Biodiversity

The two most biologically diverse ecosystems—tropical

rain forests and coral reefs—are home to many organisms.

These ecosystems are also threatened by human activities.

The canopy of the tropical rain forest alone supports a va-

riety of organisms including orchids, insects, and monkeys.

Coral reefs, which are found just offshore of the continents

and islands of the Southern Hemisphere, are built up from

calcium carbonate skeletons of sea animals called corals.

Reefs provide a habitat for many animals, including jelly-

fish, sponges, snails, crabs, lobsters, sea turtles, moray eels,

and some of the world’s most colorful fishes (Fig. 1.11a).

Like tropical rain forests, coral reefs are severely threatened

as the human population increases in size. Some reefs are

50 million years old, and yet in just a few decades, human

activities have destroyed 10% of all coral reefs and seriously

degraded another 30% (Fig. 1.11b). At this rate, nearly three-

quarters could be destroyed within 50 years. Similar statis-

tics are available for tropical rain forests.

Destruction of healthy ecosystems has many unintended

effects. For example, we depend on them for food, medicines,

and various raw materials. Draining the natural wetlands of the

Mississippi and Ohio rivers and the construction of levees has

worsened flooding problems, making once fertile farmland un-

desirable. The destruction of South American rain forests has

killed many species that may have yielded the next miracle drug

and has also decreased the availability of many types of lumber.

We are only now beginning to realize that we depend

on ecosystems even more for the services they provide. Just

as chemical cycling occurs within a single ecosystem, so all

ecosystems keep chemicals cycling throughout the entire

biosphere. The workings of ecosystems ensure that the envi-

ronmental conditions of the biosphere are suitable for the

continued existence of humans. And several studies show

that ecosystems cannot function properly unless they remain

biologically diverse.

Biodiversity is the total number and relative abundance

of species, the variability of their genes, and the different ecosys-

tems in which they live. The present biodiversity of our planet

has been estimated to be as high as 15 million species, and so

far, less than 2 million have been identified and named. Extinc-

tion is the death of a species or larger classification category. It

is estimated that presently we are losing as many as 400 species

per day due to human activities. For example, several species

of fishes have all but disappeared from the coral reefs of Indo-

nesia and along the African coast because of overfishing. Many

biologists are alarmed about the present rate of extinction and

hypothesize it may eventually rival the rates of the five mass ex-

tinctions that have occurred during our planet’s history. The last

mass extinction, about 65 million years ago, caused many plant

and animal species, including the dinosaurs, to become extinct.

It would seem that the primary bioethical issue of our

time is preservation of ecosystems. Just as a native fisherman

who assists in overfishing a reef is doing away with his own

food source, so are we as a society contributing to the destruc-

tion of our home, the biosphere. If instead we adopt a con-

servation ethic that preserves the biosphere, we would help

ensure the continued existence of our own species