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Biodiversity and Conservation for Higher Secondary School Biology

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Biodiversity and Conservation for Higher Secondary School Biology

Earth is a beautiful place for living things. It has a variety of life on earth termed as Biodiversity. It consists of flora, fauna, tropical forests cover, rivers etc. Biodiversity conservation is very important for human life. All living things are dependent on biodiversity for their survival. Plants, animals, insects, humans are entirely dependent on biodiversity. It provides food, shelter, clothes, medicines, and infrastructure for livelihood. It is a crucial topic to be understood and discussed for many decades. This is a very important chapter in biology  for 12th standard students of CBSE Board. Solutions to all the questions in this chapter can be easily found in any good solution key that provides NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Biology. Rapid environmental changes are causing mass extinctions of species on earth. Biodiversity is not evenly distributed. It varies from region to region. Some areas might have abundant resources and some might be less. 

 

Biodiversity 

The diversity of living things depends on temperature, altitude, soil, geography etc. Biodiversity hotspot is a region where there is a high level of endemic species that has become vulnerable to extinction. There are three types of diversity 

  1. Genetic diversity:  A single species shows high diversity at the genetic level over its distributional range.
  2. Species diversity: a species shows diversity at species level. 
  3. Ecological diversity: At the ecosystem level, it has deserts, rain forests, mangroves, coral reefs, wetlands, estuaries, and alpine meadows. 

 

Pattern of biodiversity 

  1. Latitudinal gradients: The plants and animals are not uniform throughout but have uneven distribution. The species diversity generally decreases as they move towards the pole than equator. 
  2. Species area relationships: The species richness increases when the area increases. 

Loss of biodiversity

The biological wealth of our planet is rapidly declining due to several factors. The loss of biodiversity may lead to decline in plant production, increase in soil erosion, global warming etc. 

The various factors associated  for the loss of biodiversity are 

  1. Habitat loss and fragmentation
  2. Over exploitation 
  3. Alien species invasion
  4. Co extinction 
  5. Energy production and mining
  6. Urbanization 
  7. Cattle grazing
  8. Climate change

 

Biodiversity Conservation 

There is a need for conservation of biodiversity for the present and future generations. Humans derive a lot of economic benefits from nature with respect to food,  firewood, fibre, construction material, industrial products and medicinal products. Biodiversity can be conserved by establishing in-situ and ex-situ conservation. Government has taken many initiatives in conserving biodiversity. National parks and reserves are established by the government to protect the forest reserves from damage caused due to degradation. There is strict prohibition on hunting and illegal trading. Protected areas are set up all over the world to protect the wild animals in their habitat and also forest reserves. 

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