Biodiversity And Conservation

- The tropical region from 23.5°N to 23.5°S shows maximum biodiversity, it harbours more species then temperate & polar regions.

- Amazonian rain forest in south America has the greatest biodiversity on earth, their biodiversity is due to relatively undisturbed climatic condition, more constant & predictable environment & availability of more solar energy.

- It is an ex situ conservation approach used to provide protection to the wild life.

- Major causes of biodiversity loss:

• Habitat loss and Fragmentation

• Alien species invasion (leads to destruction of native species)

• Over-exploitation of natural resources

• Co- extinction of species

- It is not an invasive species, whereas Parthenium hysterophora (carrot grass) in plain area, Lantana camera in hilly area & Eichhornia crassipes ( water hyacinth in water ) possess threat to the indigenous species.

- Pitcher plants are found in north-eastern region of India.

- Known to grow in N₂ deficient soil.

Sunderbans → mangrove plants are found

Deserts have plants with xerophytic adaptations.

- Polar Regions have very less number of species (biodiversity) because Polar Regions have to face frequent glaciations and are less seasonal & non predictable which doesn’t promote niche specialization.

- Hot spots are the regions with high level of species richness and endemism.

- Undisturbed conditions for millions of years leads to more diversification of species.

Dodo, Quagga, Thylacine and stellar’s sea cow all are the extinct species of the matched countries.

- Because of the medical & commercial value all the above plants are prone to over exploitation.

- Psilotum, Rauwolfia & Aconitum have the medicinal properties.

- Nepenthes is an insectivorous plant.

Kaziranga national park in Assam is famous for one-horned rhinoceros.

Corbett (Uttarakhand) & Bandipur(Mysore) are famous for tigers & Bhitar Kanika National park of Odisha is specifically famous for salt water crocodiles.

According to IUCN Red list (2004)

32% of all amphibians are on the risk of extinction whereas 23% of the all the mammals & 12% of the birds are also facing the threat of extinction.

Due to their following properties:-

a) Rauwolfia serpentina – used to extract a drug called reserpine, also known as medicine for mads.

b) Santalum album (sandal wood) is used to extract oil having distinctive fragrance.

c) Cycas beddomei → medical use

Used as an ingredient in rejuvenating drink.

Talking about all three species Lantana is an angiosperm plant, Eichhornia is a hydrophytic plant also called as water hyacinth and in last is African catfish as we all fishes came in pisces phylum. And all three species are suffering from alien species invasion. Hence,
they are all endangered species in India.
Therefore, A. All are endangered species of India.

Predatory birds like vultures are also in the list of endangered species list. Human are exploring more and more resources and exploitation is being done over all natural resources and that might destroy the habitats of these birds and i.e. the main reason for their extinction.
Therefore, B. over exploitation of humans.

Parthenium is scientific name of carrot grass. Catfish is in the threat of being endangered due invasion of African catfish. So, Stellar’s sea cow is now in the list of extinct animals due to over exploitation of humans.
Therefore, C . Stellar’s sea cow is an extinct animal.

Coral Reefs have maximum biodiversity because it have maximum number organism i.e. small like zooplanktons , diatoms etc and bigger like sharks, dolphins and blue whales etc.
Hence, it have large number of organisms for reliable ecosystem and all organisms have their own ways of survival.
Therefore, C. Coral reefs is correct option.

Amazon rain forest is known as “Lungs of the planet Earth” because it have highest number of diversity of flora and fauna. It have almost 1,25,000 of invertebrates , 15,000 of vertebrates and 40,000 of plants of species and yet scientist estimate that more 2 million of
insects are waiting to be explored by there.
Therefore, answer is C. Amazon rain forest.

Rauwolfia vomitoria is the medicinal plant which is found in Himalayan ranges and produces reserpine. Datura is a also used in making of well known drug cocaine. And Papaver plant is known for morphine drug.
Therefore, correct answer is B. Rauwolfia.

Fungi group exhibit more species diversity than any other phylum in the options. And angiosperm is almost same fungi diversity and comes algae , mosses ,lichens and others like ferns and allies.
Therefore, answer is D. Fungi.

Tropics and Alpines are good for seasonal variations as we alpine are good for seasonal fruits like strawberries , apples etc and Indian region is also known as tropical region i.e. due to seasonal changes we get rabi crops and kharif crops. So temperate does not follow these seasonal variations.
Therefore, option B. Temperates is the correct option.

The Earth Summit called all the nations to take measures for conservation of biodiversity. It was the historic convention on biological diversity to tell world that biodiversity have no political boundaries and conservation is a responsibility of all the nations.
Therefore, B. The Earth Summit is the correct answer.

in vitro fertilization, cryo preservation and tissue culture are the examples of ex situ conservation because it posses conservation of threatened species of plants and animal. Cryopreservation is a method to preserve the gametes of endangered species.
Therefore, B. All are ex situ conservation methods.

Community with more species are considered to be more stable.

The following are the characteristics of the stable community:

A) Less year to year variation in the productivity.

B) Resistance and resilience to the occasional disturbances that may be natural or manmade.

Some of the assumptions taken in consideration by scientists are:

A) Natural calamities like volcanic eruptions, flood, drought etc.

B) Due to change in temperature

C) Fall in sea level

D) Sudden movement of tectonic plates

E) Some asteroids hitted the planet which led to dust storm and earthquakes- it is also considered

as the major cause for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Ecological diversity indicates the diversity at the ecosystem level.

In the terms of the topography, India is very diverse showing greater geographical diversity.

Example- rain forest, mangrove, coral reefs, estuaries, alpine meadows and deserts,all are present in

India.

Agricultural fields are the best examples of the man made ecosystem.

These are known to show very low diversity but the output productivity is very high.

Red indicates the endangered species, which are on the verge of extinction.

Hotspots harbour extremely high number of species. These are the regions with high level of endemism and threat.

Strict protection of hotspot can reduce the rate of ongoing mass extinction by almost 30%.

In situ conservation strategies like biosphere reserve, national parks and sanctuaries are used to protect the hotspots.

Endemic are the local or native species found in a particular geographical area, whereas exotic species belongs to elsewhere and introduced from one geographical region to the other geographical region.

Exotic species are known to cause alien species invasion.

Firstly, we need to understand the meaning of ecological diversity. Ecological diversity deals with the variations of ecosystem within a geographical location. And the other side species diversity is the number of different species that are represented in a given community. Hence, differences is clear species diversity is resistant to occasional disturbances
and it must also be resistant to invasions by alien species and ecological diversity changes leads to biomass change in ecosystem.

Genetic variation are important in any species to maintain the quality of progenies and if progeny is self crossed again and again the genetic quality may become weak and less resistant to diseases.

Red Book Data includes records of all endangered animals and plants and almost 784 species are recorded in it there are 338 vertebrates , 359 invertebrate and 87 are plants.

Gene pool is the stock of different genes in interbreeding populations. It is the sum of all the alleles at all of the loci within the genes of a population of a single species.

Frugivorous are the fruit eating birds and mammals of tropical forests.

IUCN is an international organization which is founded in France 1948 and its full form is International Union of Conservation of Nature.

(i) Bioprospecting – it is the process of discovery for plants and animals species from which medical drugs and other commercially valuable compounds can be obtained.
(ii) Endemism – It is the ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographical location, organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it they are found elsewhere.

in both the pictures we are having some flowers and flowers are mostly present in angiosperms and they both are looking like shrubs. Hence, they are angiosperms and that’s the similarity between both the pictures.

A is the picture of tiger and B is the picture of a snake hanging on a tree. Both the animals are vertebrates one is from mammalian phylum and another one is from reptilian phylum.

Past five episodes of mass extinction of species occurred due to natural causes like volcanic eruptions, flood etc.

But the ongoing sixth episode of mass extinction is 100-1000 times faster than the previous five episodes and it is due to the interference of the humans.

All other episodes were pre-human period but the sixth one is anthropogenic.

Habitat loss and fragmentation is the major cause for this problem, due the following facts:

a) Large areas broken into fragments results in reduction of the core area and increase in edge areas.

b) This causes depletion of the natural resources leading to the scarcity of food for the living wild life.

c) The tropical rain forest reduced to 6% from 14% of the total earth surface.

d) The increasing rate of urbanisation and increase in the deforestation is the major cause of habitat loss which ultimately leads to the biodiversity loss.

One such example is of plant pollinator relationship. In this case if either one of them gets extinct it results in the ultimate extinction of the other, this phenomenon is called co-extinction.

Hence, when a species become extinct, the plant and animal species associated with it in an obligatory manner also become extinct.

According to Alexander Von Humboldt species richness increases with increase in explored area. This happens due to the fact that as the area increases the availability of the natural resources also increase which supports diversification. Hence the value of slope increases and it becomes steeper.

No, it is impossible to maintain constant productivity and natural community over a time period of 100 years. This is because with time the population size increases resulting in the depletion of the availability of resources. It is also a cause of competition among species. Moreover, environmental condition also changes with time.

Greater biodiversity is found in the tropics and subtropics because of its latitude gradient which is located near to the equator.

Solar light falls more prominently near the equator region, contributing in higher primary productivity (due to photosynthesis).

Moreover, tropical regions have remained undisturbed for millions of years, they are comparatively more seasonal and more predictable then polar regions. All these factors helped the tropical and subtropical regions in niche specialisation.

Conventional methods cannot be used to assess the biodiversity of bacterial colony due to following reasons:

a) Bacteria cannot be seen with naked eyes hence it is impossible to distinguish them morphologically with naked eyes.

b) Some of the bacteria cannot be cultured in normal media hence it becomes tough to study their morphology and biochemistry.

c) The culture media can easily get contaminated with the other non bacterial organisms also.

The following criterions are used by IUCN to categorise species as threatened species:

a) Rate of the population decline

b) Geographic region

c) Population size is studied

d) It is studied whether the population lives in a restricted area or not.

e) Whether the quantities analysis show high risk of extinction or not.

Amphibian decline is linked with the natural forces like competition, predation, reproduction, environmental contamination, alien species invasion and climate changes.

Due to permeable skin amphibians are more prone to diseases. Nowadays the major cause of the extinction of amphibian is climate change and a disease called chytridomycossis.

Moreover due to dual habitat i.e. land and water, amphibians are facing dual environmental changes.

Biologists use to make taxonomic groups and species inventories according to the geographical locations to extrapolate the total number of species on Earth. They make statistical representation of the temperate – tropical regions and then calculate the gross estimation of total number of biomass of the species.

The biological wealth of this planet benefits us from diversity of life is :-
1. Humans are heterotrops they depend on natural resources fully if there is no oxygen animals and humans would not be able to live in. Amazon rain forest provides about 40% of oxygen to humans and other sources are diatoms.
2. Food like cereals, pulses, fruits it all use to come from plants even tannins, lubricants, dyes, resins, perfumes all are the products comes from nature

The biological wealth of this planet is rapidly decreasing through human activities
and some the main causes are:-
1. Habitat Loss and Fragmentation – This is the important cause of animal and plants extinction. The most dramatic examples of habitat loss come from tropical rain forests. Once they were covering more than 14 percent of the land surface, and now days there only 6 percent left .it is exploited for natural resources like fibre , woods etc.
2. Over- exploitation - Humans have always depended on nature for food and shelter, but when needs turn to greed , it lead to over – exploitation of natural resources.Many species extinction is in last 500 years due to over exploitation.

an endangered species is a species which has been categorized as very likely to become extinct in the near future. And the list of some endangered animals:-
1. Amur leopard estimation 60 remaining.
2. Amur Tiger estimation 450 remaining.
3. Asian Elephant estimation 40,000 – 50,000 remaining.
4. Bengal Tiger estimation 2,500 remaining.
5. Black –Footed Ferret. 300 remaining.
6. Black Rhino about 5,000 remaining.

in many cultures, tracts of forest were set aside, and all the trees and wildlife within were venerated and given total protection. And this sacred groves are found in Khasi and Jaintia hills in Meghalaya, Aravalli hills of Rajasthan, Western Ghats regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra and the Sarguja and many more. They are in situ type of conservation the number of plants is being saved in the sacred groves of Meghalaya they have rare and threatened plant in that refugees.

coral reefs are found in oceanic places, mangrove vegetation and estuaries are found in coastal areas and it is also present near ocean i.e. we locate that is near sea or oceans an island may be like Australia have ocean and coastal areas. So I suggest Australia to study coral reefs, mangroves and estuaries.

yes, it is true that tropics posses more solar energy because sunlight is straight at equatorial region and on the other side at the polar regions sunlight comes in slanting type rays.

when a species become extinct, the plant and animal species associated with it in an obligatory way also become extinct this process is known as co-extinction.

When alien species are introduced with the native species it can cause either decline or extinction of indigenous species.

The greatest impact is caused by introduced species that change an entire habitat, because many native species thrive only in a particular habitat.

Other invaders, though they do not change a habitat, endanger single species or even entire groups of them in various ways.

Often invaders interact with one another to generate a problem where either species alone would be harmless.

e.g. A case study in East Africa suggest that when an alien exotic species Nile perch was introduced in lake Victoria it led to the extinction of 200 species of cichlids in the lake.

In India when an aquatic invasive weed Eichhornia was introduced it resulted in the decrease in the level of biological oxygen demand of water, it resulted in the death of the aquatic lives .

Biodiversity can be saved by enforcing strict conservation strategies and policies regarding the management of the natural resources.

As an individual we need to understand the importance of the biodiversity and its role in ecological balance.

We should try to spread awareness in the society about the conservation and the management of resources.

Some of the conservation strategies are as follows:

a) Protected lands: it includes in situ conservation e.g. national parks, biosphere reserves and sanctuaries.

b) Hunting should be banned.

c) Over exploitation of natural resources need to be avoided.

d) Clearing of forest for urbanisation must be stopped today.

Paul Ehrlich assumed ecosystem as an airplane joined by thousands of rivets which denotes the diverse species. If every passenger starts popping out the rivet, the flight would not be safe, furthermore which rivet is removed is also important.

If the human starts destruction of the natural resources then it would result in the extinction of the species. This would imbalance the whole ecosystem. And the rate of destruction depends on the key stone (ecotone) species. If the ecotone species is removed it would be a more critical factor in the destruction of the ecosystem.

Human began agriculture and started exploiting forest lands 11000 years ago.

But this exploitation soon changed into over exploitation due to rapid growth of the population size of humans. Increased population resulted in increased needs which is leading to the 100 to 1000 times faster exploitation of the natural resources.

Hence with time, increase in medicinal facility and increased technology, the life span of humans increased which resulted in overexploitation and the intensity of the conflicts increased.

The services that are provided by the ecosystem are called the ecosystem services. Four impotant ecosystem services are as follows:

a) Purification of air and water: by the process of photosynthesis, trees in exchange of CO₂ gives out O_2.

b) It provides habitat and food to the wildlife.

c) Commercially as well as medicinally important drugs are obtained from forest trees. E.g. Taxol an anti cancerous drug, obtained from the bark of Taxus brevifolia.

d) Provides aesthetic pleasure, have cultural and spiritual values.

No, I am not in the favour of levying charge because we cannot repay ecosystem for what it has been giving to us. We are alive only because of the services provided by the ecosystem. But we must understand our responsibilities towards ecosystem; only in this way we can repay the ecosystem.

Biodiversity provides a range of goods from agriculture crops to medicines and fibres to which a direct value and cost can be assigned. The direct economic value of the natural environment can be divided into associated with consumptive values
a) FOOD: A large number of wild plants are consumed by human beings as food about 90% food crops have been domesticated from wild tropical region like Chenopodium (bathua) Melilotus alva (sengri).
b) DRUGS AND MEDICINE: About 75% of the world population depends upon medicines. The wonder drug penicillin used as antibiotic is derived from fungus called penicillium
c) FUEL: Our forests have been used since ages for the fuel wood. The fossil fuels like coal, petroleum and natural gas are all products of fossilized biodiversity.

species diversity decreases as we move from equator towards the poles because sunlight is less visible due to slanting rays of the sun but at equator posses straight rays of sunlight due to which vegetation of tropical region is much high than the polar regions. Polar regions are generally covered with snow till 6-7 metre. So top soil is completely out of
vegetations due to snow and the chilled climate forms ice bergs in the seas.

rivet popper hypothesis is a explanation to the threat of animals and plants. He has assumed that airplane is refers to ecosystem and airplane parts are refers to the species of an area. If everyone those who using the plane take rivets(species) to their homes, it may affect flight safety(proper functioning of the ecosystem ) and as more and more rivets are removed, the plane become dangerously weak over a period of time. Loss of rivets on the wings is obviously a more serious threat to flight safety than a loss of a few rivets on the seats. Soon airplane will get to very serious trouble. As the result the plane never be able to fly ( key species
of the ecosystem will also get to extent).

The German naturalist and geographer Alexandar von Humboldt observed that within a region species richness increased with increasing explored are, but only up to a limit in fact, the relation between the species richness and area for wide variety of taxa turn out be a rectangular hyperbola.

On the logarithmic scale, the relationship is a straight line described by the equation.
Log S = Log C + Z Log A where
S = Species richness A = Area
Z = slope of the line
Y = Y- intercept
Ecologists have discovered that the vale of Z lies in the range of 0.1 to 0.2 regardless of the
taxanomic groups or the regions and this process is called species – relationship area.