Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology

Master's
Language: EnglishStudies in English
Subject area: engineering and engineering trades
Qualification: MSc
Kind of studies: full-time studies, part-time studies
Master of Science (MSc)
University website: www.hw.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.
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products, or "any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use" (UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Art. 2). Depending on the tools and applications, it often overlaps with the (related) fields of bioengineering, biomedical engineering, biomanufacturing, molecular engineering, etc.
Marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is defined as 'the variability among living organisms from all sources, including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and water aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.
Definition as per the United Nations Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, in 1992, quoted in "Intro To Env Engg (Sie), 4E Davis", p. 40
Biodiversity
Biodiversity, the variety of life, is distributed heterogeneously across the Earth. Some areas teem with biological variation (for example, some moist tropical forests and coral reefs), others are virtually devoid of life (for example, some deserts and polar regions), and most fall somewhere in between. Determining why these differences occur has long been a core objective for ecologists and biogeographers. It constitutes a continuing, an important, and to many an enthralling, challenge.
Kevin J. Gaston in: Global patterns in biodiversity Nature, International Weekly Journal of Science
Biodiversity
In Georgia, UNDP continues to support the development of democratic institutions. Georgia is part of the global biodiversity hotspot of the Caucasus Ecoregion, with a network of Protected Areas covering seven per cent of the country.
Helen Clark in:"Helen Clark: UNDP's Pragmatic Visionary"
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