3.

BIODIVERSITY
z

Budi Widianarko
z

9 Primary Reasons

to Value BIODIVERSITY
1. Utilitarian - a species or group of species provides a
product that is of direct value to people

2. Public service - nature and its diversity provide

some service, such as taking up carbon dioxide or
pollinating flowers, that is essential or valuable to
human life and would be expensive or impossible to
do ourselves.

3. Ecological - species have roles in their ecosystems,

and that some of these are necessary for the
persistence of their ecosystems, perhaps even for
the persistence of all life. Scientific research tells us
which species have such ecosystem roles.

4. Moral - the belief that species have a right to exist,

independent of their value to people
5. Theological - some religions value nature and its
diversity, and a person who subscribes to that
religion supports this belief.

6. Aesthetic - the beauty of nature, including the

variety of life.

7. Recreational - people enjoy getting out into nature,

not just because it is beautiful to look at but because it
provides us with healthful activities that we enjoy.

8. Spiritual - the way contact with nature and its diversity

often moves people, an uplifting often perceived as a
religious experience.

9. Creative - artists, writers, and musicians find

stimulation for their creativity in nature and its diversity
Biodiversity
z refers to the number of
species in a given area

The total number of species in the world

is still not known.

So far, + 1.4 million species have been

described & given scientific names

• Flowering plants (220,000)

• Insects (750,000)
=> ONLY A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE TRUE NUMBER
z
SOME FACTS
THE SCIENCE
z
Biodiversity
z refers to the number of
species in a given area

The total number of species in the world

is still not known.

So far, + 1.4 million species have been

described & given scientific names

• Flowering plants (220,000)

• Insects (750,000)
=> ONLY A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE TRUE NUMBER
EVER INCREASED PREDICTION
of the world’s living species

Sabrosky (1952): 10 million

Erwin (1982): 30 million
Stork (1988): 80 million

Many biologists: 5 to 50 million

(Colinvaux, 1993)

CONSENSUS (conservative): 5 – 10
million, excluding bacteria & viruses
Some 1.5 million species have been
named, but available estimates suggest
there may be almost 3 million, and some
biologists believe the number will turn out
to be much, much larger. No one knows the
exact number because new species are
discovered all the time, especially in little-
explored areas such as tropical savannas
and rain forests.

(Botkin, 2011)
(2005)
What is za species?
- there is no precise definition of the species concept
(there are many exceptions to general definition)
“a group of similar organisms capable of
interbreeding with each other but not with other
organisms”

TAXONOMY & SYSTEMATICS – the sciences of

biological classification

The criteria used to designate species:

morphology, physiology, biochemistry, behavior, or
genetics
The basic principles of biological classification:
the 18th-century Swedish Biologist, Carl Linnaeus
(Systemae Naturae)

Development of Classification
- morphology (structure)
- physiology & biochemistry (e.g. protein in body fluids)
- behavior (mating, activity patterns, communication)
- genetics (chromosome patterns, genes, DNA sequences)
Measurement of diversity
THE BASIC EXPRESSION: the number of different
species in a given location (include relative numbers
of different species)

Example:

Forest A: 10 species, 1,000 individual trees

Forest B: 10 species, 1,000 individual trees
Forest A: 955 individuals of species A,
5 individual of 9 other species

Forest B: 100 individuals of each species

GREATER BIODIVERSITY?
Statistical Representations of Biodiversity

(1) The Shannon-Wiener diversity index

represents the probability that any given individual
sampled
at random from the population will be species i

H' = pi log pi

H' = diversity
p = the proportion of each species
 = the sum of the expression pi log pi for each species
Statistical Representations of Biodiversity

(2) The Margalef diversity index

H = S–1/log N

H = diversity
S = the number of species
N = the number of individuals
Statistical Representations of Biodiversity

(3) Simpson’s index

Gives less weight to rare species and emphasizes

common species in a community

D = diversity
p = the proportion of each species I

D = 1/ pi2
z

Points to discuss
1. Please explain how
z
(a) land use changes
(b) unsustainable use of natural resources
(c) invasive alien species
(d) climate change
(e) pollution
may cause biodiversity loss?

2. What are the most important land use change responsible for
biodiversity loss? Why is that so? On the contrary, what kind
of land use change which might prevent biodiversity loss?

3. What does it mean by “biodiversity is usually not fully

accounted for by consumers in the market place”?

4. Why biodiversity is very important? Please list and describe

the reasons of its importance!