Importance of Biodiversity: Geography NCERT Notes for UPSC

Importance of Biodiversity is one of the important topics as per UPSC Civil Services exam. NCERT notes has its own importance for UPSC candidates. By keeping all these in mind, the Testbook prepares NCERT notes on each important topic of UPSC exams.

Biodiversity itself is a combination of two words, viz. Bio (life) and diversity (variety). In simple terms, biodiversity is the number and variety of organisms found within a specified geographic region.

Biodiversity refers to the varieties of plants, animals and microorganisms, the genes they contain and the ecosystems they form. It relates to the variability among living organisms on the earth, including the variability within and between the species and that within and between the ecosystems.

Read the complete NCERT Notes on Biodiversity for a swift preparation for UPSC IAS exams.

About Biodiversity

Biodiversity, as we have today, is the result of 2.5-3.5 billion years of evolution. Before the advent of humans, our earth supported more biodiversity than in any other period. Since the emergence of humans, however, biodiversity has begun a rapid decline, with one species after another bearing the brunt of extinction due to overuse.

The number of species globally vary from 2 million to 100 million, with 10 million being the best estimate. New species are regularly discovered, most of which are yet to be classified (an estimate states that about 40 percent of freshwater fishes from South America are not classified yet). Tropical forests are very rich in biodiversity. Biodiversity is a system in constant evolution, from a viewpoint of species, as well as from the viewpoint of an individual organism.

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The average half-life of a species is estimated at between one and four million years, and 99 percent of the species that have ever lived on the earth are today extinct.

Biodiversity is not found evenly on the earth. It is consistently richer in the tropics. As one approaches the polar regions, one finds larger and larger populations of fewer and fewer species.

Importance of Biodiversity (UPSC Geography) NCERT Notes: Download PDF Here!

Importance of Biodiversity

Biodiversity has contributed in many ways to the development of human culture. In turn, human communities have played a major role in shaping the diversity of nature at the genetic, species and ecological levels. Let us take a look at the following points to understand more.

1. Species of many kinds perform some function or the other in an ecosystem. Nothing in an ecosystem evolves and sustains without any reason. That means, every organism, besides extracting its needs, also contributes something useful to other organisms.
2. Species capture and store energy, produce and decompose organic materials, help to cycle water and nutrients throughout the ecosystem, fix atmospheric gases and help regulate the climate. These functions are important for ecosystem function and human survival.
3. The more diverse an ecosystem, the better are the chances for the species to survive through adversities and attacks, and consequently, is more productive.
4. The more the variety of species in an ecosystem, the more stable the ecosystem is likely to be.

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Biodiversity Plays the Following Roles:

• Ecological Role
• Economic Role, and
• Scientific Role

Ecological Role of Biodiversity

In biodiversity, each organism is dependent on other organisms for extraction of their need either in direct way or indirect way. 

Some of the crucial function which are performed by species and they are important for the development and proper functioning of ecosystem, they are:

1. Capturing and storing energy. 
2. Production and decomposition of organic material.
3. Help in maintaining proper undergoing of water and nutrients cycle. 
4. Help in regulating the climatic condition by fixing different atmospheric gases.

Diversity in ecosystems provides vastness in survival of species in difficult conditions. Because of this reason, decrease in biodiversity leads to decline in the ability of the system to maintain itself.

Economic Role of Biodiversity

1. ‘crop diversity’ is also called agro-biodiversity.
2. Biodiversity is seen as a reservoir of resources to be drawn upon for the manufacture of food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic products.
3. This concept of biological resources is responsible for the deterioration of biodiversity.
4. At the same time, it is also the origin of new conflicts dealing with rules of division and appropriation of natural resources.
5. Some of the important economic commodities that biodiversity supplies to humankind are: food crops, livestock, forests, fish, medicinal resources, etc.

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Scientific Role of Biodiversity

1. Biodiversity is important because each species can give us some clue as to how life evolved and will continue to evolve.
2. Biodiversity also helps in understanding how life functions and the role of each species in sustaining ecosystems of which we are also a species.
3. This fact must be drawn upon every one of us so that we live and let other species also live their lives.
4. The level of biodiversity is a good indicator of the state of our relationships with other living species. In fact, the concept of biodiversity is an integral part of many human cultures.

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