Earth's [pb_glossary id="65"]biodiversity[/pb_glossary] is so rich that many species have yet to be discovered. Scientist have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified  and described so far, most of which are insect. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

When documenting life on Earth, we need to considered three level of biodiversity. View the following video to learn more!

Adopted from: "Biodiversity and its types | genetic diversity | species diversity | ecological diversity |" by Fukatsoft is licensed under CC BY 3.0

The relationship between [pb_glossary id="69"]species[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="67"]genetic[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="71"]ecosystem[/pb_glossary] diversities is complex and interdependent. That is, a species cannot exist without genetic diversity or ecosystem diversity, and vice versa. For that reason, it is virtually impossible to affect one aspect of diversity without affecting the other. We can therefore think of species, genetic and ecosystem diversity simply as different ways to measure variety of life.

In the middle of the Cambrian Period, about 500 million years ago, our planet looked completely different. There was land, but there were not any plants or animals living on it. Instead, the dry land was rocky and barren, with no shrubs, trees or grasses except a paper-thin film of microbes clinging to the rocks and thin ancient soils. These microbes were most likely the only terrestrial life around, and had been for several billion years. Scientists believed these ancient microbial films were probably made up of cyanobacteria and maybe some of the first fungi. And each bacterium was likely doing what cyanobacteria do today - sending out tiny filaments of cells from the main bacterial mat to start new colonies. So, the fact is, for a good billion years ago of Earth's history, cyanobacteria had a monopoly on the terrestrial environment.

Life on earth was getting a little more crowded with arriving of new organisms where those newcomers would end up changing the world biodiversity. Their arrival would make the world colder, and fast, and it would drain much of the oxygen out of the world's oceans. Eventually, it cause a massive extinction event, in which around 85% animal species, including a quarter of marine animal families, disappeared from the planet forever. This environmental catastrophe is known today as the End-Ordovician Extinction Event, and it was the first of what we often call the Big Five mass extinctions in the history of our planet.

View the following video to learn more.

Adopted from: "5 Mass Extinctions, and We're Looking at the Sixth" by BRIGHT SIDE is licensed under CC BY 4.0

[pb_glossary id="65"]Biodiversity[/pb_glossary] comes from two words: Bio meaning life and diversity meaning variability. Biodiversity is the variety of all living things which work together in an ecosystems, like an intricate web, to maintain balance and support life. Biodiversity is in your backyard and on the far side of the world. For example, a forest containing many types of trees, dozens of bird species, and both big and small mammals, is described as having high biodiversity.

Some areas in the world have more biodiversity than others. Areas with extremely high levels of biodiversity are called [pb_glossary id="93"]biodiversity hotspots[/pb_glossary] - biologically rich and deeply threatened. Currently, there are 36 recognized biodiversity hotspot. These are Earth's most biologically rich - yet threatened - terrestrial regions.

Adopted from: "What is a biodiversity hotspot?" by California Academy of Sciences is licensed under CC BY 4.0

• Contain at least 1500 species of vascular plants found nowhere else on Earth (know as "endemic" species). A hotspot, in other words, have a high percentage of endemic plants species and is irreplaceable.
• Have lost at least 70 percent of its primary native vegetation, in other words, it must be threatened.

[pb_glossary id="73"]Habitat loss[/pb_glossary] is define as the outright destruction of natural ecosystems, an inevitable consequence of expanding human populations and human activities. In a world where intact natural ecosystems are increasingly being altered by the activities of an ever-increasing human population and its consumptive needs, habitat loss has emerged as the number one threat facing biodiversity today.

[pb_glossary id="75"]Habitat fragmentation[/pb_glossary] creates small and isolated subpopulations that have fewer opportunities to find food, water, shelter and mates. This hastens extinctions where the species in the fragmented areas are prone to a range of deleterious genetic effects that large connected population.

Adopted from: "Human Impacts on Biodiversity | Ecology and Environment " by FuseSchool is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Human-caused habitat loss or habitat fragmentation is altering ecosystems on a global scale causing destruction that is irreversible. Humans are part of the great cycle of life on earth and we depend on the overall function of natural systems for our own survival. Properly function natural systems create the air we breathe, break down our wastes, provide our food, purify our drinking water and ultimately supply all the materials we require for living.

Click below to see the four efforts to prevent further habitat loss and fragmentation:

[pb_glossary id="73"]Habitat loss[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="77"]climate change[/pb_glossary] are the most prominent threats facing biodiversity at present. However, nearly all human activities place additional pressures on population. Such pressures are primarily from [pb_glossary id="85"]pollution[/pb_glossary], overharvesting, invasive species and disease. By definition, pollution is the introduction of harmful materials, called [pb_glossary id="79"]pollutants[/pb_glossary] into the environment. Many pollutants take many years to biodegrade, and thus continue to pose a threat to wildlife and humans long after entering the environment. [pb_glossary id="81"]Biomagnification[/pb_glossary], a process through which pesticides and other toxins accumulate and become more concentrated in animals at higher levels of the food chain is becoming worsen.

[pb_glossary id="87"]Overexploitation[/pb_glossary] refers to the excessive use of natural resources at rates far greater than they are able to replenish themselves. Basically, we are using resources at a faster pace than we should be and so these resources will eventually run out. Deforestation, overfishing and overhunting are all forms of overexploitation. By overhunting one species, human can kill that species faster than it can replenish. But how does overexploitation effect [pb_glossary id="65"]biodiversity[/pb_glossary]?

Adopted from: "Overexploitation | Wikipedia audio article" by Wikipidea tts is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Overexploitation, also called [pb_glossary id="95"]overharvesting[/pb_glossary] can lead to resource destruction, including extinction at the population level and even extinction of whole species. Overharvesting not only threatens the resource being harvested, but can directly impact humas as well - for example by decreasing the biodiversity necessary for medicinal resources.

Overexploitation is one of five primary activities threatening global biodiversity; others include pollution, introduced or invasive species, [pb_glossary id="75"]habitat fragmentation[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="99"]habitat destruction[/pb_glossary]. Overexploitation of species can also result in [pb_glossary id="97"]cascade effects[/pb_glossary], particularly if a habitat loses its apex predator. Because of loss of the top predator, a dramatic increase in their prey species can occur. In turn, the unchecked prey can then overexploit their own food resources until population numbers dwindle, possibly to the point of extinction.

Invasive species include plants and animals, both in water and on land. They are found in many places, including national parks. They threaten the park service mission to preserve unimpaired, natural and cultural resources. So what makes a plant or animal invasive? Does it have to do with a certain amount of damage or is it just a species that left its own habitat? Let's learn about some other definitions before we dive further into the big question.

Native species - Organisms that have occurred, now occurred, or may occur without human intervention.

Non-native species - Organisms that do not occur naturally in an area, but are introduced as a result of a deliberate or accidental human activity. The species may even considered beneficial under certain circumstances.

Invasive species - Species that are non-native that cause harm to the environment, cultural resources, infrastructure, economy, human safety and health, as well as plant and animal health.

Now, you may be thinking, where do pests fit into all of this?

Pest - Any organisms that interferes with management objectives or threatens human health or safety. A pest can be native or non-native. All invasive species are pests, but not all pests are invasive species.

Let watch this interactive video to learn more.

To be invasive, a species must adapt  to the new area easily. It must reproduce quickly. It must harm property, the economy, or the native plants and animals of the region. Some species are brought to a new area on purpose. Often, these species are introduced as a form of pest control.

There are three main types of invasive species control methods. These are biological control, chemical control, and physical/mechanical control. Selecting the correct form of control will depend on the target species. Often invasive species are managed using a combination of different control and treatment types.

Click below to learn more one each different methods to control invasive species:

Habitat [pb_glossary id="91"]restoration[/pb_glossary] is the purposeful  [pb_glossary id="89"]rehabilitation[/pb_glossary] of an area to recreate a functioning ecosystem. It can be accomplished through management, protection, and reestablishment of plants by returning abiotic factors (e.g., soil chemistry, water content, disturbance) and biotic factors (e.g., species composition, interactions among species) to historical levels. Assisting recovery of habitat can be as simple as removing an invasive species and reintroducing a lost species or a lost function or can be as complex as altering landforms, planting vegetation, changing the hydrology and reintroducing wildlife.

Adopted from: "Fire for Ecosystem Restoration" by Royal Botanic Garden is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Restoration is carried out for one of the following reasons:

• To restore highly degraded localized sites such as mine sites
• To improve productive capability in degraded production land
• To enhance conservation values in protected landscapes
• To enhance conservation values in productive landscapes

Four (4) basic steps used in habitat restoration and rehabilitation:

1. Identification of the cause for degradation
2. Elimination of toxic soil pollutants, addition of nutrients to depleted soil, addition of new top soil and elimination of disruptive species
3. Protection of the area from further degradation and from the disruptive effects of fires
4. Monitoring restoration efforts, assessing success and modifying strategies.

Protected areas (PA) or conservation areas are locations which receive protection through legal or other effective means because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources is limited.

There are seven (7) protected areas that is categorized as: (a) Natural Park; (b) Natural Monument; (c) National Park; (d) Wildlife Sanctuary; (e) Protected Landscape/Seascape; (f) Resource Researve; (g) Natural Biotic Area;

In Sabah, Total Protected Areas (TPA) comprise forest reserves gazetted under the Forest Enacment 1968 primarily for conservation, such as Class I, Class VI and Class VII, and also forested areas under enactment of Sabah Parks and Sabah Wildlife Department.

Click below to learn the seven (7) category of Forest Reserve in Malaysia:

[pb_glossary id="75"]Habitat fragmentation[/pb_glossary] occurs when large blocks of habitat are cut into smaller pieces by development such as roads or housing. The remaining blocks of habitat may be too small to sustain populations of a number of species and the fragmentation often results in barriers to species movement.

Habitat fragmentation can give negative impacts to our ecosystem, please see an interactive video below to understand better:

[h5p id="19"]

Various efforts has been made to conserve our biodiversity and build [pb_glossary id="83"]habitat corridors[/pb_glossary] to connect wildlife separated by human activity or development. One of such efforts is the study of the ideal design for functional wildlife corridors within oil palm plantations at the Kalabakan River network. The full report can be read at MONGABAY. The Stability of Altered Ecosystems (SAFE) initiative shown a promising efforts to connect local populations of wildlife, including orangutans that have become isolated by their fragmented habitat.

Another ongoing project, initiated in 2019 located along the Kinabatangan River, called "Rasig Corridor" linked Lot 2 of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS) with the "Keruak Virgin Jungle Forest Reserve". Beside to create corridors for wildlife to connect from different patches of isolated forests, the corridor area were also planted with seedlings of native trees species. This project aims is not only to connect the wildlife but also flora as restoration efforts in the fragmented and deforestation area.

Becca Cudmore. 2016. Designing the ideal wildlife corridor for Malaysia's orangutans. Mongabay. news.mongabay.com. Accessed on 12 December 2023.

Biodiversity Hotspots. https://www.conservation.org/priorities/biodiversity-hotspots. Accessed on 12 February 2024.

John W. Wilson and Richard B. Primack. 2019. Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0177

Joni Baumgarten. 2023. Environmental Biology. Open Oregon Educational Resources.

Lee, W. H., S. A. Abdullah and N. H. Rafaai. 2019. Land use change and fragmentation in the protected areas of peninsular Malaysia: The cases of Klang Gate and Sungai Dusun wildlife reserves. doi:10.1088/1755-1315/380/1/012007

Protected Area. https://www.wildlife.gov.my/index.php/en/2016-04-11-03-50-17/2016-04-25-02-12-43/kawasan-perlindungan. Accessed on 1 January 2024.

Sodhi and Ehrkich. 2010. Conservation Biology for All. Oxford University Press. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/9780199554249.do

Yang Shufen, Ang Hui Ping and Lena Chan. Chapter 13. Coastal protection synergy with mangrove restoration in Pulau Tekong in Handbook on Habitat Restoration. https://www.nparks.gov.sg/biodiversity/urban-biodiversity/handbook-on-habitat-restoration. Accessed on 2 February 2024.

This interactive textbook offers an easy way  for students to understand basic topic in conservation biology while providing self-assessment to test their understanding in each topic. This book will guide students through topics on conservation biology and global biodiversity, threats to biodiversity and conservation approaches. The first part of the book covered on introductory to conservation biology and biodiversity, while second part provides an overview on the major threats to our biodiversity and the third part outline solutions or approaches to the current biodiversity crisis.

This open interactive textbook will be great asset for introductory courses at the college or university level on conservation biology. The general reader looking for easy and light reading materials will also greatly benefit from this book.

This interactive textbook is differ from any other textbook that is heavy on words because this book has interactive HTML5 content, such as quizzes, interactive videos and self-assessments to enable students receive instant feedback when they complete the interactive content. Most of the contents in this textbook are from open resources, have been modified and added questions. Students can learn and check their understanding in all one place. Please use this book as you see fit for your classes. Enjoy reading!

According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), [pb_glossary id="65"]biodiversity[/pb_glossary] is all the different kinds of life that we will find in one area including variety of animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria. Biodiversity changes over time as extinction occurs and new species evolve. There are three levels of biodiversity: species, genetic and ecosystem diversity that work together to create the complexity of life on Earth.

Biodiversity is essential to supports human and societal needs, including food and nutrition, energy, development of medicines and pharmaceuticals, and also supports economic opportunities that contribute to overall wellbeing. However, biodiversity has been declining at an alarming rate in recent years, mainly due to human activities, such as land use changes, pollution and climate. This will cause human societies lack of the essence of what we need to survive. Thus we have to try our best to protect, prevent and preserve habitat and biodiversity loss.

The core threat to biodiversity on the planet, and therefore a threat to human welfare, is the combination of human population growth and the resources used by that population. The human population requires resources to survive and grow, and many of those resources are being removed unsustainably from the environment.

Conservation biology has three (3) goals: (a) to document Earth's biological diversity, (b) to investigate how humans influence species, evolution, and ecosystem processes; and (c) to investigate approaches to protect and restore biological communities, maintain genetic diversity, and prevent the extinction of species. In this section, we will discuss on the third goal which is to protect and restore biodiversity. We will look into three efforts in conserving biodiversity which are habitat restoration, protected areas and conservation in fragmented landscape.

Adopted from: "Habitat restoration" by Phil Ohme is licensed under CC BY 4.0