Biodiversity Equals Cleaner Water

A new study demonstrates how higher biodiversity removes contaminants from waterways more effectively.

A new landmark study not only verifies but also explains why introducing more species to a freshwater stream boosts the ecosystem’s ability to remove contaminants linearly. According to the study, boosting the variety of a lab-controlled mini-stream from one to eight algal species helped the ecosystem to absorb nitrate pollution 4.5 times faster on average.Researchers utilised plastic to make 150 miniature model streams for the experiment. They constructed natural stream ecosystems like pools, runs, and eddies by moulding the plastic.Different kinds of algae gravitated toward certain microhabitats, generating unique ecological niches and allowing the algae to absorb more nitrate pollution from the stream. A dirtier river resulted from less use of available ecosystems, and vice versa.

Rich plant diversity leads to increased productivity, ecosystem services

 According to a new study, plant species diversity is extremely important. The meta-study published in the American Journal of Botany looked at over 600 research articles and showed that productivity in biodiverse plant ecosystems was 1.5 times higher than monocultures. To put it another way, a grassland produces more than a cornfield, while a forest produces more than a rubber plantation. Food, water purification, oxygen production, carbon sequestration, and the availability of raw minerals are all threatened by diminishing plant diversity, according to the experts.

“For many years, the idea that falling variety undermines ecosystem functioning was contentious,” says Emmett Duffy, a marine biologist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.”This paper should be the final nail in that debate’s coffin. It’s the most comprehensive and comprehensive analysis to date, and it clearly shows that plant extinction poses a threat to the productivity that keeps Earth’s ecosystems afloat.” Aside from increasing output, the researchers revealed that different ecosystems collect light and nutrients more efficiently. Diverse algal communities capture carbon and create oxygen twice as quickly as a single-species algae community, according to laboratory research.Plant diversity was found to be important around the globe, in terrestrial, freshwater, and saltwater ecosystems, according to experts.Even still, the researchers agree that scientists may be underestimating biodiversity’s overall impact.

World’s sixth mass extinction still preventable

So, here’s the good news: the world’s sixth mass extinction is still avoidable. The bad news is that if species that are currently threatened with extinction go extinct even over the next thousand years homo-sapiens will be the first single species to cause a global extinction. A new study published in Nature compares today’s extinction crisis to the big five that occurred in the past and concludes that, while the situation is severe, humanity has the final say. If you only consider the most endangered animals, those with a 50% chance of extinction after three generations, and suppose their time is up, they’ll be extinct in 1,000 years, you’ll see that we’re clearly outside any normal spectrum.”It indicates that we are approaching catastrophic extinction,” says lead scientist Anthony D. Barnosky, a UC Berkeley integrative biology professor.

Will biodiversity agreement save life on Earth

By 2030, nearly a third of the world will be listed as protected, according to a proposed update to the global treaty controlling plant and animal life on Earth. This plan will be presented at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) summit in China in October, when nations will discuss a framework for biodiversity protection for the next decade and the fates of a slew of endangered species.

“This is a critical year for addressing the environmental and climate crises. They are two sides of the same coin, and we must handle both crises vigorously, across all sectors, and with a sense of purpose,” Costa Rica’s energy and environment minister, H.W. Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, said in a statement.

Some experts say that the world is now experiencing a “sixth mass extinction,” alluding to a widespread extinction of species caused by human activity. According to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, about a million species are threatened with extinction. Many more species remain undiscovered to humans, but their future is also in jeopardy as the world’s human population is anticipated to rise to 10 billion by 2050, from 7.5 billion today, putting unrelenting and unprecedented demand on natural resources.

Conclusion

The CBD, which went into effect in 1993, has nearly 200 national governments as signatories. The accord establishes broad principles and assists in the development of national programmes for halting biodiversity loss and safeguarding ecosystems. The proposal is the first concrete document to emerge from the two-year-long deliberations between governments on what would form the post-2020 agenda.The United Nations Decade on Biodiversity ran from 2011 to 2020. While the post-2020 strategy is significant in and of itself, it will also establish the foundation for the United Nations’ 2050 objective of “living in harmony with nature.”