Number of species in world and

India
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN), there are approximately 8.7 million species on Earth, but
only 1.2 million of these species have been scientifically
described and cataloged. Of these 1.2 million described species,
around 41,000 are considered threatened with extinction. The
remaining 7.2 million species are still undiscovered and waiting
to be discovered. In India, the estimated number of species is
around 96,000, with around 50,000 species of plants and around
20,000 species of animals. The remaining species
include fungi, bacteria, and microorganisms. More than 70 per
cent of all the species recorded are animals, while plants
(including algae, fungi, bryophytes, gymnosperms and
angiosperms) comprise no more than 22 per cent of the total.
Among animals, insects are the most species-rich taxonomic
group, making up more than 70 per cent of the total. That means,
out of every 10 animals on this planet, 7 are insects. The number
of fungi species in the world is more than the combined total of
the species of fishes, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. In
Figure biodiversity is depicted showing species number of major
taxa.
Although India has only 2.4 per cent of the world’s land
area, its share of the global species diversity is an
impressive 8.1 per cent. That is what makes our country
one of the 12 mega diversity countries of the world.
Nearly 45,000 species of plants and twice as many of
animals have been recorded from India. If we accept
May’s global estimates, only 22 per cent of the total
species have been recorded so far. Applying this
proportion to India’s diversity figures, we estimate that
there are probably more than 1,00,000 plant species and
more than 3,00, 000 animal species yet to be discovered
and described. Consider the immense trained manpower
(taxonomists) and the time required to complete the job.
The situation appears more hopeless when we realise
that a large fraction of these species faces the threat of
becoming extinct even before we discover them.
Nature’s biological library is burning even before we
catalogued the titles of all the books stocked there.

Patterns of
Biodiversity
(i) Latitudinal gradients: The diversity of
plants and animals is not uniform
throughout the world but shows a
rather uneven distribution. For many
group of animals or plants, there are
interesting patterns in diversity, the
most well- known being the latitudinal
gradient in diversity. In general,
species diversity decreases as we
move away from the equator towards
the poles. With very few exceptions,
tropics (latitudinal range of 23.5° N to
23.5° S) harbour more species than
temperate or polar areas. Colombia
located near the equator has nearly
1,400 species of birds while New York
at 41° N has 105 species and
Greenland at 71° N only 56 species.
India, with much of its land area in the
tropical latitudes, has more than 1,200
species of birds. A forest in a tropical
region like Equator has up to 10 times
as many species of vascular plants as
a forest of equal area in a temperate
region like the Midwest of the USA.
The largely tropical Amazonian rain
forest in South America has the
greatest biodiversity on earth- it is
home to more than 40,000 species of
plants, 3,000 of fishes, 1,300 of birds,
427 of mammals, 427 of amphibians,
378 of reptiles and of more than
1,25,000 invertebrates. Scientists
estimate that in these rain forests
there might be at least two million
insect species waiting to be discovered
and named. Ecologists and
evolutionary biologists have proposed
various hypotheses; some important
ones are (a) Speciation is generally a
function of time, unlike temperate
regions subjected to frequent
glaciations in the past, tropical
latitudes have remained relatively
undisturbed for millions of years and
thus, had a long 261 2015-16BIOLOGY
(ii) Figure 15.2 Showing species area
relationship. Note that on log scale the
relationship becomes linear
evolutionary time for species
diversification, (b) Tropical
environments, unlike temperate ones,
 are less seasonal, relatively more
constant and predictable. Such
constant environments promote niche
specialization and lead to a greater
species diversity and (c) There is more
solar energy available in the tropics,
which contributes to higher
productivity; this in turn might
contribute indirectly to greater
diversity.
(ii) Species-Area relationships: During his
pioneering and extensive explorations
in the wilderness of South American
jungles, the great German naturalist
and geographer Alexander von
Humboldt observed that within a
region species richness increased with
increasing explored area, but only up
to a limit. In fact, the relation between
species richness and area for a wide
variety of taxa (angiosperm plants,
birds, bats, freshwater fishes) turns out
to be a rectangular hyperbola. On a
logarithmic scale, the relationship is a
straight line described by the equation
 log S = log C + Z log A where S=
Species richness
A= Area
Z = slope of the line (regression
coefficient)
C = Y-intercept
Ecologists have discovered that the
value of Z lies in the range of 0.1 to
0.2, regardless of the
taxonomic group or the
region (whether it is
the plants in Britain,
birds in California or
molluscs in New York
Importance of Species Diversity to
the Ecosystem
A stable community should not show too
much variation in productivity from year to
year; it must be either resistant or resilient
to occasional disturbances (natural or man-
made), and it must also be resistant to
invasions by alien species. Tilman found
that plots with more species showed less
year-to-year variation in total biomass.
David Tilamn also showed that in his
experiments, increased diversity
contributed to higher productivity. Rich
biodiversity is not only essential for
ecosystem health but imperative for the
very survival of the human race on this
planet. At a time when we are losing
species at an alarming pace. (The ‘rivet
popper hypothesis’) used by Stanford
ecologist Paul Ehrlich. In an airplane
(ecosystem) all parts are joined together
using thousands of rivets (species). If every
passenger travelling in it starts popping a
rivet to take home (causing a species to
become extinct), it may not affect flight
safety (proper functioning of the ecosystem)
initially, but as more and more rivets are
removed, the plane becomes dangerously
weak over a period of time. Furthermore,
which rivet is removed may also be critical.
Loss of rivets on the wings (key species that
drive major ecosystem functions) is
obviously a more serious threat to flight
safety than loss of a few rivets on the seats
or windows inside the plane.
 Loss of Biodiversity
The biological wealth of our planet has been
declining rapidly and the accusing finger is
clearly pointing to human activities. The
colonisation of tropical Pacific Islands by
humans is said to have led to the extinction of
more than 2,000 species of native birds. The
IUCN Red List (2004) documents the
extinction of 784 species (including 338
vertebrates, 359 invertebrates and 87 plants)
in the last 500 years. Some examples of
recent extinctions include the dodo
(Mauritius), quagga (Africa), thylacine
(Australia), Steller’s Sea Cow (Russia) and
three subspecies (Bali, Javan, Caspian) of
tiger. The last twenty years alone have
witnessed the disappearance of 27 species.
In general, loss of biodiversity in a region may
lead to (a) decline in plant production, (b)
lowered resistance to environmental
perturbations such as drought and (c)
increased variability in certain ecosystem
processes such as plant productivity, water
use, and pest and disease cycles. Causes of
biodiversity losses: The accelerated rates of
species extinctions that the world is facing
now are largely due to human activities.
There are four major causes (‘ The Evil
Quartet ’ is the sobriquet used to describe
them).
(i) 264 Habitat loss and fragmentation:
This is the most important cause
driving animals and plants to
extinction. The most dramatic
examples of habitat loss come from
tropical rain forests. Once covering
more than 14 per cent of the earth’s
land surface, these rain forests now
cover no more than 6 per cent. They
are being destroyed fast. By the time
you finish reading this chapter, 1000
more hectares of rain forest would
have been lost. The Amazon rain
forest (it is so huge that it is called
the ‘lungs of the planet’) harbouring
probably millions of species is being
cut and cleared for cultivating soya
beans or for conversion to grasslands
for raising beef cattle. Besides total
 loss, the degradation of many
habitats by pollution also threatens
the survival of many species. When
large habitats are broken up into
small fragments due to various
human activities, mammals and birds
requiring large territories and certain
animals with migratory habits are
badly affected, leading to population
declines.
(ii) Over-exploitation: Humans have
always depended on nature for food
and shelter, but when ‘need’ turns to
‘greed’, it leads to 2015-
16BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
over-exploitation of natural resources.
Many species extinctions in the last
500 years (Steller’s sea cow,
passenger pigeon) were due to
overexploitation by humans. Presently
many marine fish populations around
the world are over harvested,
endangering the continued existence
of some commercially important
species.
(iii) (iii) Alien species invasions: When
alien species are introduced
unintentionally or deliberately for
whatever purpose, some of them turn
invasive, and cause decline or
extinction of indigenous species. The
Nile perch introduced into Lake
Victoria in east Africa led eventually
to the extinction of an ecologically
unique assemblage of more than 200
species of cichlid fish in the lake. You
must be familiar with the
environmental damage caused and
threat posed to our native species by
invasive weed species like carrot
grass (Parthenium), Lantana and
water hyacinth (Eicchornia). The
recent illegal introduction of the
African catfish Clarias gariepinus for
aquaculture purposes is posing a
threat to the indigenous catfishes in
our rivers.
(iv) (iv) Co-extinctions: When a species
becomes extinct, the plant and animal
species associated with it in an
obligatory way also become extinct.
When a host fish species becomes
extinct, its unique assemblage of
parasites also meets the same fate.
Another example is the case of a
coevolved plant-pollinator mutualism
where extinction of one invariably
leads to the extinction of the other.
Why Should We Conserve
Biodiversity?
The narrowly utilitarian arguments for
conserving biodiversity are obvious; humans
derive countless direct economic benefits
from naturefood (cereals, pulses, fruits),
firewood, fibre, construction material,
industrial products (tannins, lubricants, dyes,
resins, perfumes ) and products of medicinal
importance. More than 25 per cent of the
drugs currently sold in the market worldwide
are derived from plants and 25,000 species of
plants contribute to the traditional medicines
used by native peoples around the world.
Nobody knows how many more medicinally
useful plants there are in tropical rain forests
waiting to be explored. With increasing
resources put into ‘bioprospecting’ (exploring
molecular, genetic and species-level diversity
for products of economic importance), nations
endowed with rich biodiversity can expect to
reap enormous benefits.
The broadly utilitarian argument says that
biodiversity plays a major role in many
ecosystem services that nature provides.
The fast265 2015-16BIOLOGY dwindling
Amazon forest is estimated to produce,
through photosynthesis, 20 per cent of the
total oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere.
Pollination (without which plants cannot give
us fruits or seeds) is another service,
ecosystems provide through pollinators layer
– bees, bumblebees, birds and bats. There are
other intangible benefits – that we derive from
nature–the aesthetic pleasures of walking
through thick woods, watching spring flowers
in full bloom or waking up to a bulbul’s song
in the morning.
The ethical argument for conserving
biodiversity relates to what we owe to millions
of plant, animal and microbe species with
whom we share this planet. Philosophically or
spiritually, we need to realise that every
species has an intrinsic value, even if it may
not be of current or any economic value to us.
 How do we conserve
Biodiversity?
In situ conservation- Invariably, the number of
species waiting to be saved from extinction
far exceeds the conservation resources
available. On a global basis, this problem has
been addressed by eminent conservationists.
They identified for maximum protection
certain ‘biodiversity hotspots’ regions with
very high levels of species richness and high
degree of endemism (that is, species confined
to that region and not found anywhere else).
Initially 25 biodiversity hotspots were
identified but subsequently nine more have
been added to the list, bringing the total
number of biodiversity hotspots in the world
to 34. These hotspots are also regions of
accelerated habitat loss. Three of these
hotspots – Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, Indo-
Burma and Himalaya – cover our country’s
exceptionally high biodiversity regions.
Although all the biodiversity hotspots put
together cover less than 2 percent of the
earth’s land area, the number of species they
collectively harbour is extremely high and
strict protection of these hotspots could
reduce the ongoing mass extinctions by
almost 30 per cent. 2015-16BIODIVERSITY
AND CONSERVATION In India, ecologically
unique and biodiversity-rich regions are
legally protected as biosphere reserves,
national parks and sanctuaries. India now has
14 biosphere reserves, 90 national parks and
448 wildlife sanctuaries. India has also a
history of religious and cultural traditions that
emphasised protection of nature. In many
cultures, tracts of forest were set aside, and
all the trees and wildlife within were
venerated and given total protection. Such
sacred groves are found in Khasi and Jaintia
Hills in Meghalaya, Aravalli Hills of Rajasthan,
Western Ghat regions of Karnataka and
Maharashtra and the Sarguja, Chanda and
Bastar areas of Madhya Pradesh. In
Meghalaya, the sacred groves are the last
refuges for a large number of rare and
threatened plants.
Ex situ Conservation– In this approach,
threatened animals and plants are taken out
from their natural habitat and placed in
special setting where they can be protected
and given special care. Zoological parks,
botanical gardens and wildlife safari parks
serve this purpose. There are many animals
that have become extinct in the wild but
continue to be maintained in zoological parks.
In recent years ex situ conservation has
advanced beyond keeping threatened species
in enclosures. Now gametes of threatened
species can be preserved in viable and fertile
condition for long periods using
cryopreservation techniques, eggs can be
fertilised in vitro, and plants can be
propagated using tissue culture methods.
Seeds of different genetic strains of
commercially important plants can be kept for
long periods in seed banks. Biodiversity
knows no political boundaries and its
conservation is therefore a collective
responsibility of all nations. The historic
Convention on Biological Diversity (‘The Earth
Summit’) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, called
upon all nations to take appropriate measures
for conservation of biodiversity and
sustainable utilisation of its benefits. In a
follow-up, the World Summit on Sustainable
Development held in 2002 in Johannesburg,
South Africa, 190 countries pledged their
commitment to achieve by 2010, a significant
reduction in the current rate of biodiversity
loss at global, regional and local levels.