Importance of plant diversity pdf

The convention on biological diversity plant conservation. Nearly, 4900 species of angiosperms are endemic to india. Pdf an overview of plant biodiversity is provided in this chapter. Species richness an index based on the number of species i. The sum of total of various types of microbes, plants and animals producers, consumers and decomposers in a system. Such a mutual adaptation and interdependence between a plant and pollinator is a result of a long and intimate coevolutionary relationship. Importance, associated diversity, and estimates 272 relationships, and diversity of bacterial genes is based not only on the taxonomic. A single species might show high diversity at the genetic level over its distributional range. The importance of plant diversity biodiversity conservation biology. The importance of species diversity to the ecosystem sciencing.

Soil samples were collected in nine sampling plots 5 m by 25 m in order to identify p, k, ca, mg, fe, zn, mn, cu, and al and total n contents, soil fertility index, cec, ph, and cn ratio. May 03, 2012 they highlight the importance of managing for diversity in prairies, forests and crops, according to peter reich, lead author of the paper and a forest ecologist at the university of minnesota. As biodiversity is an association of all living parts of. I n the past 20years remarkable progress has been made towards understanding how the loss of biodiversity affects the functioning. Diversity of plants and their role in nature hilaris. The global strategy rightly considered the vast importance of plant species in biodiversity not only the vascular plants that are easy to see and recognise, but also. According to this hypothesis the significance of plant diversity in relation to deterioration of ecosystem functions may arise primarily from its. According to the encyclopedia of earth, species diversity is a measurement of an ecosystems species richness and species evenness. Show full abstract success in plant breeding are bounded by the range of the genetic base, as measured by genetic diversity. All species, including humans, are adversely affected by the loss of species diversity. Plant biodiversity was determined by calculating species richness, shannonwiener species diversity, simpsons species diversity, structural richness, and structural diversity sw. The importance of plant diversity free download as word doc. Biodiversity and conservation although india h as only 2.

The magnitude of the response to diversity depended on the extent of interspecific differences. It is estimated that there are around 400,000 plant species in the world, and at least 25% are now threatened with extinction. Biodiversity and conservation combined diversity at all the levels of biological organisation. To determine this, let the species composition of a community be a random draw from a species pool. Hotspots of biodiversity and their details have also been given. It is important to determine these relationships for understanding ecosystem processes. The genetic variation shown by the medicinal plant rauwolfia vomitoria growing in.

Aug 22, 2018 managing diversity in organizations is one of the defining issues of our time. Genetic diversity and conservation and utilization of plant. Species richness variety of species or the number of different species or genera, families, etc. The brazil nut tree grows wild in the amazon forest. Biodiversity is the amount of variety of life on earth. Biodiversity also includes variations in the geographical communities. The field work was carried out within two years from january 2005 to december 2007.

Plant diversity formerly plant diversity and resources is an international plant science journal that publishes substantial original research and. An overview of plant biodiversity is provided in this chapter. The diversity in plant life can be understood from the following headings. As you can see above, the plots include a grid of squares 34 acre in size, each planted with one of three seed mixtures. Importance of genetic diversity assessment in crop plants.

Details of genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity are given. Our results suggest that plant genetic diversity has significant effects on the diversity of. Also, the consequences loss of time and money should not be overlooked. If an ecosystem has poor species diversity, it may not function properly or efficiently. Stephen butler, cochair of the businesshigher education forum, believes diversity is an invaluable competitive asset robinson 2002. Genetic diversity and conservation and utilization of. Compared to water, land is an erratic habitat where temperature and moisture availability may change abruptly and dramatically.

Each species is like a thread holding together an ecosystem. The importance of plant genetic diversity pgd is now being recognized as a specific area since exploding population with urbanization and decreasing cultivable lands are the critical factors contributing to food insecurity in developing world. Also, while earlier metaanalyses on plant diversity effects. The extent and distribution of genetic diversity in a plant species depends on its evolution and breeding system, ecological and geographical. It is the number of different species of plants, animals, and microorganisms. Understanding the value of plant diversity for ecosystem functioning. Nearly 45,000 species of plants and twice as many of animals have been recorded from india.

Species diversity is defined as the number of species and abundance of each species that live in a particular location. The present paper emphasises on plant diversity, and. Genebank standards for plant genetic resources for food. Difficult to define because definition consists of two distinct components. The unique importance of plants as essential renewable natural resources and as the basis for most terrestrial ecosystems demanded that such a strategy was required to help halt the loss of plant diversity and raise new awareness of the threats faced by plants.

Genetic diversity in plants presents chapters revealing the magnitude of genetic variation existing in plant populations. In the past few centuries the changes in society and the increasing pace of development mean that the scale of human impact has grown catastrophically. A diverse species assemblage also contributes to ecosystem diversity. The importance of complementary resource use among plants with different resourceacquisition strategies for promoting plant diversity has conventionally been linked with partitioning of soil resources such as nutrients and water 26, 27, yet local competition for soil resources cannot explain the high plant diversity found in these nutrient. Finally, genetic resources can refer to genes themselves, maintained in selected individuals or cloned and maintained in plasmids. That is what makes our country one of the 12 mega diversity countries of the world. Classification and plant diversity lecture outline the five kingdoms prokaryotes vs.

The relative importance of plant intraspecific diversity. They highlight the importance of managing for diversity in prairies, forests and crops, according to peter reich, lead author of the paper and a forest ecologist at the university of minnesota. Managing diversity in organizations is one of the defining issues of our time. Plant diversity is key to maintaining productive vegetation.

Managing diversity is a key component of effective people management in the workplace black enterprise 2001. The number of trained people working with appropriate facilities in plant conservation increased. First, will experimental results translate into the real world, where species are being lost at an alarming rate. Apr 28, 2015 several years ago, we created some research plots to help us learn more about how plant diversity interacts with ecosystem function. Agricultural scientists realized that pgd can be captured and stored in the form of plant genetic. Improvement of plant diversity and methods for its evaluation in. Challenges of diversity in the workplace there are challenges to managing a diverse work population. Previous studies have demonstrated that plant diversity not only plays an important role in maintaining ecosystem functions but can also mediate the impact of climate change on ecosystem functions.

The variety of life on earth, its biological diversity is commonly referred to as biodiversity. The importance of plant diversity and the need for its conservation incorporated into communication, educational and publicawareness programmes 38 target 15. Plant diversity in two horticultural farms under organic and. Biodiversity provides variety of food for the planet. The genebank standards for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, prepared under the guidance of the fao commission on genetic resources for food and agriculture, and endorsed at its fourteenth regular session in 20, lay down the procedures that need to be followed for conservation of plant genetic resources. The importance of species diversity to the ecosystem. The relative importance of plant intraspecific diversity in. Mar 04, 1997 the effect of diversity on total plant biomass depends on how diversity influences, on average, the r value of the best competitor present in a community. An important decrease in plant species richness of agroecosystems. Plant diversity of forests jan mergani 1,2, katarina mergani ova 1,2, robert maru ak 1 and vendula audolenska 1 1czech university of life sciences in prague, faculty of forestry, wildlife and wood sciences, department of forest management, praha 2forest research, inventory and monitoring forim, elezna breznica 1czech republic 2slovakia. A visual illustration of plant diversitys importance. Most institutions try to promote the creation of a diverse, creative workforce, but. Chronosequence studies of natural forest stands indicate that, following canopy closure, vascular plant species diversity. Can we generalize about the relative importance of dominants, subordinates and transients as determinants of.

However, the relative importance of multiple aspects of diversity at different scales remains unclear. Importance of genetic diversity assessment in crop plants and. Here we report that three different ecological models predict that ecosystem productivity, standing crop, and resource use depend on species diversity, much as has been experimentally. Relationships between soil characteristics, topography and. Genetic diversity is of fundamental importance in the continuity of a species as it provides the necessary adaptation to the prevailing biotic and abiotic environmental conditions, and enables change in the genetic composition to cope with changes in the environment. Humans and most other animals are almost totally dependent on plants, directly or indirectly, as a source of energy through their ability to convert the suns energy through photosynthesis. Threats to biodiversity and methods of conservation are described. Variations in the community in which the species lives, the.

Plant diversity page pd1 diversity in the plant kingdom i. About plant conservation botanic gardens conservation. Last week, i took some photos that powerfully demonstrate the importance of plant diversity. It is generally recognized that plant genetic diversity changes in time and space. The pollinating bees of the brazil nut tree bertholletia excelsa is an illustrative example of such a relationship and its economic importance. Plant diversity in the horticultural world how many plant species in the world. Humans derive almost 80% of food supply from 20 kinds of the plants. These plants include bushes, grasses, herbs, shrubs, trees, vines, ferns, and mosses. Relationships between plant biodiversity and soil fertility. It includes organisms from earths vastly different ecosystems, including deserts, rainforests, coral reefs, grasslands, tundra, and polar ice caps. Thus biodiversity is the total variety of life on our planet, the total number of races, varieties and species. The most important of them are i genetic diversity. Introduction all modern terrestrial plants are the descendants of algae that adapted to a terrestrial habitat roughly 500 million years ago. Several years ago, we created some research plots to help us learn more about how plant diversity interacts with ecosystem function.

Many studies have carried out during the last few years mainly concentrated on factors that influence plant diversity in grassland or shrubland. As you can see above, the plots include a grid of squares 34 acre in size, each planted with one of. Genetic resources are the substance of agriculture and food production, major economic. Agricultural scientists realized that pgd can be captured and stored in the form of plant genetic resources pgr such as gene bank, dna library, and. Importance of biodiversity, challenges and strategies to. The importance of temporal climate variability for spatial patterns in plant diversity andrew d. Patterns of biodiversity affect soil properties at different scales, conversely, soil characteristics and landscape features influence biodiversity. The number of species that live in a certain location is called species. However, a generalization can be attempted and this is summarized in fig. Recent studies have shown that several community and ecosystem processes are correlated with species diversity 112, but why this should occur remains mathematically largely unexplained.

Pdf the importance of plant diversity in maintaining the. Associate professor, kamala nehru college, university of delhi. Plant diversity challenge secretariat of the convention on. The importance of plant diversity in maintaining the pollinator bee, eulaema nigrita hymenoptera. Genetic variation is needed to address many problems in plant. In india there are about 45,000 plant species are known that represent about 7% of the worlds flora. Plant biodiversity, vital to ecosystems, food crops, and medicine production. Many ecological factors and plant traits deserve consideration as potential determinants of dominancediversity profiles, and it is clear that controlling effects vary in detail from site to site. Plantsoil feedback and the maintenance of diversity in. A visual illustration of plant diversitys importance the. Letten australian wetlands, rivers and landscapes centre, school of biological, earth and environmental sciences, univ. If a species disappears, an entire ecosystem can start to unravel. With reduced diversity in the gene pool, the chance for extinction increases.

We aimed to study relationships between plant biodiversity and soil chemical fertility in a mature tropical forest of costa rica. The diversity of plant life is an essential underpinning of most of our terrestrial ecosystems. Includes all the species, microbes, viruses, bacteria to animals and plants 3. This diversity of living creatures forms a support system which has been used by each civilization for its growth and development. Plants are also marked as a key segment with wide range of significance in formation of global biodiversity. If no species is present, the equilibrial resource concentration i. These biodiversity indices were chosen because they were the most appropriate for the sampling techniques we used in this study. Benefits, challenges, and the required managerial tools 2 advantages. Compared to water, land is an erratic habitat where temperature and moisture availability may change abruptly and. Managing diversity is more than simply acknowledging differences in people. About thousands of plant crop species have been identified, developed, used and relied on for the purpose of food and agricultural production in human history. The diversity of plants on the planet earth is an important resource for food, shelter, and agriculture. Support a larger number of plant species and, therefore, a greater variety of crops.

But keep in mind the overarching trend in plant diversity a shift from gametophyte dominant plants in the byrophytes, to an evolutionary intermediary step where the sporophyte dominant generation is dominant and the gameophyte generation is independent, to seeds plants where the gametophyte generation is so reduced that it is dependent upon. Environmentalists might define biodiversity as the total of all plant and animal life of the planet, and the planet itself the air, water and land that supports animal and plant life. Within this diversity there is a hierarchy of organization and the term genetic resource has meaning at each. The importance of temporal climate variability for spatial. Plant diversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate.