Biodiversity
Biodiversity Awareness 17 – 23 May – Day 3
Biodiversity
Our educational resources, Biodiversity, Food Chains and Food Webs and What is an Ecosystem? explained that ecosystems rely on diversity in food chains and food webs to sustain thriving habitats.
Biodiversity
But does it really matter if we lose a few species?
Biodiversity
The California Academy of Science YouTube channel provides a definitive answer in their video on biodiversity, ecosystems and ecological networks. This video builds on what we have already learned and explains the importance of greater richness and complexity of networks of species as well as the significance of larger species.
Biodiversity
Does Biodiversity Matter
Biodiversity
Now that we better understand the importance of greater diversity and bigger species in the stability of an ecosystem, we can ask what happens if we restore a species that was lost?
There is a famous example of what happens when we restore a major species to an ecosystem: the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the United States. The Sustainable Human YouTube channel provides a great video describing what happened in Yellowstone that explains how this action not only enhanced the diversity of the ecosystem, but actually resulted in a transformation of the environment itself: “How Wolves Change Rivers”.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity
Tomorrow we explore community efforts to protect ecosystems and biodiversity through Community Gardening.