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For background reading on biodiversity and ecosystems, see...

unit 4 of Facing the Future's high school textbook

chapter 6 of our middle school textbook

week 1 of our Newspapers in Education articles

Biodiversity Fast Facts and Quick Actions

Fast Facts
Quick Actions
More Information

Fast Facts about Biodiversity

Biodiversity refers to the variety living things (plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, ect.) found in an ecosystem and the variation in their genetic makeup. Biodiversity can be used to measure the health of an ecosystem. Healthy ecosystems have greater variety and variation in life than unhealthy ones (Joint Nature Conservation Committee).
Although an estimated 5 to 30 million species live on Earth, only 1.9 million species have been described, the process in which scientists identify specimens they have collected (The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species).
Over 50% of the world’s plant species and 42% of all terrestrial vertebrate species are endemic, native to that country and naturally do not exist anywhere else, to just 34 biodiversity hotspots (Conservation International).
Tropical regions contain 50-90% of Earth's plant and animal species (World Resources Institute).
Madagascar is considered a biodiversity hot spot 98% of its land mammals, 92% of its reptiles, 68% of its plants, and 41% of its breeding bird species exist nowhere else on Earth (Atlas of Population and the Environment).
15,589 species are currently threatened with extinction – 1 in 4 mammals and 1 in 8 birds. This number is increasing as habitats are continually diminished and degraded (The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species).
A significant amount of biodiversity loss is due to agriculture. Much of this loss is occurring in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia (Biodiversity Economics).
Many governments around the world have passed laws (e.g., the Endangered Species Act and CITES) designed to protect endangered species from going extinct. However, more than 300 critically endangered, 237 endangered and 267 vulnerable animal species have no legal protection in any part of their habitats (Conservation International).
Oceans cover about 70% of the entire Earth’s surface (Defenders of Wildlife).
Less than 8% of all grasslands worldwide are protected (Defenders of Wildlife).
Over 50% of wetlands in the lower 48 states have been lost in the United States. These losses are occurring at a rate of over 60,000 acres per year (Defenders of Wildlife).
In the last several decades of the twentieth century about 20% of the world’s coral reefs were lost and an additional 20% were degraded due to warmer water temperatures, and water pollution and pollutants (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment).
35% of the world's mangrove area was lost in the last several decades of the twentieth century (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment).
Habitat change, over-exploitation, invasive alien species, pollution, and climate change are the most important direct drivers of change in ecosystems (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment).

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