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Related Concept Videos

What is Conservation Biology?01:57

What is Conservation Biology?

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Conservation biology is a scientific field that focuses on the preservation of biodiversity in order to protect ecosystems while meeting the needs of the human population. Humans require properly functioning ecosystems to maintain our supply of natural resources, including food, medicines, and building materials.
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What is Biodiversity?01:19

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Biodiversity describes the variety of living things at multiple organizational levels: genetic, species and ecosystem diversity. Species diversity includes all branches of the evolutionary tree from single-celled prokaryotic organisms, bacteria, and archaea, to the eukaryotic kingdoms: plants; animals; fungi; and protists. To date, there have been about 1.75 million species identified, and new species are discovered every week.
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Ecological Disturbance02:26

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Keystone Species01:39

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Measures of species biodiversity, such as richness (i.e., the number of species present) and evenness (i.e., their relative abundance), describe an ecological community’s structure. Many factors affect community structure, including abiotic factors (e.g., sunlight and nutrients), disturbances (e.g., fire or flood), species interactions (e.g., predation or competition), and chance events (e.g., foreign species invasion). Certain species—such as keystone species—also play a...
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There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species that adapted to the new conditions. In the current geological epoch, the Holocene, there is a sixth extinction event in progress. This mass extinction has been attributed to human activities and is thus provisionally called the Anthropocene. In 2019 the human population reached 7.7 billion people and is projected to comprise 10 billion by...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 2, 2026

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning
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Conservation implications of the link between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

A Hector1, J Joshi2, S Lawler3

  • 1NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK.

Oecologia
|March 1, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Biodiversity loss threatens ecosystem functioning, even if relationships appear asymptotic. Conserving biodiversity is crucial for ecosystem health and human well-being, supported by growing scientific evidence.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Conservation Biology
  • Environmental Science

Background:

  • The link between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is often asymptotic, with some species having a disproportionate impact.
  • This asymptotic relationship has raised questions about the validity of conservation efforts focused on maintaining ecosystem functions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To argue that biodiversity and ecosystem functioning provide a critical, complementary argument for conservation.
  • To address the complexity of identifying keystone species and their dependencies.
  • To highlight the importance of biodiversity across various spatial and temporal scales.

Main Methods:

  • Review and synthesis of existing scientific literature and arguments.
  • Analysis of the precautionary principle in biodiversity conservation.
  • Emphasis on the shift towards evidence-based scientific positions.

Main Results:

  • Despite asymptotic relationships, biodiversity loss has significant ecosystem-level consequences.
  • Identifying all crucial species and their interdependencies is practically impossible, necessitating broad conservation.
  • Ecosystem functioning arguments complement utilitarian, ethical, and aesthetic reasons for conservation.

Conclusions:

  • A combined approach, integrating ecosystem functioning with other conservation justifications, strengthens the case for biodiversity preservation.
  • Biodiversity loss impacts are significant at larger scales, despite local asymptotic patterns.
  • Integrating scientific findings on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning into policy is the future challenge.