Slide 1Bengaluru 560056, India
– from high elevations to low elevations
Diversity – greater on continents than on islands
Low in habitats – with extreme climate
E.g. deserts, hot springs, Antarctic region
Known: 1,33,149 (44%) all vascular plant species
9645 (35%) four vertebrate groups (birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians).
25 terrestrial biodiversity hot spots (Myers et al. 2000)
9 leading, 8 hottest hot spots
Hot spots - High level of endemic species Occur near areas of dense human Most of them in tropics Most of them are forests Hot spots- Confined to 2.1 million sq. km or 1.4 % of earth’s land surface. Formerly - 17.4 m sq. km or 11.8% of earth’s land surface.
Pangaea
Gondwana Laurasia
Nothofagus - plant genus that illustrates Gondwanan distribution, having descended from the supercontinent and existing in current day Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and Chile. Fossils have also recently been found in Antarctica
Photosynthetic bacteria
Mass extinction, marine org.
Insects, amphibians, spore breathing plants, gymno., origin of reptiles
ME , speices in seas and on land perish
Radiation of marine invert., fishes, dino., gymno, origin of mam.
Rich marine communitie, radi. of dino.
Radi. of mar. invert., fishes, insects, dino, ori. Angio.
ME
birds, mam., ori. of early man
Origin of earth
Gondwana moves south
Groups being assessed using the sampled approach and comprehensively. 1 = Comprehensive assessment complete; 2 = Comprehensive assessment underway; 3 = Sample of Freshwater fish complete, marine fish underway; 4 = sampled approach group. Blue are phase 1 groups (2007-2009), orange are phase 2 groups (2008-2010).
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
In million
Estimated species and named species of Eukaryotes
There have been five mass extinction events throughout Earth's history: First great mass extinction event - end of the Ordovician, when according to the fossil record, 60% of all genera of both terrestrial and marine life worldwide were exterminated. 360 million years ago in the Late Devonian period, the environment that had clearly nurtured reefs for at least 13 million years turned hostile and the world plunged into the second mass extinction event. The fossil record of the end Permian mass extinction reveals a staggering loss of life: perhaps 80–95% of all marine species went extinct. Reefs didn't reappear for about 10 million years, the greatest hiatus in reef building in all of Earth history.
The end Triassic mass extinction is estimated to have claimed about half of all marine invertebrates. Around 80% of all land quadrupeds also went extinct. The end Cretaceous mass extinction 65 million years ago is famously associated with the demise of the dinosaurs. Virtually no large land animals survived. Plants were also greatly affected while tropical marine life was decimated. Global temperature was 6 to 14°C warmer than present with sea levels over 300 metre higher than current levels. At this time, the oceans flooded up to 40% of the continents.
Taxon Average lifespan (millions of years)
All invertebrates 11
Marine invertibrates 5-10
Marine animals 4-5
World ranking of mega-biodiversity countries (Paine,1997)
8th
Known and estimated total number of species on Earth (WCMC, 1992).
Approximate number of described species, number of estimated species and working figure (in thousands) of least
described species group (UNEP, 1995)
Habitat preference of amphibians
Habitat preference of birds
Aquatic /semi aquatic mammals
Dolphin Killer whale
Global biodiversity in Fresh water While freshwater habitats cover less than 1% of the
world’s surface , they provide a home for 7% (126,000
species) of the estimated 1.8 million describid species
including a quarter of the estimated 60,000
vertebrates.
been valued globally at US $5.58 billion per year
The goods and services provided by the world’s
wetlands are valued at $70 billion per year– a figure
equivalent to the GDP of some countries ranked within
the top third of the world’s economies (World Bank 2008).
Out of more than 41,500 plants and animals currently assessed under the IUCN Red List Criteria, only approximately 1,500 were marine species. In many regions around the world, biodiversity conservation in the seas is currently taking place As of 2008, six major groups of marine species have been completed, and include all the world’s known species of sharks and rays, groupers, reef-building corals, seabirds, marine mammals, and marine turtles
329 million ha geographical area
89,000 species of fauna, 47,000 species of flora
200 million ha EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) of marine zone.
7th Largest country – World, 2nd Largest country – Asia
2.4% of the global space; 8.1% of the world’s biodiversity
Rich biodiversity – variation in ecosystem profile
Mountains, forests, deserts, fresh and marine water, Islands.
Land Frontier – 15,200 km
(Northeast = Oct. – Nov.)
Winter (Dec. – Feb.)
Summer (Mar. – May)
Physically – four regions
Forests:
(WG), Northeastern (NE)
Semi-evergreen rain forests, grasslands deciduous
monsoon forests
mangroves
Forest area (GoI, 1999)
Recorded number of species in India and the world (MoEF 1999)
Group
Indian Biodiversity
Wild relatives of some Indian crops and medicinal plants (MoEF 1999)
Agro-biodiversity: 56000 rice germplasm – NBPGR (National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources) 5545 different tuber crops – (TCR) 1693 spp. Cassava, 927 spp. sweet potatoes, 859 spp. yams
Yam
Cassava
Wild relatives of some Indian domesticated animals (MoEF 1999)
Marine Biodiversity in India 12372 spp. in India Horseshoe crabs, migratory marine
turtles, sea snakes, dolphins, whales 30 marine mammals out of 120 in the
world.
Asia’s rarest animals in India Bengal Fox Marbled Cat Asiatic Lion Indian Elephant Asiatic Wild Ass Indian Rhinoceros Markhor Gaur Water Buffalo Cheetah – extinct
Indian endemic species diversity
western & Eastern Himalayas
50% Lizards – WG
Endemic mammals:
Niligiri tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius)