Biodiversity

Hello,

Today we're talking about biodiversity and why it's so important. As you probably know biodiversity describes the variety of living species, often referring to one specific place or ecosystem. For example, the Amazon rainforest is a very biodiverse ecosystem. The opposite of biodiverse is a monoculture. A monoculture often refers to farmland, where only one crop is produced. Palm oil plantations are normally monocultures, with rows and rows of palm trees and nothing else.

I'm going to start by giving you an idea of the current situation. This year, the State of Nature 2023 report was published. This report looks at recent changes in biodiversity in the UK. To be frank, it's bad news. One in six (17%) of all UK species and almost half (43%) of bird species are at risk of extinction. 31% of amphibians and reptiles and 28% of fungi are also at risk. There has been a 54% decline in flowering plant species and a 34% decline in pest controlling insects (insects that eat/kill "pests"). This is mostly due to us humans. Habitat loss, diseases spread via factory farming (like avian flu), variability in climate due to climate change, intensive farming and unsustainable fishing are all contributing to these shocking numbers. Only 20% of farmland is considered eco-friendly and only 44% of woodland is sustainably managed, not always successfully. Only 7% of woodland, 25% of peatland and none of the seafloor that was assesed is in a good ecological condition. Especially the seafloor has suffered from habitat destruction due to fishing gear. But, there was some good news. The conservation work that is being done is paying off. Lyme Bay marine protected area, in Dorset and Devon, South-West England) has seen a increase in biodiversity since trawling was banned in 2008. The RSPB's (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) Hope Farm has proven that it is possible to produce food and have a 177% increase in breeding birds over 12 years. The improvement of water quality, has made the recovery of freshwater fish species possible.

So, we've already established that biodiversity is declining. This isn't only happening in the UK. It's happening everywhere across the world. And we've already covered some of the reasons for this decline. But is it actually a problem? What are the consequences of biodiversity loss? Probably the biggest problem is the spread of diseases. In a less biodiverse world, dominant species become more and more abundant, and with them whatever viruses and diseases they happen to carry. This has been seen in mosquitoes. The variety of different mosquito species is declining and those that can survive are reproducing more and more and carrying deadly viruses to more and more areas, where they can transfer to humans. Also, monocultures attract certain species like rats, mice and bats. These species are known to generally carry a lot of diseases. Another problem is something that farmers have none about for thousands of years. Monocultures unbalance the soils nutrients and in the worse case make it infertile. This is because one plant species needs certain nutrients in the soil and doesn't need others. That way, all of the nutrient that it needs is used up and there is too much of other nutrients. This can cause the soil to become infertile, meaning that almost nothing can actually grow there. One technique to avoid this is to rotate the crops every year and also have each field have one year where it isn't used at all and can recover. One more point is that the more biodiverse an area is, the more CO2 is stores. Tropical rainforests with high biodiversity can store more CO2 than a palm oil plantation with just the same plant species for as far the eye can see.

So how do we move forward? What is science doing about this problem? The good news is that this problem is now recieving the attention it deserves. It's even a boundary in the planetary boundary model which we explained a little while ago. One exciting concept is using AI. AI can be an amazing tool for science. Now scientists are using it to measure biodiversity from listening to recordings of animal sounds. Some areas are hard to explore because of thick undergrowth or the animals are very secretive. So simply leaving recording devices in the area and then getting AI to recognise the different sounds is very effective. The sustainabile development goals are very important targets. Unfortunately we are quite far behind on the goals regarding biodiversity and marine life. Another idea that's being considered is calculating biodiversiy loss into prices. The same way that sometimes CO2 emmissions are included in prices, the same could be done in regards to biodiversity. Scientistss from all over the globe are now collaborating and sharing data and technology in global monitoring systems for biodiversity. This also means including other scientists not just biologists and ecologists in the dicussion. Integrating the knowledge from different areas, like biodiversity, climate change, economics, politics, sociology and virology, really accelerates the progress made it each of these areas. All of the topics are different, but they all happen in the same system, our planet.

We hope you enjoyed this post. See you next week!

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Sources
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/27/species-risk-extinction-great-britain-wildlife-state-of-nature-report
https://www.nature.com/articles/d43978-023-00133-5
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230918105202.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231017123340.htm
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03103-5
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230915144334.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230913122723.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230831121715.htm
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/biodiversity/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231117102459.htm

Images:
"Aerial view of oil palm plantation", owned by CIFOR (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
"Flower", owned by matthew mclalin (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-2.0.
"monoculture 1", owned by Andy / Andrew Fogg (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Comments

Photo Essay | dolphin spotting boat ride

Hi Everyone! Quite a while ago now, me and my family went on a dolphin spotting boat ride, and I've been meaning to share some photos for ages now! We saw so many dolphins very close up and we managed to get some good shots, although it can never be as magical as in person! All photos in this post were taken by me or my family. They were so close to the boat! This photo is stunning! It's under the water! Again - under the water! It was so hard to capture them jumping! This was the boat.... ...

29.11.2020 Animal Of The Week: Jaguar

Hello, Today (29th November) is world Jaguar day so this week our animal is the Jaguar. The Jaguar is an animal I know pretty much nothing about so I am going to learn a lot too! Jaguars (panthera onca) live for 12 - 15 years. Their heads and bodies are 150-180cm long and their tails are 70-90cm long! They weigh 45 - 110 kg. Habitat Jaguars live primarily in the Amazon Basin, though they can be found in smaller numbers in Central America. They once lived everywhere from central Argentina up to the southwestern United States but since the 1880s they have lost over half of their territory. They are mainly found in tropical rainforests but can live in savannas and grasslands. Diet They eat fish and turtles as they are actually quite competent swimmers as well as deer, iguanas, birds and monkeys; they will eat almost anything! Are they endangered? Jaguars are classed as near endangered and face several threats. South and Central Americ...

Animals 21-25 in our '50 incredible animals' series

Hi Everyone! Here are the next five animals in our current series! We hope you learn something from this. 21. Stick insect Stick insects are masters of disguise. They look like twigs or leaves. This strange appearance makes them hard to spot when stationary. Stick insects are herbivores, feeding on leaves, and can live for up to three years. Their habitat includes most tropical and subtropical regions, but there are a few species that live in temperate areas as well. There are roughly 3 000 different stick insect species! Not much more is known about them, because they are difficult to find. The two main threats to their populations are the pet trade and people killing them so as to frame their carcasses, like butterflies. Their conservation status ranges from critically endangered to least concern - so basically every category that is on the list! 22. Glass frog The glass frog is, well, see through. You can literally ...

06.09.2020 Animal Of the Week: Seven-spotted Ladybird

Hello Everyone, Welcome to this week's animal of the week post. This time about the ladybird, and personally I can't wait to find out more about these creatures. Enjoy! Which ladybird we are investigating today? Today, I am telling you about the seven-spotted ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata), which is the most common ladybird in Europe. Other species include the Two Spot Ladybird and other uncommon ladybirds such as the 16 Spot and other peculiar types. Habitat The seven-spotted ladybird lives in a variety of habitats such as meadows, gardens and hedgerows. They can also be found on farmland, especially with crops such as alfalfa, clover and wheat and corn before it grows too tall. Diet The seven-spotted ladybird feeds on a range of aphid species. This is why they are often referred to as a gardener's best friend as they eat these creatures who can damage plants. They can also eat white flies and anything else that is soft-bo...

Sir David Attenborough - an incredible naturalist

Hi everyone and welcome back to Green World, Today we want to talk about one of the most inspiring naturalists of our time. It is, of course, David Attenborough. Today (08.05.2021) is his 95th birthday so we seemed it fitting to publish a post about him today. Over his lifetime, David has won more than 40 awards for his work and was named among the 100 greatest Britons in 2020. David first joined the BBC in 1952 as a producer for the Talks department which looked after all non-fiction broadcasts. Since then, he has worked on lots of different programs and documentaries such as The Life Series, which was first made in 1979. More recently, he has presented Blue Planet and Blue Planet II. The latter had the most views recorded for a single program in 2017. David also gave the Royal Institution's Christmas Lecture in 1973 on The Language of the Animals. David Attenborough is still presenting documentaries to this day. He now lives in Richmo...

The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg | review & thoughts

Hi Everyone! You may be aware that Wednesday was International Women's Day, so today I wanted to share a book review for a book written by one of the most inspiring women of our generation: Greta Thunberg. She is, of course, the legendary creator of the Fridays For Future movement and has inspired thousands of children to skip school on Fridays to protest for the climate. She recently compiled a book, simply entitled: The Climate Book. Here are my thoughts. This is a compilation of articles and essays from the best climate scientists, activists and high-profile people, which makes up, in my opinion, the climate bible . It quite literally encompasses everything you may want to know about the climate crisis, from the science, to how it affects us, what we've done and have yet to do, and so much more. This book is everything. I have not yet read the whole thing, because let me tell you, this book is HUGE. It's also of course very den...

Ozone layer

Hi everyone, What even is ozone? And the ozone layer? Where does the hole in the ozone layer come from and what does it mean? Is it dangerous? What can be done? Often the ozone-talk can be complicated and confusing, keeping an overview is hard and understanding all the problems always difficult. Let us break it down a bit for you: What is the ozone layer? We'll start with the basics: The ozone layer is part of the stratosphere, which is the second layer of the Earth's atmosphere, between 10 and 50 km above the Earth's surface and made up of protective gases. One of these protective gases is ozone. There is not much ozone in the atmosphere, only 0.3 molecule of ozone per 1 million molecules of air. This is because ozone is chemically unstable and only forms when ultra violet radiation (UV light) hits oxygen and breaks the bonds between the atoms. It fact it is so unstable that even when it has formed, it breaks down again relatively quickly. This leads to ozone turning back ...

Palm Oil

Hi everyone, Today we would like to share with you some information about palm oil. With all the focus on climate change and plastic pollution, not many people are acting against the use of palm oil. Workers First of all, the managers promise that the workers will have good money, but when they arrive, their passports are taken from them, therefore, meaning they are trapped. Soon they find out that they aren't paid as well as promised. They have to work long hours with no breaks, maternity leave or sick days. Some people have to spray pesticides with leaking cans and no safety gear, meaning they become ill but are still forced to work. Deforestation Many animals are losing their home because the trees are chopped down to make room for the palm trees. they are now facing extinction. Also, trees helped to slow down climate change, but without them, climate change speeds up. So this is a big problem. Help your planet! Image:...

Deforestation and why it’s a problem

Hi everyone, Welcome back to another post. Today we’ll be talking about deforestation and its impacts on our earth. Deforestation, the widespread clearance of natural forests, has been happening for thousands of years. One example is Western Europe, where, two millennia ago, 80% of the land was cloaked in dense forest cover. However, over time, a significant portion of this green expanse was sacrificed to create room for crops, livestock grazing, and as a source of fuel and building materials. Presently, a mere 34% of Western Europe retains its woodland. Today, the tropics deal with the brunt of deforestation. Activities such as mining, agriculture, road construction, and the establishment of vast cattle ranches drive the mass clearance of tropical rainforests. This results in the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, exacerbating the global climate crisis. The consequences come in two waves: first, the reduced number of...

The life of ... a koala

Hello everyone, Today we're talking about koalas. Also known as koala bears, koalas are marsupials. So they're actually not bears. Koalas, phascolarctos cinereus , are tree dwelling and probably best known for spending most of the day sleeping. They live for up to 15 years in the wild although captive koalas generally live for longer. Koalas have a stout, gray body and a cream-coloured chest. They have a broad face, small yellow eyes and big fluffy ears. In adaptation to climbing, their feet are strong and clawed. Adult individuals in South Australia weigh 14kg and are 60-84cm big. Their Eastern cousins are considerably smaller. Koalas are found in Eastern and Southern Australia, where they live in eucalyptus trees. They feed on the leaves of these eucalyptus trees, eating up to 1.3kg a day. With a body weight of up to 14kg, this means they eat just under 10% of their body weight every single day. However, the le...

Green World

Search This Blog