环境生态学(双语)Chapter 3.ppt

Chapter 3 The great wealth of life: Biodiversity Biodiversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. This includes all of the plants and animals that live and grow on the Earth, all of the habitats that they call home, and all of the natural processes of which they are a part. Also includes variation within a species caused by genetic variation. The earth supports an incredible array of biodiversity How Many Species Are There? No one knows Estimates 4 – 100 million Nowadays, only 1.4 million (account for 11%) species of plants and animals have been described by science. (table 3.1) 90% of vertebrates and 83% vascular plants (维管植物) have been described. Most unknown species are almost certainly shy, rare, small and similar to a known type. Biodiversity of insects and microbes Most of species are insects. This makes the estimation of total species diversity highly speculative. Estimation of total insect diversity are really just educated guesses. 1982, Terry Erwin re-evaluate the number of insects in a tropical forest system. From his observation, he built an argument that the total number of insect species is likely to be closer to 30 million than to 4 million. Other estimates in Asian and South American forest using similar methods have produced estimates of 5-10 million species. Microbes: another consideration to estimate biodiversity What is So Good about Biodiversity? That biodiversity should be maintained has become an article of faith among conservationists. One of the common answers has been that all nature is interwoven and that if any piece is removed it will start a chain reaction of collapse that will ultimately doom us all. (Better be explained by food web/chain in ecosystems. Every species in food chain play important role to ecosystem, both as prey and predator, it transport food and energy through food chain) To be accurate but maybe overworked High biodiversity ensures us a supply of new genetic and pharmaceutical material. Plants