EnE: Biodiversity- An

introduction 2.1
Presented by Dr. Roman Saini
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Biodiversity
 Biodiversity
• Biodiversity:

• Popularised by Edward Wilson

• Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life i.e.

• Totality of genes, species, and ecosystems of a region.

• Earth as a planet is not only unique in having life but also in having
enormous biodiversity. It can be quantified under three headings
• Genetic diversity: Include all the genes, its various alleles and its variation in a
single species over its distributional range. Ex: India has thousands of different
strains of rice, mangoes.

• Species diversity: Effective number of different species in a region.

• Species richness: Simple count of species

• Species evenness: Quantifies the equalness of the abundances of the species.

• Ecological Diversity: The number of different biomes and ecosystem a region

have. Over a dozen countries in world which qualify in mega diverse country. Ex: In
aquatic ecosystem, more biodiversity is found in LOTIC ecosystem (running fresh
water ecosystem like river) than in LENTIC ecosystem (stagnant fresh water like
lake, pond, swamp)
 Biosphere
• Sum total of all ecosystems on planet earth.

• Biosphere is that sweet spot where atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere interact
and give rise to life.

• Life is present almost everywhere on earth with certain notable exceptions

• Extremes of height (>8000m above Mean Sea Level [MSL])

• Extremes of poles (Both north and south)

• Deep trenches (Mariana Trench)

• Very high in atmosphere (above stratosphere)

Ecosphere?
Ecosphere?
• Bioprospecting is the process of discovery and commercialisation
of new products based on biological resources.

• Incorporates indigenous knowledge in focusing screening efforts for

bioactive compounds.

• Biopiracy: the exploitative appropriation of indigenous forms of

knowledge by big commercial firms, without permission from and
with little or no compensation or recognition to the indigenous
people themselves.
 Biodiversity hotspot (Norman
Myers)
• Biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that
is under threat from humans. Total 25 areas classified as Hotspot in
world.

• 3 condition must be fulfilled for a region to be termed as Hotspot:

• High species diversity

• High degree of endemism

• Rapid loss of biodiversity

• Exact criteria which qualifies:

• must contain at least 0.5% or 1,500 species of vascular plants as

endemics;

• lost at least 70% of its primary vegetation.

• India has 2 hotpsots (and not 3):

• Indo-Burma (includes North-east, Himalayas, Myanamar) and

• Western Ghats (also includes Sri Lanka).

 Mega-Biodiverse Countries
• Megadiverse or Mega-Biodiverse countries are a group of countries that have the majority of
the Earth's species.

• All are located, completely or partially in, tropical or subtropical regions.

• India is also one of seventeen mega-biodiverse countries in world, according to

Conservation International.

• South American countries: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela

• North and Central American countries: Mexico, United States

• South-East Asian nations: Papua New Guinea, Philippines, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia

• Others: Australia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, South Africa

Mega-Biodiverse Countries
Mega-Biodiverse Countries
Mega-Biodiverse Countries
 Number of Species
• According to IUCN, total 1.9 million species have been described.

• But since 20% are synonymous, so about 1.5 million species are on record.

• >70% of all recorded species are animals, while plants (including algae, fungi,
bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms) are not more than 22%
of total species.

• Among animals, insects (of phylum arthropoda) are more than 70% (upto 90%)

• So, approximately 50% of all recored species are insects.

• The number of species of fungi in the world is more than combined total of species of
fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals.
• Total number of eukaryotic species ~ 8.74 million. So, only about 20% of species
are known while 80% are yet to be discovered.

• Does not include prokaryotes like bacteria. Why? If we include the molecular or
biochemical criteria for species demarcation then???

• Among vertebrates, fish=50%, amphibians= 11%, mammals=9%, birds= 16%,

reptiles=16%.

• India though has only 2.4% of world’s land area, it has 8.1% of global biodiversity. In
India, only 22 per cent of the total species have been recorded so far

• We have to make better efforts and endeavour to record the large majority of
species which are not yet discovered, as they are becoming extinct even before we
could record them.

• The number of species is affected by speciation and extinction.

• Speciation: is the process of creation of new species. In evolution, it follows from the
theory of natural selection.
Species distribution
Vertebrates distribution
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