Lately, we have been maintaining a Facebook page that is dedicated in posting plankton information and micrographs. This aims to let the field of planktology be known in the Philippines. Hopefully we will be able to maintain in curating the content and build connections among people who work on plankton ecology and systematics in the country.
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Photo Source: https://i.pinimg.com/originals Climate change and human activities are causing rapid change to Earth’s flora and fauna. At this era, humans are witnessing massive changes in the world’s ecosystems leading to habitat destruction and eventual losses of species. Unfortunately, we do not know in detail the consequences of these massive alterations to the ecosystem as a whole. Our knowledge is weak in terms of how are the many services that ecosystems provide to humans are being affected by the modifications in ecosystem structure? Specifically, do the changes in species number and composition matter with respect to how ecosystems operate and provide services? Biodiversity refers to the variation of life on Earth. It measures the species number of animals, plants, and even the smallest microorganisms in all places on Earth. Biodiversity is considered as a key player in maintaining the overall well-being of the planet. Recently, humans have started to recognized the value of biodiversity conservation and exerted more efforts in preventing continuous species extinction that affects ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are the overall benefits that human gets from the ecosystem. Human society needs ecosystems to provide multiple provisioning and regulating services. The ecosystem is the primary source of natural resources like nutrient and water that are essential to maintain the population size of organisms. The ecosystem also provides stable shelter to avoid the invasion of harmful species like parasites and pests. Overall, the total global ecosystem services are estimated to cost around 195 billion US dollars. These benefits from the ecosystem are highly dependent on ecosystem function, which is the ability of the ecosystems to maintain its processes like nutrient cycling, energy flow in the food web, and resisting pest invasion. Recently, biodiversity loss was found to greatly impact how the ecosystem operates and cater services to humans. Many researchers have started studying the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function to determine the mechanism of how biodiversity affects the ecosystem services. With this question, scientists found out how exactly is biodiversity so important to humanity. Research on the role of biodiversity in the ecosystem started as early as 1958 when Charles Elton, an English scientist proposed that greater diversity can result in having a more stable and productive ecosystem. This idea was welcomed by the scientific community during his time but was set aside since most scientists were focused on studying the causes of greater biodiversity instead of knowing its consequences. Moreover, this idea was questioned by famous mathematicians due to lack of mathematical explanations on the relationship of biodiversity and how an ecosystem operates. The topic of biodiversity and ecosystem function relationship has been neglected for years until people eventually observed series of extinctions on different species caused by human activities, habitat destruction, and climate change. With this, the idea that biodiversity can affect and regulate ecosystem processes was only revisited in 1993 when a specific scientific meeting focusing on determining the consequences of biodiversity loss to the ecosystem was held in Germany. This meeting allowed the congregation of different scientists around the globe who are working on biodiversity and environmental degradation. During this time, most of them agreed on the critical importance of biodiversity in the ecosystem. Specifically, they concluded that biodiversity may serve as a primary driving factor in regulating productivity, nutrient utilization, and stability of the environment. Over the last decades, several studies have pointed out that highly diverse communities are approximately twice as productive as those areas that are consists of single species of organism. Immediately one year after the meeting in Germany, a long term study on grassland community by Professor George David Tilman from the University of Minnesota (USA) was published and showed that higher biodiversity allows the grass community to have higher productivity leading to an increase in plant biomass and vegetation cover. His study has established the diversity-productivity theory stating that higher diversity can result in higher ecosystem productivity. Relating to crop production, it means that planting several species of crop plants in a farm will tend to produce higher yield compared to those farmlands having single crop plant species. And in terms of fisheries, ecosystems with more complex species composition tend to produce more fish for human consumption. Moreover, Prof. Tilman observed that more diverse grass community tend to produce a more stable amount of grasses throughout the year compared to areas having single species. This led him to conclude that biodiversity is also important in the stability of the ecosystem. Going back to crop production and fisheries, this means that biodiversity can be important in maintaining stable yield of crop plants or fishes all throughout the year that is good to allow a constant supply of food for animal and human consumption. Lastly, the studies have also shown that more diverse areas tend to have a higher resistance to the invasion of pests or parasites. This means that the community of grasses with a higher number of species tend to grow healthier and more resistant to pest infestation. This can also be true to farmlands and open ocean with higher biodiversity, where cultivated crops can be more resistant to the effect of parasites or the fish populations in the ocean can be more healthy and parasite free. This is important as it can avoid production loss of farmers due to pest infestations. This could also mean that biodiversity is playing an important role in inhibiting introduction and spreading of new diseases in humans brought by common pests, parasites, or any invasive species. After the introduction of the biodiversity and ecosystem function relationship concept, several other papers on the importance of biodiversity were published. The development of the mechanistic understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem function relationship is mainly based on a series of studies that collect data from laboratory and natural ecosystems. In agriculture, data have shown that the increase in diversity of native pollinators such as bees can result to 20% greater yield in pumpkin, coffee, and watermelon production that can be translated into an increase of 60, 000 US dollars in farmer’s income. Moreover, a paper released by Prof. Bradley Cardinale from the University of Michigan (USA) showed that increase in biodiversity of microalgae floating in the water can help improve the water quality of water bodies through partitioning in nutrient utilization. This finding is particularly important in the management of freshwater reservoirs or other water sources that provide a domestic and industrial water source for major cities in the world. Most importantly, forests with higher diversity of trees have a better capability of sequestering atmospheric carbon emissions. A lot of published articles have shown that biodiversity can increase carbon fixation of the ecosystem, thus increasing plant production. This function of biodiversity is very important in inhibiting the effect of climate change by preventing over accumulation of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide that contribute to further increase in Earth’s surface temperature. The observed patterns in the importance of biodiversity in the ecosystem were found to be very common in different terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Researchers also pointed out that its effect on ecosystem function and services is almost the same as other environmental factors and natural disturbances that are well-known to destabilize the ecosystem. Overall, the role of biodiversity in ecosystem function and services is as important as rivet on an airplane. It makes sure that the entire system is in the right direction and sustaining its processes to maintain flight, otherwise, a catastrophic failure might occur. To summarize, current knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem function relationship shows that biodiversity effects on ecosystems can be larger than previously thought. This pattern is also expected to be frequent in different terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Future direction in this topic is now focusing on the mechanism on how biodiversity regulates ecosystem processes and eventually affect ecosystem catered services. At the same time, scientists would like to know the extent of biodiversity effects in specific ecosystems like coral reefs, groundwater, and lakes, which provides important ecological benefits to humans. The critical role of biodiversity in the ecosystem can implicate environmental policymaking. The series of data proving the tight relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function strengthens the need for environmental protection of different species. Biodiversity is necessary to maintain productivity and stability of the ecosystem, thus placing it with high instrumental value for humans. More effort must be exerted on the growing concern over the loss of biodiversity induced by environmental deterioration and habitat destruction. This idea motivates the need for more stringent environmental policies that promote the conservation and restoration of biodiversity in different ecosystems on the planet. References Cardinale B.J., Duffy J.E., Gonzalez A., Hooper D.U., Perrings C. 2012. Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity. Nature, 486:59–67. Loreau M. 1998. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: a mechanistic model. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 95:5632–36. Schulze E.D., Mooney H.A. eds. 1993. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Tilman D. 1996. Biodiversity: population versus ecosystem stability. Ecology, 77:350–63. Tilman D., Isbell F., and Cowles J.M. 2014. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst, 45:471–93. Zooplankton are planktonic organisms that belong to Copepoda and Cladocera. They are widely distributed in almost any form of freshwater ecosystem.
Fei Tsui Reservoir is an arch dam in Shiding District, New Taipei, Taiwan. The name of the dam and reservoir translates as "emerald lake" due to its pristine water quality. The area is managed by the Taipei Feicui Reservoir Administration.
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