What’s in a word - Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth. A world rich in wildlife is a beautiful place – colourful, engaging, even mesmerising.
Biodiversity, however, is increasingly being altered by man with habitat loss being the main cause. While the threat of a warming world is now clearly felt the biodiversity crisis is much less tangible. We see fewer windscreen splats in summer and hedgehogs are now a rarity but the consequence of this is less obvious.
All lifeforms are inter-connected and depend on each other in a particular habitat; as an example flowering plants need insects for pollination and insects in turn need the nectar-rich food source. Due to habitat loss, UK moths species have declined by 86% between 1970 and 2019 – hence fewer windscreen splats. Other insects have also declined in number, impacting on birds and hedgehogs where insects are a large part of their diet.
Biodiversity stripes developed by Professor Richardson of the Nature Connectedness Research Group vividly depicts biodiversity loss. Here we see the number of UK farmland bird species declining between 1970 and 2019. Our world is turning from green to yellow to grey with a 55% decline in their numbers over time.
Created by biodiversitystripes.info (LPI 2022. Living Planet Index database. 2022 - www.livingplanetindex.org).
Biodiversity provides the resilience to adapt to a warming, increasingly more volatile world. Rising global temperatures has altered bird breeding and migration behaviour. Researchers have found that although birds can respond to climatic shifts, they are not doing so quickly enough.
A large pool of different species in a particular habitat provides a greater chance some will be able to adapt, allowing other wildlife in the ecosystem to adapt alongside. However, species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. Many of our current drugs and potential futures ones are plant derived.
Connecting with nature has been shown to reduce anxiety and improve mental health. A nature depleted world would be a grey place indeed. Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen.
We can all make a difference. Here are 5 things you can do today to fight biodiversity loss:
1. Create your own biodiversity hotspot. Plant a diverse range of nectar-rich plants in your garden and encourage neighbours to do the same.
2. Avoid use of insecticides – inadvertently you are killing predators of the pests you don’t want. Instead let nature bring things back in balance.
3. Supporting Herefordshire Wildlife Trust help us create a Wilder Herefordshire.
4. Lobby political organisations to take action for nature, join our #DefendNature campaign.
5. Tread lightly by buying fewer products, reducing waste and recycling as much as you can. Fewer habitats will be destroyed to meet our over-consuming society.