Biodiversity and its Conservation Test 5

Hoolock Gibbon is the only Ape found in India, a primate species from the gibbon family of Hylobatidae. The Hoolock Gibbons of India are second largest of the gibbons, found only at south of Brahmaputra and east of the Dibang rivers in North East Indian states.

The Great Indian Bustard is a most endangered species of bird found only in India and adjoining region. Bustard is one of the largest flying species of bird with weight up to 15 kg and about 1 m tall from the ground. The largest land bird habitat in the scrub, tall grass, semi-arid grasslands and semi desert regions of Rajasthan. Due to heavily hunting and habitat loss, the bird is disappearing from the many regions of India. It’s state bird of Rajasthan. There is a wildlife sanctuary called Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary at Solapur, Maharashtra.

Ranthambore National park is a national park in North India and is the smallest national tiger project initially covering 282 km² at the time it was formed.

Organic farming is a production system of crops which avoids the use of synthetic and chemical inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and livestock feed additives.

Silent Valley National Park, is a national park in Kerala, India. It is located in the Nilgiri hills, has a core area of 89.52 km², which is surrounded by a buffer zone of 148 km². This national park has some rare species of flora and fauna. This area was explored in 1847 by the botanist Robert Wight.

In 1731, a Bishnoi women Amrita Devi showed exemplary courage by hugging a tree to prevent its cutting. Her three daughters and hundreds of other Bishnois followed her. They were killed by soldiers of King of Jodhpur. This movement forced the king to abandon cutting of trees. Later ‘Chipko Movement’ was started by Sundar Lal Bahuguna and others to prevent the cutting of trees.  

About 1.5 million species have been formally described in the scientific literature, most of them insects. Proportionally, bacteria comprise less than 1% of all described species.

Both domesticated crops and agricultural weeds have arisen from wild plants, but domesticated crops are different, as they are mostly human inventions selected for certain traits through thousands of years. We will first describe the crop domestication process and the evolution of agricultural weeds in general, contrasting “domestication” with “weediness” traits acquired during the dedomestication or ferality process, including a review of their genetic basis. Then for a select group of crop plants we will examine the degree of inferred domestication (ratio of domestic acquired to retained weediness traits).

Brazil has the highest biodiversity because it is located near equator.

Introduction of Nile perch (an exotic predatory fish) into lake Victoria (South Africa) threatened the entire ecosystem of the lake by eliminating several native species of the small Cichlid fish species that were endemic to this fresh water ecosystem. 

The last twenty years alone have witnessed the disappearance of 27 species. Careful analysis of records shows that extinctions across taxa are not random; some groups like amphibians appear to be more vulnerable to extinction. Adding to the grim scenario of extinctions is the fact that more than 15,500 species world-wide are facing the threat of extinction.

Gymnosperms are among the most threatened living organisms on the planet, with 40% of their species at high risk of extinction, which is about twice as many as the most recent estimates for all plants.

In graphical forms, steeper slopes means slopes which are closer to vertical axis, or in other words they make larger angle with horizontal axis.

In case of species area relationship given by Alexander von Humboldt, steeper slopes (Z values in the range of 0.6 to 1.2) are obtained when species relationships are plotted among very large areas like the entire continents. Steeper slopes signifies that number of species found increases faster than the area explored in very large areas like the entire continents.

Rivet-Popper hypothesis was given by famous ecologist Paul Ehrlich. In this hypotheisis -Paul has thrown light on the importance of various components(like different species) of ecosystem  by comparing ecosystem with an aero plane and its components with the airplane rivets. Rivets are nothing but the various bolts which complete the design of plane & help it in flying. If passengers , travelling in the plane found those rivets useful for any of their personnel purpose and take away them then it will result in the unsafe flight and  can lead to plane crash. In the same way,  different components of ecosystem play an important role in maintaining its balance. So, humans should not disturb/use them  for their own benefits as it it ultimately result in the loss of  ecological balance.

Total number of biodiversity hotspots in the world to 34. Three of these hotspots – Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, Indo-Burma and Himalaya – cover our country’s exceptionally high biodiversity regions.

There are 34 areas around the world which are qualified as Biodiversity hotspots. These hotspots represent only 2.3% of the total Earth's land surface. These hotspots are important because Biodiversity underpins all life on Earth. Without species, there would be no air to breathe, no food to eat, no water to drink. There would be no human society at all. And as the places on Earth, where the most biodiversity is under the most threat, hotspots are critical to human survival.

Silent valley is tropical evergreen forest in Kerala declared as National reserve forest because it contains very rare species of plants and animals.

The Ramsar Convention encourages the designation of sites containing representative, rare or unique wetlands, or wetlands that are important for conserving biological diversity. Once designated, these sites are added to the Convention's List of Wetlands of International Importance and become known as Ramsar sites.