3 Where is biodiversity?

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.