0.11 Biological  (Page 2/4)

Most importantly, the ecological importance of natural areas is worth preserving. Wilderness areas help maintain ecosystem diversity. They protect watersheds, help to improve air quality and provide a natural undisturbed laboratory for scientific study.

Genetic diversity

Whereas ecosystem diversity is a measure of variability among populations of species, genetic diversity refers to variability among individuals within a single species population. A gene represents the fundamental physical unit of heredity, and each individual in a species a different mix of genes. This genetic diversity -- or variation within species allows populations to adapt to changes in environmental conditions. Millions of years of adaptive change may be encoded in the genes of a species population, and it is those genes that provide the basis for future adaptations.

Loss of genetic diversity makes a species less able to reproduce successfully and less adaptable to a changing environment. Small populations of species are especially susceptible to loss of genetic diversity. When a species loses too many individuals, it becomes genetically uniform. Some of the causes for the loss in genetic diversity include: inbreeding among closely related individuals, and genetic drift in which the genes of a few individuals, eventually dominate in a population.

Genetic diversity is important to agriculture. Much of the world's agriculture is based on introduced or hybrid crop strains, as opposed to native or wild strains . The main purpose of using hybrid stains is to increase productivity. Unfortunately, this approved results in only a few hybrid crop strains being used for commercial agriculture. These hybrid crops lack the genetic diversity of the many wild strains, and the resistance of hybrids to pests and disease is generally much lower. Therefore, it is necessary to protect and conserve the wild strains as a genetic library, from which one can draw the genetic information necessary for producing improved and more resistant hybrid strains. A similar situation exists in livestock breeding, except that the loss of genetic diversity in livestock has even more severe consequences. Many livestock breeds are near extinction because of the policy of favoring a few specialized breeds. It is clear that human activity is primarily responsible for the genetic erosion of plant and animal populations.

Food resources

The three major sources of food for humans are: croplands, rangelands and fisheries. Croplands provide the bulk of human food. Even though there are thousands of edible plants in the world, only four staple crops (wheat, rice, corn and potatoes) account for most of the caloric intake of humans. Some animals raised for meat, milk and eggs (e.g. cattle, pigs, poultry) are also fed grain from croplands. Rangelands provide another source of meat and milk from grazing animals (e.g. cattle, sheep, goats). Fisheries provide fish, which are a major source of animal protein in the world, especially in Asia and coastal areas. For mainly economic reasons, the diets of most people in the world consist of staple grains. As people become more affluent, they tend to consume more meat, eggs, milk and cheese.