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Every species has a role — plants make food and oxygen, animals pollinate and disperse seeds, microbes recycle nutrients. Remove one, and others can fall with it.
- Each species, large or small, plays an important role in nature.
- Human activities — pollution, deforestation, overuse of resources and climate change — are reducing biodiversity.
- When one species disappears, others that depend on it may decline and eventually disappear too.
When scientists discover a new organism, they compare it with known species; sometimes the name marks the place of discovery. The Purple Frog ( Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis ) from Kerala is named after the Sahyadri Hills (Fig. 12.20). It lives underground most of the year, belongs to an ancient family, and its 2003 discovery highlighted the need for conservation in the Western Ghats.
- 7. ‘Biodiversity’ covers not only the variety of organisms but also the variety of genes, species and ecosystems and the interactions among them.
- 8. To classify a new pond organism, observe its cell type, level of organisation, mode of nutrition and structure — the standard criteria of classification.
- 9. Genetic (DNA) studies reveal inherited features and shared ancestry, giving deep information about how living beings are related.
- 10. Climate change alters habitats and food webs, so it can shift, reduce or destroy biodiversity.
Floating grasslands, locally called phumdis , in Loktak lake’s Keibul Lamjao National Park (Manipur) are one of the world’s unique habitats. They are home to the endangered Sangai , the dancing deer endemic to Manipur, once declared extinct in 1951 and rediscovered in 1953. As the phumdis degenerate, the Sangai is now on the IUCN Red List, and conservation efforts are in progress.
- Adaptation — a structural or functional feature that helps an organism survive in its environment.
- Taxonomic hierarchy — the levels Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species.
- Binomial nomenclature — the two-part scientific naming system of genus and species.
- Genus — a group of closely related species sharing common features.
- Species — a group of similar individuals capable of interbreeding.
- Fossil — the preserved remains of an ancient plant or animal in rock layers.
