Overview of Biodiversity

In September of 1986 the term "BioDiversity" became a household word and by 1992 it was the key topic of the Rio Environmental Summit meeting. What is biodiversity? E.O. Wilson defined it in a paper entitled BioDiversity II as "all hereditarily based variation at all levels of organization, from the genes within a single local population or species, to the species composing all or part of a local community, and finally to the communities themselves that compose the living parts of the multifarious ecosystems of the world."

Changing the biodiversity of ecosystems has and will continue to affect the entire global environment. It is believed that these changes, such as, an increase in the greenhouse gases, run off of agricultural and urban systems into the Earth’s river basins, deforestation, developing the wetlands, plus more has begun the next major extinction event in the history of the Earth. After studying the rate of tropical deforestation Biologists found an aerial loss of habitat where most species lived. Loss of habitat means loss of species. Through this investigation Biologists were able to bring about awareness to many ecosystems whose biodiversity was suffering. We feel it is important to bring about as much awareness as possible to this issue and what better place to start than with the future leaders of the world.

Using field guides and acquired knowledge we were soon able to identify the differences among species in growth form, branching patterns, and bark and leaf morphology. After becoming comfortable with the classification of tree species we conducted a biodiversity survey along the Delaware and Raritan Canal Park. Using the data collected we constructed a ‘Species-Area-Curve’ and analyzed how the number of new species encountered changes as a function of the total area surveyed.

Much of our information came from "The Amateur Scientist," written by Henry Horn, Princeton University, published in the Scientific American Journal, January, 1993.