Biodiversity
- Biodiversity can be defined as a community of all the living organisms on the earth and the diversity among them from all the ecosystems.
- Biodiversity is thus the variability between the species, within the species, and between the ecosystems.
- The term biodiversity was coined by Walter G. Rosen in the year 1986
Importance of Biodiversity
- Biodiversity plays a major role in maintaining the ecological balance of the ecosystem. It refers to the number of different species belonging to a particular region. In biodiversity, each species has a major role to play in the ecosystem.
Ecological Role of Biodiversity
- Apart from providing ecological balance to the environment, each species of biodiversity has a major function to play in the ecosystem.
- They play a major role in the production and decomposition of organic wastes, fixing atmospheric gases, and regulating of water and nutrients throughout the ecosystem.
- The stability of the ecosystem increases with the diversity of the species.
Economical Role of Biodiversity
- Biodiversity acts as a source of energy and has a major role in providing raw materials for industrial products such as oils, lubricants, perfumes, dyes, paper, waxes, rubber, etc.
- More than 70 % of the anti-cancer drugs are derived from plants in tropical rainforests.
Scientific Role of Biodiversity
- Each species of the ecosystem contributes to providing enough evidence as to how life evolved on this planet and the role of each species in maintaining the sustainability of the ecosystem.