Biodiversity Course Handout For the use of first-year Master's students (M1 Level)

Abstract

Biodiversity is essential for the processes that support all life on Earth, including humans. Without a wide range of animals, plants and microorganisms, we cannot have the healthy ecosystems that we rely on to provide us with the air we breathe and the food we eat. Biodiversity is one of the most precious and important things we have. We tend to think of it as something that’s just nice to look at, and enjoy spending time in, but it’s actually so much more. Without biodiversity, our entire support system for human, as well as animal life, would collapse. We rely on nature to provide us with food and clean water, for a lot of medicines, and to prevent flooding and other extreme weather effects. So much is provided by the natural ecosystems around us – they’re truly vital to life on earth. We think we can just trash one bit, or remove a species, and it’ll all be ok, but the different plants and animals are interconnected in vital ways that we don’t even always understand.