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I am a senior majoring in biology and minoring in psychology.

1. What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity is variation in living organisms that can be observed from a vast array of organizational scales from within species to within ecosystems. While variations within a species would be on a genetic level, variation within an ecosystem would not only be in terms of the number of various species but also the species richness. What is also an important aspect of diversity in a community is the functional diversity. Taking all of these into account, what should be focused when discussing biodiversity and its definition in ecosystems is the community composition.

2. What is happening to biodiversity?

Biodiversity is always changing and while these changes can be for the better in some areas, biodiversity is most likely declining on both a regional and global scale in recent years. Although we cannot deny the fact that some species, like weedy species, are flourishing, the quantity of species is decreasing as many face extinction in the near future, if they have not already.

3. Why is it happening?

Some of the main causes of this decline in biodiversity are habitat loss, overexploitation, pollution, and climate change, all of which are largely due to anthropogenic activities. Habitat loss is one of the biggest concerns because specialized organisms cannot survive in different niches due to their specialized nature, although these traits were what once allowed them to thrive. Moreover, the increased rate of habitat loss does not allow for organisms to find other niches. Overexploitation is, without a doubt, a direct cause of declining biodiversity as it is proved my many examples. Although data on the effects of climate change may not be as studied as habitat loss and overexploitation, it is likely to have caused negative changes in biodiveristy, although some may argue that it allows for new niches.

4. Why does it matter?

Other than the fact that it is a fundamental moral issue, we should be concerned with declining biodiversity because communities are established and maintained by the interactions between the species making up that community. Therefore, the loss of any one species has the potential to disrupt the balance that has been maintained by these interactions. Any one organism could be the primary food source for another and the extinction of this prey can lead the to the extinction of the predetor. The effect of the extinction of these two organisms may not stop there. If they are all connected, one incident can have a large effect.

We should also be concerned about the loss of biodiversity for our own sakes. Loss of biodiveristy means loss of resources for us as well. If we have reached the end of our only resource's reservoir, where do we turn to? We should maintain biodiverisity to ensure alternative resources in case what we use now runs out.

5. What should/can be done about it?

We need to gather more information, more data, in order to make people more aware of criticality of the situation we are in now. Perhaps then, people will start caring more and become more active in trying to decrease the rate of declining biodiversity.