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species diversity & species extinction
The variety of species is the best known part of biodiversity
Species diversity is the sum of the different animals, plants and fungal species, as well as microorganisms, that occur within a specific ecosystem or a geographically limited habitat.
The variety of species is one of the most important criteria for intact biodiversity.
There are around 1.9 million known species (most of which are insects). However, scientifically based estimates assume a biodiversity of between 8-10 million species.
Due to the overexploitation of both, agricultural soils and planetary resources, which has been going on for several decades, mankind is currently causing the 6th mass extinction.
Never before in the history of the earth has species diversity declined as quickly as it is today.
The current rate of extinction of animal and plant species is several hundred times higher than that of the past 10 million years.
The biggest cause of species extinction is intensive agriculture.
Approximately 50 species are currently dying out every day and it is expected that within the next two decades around 1 million animal and plant species will have disappeared from planet earth forever.
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The biomass of insects in Germany has declined by 82% since 1990.
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Since 1970 there has also been a decline of up to 95% in farmland bird populations in Europe's agricultural and grasslands.
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The species-rich stocks of plant species in Central European agricultural land have also fallen by 70% over the same period.
And as already mentioned, it is not only the number of species, but also the reduction in the number of species per species that leads to genetic impoverishment and thus to the creeping mass exodus!
Species extinction is irreversible.
While humans can modify genetic codes, they cannot create the genome of new animal or plant species.
"The situation can be compared to traveling in an airplane. The wings are held together by several thousand rivets. If a few rivets break out, it doesn't have any major impact. It does rattle a bit, but there are plenty of other rivets that hold the wings together. At some point, however, we lose one too many rivets and a wing detaches from the plane. A crash becomes unavoidable and the fatal crash occurs.
We humans must finally recognize that we are inextricably linked to nature and that our own existence also depends on the preservation of biodiversity."
(Dr.Frauke Fischer, biologist and biodiversity expert - University of Würzburg)