The Importance of Biodiversity

The Importance of Biodiversity Conservation

Michelle Burgess

Colorado Community College

Author Note

This paper was prepared for Biology 105, taught by Professor Jaime Farrow.

The Importance of Biodiversity Conservation

“Biodiversity is the basis of human existence, our life support system” (Notice Nature, 2007). Biodiversity, short for biological diversity, is the variety of every single life form on our planet. This includes all plants, animals, and a host of numerous living organisms residing in Earth’s ecosystems. The earth is one extremely large biome containing several smaller biomes comprised of deserts, rainforests, tundra, and grasslands. Biomes consist of different ecosystems which are any number of living and non-living organisms that live together in one particular place. These resources provide us with the raw materials needed to make houses, paper, clothes, and so much more. In addition, they supply us with our food, water, and the air we breathe. Consequently, humans are inadvertently destroying the environment and depleting biodiversity resources at an alarming rate. With mass extinction on the rise, now is the time to take action as individuals and as communities to save our valuable planet from destruction for future generations. Conserving biodiversity is crucial to all life on Earth.

A Brief Introduction to Biodiversity

There are three levels of biodiversity consisting of species diversity, genetic diversity, and ecosystem diversity. Species diversity refers to the vast amounts of individual species our planet contains. Genetic diversity refers to the many variations of genetic combinations within a species. Ecosystem diversity is defined as a “variety of ecosystems in a biosphere or the variety of species and ecological processes that occur in different physical settings” (Boundless Learning, 2013). Ecosystems vary in size, anywhere from a small pond to an immensely large rainforest, and anything else in between....