Biodiversity
Sustaining Our Future
Suzanne Moore

Biodiversity is about the variety of all living things that makes life on earth function as it does. This life does not only include plants and animals that we can see and touch, but also those organisms that humans do not often think about – viruses, fungi and micro-organisms. Biodiversity is what maintains the balance within our ecosystems, creating food, clean water and resources that we need to sustain our lives and the life of our planet.

The Importance of Biodiversity

Our world consists of many different ecosystems, with tropical regions being particularly rich in diverse life forms. In an ecosystem, each organism plays a vital role within the processes of that ecosystem to ensure its health and survival. Because ecosystems have complex processes, the loss of a key species can significantly alter the biological diversity of an ecosystem. This can result in the decline or extinction of plants, animals or other organisms that may be endemic to a particular region.

We use biological resources to maintain our choice of lifestyle and standard of living. Modern medicines are created and developed from organisms that exist in various ecosystems, such as penicillin which is an anti-bacterial substance from the fungi Penicillium. Penicillin is one of the most widely used drugs in modern medicine today. The potential for undiscovered bioresources in medical research is enormous.

Maintaining genetic biodiversity is also vital for food security. It is important to look after wild crops of grain species from the wheat family, so that when our hybridised agricultural crops are attacked and weakened by viruses or pests, then the ability to dip into our wild stocks to find genes that can be bred into commercialised crops improves the ability to withstand these attacks.

In conserving biodiversity, we are conserving our natural and cultural history for future generations. From bushwalking to bird watching, we enjoy seeing and spending time amongst our native plants and wildlife. Yet as biodiversity changes, the abundance of our plants and wildlife decreases. Without conservation, the plants and animals that we take for granted today may not exist in the future.

The Problems Facing Biodiversity
There are many reasons for the changes that occur within our ecosystems. Natural reasons can be from environmental changes in the climate, natural catastrophes such as fire and earthquakes and natural selections within different species. Human factors can include land clearing for urban development due to population growth to delegating the limited water supply for human and natural use. The impact of human activity on our ecosystems is becoming an area of increasing concern, internationally and locally.

The demands of today’s lifestyles have a substantial impact on the natural environment and the ecosystems which it is comprised of. The impact of changes from agriculture, residential and industrial development to war and nuclear development all create long lasting changes within different ecosystems. Logging, pollution, the introduction of foreign plant and animal species and urban growth are some everyday realities of our lifestyle that create changes in ecosystems and their biological diversity.

When ecosystems are impacted upon too frequently by human activity, such as urban development or road construction, these areas can reach a size that is too small to support viable populations. Extinction is then more likely to occur in these smaller ecosystems. Rich and diverse ecosystems are more resistant to environmental changes and recover more quickly than stressed ecosystems. On a global scale, the loss of species impacts on our capacity to restore damaged environments and discover future resources.

So next time you take a walk through the bush, or even your backyard, take note of not only the birds and trees, but the diversity of the life that surrounds you.

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