Conservation biology and biodiversity loss

The main goal of conservation biology is a protection of animal and plant species in given ecosystem from excessive extinction. The role of conservation biology is becoming increasingly important due to huge biodiversity loss worldwide as a result of various environmental issues, most notably climate change.

Climate change is making things extremely difficult for conservation biologists because it gives animals and plants very little time to adapt to changes. The other major issue is a lack of adequate funding needed to protect many species from going extinct.

In order to protect species from going extinct conservation biology needs to preserve their habitats which are constantly shrinking in size because of the rapid human population growth. Sadly, more people spells more trouble for many animal and plant species.

In order to be as effective as possible conservation biologists need to research, monitor, and catalog every ecosystem in our planet and they also need to study how is our society affecting certain ecosystem. This means that the conservation biologists must also be experts in social sciences and not just in biology.

Conservation biologists also need to study the past ecosystems because past is often the best indicator to future, especially in terms of species extinction.

Most conservation biologists believe that humanity is currently causing the largest mass extinction event in the history of our planet and that the era we currently live in is characterized by the unprecedented numbers of species extinctions. Last major extinction event happened some 65 millions years ago when big meteorite hit the Earth, this time there's no meteorite but the damage is even bigger.

Some scientists even say that the world is well on track to lose more than fifty percent of its species by the end of this century. Our levels of consumption and population growth mean that world will need the productivity of up to 27 Earths by 2050 in order to halt current decline in biodiversity.

World needs to give conservation biologists a chance to save many animals and plants from extinction. This not only means more funds but also lot more protected areas where wildlife can thrive without human interferences.

Regardless of what conservation biologists do, loss of many species is still inevitable and Earth's biodiversity will certainly change for worse in years to come. Let us at least try to minimize this damage as much as possible.

conservation biology – биология охраны природы

decline – спад

human interferences – вмешательство человека

habitat – естественная среда обитания

wildlife – дикая природа

biodiversity – биоразнообразие

Read the text again and answer the questions:

1. What is the role of conservation biology?

2. How can species be protected?

3. What are the reasons of species extinction?

4. What are conservation biologists responsible for?

5. What are the predictions for the Earth’s biodiversity for the future?

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