Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Biodiversity, Wildlife and Ecosystem Health

Master's
Language: EnglishStudies in English
Subject area: biology
Qualification: MSc
Studies online Studies online
Master of Science (MSc)
University website: www.ed.ac.uk
Biodiversity
Biodiversity, a portmanteau of biological (life) and diversity, generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), biodiversity typically measures variation at the genetic, the species, and the ecosystem level. Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics. These tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 percent of earth's surface, and contain about 90 percent of the world's species. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest, and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, but will be likely to slow in the future.
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a community made up of living organisms and nonliving components such as air, water, and mineral soil. Ecosystems may be studied either as contingent collections of plants and animals, or as structured systems and communities that are governed by general rules. The biotic and abiotic components interact through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Ecosystems include a network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment. Ecosystems can be of any size but one ecosystem has a specific, limited space. Some scientists view the entire planet as one ecosystem.
Health
Health is the ability of a biological system to acquire, convert, allocate, distribute, and utilize energy with maximum efficiency. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined human health in a broader sense in its 1948 constitution as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." This definition has been subject to controversy, in particular as lacking operational value, the ambiguity in developing cohesive health strategies and because of the problem created by use of the word "complete", which makes it practically impossible to achieve. Other definitions have been proposed, among which a recent definition that correlates health and personal satisfaction.
Wildlife
Wildlife traditionally refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all plants, fungi, and other organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans.
Health
Healthy does not mean "healthful." Healthy is a condition, healthful is a property. Vegetables aren't healthy, they're dead. No food is healthy. Unless you have an eggplant that's doing push-ups. Push-ups are healthful.
George Carlin, Brain Droppings (1998), p. 120
Health
You must all advance by taking good care of your health. Only by taking good care of your health, you can gain success. The fact is that if your health is not good, how can you do your service? Taking care of your health is as important as any of the other duties of your life. It is your duty towards your body. If your body does not work, how will you function and advance?
Haidakhan Babaji, The Teachings of Babaji, 9 January 1984.
Ecosystem
If we recognise that every ecosystem can also be viewed as a food web, we can think of it as a circular, interlacing nexus of plant animal relationships (rather than a stratified pyramid with man at the apex)... Each species, be it a form of bacteria or deer, is knitted together in a network of interdependence, however indirect the links may be.
Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom (1982).
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