WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY?

Rex Burress

 

Tucked in the corner of the E-R newspaper obituary column was an associated press article about “Biodiversity protection order signed.” I hope the news-placement is not an obit death notice!

 

To be sure, it wasn't President Trump signing the biodiversity executive order, but rather California Gov. Jerry Brown, directing state agencies “to work together to protect plant and animal species in the face of climate change” [and other prevailing perils], and he declared that Sept. 7 will “forever be known as 'California Biodiversity Day.'”

 

To some people outside the 'defenders of wildlife' circle, the term 'biodiversity' might not be understood, and it is a relatively new word. It's not in my 1981 Collegiate Websters, but Google defines it as “The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.” It was first used by wildlife scientist Raymond F. Dasmann in 1968, and by the 1980's was in common usage as a shortened phase for 'Biological diversity.'

 

There's a lot going on out there in the diversity of species on Earth! It is estimated 99.9% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, have become extinct. [Google]. Estimates of the number of Earth's current species range around 12 million, but only about 1.2 million have been documented and 86% are undescribed!

 

There's been a lot of time for evolution to make changes since Earth is about 4.6 billion years old. At first the planet was a ball of fire during the Hadean Eon [Hades?] before things started cooling on the crust, and at 3.5 billion, the first evidence of life appeared as a fossil found in a rock.

 

Animals and plants have been developed and destroyed ever since, appearing some billions of years ago. Five great extinctions were million-year setbacks but the ingenuity of life allowed recovery. Biodiversity allows no two species being alike, and even a single species of today's trees has no two leaves identical.

So what is biodiversity? The most apparent examples to the casual river watcher includes the deer silently slipping into the woods, ears fully alert to all the sounds of its environment. It could be a mother deer and fawn along a trail or on the other side of a creek, where its life depends on the slim, tough legs that can carry it away from danger or to some shady browsing-brush.

 

An example of biodiversity could be the scrub jay that makes its presence known as it squawks its way across the river, or sits in the top of a cottonwood surveying its kingdom. Or it could be, in the September season, the noticeable appearance of the migratory Chinook salmon, forging their way up the river to freshwater origins for a renewal of their numbers. [Oroville Salmon Festival; 9-22-18]

 

Biodiversity speaks of different species filling out habitat spaces in the environment, and though resident plants and animals are part of life, some populations are not static, but like migratory waterfowl, move to favorable climate slots. A variety of ducks and geese will drift into California marshes as winter weather drives them from the summer nesting places in the tundra. Having many species to watch for adds to the zest and interest of wildlife.

 

Biodiversity includes the smallest and the largest, from the whale to the wren to the worm, from the ape to the aphid, each becoming part of Earth's sustaining family. Huddled in the middle, dependent on the biology of fellow organisms, is mankind, able to destroy or preserve life on Earth. Let us choose diversity!