Biodiversity Final

Biodiversity hotspots
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21st August 2015.
Introduction
26) Discuss what we mean by biodiversity hotspots
Biodiversity hotspots are the geographical areas that offer support to the natural ecosystems, that are largely intact and where communities and native species associated with these ecosystems coexist. The specific type of habitat may restrict the specific areas that are compared to describe the biodiversity hotspots. These ecosystems include the marine, global, European marine, and estuarine biodiversity hotspots (Marcos et al., 2012). Biodiversity hotspots are areas that are said to be rich in endemic plants that contain a wide variety and diversity of species.
Additionally, the hotspot refers to the twenty-five biologically productive areas found around the global that have not less than seventy percent of their original habitat. (John et al., 2007). How do hotspots develop Hotspot development involves identifying the regions within the world where there is an urgent need to address biodiversity loss to guide investments in conservation. Besides, the new biodiversity hotspots are periodically added depending on the scientific assessments of the new regions in the ecosystem. The most common method of conservation of the biodiversity involves the use of the protected areas. The protected areas are considered to be safer for reducing or preventing the effects of many adverse factors that affects species living within the protected area. These factors include pollution, climate change, and, overexploitation of natural resources (Norman et al., 2015). For a region to qualify as a hotspot area, it must meet the criteria of containing at least one thousand five hundred species of vascular plants. It must also have lost at least seventy percent of its original habitat. Therefore, the factors that determine the biodiversity hotspots are the number of total species (Zacha & Habel 2012). Why biodiversity hotspots are important They represent rigorous assessments that help in the prevention of further biodiversity loss within the protected areas. It also includes areas that are of high biodiversity importance, including urban areas and degraded land, that the hotspots help in assessing. Hotspots assist in increasing the productivity, stability, and, resistance to the invasion as well as other ecological disturbances or imbalances. Therefore, it results to enriching the diversity of living organisms and plants. Besides, the hotspots help significantly in the occurrences of either man-made or natural disasters, as they serve as reference points. Thus, they serve as the reservoir for repopulating the areas that have been disturbed (Jason & Bennes 2009).
27) Define and discuss concept of sustainable development
Sustainable development of biodiversity hotspots The concept of sustainable development basically focuses around the present and the future. It addresses the provision of all the necessities and requirements for better life as per the current generation, but without harming the need for the same, by future generations. Sustainable development invo...