Earth’s biodiversity 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

 

Click below to see what is the three level of biodiversity:

 

 

The relationship between species, genetic, and ecosystem 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

 

At the most basic level, mass extinctions reduce diversity by killing off specific lineages, and with them, any descendent species they might have given rise to. In this way, mass extinction prunes whole branches off the tree of life. As we lose animals and plants, we lose the natural caretakers of the earth. As animal extinction begins to worsen, it also begins to drastically affect our ecology. Alongside systems like the food chain breaking down, processes like biotic pollination (pollination carried out by animals such as bees) cease to carry on.

 

Lets learn more from this interactive book:

 

 

 

 

 

Biodiversity 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 biodiversity hotspots – biologically rich and deeply threatened. Currently, there are 36 recognized biodiversity hotspot. These are Earth’s most biologically rich – yet threatened – terrestrial regions.

Lets learn more from this video.

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

 

To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, an area must meet these two strict criteria:

• 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.

For example, both Sundaland Hotspot in Southeast Asia and the Tropical Andes Hotspot in South America have about 15,000 endemic plant species. And some hotspots have reached a startling 95 percent loss of its vegetation.

 

 

 

 

Habitat loss 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.

Habitat fragmentation 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.

Lets watch this video.

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:

 

 

 

 

Habitat loss and climate change are the most prominent threats facing biodiversity at present. However, nearly all human activities place additional pressures on population. Such pressures are primarily from pollution, overharvesting, invasive species and disease. By definition, pollution is the introduction of harmful materials, called pollutants 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. Biomagnification, 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.

Click below to see the forms of pollution:

 

 

Watch an interactive video below to learn more on air pollutions.

 

 

 

 

Overexploitation 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 biodiversity?

Lets watch this video to understand further.

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

 

Overexploitation, also called overharvesting 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, habitat fragmentation and habitat destruction. Overexploitation of species can also result in cascade effects, 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 restoration is the purposeful  rehabilitation 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.

Watch a unique restoration project below on how fires is used to restore habitat.

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:

 

 

 

Habitat fragmentation 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:

Various efforts has been made to conserve our biodiversity and build habitat corridors 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.

Lets see video below to learn more on The Sabah Landscapes Program:

Adopted from: “The Sabah Landscapes Programme: An Overview” by WWFMy is licensed under CC BY 4.0