Can I Get a Dose of Biodiversity, Please?
Healing the planet, our animal peers, and our human species with a single formula.
It sounds rather implausible that there would be a single cure to heal our natural environment, reverse the rate of extinction of animal species, improve human health, and dampen the on-going changes in our climate.
Perhaps there is one. More specifically, one that embraces a deeper acknowledgment of the relevance of life’s diversity in general. Biodiversity has become a buzzword. It refers, in broad strokes, to a wide-ranging biological variety of life. But the more intriguing question is: Why is it considered so important?
During uneasy times of a palpable changing climate and a deep-felt pandemic, it might be helpful to take a step back, get to the roots of these issues, and flesh out the meaningful interactions between biodiversity, climate, and global health.
Seeing the Wood for the Trees
Before we kick-off, a bit of terminology is in order. The richness of species points to the number of different species in a certain area, whereas species abundance designates the number of individuals per species. And evenness provides information about the relative distribution of species abundance in a community.
