Biological diversity (biodiversity) is a concept that refers to all the diversity of life on Earth and all existing natural systems. Biodiversity is recognized as one of the foundations of human life. The role of biodiversity is enormous - from stabilizing the earth's climate and restoring soil fertility to providing people with products and services, which allows us to maintain the well-being of society, and, in fact, allows life to exist on Earth.

The diversity of living organisms around us is very significant, but the level of knowledge about it is still not great. Today, about 1.75 million species are known to science (described and given scientific names), but it is estimated that at least 14 million species may exist on our planet.

Russia has significant biodiversity, while a unique feature of our country remains the presence of large, underdeveloped natural areas, where most of the ecological processes retain their natural character. Russia owns 25% of all virgin forests on the planet. In Russia there are 11,500 species of wild plants, 320 species of mammals, 732 species of birds, 269 species of freshwater fish, and about 130,000 species of invertebrates. There are many endemics, species living only in our country. Our forests make up 22% of all the world's forests.

This abstract is dedicated to the topic “The Role of Diversity in Wildlife”

1.

It is obvious to any of us that we are all different and that the world around us is diverse. However, not everyone would think of asking a simple question– why is this so? Why do we need diversity and what role does it play in everyday life?

But if you really think about it, it turns out that:

Diversity is progress, development, evolution. Something new can only be obtained from different things - atoms, thoughts, ideas, cultures, genotypes, technologies. If everything around is the same, then where does something new come from? Imagine that our Universe consists only of identical atoms (for example, hydrogen) - how could you and I be born at the same time?

Diversity is sustainability. It is the mutual and coordinated actions of components with different functions that give any complex system the ability to resist external influences. A system of identical elements is like pebbles on a beach - it is stable only until the next oncoming wave.

Variety is life. And we live in succession of generations solely due to the fact that we all have different genotypes. It is no coincidence that from time immemorial all religions of the world have imposed the strictest taboo on marriages with close relatives. This preserved the genetic diversity of the population, without which there is a direct path to degeneration and disappearance from the face of the earth.

If we now imagine that diversity has disappeared in the world, then along with it we will lose:

A) ability to develop;

B) stability;

c) life itself.

It's a creepy picture, isn't it?

That is, having asked in appearance naive question, we come to a conclusion unexpected for many: variety – defining factor in the existence of all life on our planet.

Humanity, imagining itself to be the “kings of nature,” easily, without hesitation, erase from the face of the earth species “unwanted” to us. We destroy entire species of plants and animals - completely, irrevocably, forever. We destroy natural diversity and at the same time invest huge sums in cloning - the artificial creation of identical individuals... And we call this biotechnology, the science of the future, with which we pin all hopes for further existence. What are the prospects for such an existence is clear from the previous paragraph - don’t be lazy, read it again...

At one time, we experienced both “the only true teaching” and “a society of universal equality”, and at the cost of millions of lives we lived “in a single system”... In the socio-economic sphere, life has taught us to value diversity, but is it necessary to go through even more ordeals to learn to appreciate biological diversity?

According to the definition given by the World Foundation wildlife(1989), biological diversity is “the entire diversity of life forms on earth, the millions of species of plants, animals, microorganisms with their sets of genes and complex ecosystems that form wildlife" Thus, biological diversity should be considered at three levels. Biological diversity at the species level covers the entire range of species on Earth from bacteria and protozoa to the kingdom of multicellular plants, animals and fungi. At a finer scale, biological diversity includes the genetic diversity of species generated both by geographically distant populations and by individuals within the same population. Biological diversity also includes the diversity of biological communities, species, ecosystems formed by communities and the interactions between these levels. For the continued survival of species and natural communities, all levels of biological diversity are necessary, and all of them are important for humans. Species diversity demonstrates the richness of evolutionary and ecological adaptations of species to different environments. Species diversity serves as a source of diverse natural resources for humans. For example, tropical rainforests, with their rich array of species, produce a remarkable variety of plant and animal products that can be used for food, construction and medicine. Genetic diversity is necessary for any species to maintain reproductive viability, resistance to disease, and the ability to adapt to changing conditions. The genetic diversity of domesticated animals and cultivated plants is especially valuable to those working on breeding programs to maintain and improve modern agricultural species.

Community-level diversity represents the collective response of species to different environmental conditions. Biological communities found in deserts, steppes, forests, and floodplains maintain the continuity of normal ecosystem functioning by providing maintenance, such as flood control, soil erosion control, and air and water filtration.

Species diversity

At each level of biological diversity—species, genetic, and community diversity—specialists study the mechanisms that change or maintain diversity. Species diversity includes the entire range of species living on Earth. There are two main definitions of the concept of species. First: a species is a collection of individuals that differs from other groups in certain morphological, physiological or biochemical characteristics. This is the morphological definition of the species. Differences in DNA sequence and other molecular markers are now increasingly being used to distinguish between species that are nearly identical in appearance (such as bacteria). The second definition of a species is a set of individuals between which free interbreeding occurs, but there is no interbreeding with individuals of other groups (biological definition of a species).

The inability to clearly distinguish one species from another due to similar characteristics or resulting confusion in scientific names often reduces the effectiveness of species protection efforts.

Currently, only 10–30% of the world's species have been described by biologists, and many may become extinct before they are described.

Any strategy for conserving biological diversity requires a thorough understanding of how many species there are and how those species are distributed. To date, 1.5 million species have been described. At least twice as many species remain undescribed, mostly insects and other tropical arthropods.

Our knowledge of the number of species is not precise, since many non-showy animals have not yet come to the attention of taxonomists. For example, small spiders, nematodes, soil fungi and insects living in the crowns of tropical forest trees are difficult to study. various currents, but the boundaries of these areas are usually unstable over time.

These little-studied groups may number hundreds and thousands, even millions of species. Bacteria are also very poorly studied. Due to difficulties in growing and identifying them, microbiologists have learned to identify only about 4,000 species of bacteria. However, research in Norway into DNA testing of bacteria shows that more than 4,000 species of bacteria can be found in one gram of soil, and about the same number can be found in marine sediments. Such high diversity, even in small samples, implies the existence of thousands or even millions of as yet undescribed bacterial species. Modern research are trying to determine the ratio of widespread bacterial species to regional or localized species.

Genetic intraspecific diversity is often provided by the reproductive behavior of individuals within a population. A population is a group of individuals of the same species that exchange genetic information with each other and produce fertile offspring. A species may contain one or more distinct populations. A population can consist of a few individuals or millions.

Individuals within a population are usually genetically different from each other. Genetic diversity is due to the fact that individuals have slightly different genes - sections of chromosomes that encode certain proteins. Variants of a gene are known as its alleles. Differences arise from mutations - changes in the DNA that is found in the chromosomes of a particular individual. Alleles of a gene can have different effects on the development and physiology of an individual. Breeders of plant varieties and animal breeds, by selecting specific gene variants, create high-yielding, pest-resistant species, such as grain crops (wheat, corn), livestock and poultry.

Diversity of communities and ecosystems

A biological community is defined as a collection of individuals various types living in a certain territory and interacting with each other. Examples of communities are coniferous forests, tallgrass prairies, tropical rainforests, coral reefs, deserts. A biological community together with its habitat is called an ecosystem. In terrestrial ecosystems, water is evaporated by biological entities from the Earth's surface and from water surfaces, only to fall again as rain or snow to replenish terrestrial and aquatic environments. Photosynthetic organisms absorb light energy, which is used by plants for their growth. This energy is absorbed by animals that eat photosynthetic organisms or released in the form of heat both during the life of the organisms and after they die and decompose.

The physical properties of the environment, especially the annual regime of temperature and precipitation, influence the structure and characteristics of the biological community and determine the formation of either a forest, or a meadow, or a desert or swamp. The biological community, in turn, can also change the physical characteristics of the environment. In terrestrial ecosystems, for example, wind speed, humidity, temperature and soil characteristics can be influenced by the plants and animals that live there. In aquatic ecosystems, physical characteristics such as turbulence and water transparency, its chemical characteristics and depth determine the qualitative and quantitative composition of aquatic communities; and communities such as coral reefs themselves greatly influence the physical properties of the environment. Within a biological community, each species utilizes a unique set of resources that constitute its niche. Any component of a niche can become a limiting factor when it limits population size. For example, populations of bat species with highly specialized environmental requirements that form colonies only in calcareous caves may be limited by the number of caves with suitable conditions.

The composition of communities is largely determined by competition and predators. Predators often significantly reduce the number of species - their prey - and can even displace some of them from their usual habitats. When predators are exterminated, the population of their prey can increase by up to critical level or even cross it. Then, after the limiting resource is exhausted, the destruction of the population may begin.

The structure of the community is also determined by symbiotic (in the broad sense of the word) relationships (including mutualistic ones), in which species are in mutually beneficial relationships. Mutualistic species achieve higher densities when living together. Common examples of such mutualism are plants with fleshy fruits and birds that feed on these fruits and spread their seeds; fungi and algae, which together form lichens; plants that provide shelter to ants, supplying them with nutrients; coral polyps and algae living in them.

The richest species are tropical rainforests, coral reefs, vast tropical lakes and deep seas. There is also great biological diversity in the dry tropical regions with their deciduous forests, scrub bushes, savannas, prairies and deserts. In temperate latitudes, shrub-covered areas with a Mediterranean climate type are characterized by high rates. They are found in South Africa, southern California and southwestern Australia. Tropical rainforests are primarily characterized by an exceptional diversity of insects. On coral reefs and in the deep seas, diversity is due to a much wider range of systematic groups. The diversity in the seas is associated with their enormous age, gigantic areas and stability of this environment, as well as with the unique types of bottom sediments. The remarkable diversity of fish in large tropical lakes and the emergence of unique species on islands is due to evolutionary radiation in isolated productive habitats.

The species diversity of almost all groups of organisms increases towards the tropics. For example, Thailand is home to 251 species of mammals, while France is home to only 93, despite the fact that the areas of both countries are approximately the same.

2. DIVERSITY OF LIVING ORGANISMS IS THE BASIS OF ORGANIZATION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF THE BIOSPHERE

The biosphere is the complex outer shell of the Earth, inhabited by organisms that together make up living matter planets We can say that the biosphere is an area active life, covering the lower part of the atmosphere, the upper part of the lithosphere and the hydrosphere.

Huge species diversity. living organisms ensures a constant regime of biotic circulation. Each of the organisms enters into specific relationships with the environment and plays its own role in the transformation of energy. This has formed certain natural complexes that have their own specificity depending on the environmental conditions in a particular part of the biosphere. Living organisms inhabit the biosphere and enter one or another biocenosis - spatially limited parts of the biosphere - not in any combination, but form certain communities of species adapted to living together. Such communities are called biocenoses.

The relationship between predator and prey is particularly complex. On the one hand, predators, destroying domestic animals, are subject to extermination. On the other hand, predators are necessary to maintain ecological balance (“Wolves are forest orderlies”).

Important environmental rule is that the more heterogeneous and complex the biocenoses, the higher the stability, the ability to withstand various external influences. Biocenoses are distinguished by great independence. Some of them persist for a long time, others change naturally. Lakes turn into swamps - peat is formed, and eventually a forest grows in place of the lake.

The process of natural change in biocenosis is called succession. Succession is the sequential replacement of some communities of organisms (biocenoses) by others in a certain area of ​​the environment. In its natural course, succession ends with the formation of a stable stage of the community. During succession, the diversity of species of organisms included in the biocenosis increases, as a result of which its stability increases.

The increase in species diversity is due to the fact that each new component of the biocenosis opens up new opportunities for introduction. For example, the appearance of trees allows species living in the subsystem to enter the ecosystem: on the bark, under the bark, building nests on branches, in hollows.

In the course of natural selection, only those species of organisms that can most successfully reproduce in a given community are inevitably preserved in the biocenosis. The formation of biocenoses has an essential side: “competition for a place in the sun” between different biocenoses. In this “competition,” only those biocenoses are preserved that are characterized by the most complete division of labor between their members, and, consequently, richer internal biotic connections.

Since each biocenosis includes all the main ecological groups of organisms, it is equal in its capabilities to the biosphere. The biotic cycle within a biocenosis is a kind of reduced model of the Earth’s biotic cycle.

Thus:

1. The stability of the biosphere as a whole, its ability to evolve is determined by the fact that it is a system of relatively independent biocenoses. The relationship between them is limited to connections through the nonliving components of the biosphere: gases, atmosphere, mineral salts, water, etc.

2. The biosphere is a hierarchically constructed unity, including the following levels of life: individual, population, biocenosis, biogeocenosis. Each of these levels has relative independence, and only this ensures the possibility of evolution of the entire large macrosystem.

3. The diversity of life forms, the relative stability of the biosphere as a habitat and the life of individual species create the prerequisites for the morphological process, an important element of which is the improvement of behavioral reactions associated with progressive development nervous system. Only those types of organisms have survived that, in the course of the struggle for existence, began to leave offspring, despite the internal restructuring of the biosphere and the variability of cosmic and geological factors.

3. THE PROBLEM OF PRESERVING DIVERSITY IN NATURE AS A FACTOR OF HUMANITY’S SURVIVAL

At the turn of the third millennium, we sadly note that as a result of anthropogenic pressure, especially in recent decades, the number of plant and animal species is sharply decreasing, their gene pool is being depleted, the areas of the most productive ecosystems are shrinking, and the health of the environment is deteriorating. The constant expansion of the lists of rare and endangered species of biota in new editions of the Red Books is direct evidence of this. According to some forecasts of leading ornithologists, by the end of the 21st century, every eighth bird species on our planet will disappear.

Awareness of the need to preserve all species from the kingdoms of fungi, plants and animals, as the basis for the existence and well-being of humanity itself, served as a decisive incentive for the development and implementation of a number of large international and national programs, as well as the adoption of fundamental interstate agreements in the field of protection and monitoring of the environment, flora and fauna. After the signing and subsequent ratification of the International Convention on Biodiversity (1992, Rio de Janeiro) by more than 170 states, much attention began to be paid to the study, conservation and sustainable use of biological resources. more attention in all countries of the world. In accordance with the basic requirements of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which Russia ratified in 1995, it was necessary to provide “scientific support” for decision-making in the field of in-situ and ex-situ wildlife conservation. Everything related to inventory, condition assessment, preservation, restoration and rational use of flora and fauna objects requires a clear scientific justification. For the vast territory of Russia with its landscape diversity, multinational population, different traditions in the use of natural resources, a much more active development of fundamental research is necessary, without which it is, in principle, impossible to carry out an inventory and develop a coordinated strategy for the protection of all categories of biodiversity, at all its hierarchical levels.

The problem of biodiversity conservation is today one of the central problems ecology, since life itself on Earth is regenerated only with sufficient diversity of evolutionary material. It is thanks to biological diversity that the structural and functional organization of ecological systems is created, ensuring their stability over time and resistance to changes in the external environment. By figurative definition, corresponding member. RAS A.F. Alimova: “The entire body of biological sciences studies the four most important phenomena: life, organism, biosphere and biodiversity. The first three form a series from life (at the base) to the biosphere (at the top), the fourth penetrates into the first three: without the diversity of organic molecules there is no life, without the morphological and functional diversity of cells, tissues, organs, and in unicellular organelles, there is no organism, Without diversity of organisms there can be no ecosystems and biosphere.” In this regard, it seems very logical to study biodiversity not only at the species level, but at the level of populations, communities and ecosystems. As the anthropogenic impact on nature increases, ultimately leading to the depletion of biological diversity, the study of the organization of specific communities and ecosystems, as well as the analysis of changes in their biodiversity, becomes really important. One of the most important reasons for the degradation of biodiversity is the underestimation of its real economic value. Any proposed options for preserving biodiversity constantly lose competition with forestry and agriculture, extractive industries, since the benefits from these sectors of the economy are visible and tangible, they have a price. Unfortunately, neither a centrally planned economy nor a modern market economy could and cannot correctly determine true value nature. At the same time, a group of experts led by Robert Konstatz (University of Maryland) identified 17 categories of functions and services of nature, including regulation of climate, gas composition of the atmosphere, water resources, soil formation, waste processing, genetic resources, etc. Calculations of these scientists gave a total estimate of these functions of nature at an average of 35 trillion. dollars, which is twice the GNP created by humanity (18 trillion dollars per year). We still do not pay due attention to this area of ​​research to determine the value of biodiversity, which does not allow us to create a reliable economic mechanism for protecting the environment in the republic.

Among the priority areas of scientific research for the coming decades for the purpose of conserving biodiversity in the European North-East of Russia, the following should be highlighted:

— unification of existing and development of new methods for assessing and inventorying all components of biodiversity;

— creation of computer databases on biodiversity in the context of individual taxa, types of ecosystems, forms of use of components of biodiversity, including databases on rare species of plants and animals;

— development and implementation the latest methods taxonomy in the systematics and diagnostics of plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms;

— continuation of the inventory of the biota of the region and especially in specially protected areas natural areas;

— preparation and publication of new regional floristic and faunal reports, atlases, catalogs, keys, monographs on individual taxa of microorganisms, fungi, lower and higher plants, vertebrates and invertebrates;

— development of methodological foundations for the economic assessment of biodiversity;

— development of scientific foundations and technologies for the restoration of biological diversity in anthropogenically disturbed terrestrial, aquatic and soil ecosystems; — preparation of a regional program for the conservation of biodiversity, taking into account the specifics of the diverse conditions of our country.

CONCLUSION

Humanity has recognized the enormous importance of biological diversity and its components by adopting the Convention on Biodiversity on June 5, 1992. biological diversity. It has become one of the largest international conventions; today its members are 187 countries. Russia has been a party to the Convention since 1995. With the adoption of this Convention, a global approach to the conservation and sustainable use of the entire wealth of living organisms on Earth was adopted for the first time. The Convention recognizes the need to use a multi-sectoral integrated approach for the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity, the special role of international exchange of information and technology in this area, and the importance of fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the use of biological resources. It is these three components - sustainable use of biodiversity, conservation of biodiversity, fair distribution of benefits from the use of genetic resources - that constitute the “three pillars” of the Convention.

BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY (biodiversity), a concept that came into widespread use in the 1980s in the fields of fundamental and applied biology, exploitation of biological resources, politics in connection with the strengthening of the environmental movement, awareness of the uniqueness of each biological species and the need to preserve the entire diversity of life for sustainable development biosphere and human society. This was reflected in the International Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (signed by Russia in 1995). In the scientific literature, the concept of “biological diversity” is used in a broad sense to denote the richness of life as a whole and its components or as a set of parameters of floras, faunas and communities (the number of species and a set of adaptive types, indices reflecting the ratio of species by number of individuals - evenness , dominance and so on). Forms of biological diversity can be identified at all levels of life organization. They talk about diversity of species, taxonomic, genotypic, population, biocenotic, floristic, faunistic, etc. At each level there are their own systems, categories and methods for assessing diversity. By the beginning of the 21st century, biologists counted up to 2 million species of all groups of organisms: multicellular animals - approximately 1.4 million species (including insects - about 1 million), higher plants - 290 thousand species (including angiosperms - 255 thousand), mushrooms - 120 thousand species, algae - 40 thousand, protests - 40 thousand, lichens - 20 thousand, bacteria - 5 thousand species. Some authors, taking into account the estimated number of species not yet described, estimate the richness of the modern organic world to be a much larger number of species - up to 15 million. In ecology, when analyzing the structure and dynamics of communities, the system of biological diversity of the American ecologist R. Whittaker is widely used. Of the categories of biological diversity he proposed, the most commonly used are alpha diversity (the species structure of a particular community), beta diversity (changes in a number of communities, for example, depending on temperature conditions) and gamma diversity (the structure of biota on the scale of the entire landscape). Syntaxonomy, the classification of plant communities based on their species diversity, is rapidly developing.

Biological diversity is the main result and at the same time a factor in the evolutionary process. The emergence of new species and life forms complicates the habitat and determines the progressive development of organisms. The most complex, evolutionarily advanced forms arise and flourish in the equatorial and tropical zones, where the maximum species richness is observed. And life itself could have developed as a planetary phenomenon based on the division of functions in primary ecosystems, i.e., at a certain level of diversity of organisms. The circulation of substances in the biosphere can only occur with sufficient biological diversity, on which the mechanisms of stability and regulation of the dynamics of ecological systems are based. Such important features of their structure as interchangeability, ecological vicariate, multiple provision of functions are possible only with significant species and adaptive (adaptive forms) diversity.

The level of biodiversity on Earth is primarily determined by the amount of heat. From the equator to the poles, all indicators of biological diversity decrease sharply. Thus, the flora and fauna of the equatorial and tropical zones account for at least 85% of the total species wealth of the organic world; Species living in temperate zones make up approximately 15%, and in the Arctic - only about 1%. In the temperate zone, in which most of Russia is located, the most high level biodiversity in its southern zone. For example, the number of bird species from forest-steppe and deciduous forests to the tundra decreases by 3 times, and the number of flowering plants by 5 times. In accordance with the change in natural belts and zones, the structure of all biological diversity naturally changes. Against the background of a general decrease in the species richness of the organic world towards the poles, individual groups retain a fairly high level of it and their specific weight in the fauna and flora, as well as their biocenotic role, increases. The more severe the living conditions, the higher the proportion of relatively primitive groups of organisms in the biota. For example, the diversity of flowering plants, which form the basis of the Earth’s flora, decreases much more sharply as we move to high latitudes than bryophytes, which in the tundra are not inferior to them in species richness, and in the polar deserts they are twice as rich. In conditions of extreme climatic pessimism, for example, in Antarctic oases, mainly prokaryotes and isolated species of lichens, mosses, algae, and microscopic animals live.

Increased specificity of the environment, extremeness (very high or low temperature, high salinity, high pressure, the presence of toxic compounds, high acidity, and so on) reduce the parameters of biological diversity, in particular the species diversity of communities. But at the same time, certain species or groups of organisms that are resistant to this factor (for example, some cyanobacteria in heavily polluted water bodies) can reproduce in extremely large quantities. In ecology, the so-called basic biocenotic law or Tienemann’s rule is formulated: biotopes with conditions sharply different from optimal ones are inhabited by fewer species, which, however, are represented by a large number of individuals. In other words, the depletion of species composition is compensated by an increase in the population density of individual species.

Among the areas of studying biological diversity, first of all, an inventory of species composition based on taxonomy is distinguished. The latter is associated with floristics and faunistics, arealogy, phyto- and zoogeography. It is extremely important to know the factors and understand the mechanisms of the evolution of biological diversity, the genetic basis of the diversity of organisms and populations, the ecological and evolutionary role of polymorphism, patterns of adaptive radiation and delimitation processes ecological niches in ecosystems. The study of biological diversity in these aspects intersects with the most important areas of modern theoretical and applied biology. A special role is given to the nomenclature, typology and inventory of communities, vegetation and animal populations, the creation of databases on various components of ecological systems, which is necessary to assess the state of the entire living surface of the Earth and the biosphere, to solve specific problems of environmental protection, conservation, use of biological resources, many pressing issues of biodiversity conservation at the regional, national and global levels.

Lit.: Chernov Yu.I. Biological diversity: essence and problems // Advances in modern biology. 1991. T. 111. Issue. 4; Alimov A.F. et al. Problems of studying the diversity of the animal world in Russia // Journal of General Biology. 1996. T. 57. No. 2; Groombridge V., Jenkins M.D. Global biodiversity. Camb., 2000; Alekseev A. S., Dmitriev V. Yu., Ponomarenko A. G. Evolution of taxonomic diversity. M., 2001.

Introduction

The diversity of life has long been a subject of study. The first systems of living nature, known, for example, from the works of Aristotle (384-322 BC), already relate to the analysis of this phenomenon. The scientific and methodological basis for describing biodiversity was created by K. Liney in his “System of Nature”. And in the future there was an accumulation of knowledge.

And in the last decade, the term “biodiversity” has become extremely popular. Since the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity by many states in 1992, this word has constantly been heard in government decrees, government documents and public organizations, in mass media. Scientific research has proven that a necessary condition The normal functioning of ecosystems and the biosphere as a whole is a sufficient level of natural diversity on our planet. Currently, biological diversity is considered as the main parameter characterizing the state of supraorganismal systems. In a number of countries, it is the characteristics of biological diversity that serve as the basis for the environmental policy of the state, seeking to preserve its biological resources in order to ensure sustainable economic development.

Biodiversity conservation is discussed at the global, national, and regional levels. However, the meaning of this word is not understood correctly by everyone. Why is biodiversity given such attention, what role does it play in the lives of people and the planet, how is it changing, what threatens it and what needs to be done to preserve it - my work is devoted to answering these questions.

The purpose of the work was to study methods and assessments of biodiversity

During the work, the following tasks were set:

1) consider the concept of “biodiversity”;

2) identify features of biodiversity;

3) study methods and assessments of biodiversity.

The object of the study was biological diversity as the diversity of natural ecosystems on the globe.

The subject of study was the current state of biological diversity.

biological environmental policy

Biological diversity

Biodiversity concept

The phrase “biological diversity”, as noted by N.V. Lebedev and D.A. Krivolutsky, was first used by G. Bates in 1892 in the famous work “A Naturalist in the Amazon,” when he described his impressions of meeting seven hundred species of butterflies during an hour-long excursion. The term “biodiversity” came into wide scientific use in 1972 after the UN Stockholm Conference on environment, when environmentalists managed to convince the political leaders of the world community that wildlife protection is a priority task for any country.

Biological diversity is the totality of all biological species and biotic communities formed and emerging in different habitats (terrestrial, soil, marine, freshwater). This is the basis for maintaining the life-supporting functions of the biosphere and human existence. National and global problems Biodiversity conservation cannot be realized without fundamental research in this area. Russia, with its vast territory, which preserves the main diversity of ecosystems and species diversity of Northern Eurasia, needs the development of special research aimed at inventorying, assessing the state of biodiversity, developing a system for its monitoring, as well as developing principles and methods for the conservation of natural biosystems.

According to the definition given by the World Wildlife Fund, biodiversity is “the entire diversity of life forms on earth, the millions of species of plants, animals, microorganisms with their sets of genes and the complex ecosystems that make up living nature.” With such a broad understanding of biodiversity, it is advisable to structure it in accordance with the levels of organization of living matter: population, species, community (a set of organisms of one taxonomic group in homogeneous conditions), biocenosis (a set of communities; biocenosis and environmental conditions are an ecosystem), territorial units of a larger rank - landscape, region, biosphere.

The biological diversity of the biosphere includes the diversity of all species of living beings inhabiting the biosphere, the diversity of genes that form the gene pool of any population of each species, as well as the diversity of biosphere ecosystems in different natural zones. The amazing diversity of life on Earth is not just the result of the adaptation of each species to specific environmental conditions, but also the most important mechanism for ensuring the sustainability of the biosphere. Only a few species in an ecosystem have significant numbers, biomass and productivity. Such species are called dominant. Rare or scarce species have low numbers and biomass. As a rule, dominant species are responsible for the main flow of energy and are the main environment-formers, strongly influencing the living conditions of other species. Small species form a kind of reserve and when various external conditions change, they can become part of the dominant species or take their place. Rare species mainly create species diversity. When characterizing diversity, indicators such as species richness and evenness of distribution of individuals are taken into account. Species richness is expressed as the ratio of the total number of species to the total number of individuals or per unit area. For example, under equal conditions, two communities are inhabited by 100 individuals. But in the first, these 100 individuals are distributed among ten species, and in the second, among three species. In the example given, the first community has richer species diversity than the second. Let us assume that in both the first and second communities there are 100 individuals and 10 species. But in the first community, individuals are distributed between species, 10 each, and in the second, one species has 82 individuals, and the rest have 2. As in the first example, the first community will have a greater evenness in the distribution of individuals than the second.

The total number of currently known species is about 2.5 million, and almost 1.5 million of them are insects, another 300 thousand are flowering plants. There are about as many other animals as there are flowering plants. There are a little more than 30 thousand known algae, about 70 thousand fungi, less than 6 thousand bacteria, and about a thousand viruses. Mammals - no more than 4 thousand, fish - 40 thousand, birds - 8400, amphibians - 4000, reptiles - 8000, mollusks - 130,000, protozoa - 36,000, various worms - 35,000 species.

About 80% of the biodiversity is made up of land species (ground-air and soil life environments) and only 20% is species of aquatic life environment, which is quite understandable: the diversity of environmental conditions in water bodies is lower than on land. 74% of biodiversity is associated with the tropics. 24% - from temperate latitudes and only 2% - from polar regions.

As tropical forests are rapidly disappearing under pressure from plantations of hevea, bananas and other highly profitable tropical crops, as well as sources of valuable timber, much of the biological diversity of these ecosystems may perish without receiving scientific names. This is a depressing prospect, and so far the efforts of the global environmental community have not yielded any tangible results in preserving tropical forests. The lack of complete collections also makes it impossible to reliably judge the number of species living in marine environments, which have become “... a kind of limit to our knowledge of biological diversity.” IN last years It is in marine environments that completely new groups of animals are discovered.

To date, the planet's biodiversity has not been fully identified. According to forecasts, total number There are at least 5 million species of organisms living on Earth (and according to some forecasts - 15, 30 and even 150 million). The least studied are the following systematic groups: viruses, bacteria, nematodes, crustaceans, unicellular organisms, algae. Mollusks, mushrooms, arachnids and insects have also been insufficiently studied. Only vascular plants, mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have been well studied.

Microbiologists have learned to identify fewer than 4,000 species of bacteria, but research on bacterial DNA analysis carried out in Norway has shown that more than 4,000 species of bacteria live in 1 g of soil. A similarly high bacterial diversity is predicted in marine sediment samples. The number of bacterial species that have not been described is in the millions.

The number of species of living organisms living in marine environments has not been fully identified. “The marine environment has become the frontier of our knowledge of biological diversity.” New groups of marine animals of high taxonomic rank are constantly being identified. Communities of organisms unknown to science have been identified in recent years in the canopy of tropical forests (insects), in geothermal oases of the deep sea (bacteria and animals), in the depths of the earth (bacteria at a depth of about 3 km).

The number of described species is indicated by the shaded parts of the bars.

The concept of “biodiversity” came into wide scientific use in 1972 at the Stockholm UN Conference on the Environment, where ecologists managed to convince political leaders of the world community that the protection of wildlife should become a priority in any human activity on Earth. Twenty years later, in 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, during the UN Conference on Environment and Development, the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted, which was signed by more than 180 countries, including Russia. Active implementation of the Convention on Biodiversity in Russia began after its ratification by the State Duma in 1995. A number of environmental laws were adopted at the federal level, and in 1996, the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation approved the “Concept of the Russian Federation’s transition to sustainable development,” which considers the conservation of biodiversity as one of the most important areas of Russia’s development. Russia, like other countries that have signed and ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, is not acting alone. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) project for the conservation of Russia's biodiversity, financed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, started in December 1996. Since then, the National Strategy for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Russia has been developed and adopted in 2001, mechanisms for preserving biodiversity are being developed, support is being provided to national parks and reserves, and measures are being implemented to preserve biodiversity and improve the environmental situation in various regions.

This series of teaching aids and reference materials is intended to at least to some extent fill the vacuum that exists in Russia. It would seem that the problem of biodiversity conservation, discussed at various levels, should have long ago been reflected in curricula and educational standards, at least for environmental specialties. However, as a thorough analysis of the State Educational Standards has shown, sections related to the study of the phenomenon of biodiversity, methods for its assessment, the importance of biodiversity conservation for sustainable development, etc., are not explicitly included in any of them. There are practically no textbooks on this topic.

1. What is biological diversity?

Biodiversity – This includes hundreds of thousands of species, and the diversity within the populations of each species, and the diversity of biocenoses, that is, at every level - from genes to ecosystems, diversity is observed. This phenomenon has been of interest to humans for a long time. First, out of simple curiosity, and then quite consciously and often for practical purposes, a person studies his living environment. This process has no end, since with each century new problems arise and ways of understanding the composition and structure of the biosphere change. They are solved by the entire complex of biological sciences. The study of the diversity of the organic world of our planet has become especially relevant after the role of diversity itself in maintaining the stability of the biosphere began to become clear.

The conservation of biological diversity is a central task of wildlife conservation biology. According to the definition given by the World Wildlife Fund (1989), biological diversity is “the entire diversity of life forms on earth, the millions of species of plants, animals, microorganisms with their sets of genes and the complex ecosystems that make up living nature.” Thus, biological diversity should

considered at three levels:

genetic diversity, reflecting intraspecific diversity and due to the variability of individuals;

species diversity, reflecting the diversity of living organisms (plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms). Currently, about 1.7 million species have been described, although their total number, according to some estimates, is up to 50 million;

diversity of ecosystems covers the differences between types of ecosystems, diversity of habitats and ecological processes. They note the diversity of ecosystems not only in structural and functional components, but also in scale - from microbiogeocenosis to the biosphere.

Which spread and live in various natural areas. Such biodiversity is not the same in different climatic conditions: some species adapt to the harsh conditions of the Arctic and tundra, others learn to survive in deserts and semi-deserts, others love the warmth of tropical latitudes, others inhabit forests, and others spread across the wide expanses of the steppe. That state of species which is this moment exists on Earth, formed over 4 billion years. However, one of them is the reduction of biodiversity. If it is not solved, then we will forever lose the world we know now.

Reasons for the decline in biodiversity

There are many reasons for the decline of animal and plant species, and all of them directly or indirectly come from people:

• expansion of the territories of settlements;
• regular emissions of harmful elements into the atmosphere;
• transformation of natural landscapes into agricultural sites;
• usage chemical substances in agriculture;
• pollution of water bodies and soil;
• construction of roads and position of communications;
• , requiring more food and territory for life;
• experiments on crossing plant and animal species;
• destruction of ecosystems;
• caused by people.

Of course, the list of reasons goes on. Whatever people do, they influence the reduction of habitats of flora and fauna. Accordingly, the life of animals changes, and some individuals, unable to survive, die prematurely, and the population size is significantly reduced, often leading to the complete extinction of the species. Approximately the same thing happens with plants.

The value of biodiversity

Biological diversity different forms life - animals, plants and microorganisms is valuable because it has genetic and economic, scientific and cultural, social and recreational, and most importantly - environmental significance. After all, the diversity of animals and plants makes up the natural world all around us, so it needs to be protected. People have already caused irreparable damage that cannot be repaired. For example, many species across the planet were destroyed:

Quagga

Silphium

Solving the problem of biodiversity conservation

In order to preserve biodiversity on earth, a lot of effort needs to be made. First of all, it is necessary that the governments of all countries pay attention to Special attention this problem and protected natural objects from encroachment different people. Also, work to preserve the world of flora and fauna is carried out by various international organizations, in particular Greenpeace and the UN.

Among the main measures that are being taken, it should be mentioned that zoologists and other specialists are fighting for every individual of an endangered species, creating nature reserves and natural parks where animals are monitored, creating conditions for them to live and increase populations. Plants are also artificially bred to expand their ranges and prevent valuable species from dying.
In addition, it is necessary to take measures to preserve forests, protect water bodies, soil and atmosphere from pollution, and apply them in production and everyday life. Most of all, the conservation of nature on the planet depends on ourselves, that is, on each person, because only we make the choice: kill an animal or save its life, cut down a tree or not, pick a flower or plant a new one. If each of us protects nature, the problem of biodiversity will be overcome.