Species and habitat FAQs
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- What is biodiversity?
- How does habitat loss affect animal lives?
- What causes species extinction?
- What are the major threats to the Great Barrier Reef?
- What are Wetlands?
Q. What is biodiversity?
Life on earth is one great, interdependent system. Living species interact with and depend on non-living components of the planet like the atmosphere, ocean, fresh water, rocks and soil.
Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variety of the world's organisms in all its forms, including genetic diversity. It is the blanket term for the natural biological wealth of the planet.
Diversity in genes, species, and ecosystems provides the raw materials with which different human communities will adapt to change, and the loss of each additional species reduces the options for nature and people to respond to changed conditions.
Q. How does habitat loss affect animal lives?
Habitat loss affects the life of an animal in a number of ways.
Developing land for human needs reduces the amount of natural space. As natural space diminishes, so does habitat diversity - the great variety of forests, bushlands, grasslands, wetlands, and deserts which exist in nature. The result is both a decline in the number of species and fewer individuals of those species that do survive.
Humans have substituted native species with ones that better meet their needs: sheep, cattle, cotton, wheat, and sugar. While this has advantages for society, it has upset the natural balance of those ecosystems.
Development has an indirect impact on land it leaves untouched. As land is converted, it is fragmented into smaller and more isolated patches of natural space. Fauna and flora populations have evolved, and continue to evolve, in conjunction with their surroundings. Any change in their habitat will affect their ability to survive.
Q. What causes species extinction?
Many factors impact upon our wildlife and contribute to the loss of species.
The main causes of extinction are land clearing, invasive species, salinity, altered fire regimes, pollution, urbanisation of land, the discharge of nutrients and sediments into our waterways and coastal areas, and climate change. Many of these act upon both ecosystems and species at the same time, which can accelerate the rate of impact and reduce the ability of ecosystems to adapt to changes.
WWF-Australia's Dr Ray Nias explains:
"The impact is on the entire landscape. The fact that a large number of plants are now reaching threatened status means that animals relying on these for food and shelter are also directly affected".
Q. What are the major threats to the Great Barrier Reef?
The threats are many and include pollution, unsustainable fishing, climate change, coastal development, and sewage.
The reef ecosystem is disrupted by sediments and chemicals poured into the reef lagoon.
Prawn trawling leads to destruction of more creatures than are harvested. The rise in water temperature due to global warming causes coral bleaching, where areas of coral die out. Tourism and increased population pressures also contribute to this destruction.
Visit the Great Barrier Reef page for more information.
Q. What are Wetlands?
The term 'wetlands' refers to a broad collection of water-based ecosystems, but more than 50 definitions of wetlands are used worldwide. A basic definition is a place where the land is covered by shallow water.
Wetlands cover about 6% of the world's land surface and vary enormously in character and size. They include: marshes, estuaries, mudflats, billabongs, mires, swamps, deltas, ponds, lakes, rivers, coral reefs, lagoons, shallow seas, bogs, and floodplains. Almost every country has some form of wetlands.
Due to their multiplicity of resources, most wetlands brim with life of all kinds - microscopic animals and plants, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals. Wetlands also have their special plant communities - rooted plants like reeds, sedges, and water lilies in the shallows and floating plants like duckweed and water hyacinth in deeper water.
Wetlands are also a very important source of natural resources upon which many rural economies and entire societies depend. Wetlands perform very important functions that supply goods and services that have an economic value, including freshwater, food, medicine, building materials, water treatment, erosion control and climatic stabilisation.
