CONSERVATION HOTSPOTS HAVE VERY LOW PROTECTION

CONSERVATION HOTSPOTS HAVE VERY LOW PROTECTION

Our world is vast. Today the planet earth is home to so many varieties of soil, vegetation and animal species that it is hard to believe… that little by little mankind, with its irresponsible activities and habits, is destroying it all.

To address this situation, various professional groups, researchers and other experts developed the concept of “Conservation Hotspots”. As applied in geology, “hotspots” are areas of particular interest. In the field of environmental conservation, this interest derives from the immense amount of biodiversity that these hotspots harbour.

READ MORE:BIODIVERSITY ALERT RENEWED: ARE WE ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION?

 

THE FIRST MAJOR GLOBAL ESTIMATE

We owe the concept of “conservation hotspots” to professional research work led by IRNAS-CSIC, better known as the Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of the Spanish National Research Council pornos).

To carry out the study, it was necessary to analyse just over 10,000 observational exercises of continuous biodiversity in a wide variety of animal and plant ecosystems, as well as approximately 615 different soil types.
For their assessment, the scientists used the following criteria:

  • The richness of each living animal or plant.
  • The uniqueness of each of them.
  • The interaction with ecosystems.

The study revealed, among other things, a very interesting key fact: each type of soil, due to its particular characteristics, offers a greater conservation ecosystem to different animal or plant species. For example:

  • Temperate ecosystems have a lot of areal biodiversity.
  • Arid and tropical ecosystems harbour greater soil biodiversity.

This is why determining general guidelines for the conservation of these areas is so challenging.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION HOTSPOTS?

With this main constraint in mind, and by contrasting the study with reality, it was concluded that the “conservation hotspots” are not receiving the level of care they require globally to ensure the survival of biodiversity.

READ MORE:THE CHALLENGE: IDENTIFYING EXISTING BIODIVERSITY, UNDERSTANDING HOW IT IS CHANGING AND WHY”

The experts point out that, when delimiting “conservation areas” or natural spaces protected by the State, not all of the variables mentioned above are being taken into account, making the guidelines for selecting and establishing conservation norms not adapted to real needs.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION HOTSPOTS?

Manuel Delgado, leader of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Laboratory at IRNAS-CSIC, affirms that the State has not been very interested in these differentiations either, delimiting spaces and measures that protect animal and plant diversity, without taking into account the soil itself and all its variants.

This is largely due to the current widespread ignorance we have of soil as such and its impact on ecosystems, despite the fact that we practically eat, breathe and exist indirectly thanks to them.

Ana Rey, a leading scientist on the team, also points to the need to be able to preserve soils by making the proper delimitation by type, understanding that each plays a fundamental role in human survival. After all, most soils are exposed not only to natural factors. But also to climate change and human intervention.

What do you think about this issue, and do you think that governments have not made the necessary effort to ensure the conservation of our planet’s biodiversity?

 

 

 

BIODIVERSITY ALERT RENEWED: ARE WE ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION?

BIODIVERSITY ALERT RENEWED: ARE WE ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION?

According to scientists and researchers Pedro Cermeño and Carmen García-Comas Rubio, there are an estimated 8.7 million species of living organisms on Earth, the largest number in history. But at the same time, biodiversity on our planet has never been so threatened.

So far, as far as we know, five mass extinctions have occurred on Earth. The most likely reasons were increased volcanic activity (due to the accumulation of radioactive energy within the planet), as well as the impact of extraterrestrial bodies (the famous meteorite).

READ MORE: “THE CHALLENGE: IDENTIFYING EXISTING BIODIVERSITY, UNDERSTANDING HOW IT IS CHANGING AND WHY”

Today, 250 million years after the last mass extinction, and according to the scientists mentioned above, we are closer than ever to a sixth one. However, this time the cause would be directly related to human activity, which has altered and continues to alter the ecosystems of our planet.

 

WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Biodiversity, in simple terms, refers to the variety of living organisms that exist and have existed on our planet, as well as their interaction with the environment and ecosystems. It can also include the genetic diversity that exists between species.

Although humans have dedicated ourselves to studying nature, we still do not know all the species found on the planet and how they relate to each other and to us. Therefore, preserving all forms of life is of vital importance for the Earth’s balance and our survival.

WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Dr Aníbal Pouchard, founder of the Biological Invasions Laboratory (LIB) at the University of Concepción in Chile, believes that although we tend to focus on endangered mammals, “we are also losing insects, bacteria and fungi, which can be very useful to humans and we don’t know what we are losing,” he told TVU in an interview.

READ MORE: “BIODIVERSITY: TOWARDS A WHOLE PLANET

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), approximately 5,200 species of animals are currently threatened with extinction. According to National Geographic, this represents 20% of the more than 7.7 million animal species xnxx. And that’s not counting other living organisms, such as plants.

 

 

ANTHROPOCENE, THE NEW GEOLOGICAL ERA MARKED BY HUMANS

Throughout Earth’s history, our planet has experienced several eras, with drastic changes in climate leading to the disappearance of life forms and the emergence of new ones. However, these changes have been accelerated by human activity.

To define these changes, the Dutch scientist Paul Crutzen, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, coined the concept “anthropocene”, which would define the geological era marked by changes resulting from human activity.

The greatest impact is estimated to have occurred in the last 100 years, although others consider this to be a product of World War II and the use of nuclear bombs. For Dr. Pauchard, the biggest impact is the invention of plastic, which we use for basically everything and is a material that does not degrade easily.

ANTHROPOCENE, THE NEW GEOLOGICAL ERA MARKED BY HUMANS

The global effect of economic activity, especially the use of fossil fuels, is being felt. Especially with the most recent extreme weather (heat waves) and phenomena such as hurricanes, and more frequent storms. “A generalised increase in temperature translates into an increase of energy in the atmosphere (leading to) catastrophic phenomena,” says Dr Pauchard.

So what can we do? The answer is clear: public policies that support environmental protection are needed, as well as individual changes that do have an important impact. In addition to pressure from countries to accelerate a Sustainable Agenda for 2030, each of us has to make changes that, as Dr Pauchard explains, will not only save the planet, but also improve our quality of life.

 

 

 

The challenge: Identifying existing biodiversity, understanding how it is changing and why

Knowledge about the diversity of life on our planet remains limited and fragmentary: as much as 80 per cent of existing species are, as yet, undiscovered and/or undescribed. This is particularly true of unexplored regions of the world and of small organisms such as bacteria, protists and arthropods.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the world is experiencing rapid changes in biodiversity—even in those taxonomic groups and locations that are well described. Often, this results from increasing human activities. Demographic, cultural, political and economic factors are known to have reduced and restructured salud habitats, thereby altering the distribution and abundance of species. Ultimately, this can lead to changes in the chemical composition of soils, water and the atmosphere that affect the biogeochemical cycles, which regulate ecosystem functions and services. Clearly, there is a need for improving our capacity to effectively monitor and assess biodiversity change and loss.

This area of research holds an additional challenge: most of the world’s richest zones of biodiversity are found within developing regions, where both financial and human resources are weakest—particularly in terms of adequately trained personnel to carry out scientific investigation.
DIVERSITAS’ response

The first aim of bioDISCOVERY is to advance efforts to measure and describe biodiversity at the level of genes, species and ecosystems. This is a fundamental step in the broader goals of improving our capacity to recognize change and loss, and to find out why it is occurring. This basic knowledge will better equip scientists to probe the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (ecoSERVICES) and to develop appropriate social mechanisms to support more sustainable use of Earth’s natural resources (bioSUSTAINABILITY).
Assessing current biodiversity – In order to advance the state of knowledge of biodiversity, it is important to develop, validate and integrate new approaches. This focus will try to link taxonomic information to data on functional ecology and other relevant attributes while also synthesizing collection-based information technology with spatial sampling design and geographic mapping efforts.

Tasks
Strengthen taxonomic expertise in understudied taxa and regions
increase cutting-edge methods and techniques.
Establish phyloinformatics as the backbone of integrated biological databases.
Fill in the gaps, making maximal use of museum collections while optimising new data collecting efforts.
facilitate access to biological specimens and data.
Monitoring biodiversity change – There is an urgent need to build a cost-effective and scientifically robust observation system to monitor change and quantify the impacts of pressures acting on biodiversity. This network will enable researchers to identify and quantify the drivers of such change and to better understand both the causative processes and the ultimate consequences for ecosystem function and human use.

Tasks
Assess the adequacy of ongoing and proposed monitoring methods and programmes
review research on biodiversity monitoring
create network of biodiversity observatories
standardise monitoring methods
develop scientifically rigorous biodiversity indicators
Understanding and predicting biodiversity change – As a means of examining the anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity change, Focus 3 will seek to develop theoretical, experimental and empirical knowledge of ecological and evolutionary processes related to biodiversity. In this context, it will investigate how changes in the pattern and intensity of resource use affects ecological structures and processes. The final goal is to develop capacities to predict future biodiversity change.

Tasks
develop adequate understanding of the origins and dynamics
identify the anthropogenic drivers of change in biodiversity
assess the impacts of human activities on biodiversity
develop the capacity to predict future change