Table of Contents Ch 1 What is Biodiversity 4 Ch 2 Biodiversity in Earth’s Biomes 10 Ch 3 Web of Life 16 Ch 4 Importance of Biodiversity 18 Ch 5 Threats to Biodiversity 24 Ch 6 Studying Biodiversity 32 Ch 7 Protecting Biodiversity 38 Glossary 46 Index 48 3
CHAPTER ONE What is Biodiversity Did you know that scientists have identified more than 1 7 million species living on Earth There are insects plants fish reptiles amphibians birds and mammals living on the land in the air and in the water And those are just the ones you can see There are also millions of microorganisms that live all around us that you can’t see toucan bromeliad Rainforests hold some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems in the world More than half of the world’s plant and animal species live in rainforests 4
That’s not all Scientists believe that there are millions more living on Earth that have not been discovered yet That’s a lot of living things Biodiversity is a simple idea It is the enormous variety of life on Earth It includes all of the plants animals fungi and other living things in an area This life is interconnected like pieces of a puzzle red-eyed tree frog sundew plant 5
