ECOFACTS BIODIVERSITY ECO FACTS IZZI HOWELL CRABTREE PUBLISHING COMPANY WWW.CRABTREEBOOKS.COM
What is biodiversity A huge variety of different types of plants and animals live on Earth We use the word biodiversity a combination of the words biological and diversity to describe this variety Types of biodiversity There are three types of biodiversity Genetic Animals and plants of the same species can have slightly different genes Species A variety of species live in all the different habitats and ecosystems on Earth Ecosystem There are also many different types of ecosystems on Earth Genetic biodiversity Importance All types of biodiversity genetic species and ecosystem are important Genetic diversity helps keep species healthy and resistant to disease or climate change Species diversity is important for food chains in ecosystems If one species is lost every species will be affected Ecosystem diversity supports millions of different animal and plant species Around 1 9 million species have been recorded on Earth There are probably around 8 9 million in total 4
Humans Humans benefit from biodiversity We rely on plants and animals for food medicine and construction among many other uses Plants also help to maintain oxygen in the atmosphere Some people also believe that we should protect biodiversity because humans have a moral responsibility to look after Earth Ecosystem biodiversity Species biodiversity At risk Extinctions and habitat destruction can happen naturally Throughout Earth’s history there have been five mass extinctions These happened naturally due to volcanic eruptions ice ages and meteor impacts Some scientists believe we are entering a sixth mass extinction caused by humans Humans are the biggest threat to biodiversity today Many types of dinosaurs became extinct during a mass extinction 65 million years ago It was thought to have been caused when a giant meteor hit Earth 5
