Essay on Problems in Maintaining Biodiversity in the Modern World

Vegetation of a biome can vary drastically from biome to biome. In the Arctic Tundra it is extremely cold year round with little precipitation; the main plant life in this biome is low shrubs, sedges, lichens, and mosses. Tropical Rainforests are basically the opposite. Tropical Rainforests have no cold or dry periods. It rains nearly every day and forms dense jungles. With the amount of plant life and precipitation, there is a huge amount of decomposers. Somewhat in the middle of these two vastly different biomes, not necessarily geographically, is the Temperate Grasslands. As the name suggests, grasses are the dominant form for life, there are riparian woodlands (trees occurring along streams). Once a thriving biome, is now managed mainly as rangeland due to years of commercial farming.

Long-term survival of a species depends on its ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Murphy, 1994). Genetic diversity within a species, which has taken 3.5 billion years to evolve, makes adaptations to these changing environments possible. Unfortunately, the rate of extinction of genetically diverse organisms is rapidly increasing, thus reducing this needed biodiversity, largely due to the human impacts of development and expansion. What was an average of one extinction per year before is now one extinction per hour and extinct species numbers are expected to reach approximately one million by the year 2000 (WWW site, Bio 65). As a result governmental and societal action must

Forests have been cut, crops planted, pastures seeded, and urban areas paved. One of the most troubling consequences of human modification of ecosystems is an ongoing loss of species and therefore a loss of biodiversity around the world. The current extinctions have a human cause: habitat loss (such as clearing of tropical rainforests); the introduction of invasive species; unregulated hunting and fishing; and pollution of water, air, and

For example, the logger explained to the Guardbark that preservation sites are being made to replace the areas that are being deforested. But what about those animals that don’t live in the climate that the preservation sites are located? Or the ones that cannot find their way to the designated site? Also, you said that cutting trees creates biodiversity. This is not true because, for example, some animals use trees to hide from their predators. If these hiding places are eliminated, the prey is more available to the animals that eat them. This may result in extinction to the

In Idlewood, the open area was the second to least populous and had the least number of different species. While Tyler State park’s open area has the second to most diverse and populous recorded number of birds. The open area in Idlewood included a grassy field that was cultivated by humans for recreational reasons, but the open area in Tyler State Park included a farmland and the shrubs alongside of it which is the cause for the difference in population and diversity among the two areas. All habitats have limited space because of their boundaries (which were established in the classroom and can be found in the Field Study) but some habitats, such as the young forest, are able to provide more space for more species than other habitats, such as the wetlands. In regards to species diversity, Idlewood’s mature forest has the highest species diversity percentage at 8.52 because of the species: population ratio. Tyler State Park’s young forest has the highest species diversity percentage at 12.88 because it had a higher number of different species than the other

Biodiversity loss threatens to disrupt the function of ecosystems, with the potential of consequences for humans as well. Often this loss is measured by species extinction rates, but considerations should be made to include population diversity with measures including changes in size, number, distribution and genetic composition of population and potential implications those changes may have (Luck et al., 2003). Avise (2004) goes as far as to say biodiversity is genetic

The list ranges from dry prairies, terrestrial shrublands, wetlands, marshes, bogs, swamps, savannas, lowland forests, upland forests, to wet prairies. The dry prairies consist of pure marram grass and sand reed where mice, shrews, and squirrels are found. Terrestrial shrublands is the area between grass-covered dunes and forested dunes where you will find saplings of oak, basswood, and conifer trees. The area where there’s marshes, swamps, and bogs are all known as wetlands. Savannas also have oak and conifer trees found in them too. This type of habitat is the breeding grounds for lupine and Karner Blue butterflies. Lowland and upland forests are slightly different from each other. They each have different types of plants found there. Lastly, wet prairies have a wide variety of grasses. The thickness of the grass keeps the ground moist and provides homes for smaller animals. All of these habitats have their own characteristics and helps make up the Indiana Dunes State Park (“Indiana

Smooth brome is an introduced cool-season rhizomatous perennial grass known to invade throughout northern Great Plains. During the spring of 2013, we implemented an experimental study at the smooth brome invaded mixed grass prairie site of eastern South Dakota to evaluate mowing as an effective management tool for controlling smooth brome. Unlike earlier studies, our research focused on exploring the response of smooth brome below ground bud bank size, composition, and tiller establishment under different mowing frequency. Experiments were conducted using four specific types of treatment- Control (no mowing),

Humans are affecting grassland biomes by unnecessary hunting. When unnecessary hunting occurs, many of the animals food has a chance of disappearing. If animals food disappears, many of the animals could die off. When those animals die off, the population will decrease. The population decrease of animals is not good. It leads to extinction and then there is no more of those animals left in that biome or even in the world. When those animals become extinct, it could possibly be killing off a whole food source to an animal. When that happens, that animal could soon become extinct as well. Which could lead to the whole food chain of that biome being extinct. If the whole food chain becomes extinct for the biome then there will be no biome.

This is bad because for cloning to occur because cloning is essential copying the DNA strands so the telomeres can be deleted. When amino acids are deleted that changes the sequence and that leads to many disorders. Biodiversity is very important because it provides better health to all species. In the novel, Brave New World, a character named Bernard was made just like everyone else but he still didn’t turn out like everyone else. “He stood eight inches centimeters short of a standard Alpha height and was slender in proportion” (Huxley, 64), this shows that just because something is done to follow procedure, it doesn’t prove that the genetically engineered organism is bound to be fit for its environment.

The three levels of biodiversity are as follows: diversity of the ecosystems, diversity of species within the communities and diversity within species. The loss of species within the ecosystems and within the community can cause a catastrophic result, as species live and feed on other species. Species close to extinction are endangered species, therefore protecting them from predators and offering the chance to reproduce and repopulate. Unfortunately, with little support within the environment, a species can become extinct due to population density. Proper monitoring of an endangered species is required in order to keep species actively reproducing and changing with the environment around them.

Uses alternate mowing patterns from one visit to the next – this prevents ruts and compactions.

Biomes are all over the world, that’s why they are considered the “world’s major communities.” Biomes are large areas scattered around the earth, filled with animals and plants acclimating to their environments. You can classify biomes in many different ways, by their climate, their biodiversity, human activity, their animals and plants, and their habitats. There are only five conspicuous types of biomes, Grassland, Tundra, Desert, Aquatic, and forest. Without biomes, the earth would be unbalanced. Throughout the years, we have cause a lot of damage towards our earth, such as causing pollution, and abolishing natural habitats. If we continue living like this, there might be more serious or severe implications on the biomes. Knowing that we share the world with so many other species of plants and animals, we should consider the consequences of our actions.

Biodiversity presents occurrence of variety of species and their natural community in which they live. By the definition it is “The degree of variation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. It is a measure of the health of ecosystems and is in part a function of climate.” (Rutherford) Ecosystem is on the other hand, “ community and its abiotic environment”( Rutherford). Biodiversity exists in every ecosystem, weather it is big one, or just ecosystem of one garden, it has the same importance because without it nature loses its ability to perform major functions needed for life on Earth, as it is oxygen production. Trough this investigation, two different ecosystems will be explored and

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