Biodiversity and ecosystem services Flashcards
Define biodiversity and gamma diversity
Biodiversity is a term that refers to variety of life on Earth. Species richness is a component of that.
Gamma diversity - species richness along large regional areas
Define ecosystem functions and services
Ecosystem function is the transfer of energy, material, organisms, or information among the components in an ecosystem.
Ecosystem services are the processes through which natural ecosystems and the biodiversity they contain help sustain human life on the planet.
e.g.
Purification of air and water
Mitigation of drought and floods
Nutrient cycling
Maintenance of biodiversity.
Threats to an ecosystem service?
Pollination supports 75% of major crop species grown globally and upto 35% of global annual agricultural production by weight; but the 9 highest revenue food crops which account for 1/2 of global production value are wind pollinated or mainly self pollinating.
However, pollinated crops represent most of the different types grown and these give us a dietary diversity and resilient food supply.
Threats to pollinators - pesticides, fragmentation, intensification of the landscape leading to resource shortages, diseas, parasites, adverse weather, pesticide poisoning.
