Big Idea Biodiversity

Ecosystem management takes an integrated view of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, integrates ecological concepts at a variety of spatial scales, incorporates the perspectives of landscape ecology so that the range of possible landscapes in an ecosystem is recognized and preserved, and is an evolving paradigm incorporating the objective of ecological sustainability.

It has been suggested that food production has changed some biomes in Australia, from natural systems to systems completely dominated by humans.

-Ecosystem: any environment containing living organisms interacting with each other and with the non-living parts of that environment.

There are different sorts of environments scattered over the earth, but what and where are they? In World Biodiversity Expedition, the reader is to collect data about these organisms and the environment they are settled at. A biome is often mistaken as an ecosystem, however, it is defined by non-living factors such as climate, soils, and vegetation. This unit helped me understand more clearly that there are so many organisms that I did not know anything about. I learned a lot from this specific unit when it comes to discoverying animals and organisms that I did not know exist.

Biodiversity is the expression used to define the variety of plant species, animals and micro-organisms within the ecosystems in which they live. The Macquarie University describes biodiversity as “a useful indicator for the overall health and viability of natural environments” (Mq.edu.au.) This investigation will delve into how a creek’s ecosystem affects and correlates to the health of the water and the surrounding environment.

So we will talk about biodiversity first. Biodiversity is a group of different living organisms from around the world in one community. And biodiversity helps the biosphere because they can produce better and help other plants and humans in need. Some plants and trees have different characteristics regarding to their species.

It is the variety within and between all species of plants, animals and micro-organisms and the ecosystems within which they live and interact.” The reason why biodiversity is so important because it ensures the ecosystem sustainability. Without biodiversity the Earth becomes weaker. In the Machine Stops, each person had their own pod with everything they could ever possibly need, giving them no reason to go out and interact with others. It is mentioned that Earth is inhabitable, but throughout the story there is no mention of the pods holding any kind of plants or animals, and because humans have no reason to interact, it can be assumed that no offspring has been created either.

Petropoulos et al, (2015) state that ecosystems depend on a balance of each of its biotic factors such as wildlife and abiotic factors to exist and Australian outback ecosystems are no exception. For this reason, amongst others, conservation programs are run which work to protect some vulnerable and many endangered species of wildlife in Australia (Clayton et al,. 2014). Clayton et al, (2014) describe that some conservation programs work on conserving a species’ environment such as protecting surrounding plants and trees from deforestation while others work on illegalising

Biological diversity, also known as biodiversity, describes the huge variety of species found on Earth and the natural way in which ecosystems and communities are formed. In the past few centuries, humans have had an especially negative

The positioning of the subjects in image 1 and image 3 in relation to their environment is a quintessential example of how Australia is sacrificing its natural beauty and icons. Image 3 shows two kangaroos, another internationally recognisable icon, positioned in their natural environment which is a healthy and thriving Australian bush. This image is affiliated with a typical Australian ecosystem and means that in this area, Australian flora and fauna are thriving. Image 1 also shows an Australian icon in it’s natural environment, but the environment in this image has been destroyed by humans. This means that in this particular area the flora and fauna are not thriving due to the negative effects of human intervention. These images clearly demonstrate how Australia is sacrificing its natural beauty and internationally recognisable icons for the sake of development and profits, because together they discern the effects of deforestation and provide a before and after point of

As a set of interacting species found in the same place and functioning together, this enabling life to persist. That is essentially the definition we used earlier. A problem with this term and definition is that it is often difficult in practice to know the entire set of interacting species. A resource, in ecological terms, is something such as food, water, habitat, and sunlight, prey that is required by an organism to perform a vital function such as grow or reproduce. A consumer is an organism that consumes a resource such as predators and herbivores (Botkin, 2015). Ecosystems are collections of plants, animals, and micro-organisms interacting among themselves and with their habitat. While most ecosystems are hard to define and draw rigid boundaries around, scientists characterize them by their rock and soil types, by water features such as streams and ponds, and by the common plant and animal species which make their homes within these areas. This, most interactions between animals involve one or more competitor species competing for a resource. Ecosystem management also recognizes the influence of natural disturbances such as fire and windstorms, accepting that natural ecosystems are dynamic and change over time. Biological production is the capture of usable energy from the environment to produce

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms coinciding with the nonliving components of a specific environment. One example includes the freshwater ecosystem contributing to Earth’s aquatic ecosystems. They include lakes and ponds, rivers, streams, springs and wetlands consisting of low salt concentrations (University of California

The main concept in big idea one is evolution. Evolution triggers the variation of things and being together.Natural selection is the most important cause of evolution. Charles Darwin created the process of which works on the phenotype of an organism. On his voyage of the HMS beagle around the world he studied many organisms and came up with the factor of adaptation that helps the chances of surviving. An example would be the beaks of the finches in the Gallapagos. They finches had different beak shapes to adapt and they increased fitness for their environment. The first principle of natural selection is variations of phenotypes. So that would mean in a population there are people with different

Humans have existed since 200,000 years but the Earth has existed around 4.5 billion years. Nature has provided us with everything we have today - food, medicines, materials, chemicals, metals, minerals etc. It can only keep providing us when we maintain the right environment for it to exist. This environment depends on the biodiversity of Earth. The number of species of plants, animals and microorganisms and the various genes in these species, different ecosystems such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth. Hence Biodiversity impacts everything. We will discuss how Biodiversity plays a crucial role on social, environmental, and economic factors. We will also discuss what

Franck and Brownstone define biological diversity as 'the variety and variability of living organisms and the biological communities in which they live' (36). Decades of progress in both the scientific and political arenas have advanced environmental legislation to protect biodiversity at not only the ecosystem level, but for specific species and genetic material as well. Research has shown the importance of every organism and their role in the global ecosystem, and legislation has gradually matured to protect not only species which may become endangered, but the habitats they need to survive as well. Growing consciousness surrounding environmental issues has enabled these protections to be