Question

How is biodiversity important for ecosystem functioning?

Answer 1

For many decades, ecologists believed that a communities with more species is more stable than a community with less species. After long-term ecosystem experiments on plots outside the laboratory, David Tilman found that plots with more species showed less variation in total biomass from year to year. He also showed that increased diversity contributed to higher productivity in his experiments. We feel rich biodiversity is as essential for a good ecosystem as human survival. Biodiversity provided by nature plays an important role in many ecosystem services. The rapidly depleting Amazon forest provides about 20 per cent oxygen to the earth’s atmosphere through photosynthesis. Another service of the ecosystem is provided by pollinators; For example, pollination is done by bees, bumblebees, birds and bats, without which plants cannot give us fruits or seeds. We take other indirect aesthetic benefits from nature. The ecosystem makes the environment clean. It helps us control drought, floods, etc.