Chapter 13

Biodiversity and Conservation

 Biodiversity
• Term popularised by Edward Wilson (Sociobiologist)
• Diversity in all form of life.
• Biodiversity means combined diversity at all the levels of biological organisation.
• India has 10 biogeographical regions among which Deccan Penninsula is the
largest and Western Ghats and North-east are the most diversity rich.
• Types of Biodiversity:
a. Genetic diversity-diversity at genetic level over all distribution. India has more
than 50,000 genetically different strains of rice, and 1,000 varieties of mango.
b. Species level-The diversity at the species level, for example, the Western Ghats
have a greater amphibian species diversity than the Eastern Ghats
c. Ecological level-At the ecosystem level, India, for instance, with its deserts, rain
forests, mangroves, coral reefs, wetlands, estuaries, and alpine meadows has a
greater ecosystem diversity than a Scandinavian country like Norway.
 How Many Species are there on Earth and How Many in India?

• IUCN-International Union for Conservation of Nature.

• 1.5 million above biodiversity discovered. Yet many undiscovered.
• 70% animals
• 22% plants (Algae, Bryo, Pterido, Gymno, Fungi)
• 8% others (Protista)
• Prokaryotes are not included in data---many such bacteria which
can’t be culture.
• Robert May places global species diversity at about 7 million. In
which 70% of which comprise animals and less than 22% comprise
plants.
• Among them insects are most rich diverse. Out of 10 animals 7
are insects.
• Invertebrates
Insects>Mollusc>crustaceans>other animal
• Vertebrates
Fish>Reptiles>Amphibians>Birds>Mammals
• Plants
Angiosperms>Fungi>Algae> Moss Fern>Lichen>Gymnosperm
• Biodiversity in India
• 2.4% of world’s total land area
• 8.1% among Global Biodiversity(so, India is one of the 12
Mega Biodiversity countrie of the World)
• 45,000 plants species are present and twice as manay of
animals have been recorded.
 Patterns of Biodiversity: Latitudinal and
Altitudinal gradient
• Latitudinal Gradient-equator to pole (Biodiversity decreases). It
increases in temperate areas but reaches maximum in tropical rain
forests.
• Maximum biodiversity occurs in Amazon Rain forest of South
America.
• Tropics account for greater biological diversity.
• Reasons behind the maximum biological diversity in tropical
regions are:
• Prolong evolutionary time: specimen is generally a function of
time, unlike temperate regions subjected to frequent glaciations in
the past, tropical latitudes have remained relatively undisturbed for
million of years and thus, had a long evolutionary time for species
diversification.
• Constant environment: tropical environment,
unlike temperate ones, are less seasonal,
relatively more constant and predictable. Such
constant environments promote niche
specialisation and lead to a greater species
diversity.
• High productivity: there is more solar energy
available in the tropics, which contribute to higher
productivity, this in turn, might contribute
indirectly to greater diversity.
 Species- area Relationship
• Within a region, the species richness
increases with increasing area but up to
certain limit. The relationship between
species richness and area is a rectangular
hyperbola for a wide variety of taxa weather
they are birds, bats, freshwater fishes or
flowering plants.
• On a logarithmic scale, it is straight line.
Log S=Log C+ Z log a, where S is the species
richness, Z is slope of line or regression
coefficient, C is Y intercept while A is area.
• Regression coefficient is generally 0.1-0.2
regardless of taxonomic group or region.
However, when the species-area relationship
is considered for a very large area like a whole
continent, regression coefficient or slope of
the line steeper and have Z value of 0.6-1.2,
e.g. for frugivorous birds and mammals of
tropical forests of different continents, the
slope is found to be 1.15.
 Importance of biodiversity
• Biodiversity is essential for stability of an ecosystem.
• Biodiversity serves as source as source of food and
provides source material for new improved
varieties.
• Various plant species provide different drugs and
medicines, e.g. quinine from Cinchona, taxol from
Taxus, etc.
• Biodiversity has scientific value also as different
animal species are used for biological and medical
reearch
 Rivet popper hypothesis
• Propsoed by Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich(1981).
• According to the hypothesis, the relationship
between species richness and ecosystem
functioning is no-linear, but may follow a variety of
possible trajectories.
• The loss of a few species (or rivets holding together
an aeroplane) will initially create no problem, but
beyond a certain point losses will cause
catastrophic effect.
 Loss of biodiversity
• Most serious aspect of the loss of biodiversity is the extinction
of species.
• Extinction is of three types-natural extinction, mass extinction
and anthropogenic extinction.
• Natural or background extinction is a slow process of
replacement of existing species with the better adapted species
due to alternate evolution, changes in environmental
conditions, predators and diseases. Earth has experienced five
mass extinctions due to environmental catastrophes.
• Anthropogenic extinctions are abetted by human activities like
settlements, hunting, over exploitation and habitat
destruction.
 Red Data Book and IUCN
• IUCN is International Union of Conservation
of Nature and Natural Resources which is
now called World Conservation Union (WCU).
It maintains a red data book or red list which is
catalogue of taxa facing risk of extinction.
 Causes of Biodiversity loss
Four main cases called Evil Quartet
• Habitat loss and fragmentation: due to destruction of
natural habitat, burning of forests, cutting down trees,
forcing animals out of their habitats, which in alien land
die out after sometime.
• Non-native or alien species often become invasive and
drive away the local specie. It is the second major cause
of extinction. E.g. Water hyacinth was introduced in
Indian waters to reduce pollution. It has clogged water
bodies including wetlands at many places resulting in
death of several aquatic plants and animals.
 Over-exploitation:
• Humans have always depended on nature for
food and shelter, but when ‘need’ turns to ‘greed’, it
leads to over -exploitation of natural resources.
•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.
 Alien species invasions
•Alien species invasions: When alien species are introduced
unintentionally or deliberately for whatever purpose, some of them
turn invasive, and cause decline or extinction of indigenous species.
•The Nile perch introduced into Lake Victoria in east Africa led
eventually to the extinction of an ecologically unique assemblage of
more than 200 species of cichlid fish in the lake.
•Environmental damage caused and threat posed to our native
species by invasive weed species like carrot grass (Parthenium),
Lantana and water hyacinth (Eicchornia). The recent illegal
introduction of the African catfish Clarias gariepinus for aquaculture
purposes is posing a threat to the indigenous catfishes in our rivers.
 Co-extinctions:
•When a species becomes extinct, the plant and animal
species associated with it in an obligatory way also become
extinct.
•When a host fish species becomes extinct, its unique
assemblage of parasites also meets the same fate.
•Another example is the case of a coevolved plant-
pollinator mutualism where extinction of one invariably
leads to the extinction of the other.
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
•Conservation of biodiversity is protection, upliftment and scientific
management of biodiversity so as to maintain it at its optimum level
and derive sustainable benefits for the present as well as future
generations.
•There are some reasons to conserve the biological diversity which
can be grouped in three categories.
i. Narrowly utilitarian: useful human products like food, fibres,
drugs, medicine, etc.
ii. Broadly utilitarian: ecosystem services like provision of
pollinators, climate regulation, flood and erosion control,
ecological balance through nutrient cycling, etc.
iii. Ethical utilitarian: every living species has an intrinsic value
thought it may not have direct economic value and also, every
species has the right to live.
There are two types f conservation
strategies:
i. In-situ
ii. Ex-situ
In-situ conservation Ex-situ
(conservation in natural conservation(conservation
habitat) outside natural habitat)
i. Hotspots i. Seed banks, gene banks,
cryopreservation, tissue
culture
ii. Protected areas: ii. Botanical gardens,
a) Wildlife sanctuaries zoological parks, Aquaria
b) Biosphere reserves
c) National parks
Hotspots: regions rich in biodiversity but are
declared sensitive due to direct or indirect
human interference.
•Total number of hotspots all over the world are
34.
•India has three hotspots: Indo-Burman region,
Himalayas and Western Ghats-Sri-Lanka.
Protected areas: areas especially dedicated to
the protection and maintenance of biological
diversity and of natural and associated cultural
resources.
National parks Biosphere reserves Sanctuaries
•Maintained by •Multipurpose protected •Tracrazing, cultivation,
government and reserved areas. harvesting of forest
for betterment of wildlife. •They have three zones: products and private
a. Core or natural zone- ownership is permitted.
undisturbed and •More than 500
•Various activites like legally protected sanctuaries are present in
cultivation, grazing, b. Buffer zone- Limited India.
forestry, habitat human activity like
manipulation are research, education
prohibited. and resource
utilisation are allowed.
•At present there are more c. Transition zone-
than 100 National parks in Outermost region
India. where human activity
like recreation,
cropping, forestry, etc.,
are allowed.

Sacred forests: also sacred grove are forest patches of worship

which are held in high esteem by tribal communities. In india,
sacred groves are found in khansi and Jaintia Hills in
Meghalaya, Aravali Hils of Rajasthan, Western Ghats of
 Ex-situ conservation
• It is the conservation of endangered species of
plants and animals in places apart from their
natural habitat.
• It includes offsite, collections and gene banks,
which are source of genetic material for
breeders and genetic engineers.
Offsite collections
• Live collections of wild and domesticated species in botanical gardens, zoo, etc.
• Plants species of various varieties are also kept.
• Captive breeding help to maintain the species which have become extinct in wild. As
the number increases in captive breeding individuals are selectively releases in wild.
Seed banks
• Seeds of different genetic strains of commercially important plants can be kept for long
periods in seed banks.
Tissue Culture
• Technique used for plants where clone is to be identified.
• Callus formation, embryoids, pollen grain culture, etc are used for growing such plants.
Cryopreservation
• Preservation of embryos, animal cells or tissues, gametes at -196o C indefinetely.
• Special techniques are used to revive the cryopreserved material.
International effort to Conserve biodiversity

1. Earth submit-1992-Riode Janirio(Brazil)

-Biodiversity Conserve and sustainable
development.
2. World submit-2002-Johannes Berg(South
America).
Reduction in Biodiversity loss (Global, Regional)