Biodiversity

Bilim Genel Gündem İngilizce Yabancı Dil

21.03.2020

Biodiversity is in crisis. There is an evidence indicating an exact and continuing decline of genetic and species diversity, and degradation of ecosystems at local and global scales. Scientists are increasingly concerned that, if anthropogenic pressures on Biodiversity continue unabated, we risk precipitating a sixth mass extinction event in Earth history, with extensive impacts on human health and equality. Biodiversity provides many valuable goods and services – nature’s contributions to people. Biodiversity helps regulate climate through carbon storage and control of local rainfall, filters air and water, and decrease the impact of natural disasters such as landslides and coastal storms. Direct benefits include timber from forests, fish from oceans and freshwater systems, crops and medicines from plants, cultural identity, and the health benefits gained from access to nature.

Biodiversity, the “variability among living organisms from all sources including diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems”, helps regulate climate through carbon sequestration and control of local rainfall, filters air and water, and mitigates the impact of natural disasters such as landslides and coastal storms. Direct benefits include food and fibres from natural vegetation, wood and non-wood products from forests, fish from oceans and freshwater systems, pollination of crops, medicines from plants, and psychological health. Never before have we known so much about the biodiversity that enables ecosystems to function, yet biodiversity loss and habitat decline continues to accelerate, potentially beyond planetary boundaries.

Current rates of species loss are estimated to be 1,000-fold greater than background rates, sparking debate among scientists over whether we have already entered into a sixth mass extinction event. For many species, populations are in decline globally, and genetic diversity – vital for future adaptation to global change – is eroding. Natural communities of plants and animals are being reshaped through climate change and human-mediated movement of species; some displaced species are invasive, posing risks to human health, genetic diversity, and food and water security. These changes seem likely to reduce the efficiency by which ecosystems are able to capture essential resources, produce biomass, decompose and recycle nutrients, and decrease the resilience of ecosystems. The restoration and maintenance of biodiversity will enhance adaptive potential, and help sustain nature’s contributions to people’s livelihoods, health and well-being. These critical services are frequently neglected as they largely bypass the market and there are no clear price signals for them. The loss of biodiversity is also a significant equity issue: the livelihoods of 70 per cent of people living in poverty rely to some extent on natural resources; 80 per cent of global biodiversity is found in the traditional territories of indigenous peoples; and future generations will experience relatively impoverished lives if losses continue these assessments, the gradual acceptance of the numerous benefits of biodiversity conservation for human health has been recognized.