Examine the reasons for the existence and localities of biodiversity hotspots.

Supervision 2: Examine the reasons for the existence and localities of biodiversity hotspots "I have never experienced such intense delight... such a plenitude of forms, colours, behaviours-such a magnitude of Life! What explains the riot?" - Darwin (1851) "The current massive degradation of habitat and extinction of species is taking place on a catastrophically short timescale, and their effects will fundamentally reset the future evolution of the planet's biota." - Novacek & Cleland (2001) Biodiversity may be regarded as 'the number, variety and variability of living organisms' (MacDonald, 2003: 406). Whilst global variation in biological diversity has long been a source of fascination, it has recently been the basis for increasing concern (Tilman, 2000). Awareness of the extent and rate of the current biodiversity crisis (or the 'sixth extinction', as termed by Leakey & Lewin, 1996) has led to a significant re-assessment of the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning and the scope for policy intervention to enable its preservation, exemplified by the international ratification of the Convention on Biodiversity in 1992. The identification and analysis of spatial patterns of biodiversity has been central to conservation goals of maximum preservation at the least cost (Reddy & Davalos, 2003). The hotspots approach is one of many methods for delimiting areas of

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What is Biodiversity?

Biodiversity Simone M Brady SCI210 Dr. Hoffman August 31, 2005 INTRODUCTION Biodiversity will inevitably take a beating. Humans care about nothing but themselves even though every action a human makes effects another organism in some way, shape or form, whether the effect is positive or negative. The world is past due for a change in attitude and activity on this planet in order to ensure more positive effects are practiced because biodiversity sustains all life on earth. This paper will discuss biodiversity and the effects human have on it. WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY? Biodiversity is the variety of life here on Earth. Variety includes the many different micro-organisms, plants, animals, genes and ecosystems living beneath the biosphere, (Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005), and can be subdivided into three parts; genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity (National Biological Information Infrastructure, n.d.), with its main focus being the species (Wright, 2005). Biodiversity, originally known as biological diversity has taken on a few descriptions, with the main issues being conservation value. To some, conservation may apply to all species, to others conservation may apply to a specific species and is called biospecifics. Yet to some, biodiversity concerns the maintenance of ecosystem processes and is called bio-processes (Stanford

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