Question

What is biodiversity? What will happen if the biodiversity of an area is not preserved? Mention one effect of it.

Answer 1

Biodiversity here bios means life and diversity meaning forms. Biodiversity is the combination of different types of ecosystem, organisms adapted to different climates and the environment with their interaction.

Step by step answer: Biodiversity is defined as the degree of variation of life form
s or the variety of living organisms present in any ecosystem. Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth. It is a measure of the variations at the genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.
Every organism in an ecosystem has an important role to play. Due to this Biodiversity
becomes a very important aspect. Because if even the smallest of the organism drops out from the
Biodiversity, then all the ecological food chains, food cycles, and food webs, etc. are disturbed and
altered. This puts extra pressure on some other species and threatens their extinction.
If the biodiversity of an area is not preserved, then the whole ecological balance will get disturbed. This
will lead to the following problems –
1. If we keep on cutting the trees then deforestation will occur. And we know that deforestation
causes the loss of the flora and fauna.
2. The deforestation will also cause the loss of the soil like the roots of the plants to help in holding
together the soil.
3. Also, deforestation will cause natural calamities like floods, forest fires, low rainfalls, etc.
Hence, the one effect of the Biodiversity loss would be the destruction of a whole ecological habitat, and
the extinction of all the vulnerable species of the plants and animals present in it. Also, it will lead to the
extinction of certain organisms from the trophic levels of a food chain which in turn will disturb the
balance of the ecosystem only.

Note: There are two different terms Ecosystem and Biodiversity. The ecosystem is defined as the interactions of any biological community with its physical environment. In other words, it can be defined as the interactions of the biotic and the abiotic components. Biodiversity is the variation of the organisms in any given region. Hence, it is the variation of the biotic components only. The term Biodiversity does not have anything to do with the abiotic components.