Biology
Biodiversity
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the vast swath of diverse living organisms on Earth and the interactions between them. There are three main components to biodiveristy, such as species, genetic and ecosystem diversity. Species diversity are different organisms, such as seals, fish and algae. Genetic diversity is the representation of different genes that lead to different phenotypes in an species population, such as the difference in fur color within a rabbit population. Ecosystem diversity involves many species interacting with each other and their environment to form communities.
How Pollution Affects Biodiversity
Human pollution greatly affects biodiversity. Plastic pollution in particular threatens many ecosystems, plant and animal species. Large plastic and plastic particles disrupt marine life through vectors such as ingesting plastic, becoming entangled and drowning, and the toxicity of plastic affecting the organisms. The primary method of aquatic organism death due to plastics is entanglement. Animals such as sea turtles, sea birds and crustaceans are overwhelmingly affected by entanglement.
Sea turtles are a keystone species for many aquatic ecosystems, which makes them pivotal to their environment. Sea turtles maintain the balance of sea grass on the ocean floor. Without sea turtles, sea grass will overgrow on the floor of the ocean, decompose quickly and can cause toxic mold to grow which kills off many aquatic species.
Sea turtles are also responsible for keeping jellyfish swarms from growing out of control, which could cause massive death among fish populations. Sea turtles are also very unique in that many organisms live on the backs of sea turtle shells. Organisms such as barnacles and algae live on the shells, and fish eat the organisms that lay upon the sea turtle shells. The plastic pollution in the ocean may remove sea turtles from the vast oceanic ecosystem altogether and cause many other species to become threatened from these effects.
Test your knowledge.
How do microplastics primarily threaten aquatic life?
What small tasks as humans make big impacts on biodiversity?
Biodiversity starts with your front lawn. It is simple and life altering for many creatures, to revert from grass lawns to native plant species. There are many reasons to make a switch, for starters, diverse plant species have resilience to climate change. Not only do these biodiverse lawns require minimal maintenance, but they also ensure longevity of beauty. With many plants, pollinators such as bees and butterflies will be attracted, promoting plant pollination and ecosystem vitality. Overall health in the soil is also a plus, the resilient nature of the diverse plants requires fewer chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Lastly, the variety of plant species allows more carbon to be absorbed, thus contributing to the mitigation of climate change by reducing greenhouse gases.
Scientist Spotlight
Tye L. Kindinger
Tye L. Kindinger is a research marine biologist working at NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Kindinger leads the fish component of NOAA’s National Coral Reef Monitoring Program in the Pacific, where her work focuses on providing scientific data to inform conservation and management efforts in nearshore ecosystems across the US Pacific Islands. Kindinger's research addresses the effects of global climate change on ocean ecosystems, particularly coral reef communities, with specific interests in predator-prey interactions, invasive species, and ecosystem-wide perspectives. Kindinger also utilizes advanced statistical techniques and coding in R to manage and analyze large datasets from long-term ecological monitoring programs. You can learn more about her life and work at tos.org. In this study on coral reef communities, Tye Kindinger and others apart of NOAA study the impact of humans on coral reef fish and their depth patterns.
Sonia Ibarra
Sonia Ibarra “is currently a Program Coordinator for Tamamta, a program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) that weaves Indigenous and Western knowledges to explore questions in the fisheries of Alaska.” Ibarra’s current research questions regard the affects humans have on sea otters and shellfish in Southeast Alaska.
Sustainable Fishing Protects Biodiversity.
The Marine Stewardship Council aims to promote sustainable fishing practices around the world. The MSC says that one third of stingrays and sharks are at risk of extinction, and that over one third of fish stocks are currently overfished. By encouraging fish harvesters to not overfish in the ocean, this protects ecosystems and allows many species to thrive, rather than go extinct. The MSC also encourages fish farmers to adopt methods to protect seabird populations, by using methods such as ocean scarecrows.
There are three major requirements for fisheries to meet and attain the blue label that MSC provides. Each fishery must be able to fish their stock indefinitely, not overfishing them into extinction. The fishers must also meet requirements that their operations do not negatively impact the ecosystems from where they fish from. The last requirement is that they must have an effective managment system in place, and meet all local, national and international laws.
If you choose to eat seafood, buying seafood with the MSC blue label is a step in the right direction to protect our ecosystems and oceanic biodiversity.