BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM

Biodiversity and Ecosystem are two different terms which are usually studied together in order to understand
the role and significance of environment in different aspects and its impact on both living as well as non living
beings. Everything that exists has a certain role to play and before considering the importance of the role played
by different creatures, we need to understand the very basis of their existence. Existence is in itself a
phenomenon. Every individual is identified with their body and intellect. The way a creature looks, defines the
category to which it belongs. There are a large number of creatures on this planet which vary in different
aspects. The diverse forms of life on this planet are the very reason for sustenance of species. These can be
studied in terms of biodiversity and ecosystems.

BIODIVERSITY:

The term ‘biodiversity’ is a contraction of biological diversity. It reflects number, variety or variability of
different biotic and abiotic things. Biodiversity is defined as “the variability among living organisms from all
sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of
which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.”1 The
importance of this definition is that it draws attention to the many dimensions of biodiversity. Biodiversity
manifests itself at three levels: species diversity which refers to the numbers and kinds of living organisms;
genetic diversity which refers to the genetic variation within a population of species; and ecosystem diversity
which is the variety of habitats, biological communities and ecological processes that occur in the biosphere.
The way these dimensions of diversity vary over space and time is the key feature of this concept.

No feature of Earth is more complex, dynamic, and varied than the layer of living organisms that occupy its
surfaces and its seas, and no feature is experiencing more dramatic change at the hands of humans than this
extraordinary, singularly unique feature of Earth.

CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is an international agreement adopted at the Earth Summit, in
Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. It is the first comprehensive global agreement which addresses all aspects relating to
biodiversity. The CBD has a universal membership of around 193 countries as its parties and sets out
commitments for maintaining the world's ecological underpinnings while pursuing economic development.
Article 6 of CBD enjoins upon all parties to prepare national strategies, plans or programmes for conservation
and sustainable use of biodiversity, and to integrate conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into
relevant sectoral and cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies. The CBD takes a flexible approach to
implementation. Rather than focusing on targets and obligations, it identifies general goals and policies. Under
this convention, countries are free to determine how they want to implement them.

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Convention on Biological Diversity.(UN 1992 Article 2)
One of the CBD's greatest achievements so far has been to generate an enormous amount of interest in
biodiversity, both in developed and developing countries. Biodiversity is now seen as a critically important
environment and development issue.

It has three main objectives:

a) to conserve biological diversity

b) to use its components in a sustainable way
c) to share fairly and equitably the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

The biodiversity we see today is the outcome of over 3.5 billion years of evolutionary history, shaped by natural
processes and increasingly, by the influence of humans. Biodiversity forms the web of life, of which, we are an
integral part and upon which we so fully depend. Biological diversity is the natural biotic capital of the earth,
and affects us all. Humanity derives its supplies of food, medicines, energy and many industrial products from
biological resources.2

In the modern world, conservation of biodiversity is a relevant question that needs to be considered since it is
one important goal of environmental laws.

In the Northern territory, native animals and plants are mainly protected under two conservation laws.

1. The commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999 provides a legal
framework to protect nationally and internationally important animals and plants (often called flora and
fauna), ecosystems and certain heritage places.
2. The Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2009 protects certain species of wildlife in
the Northern territory.

ECOSYSTEMS:

An ecosystem consists of the biological community in a specific area and the physical and chemical factors that
form its environment. It is generally composed of thousands of different species that interact in myriad different
ways at the scale of a single hectare. These complex local systems are strongly connected to each other and
aggregate into larger and larger entities from the landscape scale to that of the entire biosphere, where it
becomes evident that they exert a major influence on the physical and chemical properties of our planet.

Ecosystems are incredibly diverse. They vary not only in size but also in every imaginable biotic and abiotic
feature. Ecosystems are of various types. Some ecosystems are marine, others freshwater, and others yet
terrestrial land based. Ocean ecosystems are most common on Earth, as oceans and the living organisms they
contain cover 75% of the Earth's surface. Freshwater ecosystems are the rarest, covering only 1.8% of the
Earth's surface. Terrestrial, land, ecosystems cover the remainder of Earth.

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Convention on Biological Diversity
A very important feature of ecosystem is that in ecosystems, both energy and matter remains conserved.
Energy flows through the system usually from light to heat and matter is recycled. Though it may move from
one ecosystem to another, the same atoms are used over and over again, assembled into different chemical
forms and incorporated into the bodies of different organisms. Energy, unlike matter, cannot be recycled in
ecosystems. Instead, energy flow through an ecosystem is a one-way street- generally, from light to heat. Thus,
ecosystems are dynamic systems and a static ecosystem would be a dead ecosystem. Equilibrium is the steady
state of an ecosystem, in which its composition and identity remain generally constant despite fluctuations in
physical conditions and the makeup of the biotic

The ability of an ecosystem to remain at equilibrium in spite of disturbances is called resistance. The tendency
of an ecosystem to return to equilibrium after being disturbed is called resilience.

Barry Commoner in his book The Closing Circle3 went on to lay out four basic and inescapable laws of ecology
and they read as:

1) Everything is connected to everything else:

It reflects the existence of the elaborate network of interconnections in the ecosphere: among different living
organisms, and between populations, species, and individual organisms and their physicochemical
surroundings. Ecosystems differ considerably in their rate characteristics and therefore vary a great deal in the
speed with which they react to changed situations or approach the point of collapse. The amount of stress which
an ecosystem can absorb before it is driven to collapse is also a result of its various interconnections and their
relative speeds of response. The more complex the ecosystem, the more successfully it can resist a stress.

2) Everything must go somewhere

This is, of course, simply a somewhat informal restatement of a basic law of physics that matter is
indestructible. Applied to ecology, the law emphasizes that in nature there is no such thing as “waste.”

3) Nature knows best

4) There is no such thing as free lunch

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Commoner B, The Closing Circle: nature, men and technology
 CONCLUSION

Biodiversity plays an important role in ecosystem functioning that provides supporting, provisioning,
regulating, and cultural services. These services are essential for human well-being. It has been observed over a
period of time that changes in biodiversity are linked with changes in ecosystem functioning which is further
connected with changes in human well-being. Ecosystem functioning, and hence ecosystem services, at any
given moment in time is strongly influenced by the ecological characteristics of the most abundant species.
Biodiversity affects key ecosystem processes in terrestrial ecosystems such as biomass production, nutrient and
water cycling, and soil formation and retention all of which govern and ensure supporting services. The
relationship between biodiversity and supporting ecosystem services depends on composition, relative
abundance, and functional diversity. The preservation of the number, types, and relative abundance of
resident species can enhance invasion resistance in a wide range of natural and semi-natural ecosystems. Thus
the more complex an ecosystem will be, the more chances of stability will be there. Hence, it is our duty to
conserve the biodiversity which in turn will help enhancing the ecological conditions and mitigate the effects of
climate change.