What is Biodiversity?

The term “biodiversity” refers to the variety of life forms in a habitat, whether it’s a local
environment or an entire planet. Most of the species making up our planetary biodiversity
are still poorly studied or completely unknown; experts estimate that there may be at least
four times as many complex (eukaryotic) species alive on our planet as the 1.9 million that
have already been discovered and named, possibly more. Even as we are becoming aware of
the massive biodiversity of Earth, we are also in the midst of a biodiversity crisis, with
species going extinct at rates rivaling those of the major mass extinctions of Earth’s history.
Therefore, while the definition of the term “biodiversity” is simple, it in fact encompasses
some of humanity’s (and science’s) biggest challenges.

There are a number of reasons why understanding and preserving biological diversity is
important. Above all, every species is unique in its combination of evolutionary history and
ecological role, so taken together they are a global resource—like a library preserving the
heritage of life itself.

Ecological resilience

The continuation of life as a whole is dependent on the presence of a variety of different

species able to perform a variety of roles under a variety of circumstances. In the first
chapter of his classic work on biodiversity, The Diversity of Life, entomologist Edward O.
Wilson describes a violent thunderstorm in the Brazilian rainforest and the way the forest
revives itself after suffering physical damage—a process that can occur because a diversity
of species is present to capably adapt to the damage and rebuild the environment.

This function of biodiversity is also relevant in manmade systems, such as agriculture.

When we depend on only one or a few types of crops, our food supply becomes vulnerable
to disease, infestation, and extreme weather. A famous example of the danger of low
agricultural biodiversity is the Irish potato famine of 1845, during which the single potato
species that the population consumed was effectively wiped out by the late blight fungus.
Environmental thinkers from Aldo Leopold to Michael Pollan have recognized the
importance of biological diversity as insurance against famine. The more species that are
available, the more likely it is that there will be some adapted to handle some new threat,
disturbance, or human need.

Ecosystem services

Ecosystem services are benefits that people receive from well-functioning ecosystems.
Humans depend on natural ecosystems to purify water and air, structure landscapes and
prevent soil erosion, and detoxify or decompose wastes, among other services. These
benefits are enhanced by the diversity of the systems involved. Marine fisheries depend on
diversity in order for fish populations to stay robust enough to provide a sustainable wild
food source. Diversity and abundance of natural ecosystems allow for the flourishing of wild
pollinator species, which can also pollinate crops.

Natural innovation
 History is full of examples of products and inventions useful to humans that originally
came from other species. Penicillin, the first widely used antibiotic, was famously
discovered when microbiologist Alexander Fleming observed that the mold contaminating
one of his discarded experimental Petri dishes was killing the bacteria on the plate. (Note
that in his Nobel lecture, Fleming refers to mold as a “plant”—we now know that molds are
actually fungi, a completely different and diverse branch on the tree of life.) Today, the
endangered venomous cone snails are being investigated for ideas on how to develop
painkillers and other drugs, and observations of the slippery surfaces of pitcher plants have
allowed engineers to invent new lubricating methods for medical devices and fuel transport.
As more species are studied, more ideas for solutions to medical, scientific, and engineering
problems are expected.

Culture and aesthetics

Both societies and individuals value elements of biodiversity for being beautiful, interesting,
inspiring, or thought provoking. Well- known species can have cultural significance,
providing people with a sense of tradition and cultural history, for example, particular plant
species used in regional cuisines (such as the chili pepper), national symbols (e.g., the bald
eagle or giant panda), or community identifiers (e.g., sports team mascots). Less well-known
species provide a sense of wonder and excitement through entertainment such as nature
documentaries and recreational activities, including hiking and birding.

Intrinsic value

Some believe in the philosophical and ethical principle that nonhuman living things have
intrinsic value in and of themselves, independent of their usefulness to humans. From a
conservation standpoint, this means that humans have a responsibility to protect the right
of other species to exist on our planet. From a scientific standpoint, it means that other
species are worthy of study simply because their status as living things makes them
relevant.

Four laws of ecology

In order to understand the ecological impact of these trends, it is useful to look at what
Barry Commoner and others have referred to as the four informal laws of ecology:

1. Everything is connected to everything else,

2. Everything must go somewhere,
3. Nature knows best, and
4. Nothing comes from nothing.
The first of these informal laws, everything is connected to everything else, indicates
how ecosystems are complex and interconnected. This complexity and interconnectedness,
Haila and Levins write, “is not like that of the individual organism whose various organs
have evolved and have been selected on the criterion of their contribution to the survival
and fecundity of the whole.” Nature is far more complex and variable and considerably
more resilient than the metaphor of the evolution of an individual organism suggests. An
ecosystem can lose species and undergo significant transformations without collapsing. Yet
the interconnectedness of nature also means that ecological systems can experience
sudden, startling disasters if placed under extreme stress. “The system,” Commoner writes,
“is stabilized by its dynamic self-compensating properties; these same properties, if
overstressed, can lead to a dramatic collapse.” Further, “the ecological system is an
amplifier, so that a small perturbation in one place may have large, distant, long-delayed
effects elsewhere.”[1]
The second law of ecology, everything must go somewhere, restates a basic law of
thermodynamics: in nature there is no final waste, matter and energy are preserved, and
the waste produced in one ecological process is recycled in another. For instance, a downed
tree or log in an old-growth forest is a source of life for numerous species and an essential
part of the ecosystem. Likewise, animals excrete carbon dioxide to the air and organic
compounds to the soil, which help to sustain plants upon which animals will feed.
Nature knows best, the third informal law of ecology, Commoner writes, “holds that any
major man-made change in a natural system is likely to be detrimental to that system.”
During 5 billion years of evolution, living things developed an array of substances and
reactions that together constitute the living biosphere. The modern petrochemical industry,
however, suddenly created thousands of new substances that did not exist in nature. Based
on the same basic patterns of carbon chemistry as natural compounds, these new
substances enter readily into existing biochemical processes. But they do so in ways that
are frequently destructive to life, leading to mutations, cancer, and many different forms of
death and disease. “The absence of a particular substance from nature,” Commoner writes,
“is often a sign that it is incompatible with the chemistry of life.”[2]
Nothing comes from nothing, the fourth informal law of ecology, expresses the fact that
the exploitation of nature always carries an ecological cost. From a strict ecological
standpoint, human beings are consumers more than they are producers. The second law of
thermodynamics tells us that in the very process of using energy, human beings “use up”
(but do not destroy) energy, in the sense that they transform it into forms that are no longer
available for work. In the case of an automobile, for example, the high-grade chemical
energy stored in the gasoline that fuels the car is available for useful work while the lower
grade thermal energy in the automobile exhaust is not. In any transformation of energy,
some of it is always degraded in this way. The ecological costs of production are therefore
significant.