Benefits of Maintaining Biodiversity (Edexcel GCSE Biology)

• The interactions between organisms in an ecosystem mean that organisms, populations or whole species may depend on one another
• Due to this interdependence, maintaining biodiversity is key in maintaining the stability of the ecosystem and avoiding disruption which could lead to the loss of species
• The loss of one species would have knock-on effects that would impact other species within the ecosystem (including humans). For example:
  • Human food supply - some farming methods threaten certain populations which could have future implications for the availability of that species for the human food supply e.g. the effect of overfishing on fish stocks
  • Medicines - some medicines are extracted from plants, these same plants may be at risk of extinction due to human activities such as deforestation
  • Jobs - conservation efforts and ecotourism provide jobs to support local populations
  • Cultural aspects - many cultures have traditions and symbols which come from nature, these cultural symbols may be threatened by loss of biodiversity
  • Ecotourism - human interest in rare or exotic species provides cope for tourism to admire such species. Although it requires careful control, also provides economic support for future conservation efforts
  • Climate change - peatlands and wetlands store lots of carbon so preventing disruption to these areas is of great importance in trying to reduce the amount of carbon released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide

Reasons for Maintaining Biodiversity Table

• The future of the human species on Earth relies on us maintaining a good level of biodiversity
• The increasing human population and the activities of humans (including waste production, peat bog destruction, deforestation and our contributions to global warming) are causing a reduction in global and ecosystem-level biodiversity
• These activities are considered as negative human interactions with ecosystems
• There are, however, ways in which humans can interact positively with ecosystems

Conservation of species

• Working directly with the species under threat can help to support that species to allow it to recover
• Methods might include:
  • Protected areas or conservation areas - these are areas that are not allowed to be interfered with, for example, no building work is allowed
  • Breeding programs - selective breeding of organisms, often in zoo's, to support an increase in population numbers
  • Seed banks - seeds of plants species can be collected and stored for many years under the right conditions to future proof the species

Reforestation

• A conscious effort has been made in recent years to try and counteract the negative impact of deforestation
  • Trees provide important habitats for many species and also help to maintain the global carbon balance by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for photosynthesis
  • Replanting large areas of forest land with a variety of tree species helps to rebuild the biodiversity of the cleared areas

Methods to Protect Biodiversity Table

• There are many conflicting pressures on maintaining biodiversity. Some examples include:
• The cost of programmes:
  • Protecting biodiversity can be very expensive
  • Eg. the land used for field margins could be used by farmers to grow crops and sell them – governments sometimes pay farmers a subsidy to make up for the lost money
  • It costs money to check that programmes designed to maintain biodiversity are actually being followed

• Protecting food security:
  • Land that is protected to maintain biodiversity could instead be used for farming – this can cause conflict in areas where there are food shortages
  • Sometimes organisms seen as a threat by farmers (eg. locusts and wolves) are killed to protect crops and livestock – this can negatively affect food chains / biodiversity and can cause conflict when species that are already under threat due to hunting or habitat loss are involved (eg. lions in parts of Africa)

• The development of society:
  • Increasing amounts of land are required to sustain the increasing human population
  • Eg. land required for new housing developments or for new agricultural land in developing countries
  • This high demand means that land with undisturbed habitats and high biodiversity is increasingly being used for development