1.3.18

The Importance of Biodiversity

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Biodiversity

It is important to maintain high biodiversity in habitats on Earth, so that we can use genetic information in the future.

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The importance of biodiversity

  • Natural selection over time is important and shows why a population must have variation, or genetic diversity, if it is to evolve over time.
  • This is why we have seed banks, large chilled rooms where we keep a sample of seeds from thousands of plants.
  • At some point in the future we may need a plant's gene to help our own crops survive.
    • This could happen if temperatures rose and we needed heat resistant crops.
  • If that plant and its gene is extinct, we couldn't use it.
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Why maintain biodiversity?

  • Important medicines come from plants.
    • By keeping a high biodiversity, we are making sure that a plant that might lead to a new drug development is still available.
  • With genetic engineering - putting genes from one organism into another - we again want to make sure we have a big selection of genes to choose from.
  • By keeping a high biodiversity, we are keeping options open for future scientists to solve problems.

Jump to other topics

1Biology

1.1Cells, Tissues & Organs

1.2Reproduction & Variation

1.3Ecological Relationships & Classification

1.4Digestion & Nutrition

1.5Plants & Photosynthesis

1.6Biological Systems & Processes

2Chemistry

2.1Particles

2.2Chemical Reactions

2.3Atoms, Elements, Compounds

2.4The Periodic Table

2.5Materials & the Earth

2.6Reactivity

2.7Energetics

2.8Properties of Materials

3Physics

3.1Energy

3.2Forces & Motion

3.3Waves

3.4Electricity & Magnetism

3.5Matter

3.6Space Physics

4Thinking Scientifically

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