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 The Basics of Biodiversity:
What’s the status of biodiversity?
Around the world, habitats are shrinking due to human activities like farming, logging, and building. This habitat destruction has caused species to go extinct, resulting in a loss of biodiversity.
But the losses may be greater than we know. Scientists have described just over one million species and believe millions more await discovery. How many species will go extinct before we know they exist or what benefits they provide?
Biodiversity’s value includes:
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Damage: habitat destruction is unbalancing natural systems and disrupting the web of life |
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Disappearance: the extinction rate is speeding up as a result |
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 Biodiversity has been damaged.
Many human actions, if not properly managed, can cause pollution and overuse resources, which destroys habitats. Loss of these habitats—the ecosystems where these plants and animals get their water, food, and shelter—is the primary reason for biodiversity’s decline.
By over-fishing, cutting down forests for lumber, and filling in wetlands for urban development, we change the natural environment for the species that live there. Plants and animals die off, not only because they’re removed, but because their complex interactions are interrupted.
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Biodiversity is in danger of disappearing entirely.
Scientists believe that extinction is speeding up at an alarming rate. Thousands of species may be vanishing each year.
Some experts estimate that a major extinction on a scale approximating the loss of dinosaurs may be approaching—and it would be the first ever caused by human activity. Once a species has been lost, it’s lost forever, and with it, the crucial role it played in the web of life.
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Introduction | Investigate Biodiversity | YBC | Meet the Scientist | Explore Global Diversity | Events and Programs | Take Action! | Teaching Biodiversity | Biodiversity Exhibition | Credits
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