome is pieced together, comparing it to genomes
of other, living close relatives.
5. The researchers in Shapiro’s team found a specimen in Denmark from which they were
able to sequence the entire Genome of the dodo.

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 Can the genome be used to resurrect an
animal, In particular the dodo?
1. Beth Shapiro explained in the discussion that the known way of doing this
would be to first stick in parts of the extinct animal’s genome into a framework
provided by its close relative.
2. For example, by inserting the mammoth genome into the elephant’s and
construct a cell that contained sufficient amount of mammoth genome in it and
then to clone it like Dolly the sheep.
3. While this process has been somewhat understood in the case of mammals, a
new process has to be worked out for birds.
4. “There are different groups that are working on this, and I have no doubt that
we’ll get there, but this is a hurdle we face with birds,” she said.

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 The Wildlife protection act was passed on 21st
August, 1972. It was implemented across India
except Jammu and Kashmir on 9th September,
Wildlife
1972.
The Wildlife protection act (WLPA) 1972 is an
Protection
important statute that provides legal framework
for:
Act (1972)
1. Prohibition of Hunting
2. Protection and management of wildlife
habitats
3. Establishment of protected areas
4. Regulation and control of trade in parts
and products derived from wildlife
5. Management of zoos
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1. Rare and endangered species of birds, including
migratory birds, are included in Schedule-1 of the wildlife
protection act, 1972 thereby according to them highest
degree of protection.
2. Stringent punishments have been provided for violation
of the provisions of the act.
3. Important habitats of birds, including migratory birds,
For Birds:
have been notified as Protected Areas under WLPA, 1972
for better conservation and protection of birds and their
habitats.
4. Financial and technical assistance is provided to the
state/UT governments for the protection and
management of Protected Areas.
5. Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has been established for
the control of illegal trade in wildlife and its parts and
products.
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