Ecology and Biodiversity free essay sample

This includes the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act), conservation of private land, and so on. 1. Introduction Biodiversity provides lots of natural resources and services for everyone such as ecosystem services, biological services and social services. From the needs of the poor to even the world’s economy depends mostly on things derived from biological resources. Medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to the challenges faced due to dramatic climate change benefit with rich biological resources, as high cost is incurred if we need to replace them. However, biodiversity is threatened by different aspects, which in terms affecting the whole ecosystem as well as our economy. Biological conservations should take place in order to conserve biodiversity. 2. Biodiversity in Australia 2. 1 Definition Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, the biological diversity is also called biodiversity. Biodiversity involves the amount of living organisms, such as plants, animals, and microorganisms, the genes that each species contain, and the ecosystems the organisms depend on, such as woodlands, coral reefs, and deserts. Australia Museum, 2009) Biodiversity acts as an indicator of the health of ecosystems. The greater it is the healthier the ecosystems are. Biodiversity also affected the climate. In terrestrial habitats, more species are found in tropical regions whereas less species are found in polar regions. Out of 13. 6 million species of plants, animals and micro-organisms on earth, Australia occupies approximately a million of them which are more than 7% of the world’s total. As one of the twelve megadiverse countries, Australia contains about 75% of Earth’s total biodiversity. Australia is a developed country, she has the responsibility in managing and conserving biodiversity. 3. 2 Importance of Biodiversity Humans benefit from biodiversity in 3 different ways: ecosystem services, biological resources and social benefits. 3. 3. 1 Ecosystem services Biodiversity plays an important role in nutrient storage and recycling. At the same time biodiversity is breaking down and absorbing the pollution caused by human activities. As pollution are mostly broken down and absorbed, the climate is stay more or less stabilized through the contribution of biodiversity. Biodiversity can help in maintaining the ecosystems that are damaged by human activities. 3. 3. 2 Biological resources Biodiversity provides lots of raw material and biological resources for humans, e. g. food, wood products, as medicinal resources and pharmaceutical drugs. Biodiversity even acts as our future resources. 2. 2. 3 Social benefits Biodiversity benefits us socially. It acts as a subject for us to do research, education and monitoring. Biodiversity can also a site of recreation and tourist attraction for us to enjoy and relax. It also has significant cultural values. (Anup S, 2009) 2. 3 Threats Over the last 200 years Australia has suffered the largest documented decline in biodiversity of any continent. No matter how hard they try to manage threats and pressures to biodiversity, the biodiversity in Australia is still declining. 2. 3. 1 Environmental changes Firstly, over the past thousands of years, indigenous people have been interacting with Australia’s environment causing influence over the course of evolution. Vegetation patterns are affected by their use of fire for land managing. Hunting and the building of fish traps have had affect the natural environment where species’ population levels may have decreased or even become extinct. (Australian Museum, 2009) Secondly, over the past 200 years, Australia suffered from a tremendous loss of biodiversity and rate increase of environmental change due to the arrival of Europeans. New species and human technology were brought into Australia by the European settlement. Hence, the ecosystem was disturbed and threatened. (Virginia G, 2002) 2. 3. 2 Over-population Population growth is increasing gradually, demand of space and resources, disposal of goods increase simultaneously. Through agriculture, urbanization, industrialization and the exploitation of natural resources, we are in terms disturbing and destructing the habitats. If we over-use these resources, population size of certain species may be reduced due to rate of consumption is much fast than rate of production. As population growth, more energy are consumed, therefore more oil, coal or fossil fuels have to be burnt. Through the burning process, carbon-dioxide is produced, which is the main factor of global warming and can change the nature of ecosystems. Also, for the introduction of exotic species will bring diseases with them and will have competition with native biodiversity for food and shelter. (Australian Museum, 2009) 2. 3. 3 Climate Change Climate changes around the globe and also in Australia. Average temperature is rising and natural disasters like droughts, high fire danger weather are expected to occur more frequently. Climate change will affect the sea temperature and sea level and also leading to the melting of polar ice. Biodiversity is very sensitive to climate change. As the environment changes, some species like the migrating birds, will be lost and cannot find their direction which may up set the species’ distribution. (Department of the Environment, 2003) 2. 4 Impact 2. 4. 1 Extinction Where a life form has evolved extinction is also involved. Approximately 30 billion species have lived, but only about 0. 01% of them live on Earth today. We human are not the ones who have actually caused most mass extinctions. Scientists said that we are going to witness the sixth mass extinction. Where mass extinctions occurred in the pass had been recorded in the Earth’s history, e. g. extinction of dinosaurs. Loss of species is a major threat to biodiversity in Australia. Species of animals and plants under threat may be listed in one of the following categories (Australian Museum, 2009): * Extinct * Extinct in the wild * Critically endangered * Endangered * Vulnerable * Conservation dependent 2. 5 Biodiversity Conservation National framework for biodiversity conservation The Australian Government knows the importance of biodiversity conservation and, in cooperating with the states and territories through the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, is setting a national framework for biodiversity conservation. (NRMMC, 2010) Australian environment legislation EPBC Act The Australian Government is responsible for biodiversity conservation through the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) the Australian Governments key piece of environmental legislation. Through it, a legal framework to protect and manage biodiversity nationally and internationally is provided. Department of Environment, 2010) Caring for our Country Farmers, native peoples, and other private land managers manage around 77 per cent of Australias land. To protect Australia’s environmental assets, the Australian Government acknowledges the conservation of biodiversity on private lands. The Australian Government invested more than $2 billi on in 2008-2013 in Caring for our Country initiative which supports communities, farmers and other land holders to protect Australias natural environment and provide food and fibre sustainably. The Environmental Stewardship Program of Caring for our Country aims at maintaining and improving the quality and extent of highly-valued environmental assets on private land. A significant factor of the Caring for Our Country initiative is the National Reserve System. This is a nation-wide network of reserves which is set up for the protection of Australias unique natural environment for our offspring (Department of Environment, 2010) Conservation on private land The Australian Government realizes conservation of biodiversity on private land is a significant way to conserve Australias biodiversity. Governments encourage private land holders to conserve biodiversity by providing them with incentives. (Department of Environment, 2010) Australian Government Incentives * There are agreements which are used to protect and conserve the biodiversity in land or sea between the Australian Government Environment Minister and other parties, who known as EPBC Act Conservation Agreements. The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has responsibility for a number of administrative arrangements relating to taxation concessions that seek to conserve and protect the natural environment. In order to conserve and protect the natural environment, a number of administrative arrangements which relate to taxation concessions are responded by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. * Tender based approaches and auctions are to provide conservation payment to community groups and individuals for conservation works of biodiversity. * The National Reserve Sys tem is Australias network of protected areas. Funding can be applied for organizations to buy land for conservation or to work with landholders, to help them set up a continuous conservation agreement on their private land. Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, 2010) 3. Conclusion Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the variety of all species on earth. It is the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, their genes, and the terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems of which they are a part. (Department of the Environment, 2010) Biodiversity provides us with many goods and services. However, in the past 200 years Australia has suffered with the most significant drop in biodiversity. http://australianmuseum. net. au/What-is-biodiversity https://australianmuseum.net.au/biodiversity http://www.environment.gov.au/ https://www.helium.com/ http://www.australia.gov.au/information-and-services/environment