What Is Biodiversity?

To view the 2008 report Taking Nature's Pulse: The Status of Biodiversity in British Columbia, go to www.biodiversitybc.org

Biodiversity refers to the number, variety and variability of all living things. Biodiversity is the variety of life in an area, which can range from life in a pool of water that collects between the leaves of a plant to the all-encompassing biosphere.

There are many levels of organization that identify biodiversity. These include the genetic diversity of populations, the number and types of species, the distribution and abundance of species communities and ecosystems, and the interactions between organisms with their physical environment.

British Columbia is the most biologically diverse province in Canada. Because of the diversity of ecosystems in the province, a large number of the total number of species in Canada is found here. BC is home to more than 60 per cent of Canada's birds, vascular plants, mammals and insects. In fact, the Vancouver Island Marmot is found nowhere else in the world. There are at least eight insect species that are found only in the South Okanagan. And the entire world population of the shorebird, Western Sandpiper, and north pacific population of the Humpback Whale migrate along the British Columbia coast.

Rare & Endangered Species
Many of the species in British Columbia are at risk of extinction. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has identified over 100 species in British Columbia that are at risk. In addition to the species that are nationally at risk, the Provincial Government, through the BC Conservation Data Centre (CDC), identifies species at the risk of extirpation, or extinction, from the province. The CDC currently has identified 597 Red-listed species and 835 Blue-listed species in B.C. Red-listed species are either extirpated, endangered, or threatened and are considered to be the most at risk. Blue-listed species are considered to be vulnerable to human activities and natural disturbance, and are monitored to evaluate whether their populations are declining. The species at risk lists identify species that are in need of protection. However, BC has no endangered species legislation and currently federal laws only protect migratory birds in Canada. There are potentially many more species at risk that have not been included on the current lists because of a lack of ecological data.

Maintaining Biodiversity
Most of the Red- and Blue-listed species in British Columbia occur in the Southern Interior and Georgia Basin. These areas have high human population densities, which is a contributing factor to species endangerment. Other areas with lower human population densities that are not as species rich are still extremely important for maintaining BC's biodiversity. Large, contiguous ecosystems, such as grassland, forest or wetlands, provide habitat that can maintain viable populations of commonly occurring species and prevent them from becoming endangered or threatened. The potential loss of wide ranging, common species, like the Downy Woodpecker, which excavates cavities that are used by secondary nesters such as owls and squirrels, could dramatically alter ecological processes and species relationships throughout British Columbia.

Why Is Biodiversity Important?

Diversity in all living things enriches our lives, but more importantly, biodiversity is essential to life on earth. Biodiversity not only maintains a functional environment; it is a resource for food, shelter, clothing and other materials. The economy relies on biodiversity since it provides renewable economic resources and ecosystem services, medical and scientific benefits, and is priceless in term of cultural and aesthetic values.

Economic Values
In British Columbia, resources such as timber, minerals, water, fish and game animals, and agricultural products are integral to our economy. Biodiversity invigorates our tourism industry and allows us to host a vast array of adventure, ecotourism and wilderness experiences. The economic value of biodiversity in the form of natural resources is easy to measure, since its biomass is directly used in commerce. However, the value of biodiversity associated with maintaining these natural resources is much more difficult to assess.

Biodiversity provides a variety of ecosystem services, which are critical to human survival and the economy. Different organisms are responsible for controlling invasive or pest species, maintaining soil fertility, pollinating and thereby maintaining diverse vegetation, purifying air and water, detoxifying and decomposing wastes, and regulating climate. These ecosystem services are complex natural processes that are interrelated in ways that are not completely understood. Therefore, the impact of losing any one of these processes on our economy is unknown.

Medical & Scientific Benefits
Medicine relies on biodiversity since most pharmaceutical drugs are derived either directly or indirectly from wild species, mainly plants. However, only about 2 per cent of the flowering plants in the world have been studied for their potential pharmacological properties. New discoveries, often in unexpected areas, are ongoing. For example, taxol, an anti-cancer drug, was discovered in the bark of Pacific Yew trees in BC’s old-growth forests. The Yew was previously regarded as a non-commercial tree that was discarded during forest harvesting. The medicinal properties of biodiversity are important for human health as well as scientific research and the economy.

Public Values & Ideals
The most difficult value of biodiversity to measure is its aesthetic beauty and cultural heritage. Individuals and groups use their own measuring stick to assess these values. Some idealize it, and some define themselves in part by it. In 1937, British Columbia artist Emily Carr wrote in her journal "It is wonderful to feel the grandness of Canada in the raw, not because she is Canada but because she's something sublime that you were born into, some great rugged power that you are a part of."

Unfortunately, benefits from economic goods, ecosystem services and societal values are in jeopardy because biodiversity is declining. Although, species extinction is a natural process, human consumption of natural resources has accelerated the rate of extinction of species to more than 100 times greater than known background rates. This loss is an early warning of a rapidly deteriorating environment. The documented extinction and endangerment of species, loss or degradation of habitat, depletion of natural resources and associated economic impacts lead to a loss of cultural heritage. The rate of biodiversity loss must be decreased if we are to retain the magnificence of a rich biota, and sustain the natural resources that maintain our growing human population.

Threats to Biodiversity

Habitat Fragmentation
Habitat loss from exploitation of resources, agricultural conversion, and urbanization is the largest factor contributing to the loss of biodiversity. The consequent fragmentation of habitat results in small isolated patches of land that cannot maintain populations of species into the future. Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, at 974,046 hectares, is British Columbia's largest provincial park and is big enough to maintain much of the composition, structure and function of biodiversity within the protected area. However, smaller provincial parks, such as Buccaneer Bay at less than one hectare in size, will not be able to maintain all of its original biodiversity in isolation. Scientists report that the effect of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity may not be fully realized for decades after habitat is degraded. Therefore, habitat connectivity must be considered in current management practices to prevent the devastating effects of fragmentation on biodiversity.

Exotic Species Introductions
Infestation by alien species, such as the Codling Moth, is also a major threat to BC ecosystems. The intentional and inadvertent introductions of a wide variety of species to ecosystems in which they do not belong have resulted in ecosystems that differ radically in structure and function from those originally present. Exotic species are typically introduced into ecosystems without their co-evolved predators and parasites, which enables an alien invader to out-compete native species with similar ecological requirements. In British Columbia, plants such as Knapweed, introduced to arid grasslands, and Purple Loosestrife, introduced to marsh and riparian areas, are rapidly becoming dominant plant species in their respective ecosystems. The interactions between native species are altered or destroyed by these exotic species, and can result in the loss of native biodiversity.

Pollution
Atmospheric and hydrologic pollution have far-reaching negative effects on biodiversity. Pollution from burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas can remain in the air as particle pollutants or fall to the ground as acid rain. Acid rain, which is primarily composed of sulfuric and nitric acid, causes acidification of lakes, streams and sensitive forest soils, and contributes to slower forest growth and tree damage at high elevations. In addition, chemical pollutants such as pesticides and herbicides leach into soils and watersheds. Some fish species, such as salmonids, require small freshwater streams to spawn. Polluted streams result in the abandonment of traditional spawning areas and ultimately in the loss of salmon populations. Species' sensitivity to pollution is variable. However, many species are vulnerable to the indirect effects of pollution through the concentration of toxic chemicals in top predators of food chains and disruption of predator-prey interactions.

Global Climate Change
Carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels and biomass, deforestation, and agricultural practices contributes to greenhouse gases, which prevent heat from escaping the earth's surface. With the increase in temperature expected from increasing greenhouse gases, there will be higher levels of air pollution, greater variability in weather patterns, and changes in the distribution of vegetation in the landscape. Some species will not be able to adapt to these changes in the environment and will become extinct. However, it is expected that many plant and animal species will attempt to disperse to higher latitudes and altitudes as the temperature increases. Therefore, any barriers in the landscape, such as highways and urban areas that prevent movement to more hospitable environments, will result in loss of biodiversity.

Corridors and Connectivity

Such threats to biodiversity may cause the extinction of many species. Maintaining the connectivity of the landscape could offset their impacts on biodiversity. The corridor concept proposes that refuges connected by corridors will have higher immigration rates than isolated patches of natural habitat. This can offset extinction by promoting gene flow and preventing inbreeding. Corridors composed of naturally occurring or restored strips of land that connect large habitat patches may facilitate the movement of species between patches, and decrease the effects of threats to biodiversity. Habitat patches connected by corridors must always be large enough to maintain populations of species, especially for large-bodied vertebrates.

The effectiveness of wildlife corridors depends on many corridor design parameters, which include habitat type and structural stage, length and width, and level of human activity in and around the corridor. Individual species require different scales of connectivity. Some species are able to disperse in very narrow strips of natural vegetation, such as hedgerows, whereas other species require large habitat patches close together with very short migration distances through unsuitable habitat. Solely retaining or enhancing narrow strips of vegetation between habitat refuges cannot maintain biodiversity; the habitat values of the overall landscape must be retained.

Is Biodiversity Substainable?

Protected areas are essential to conserving biodiversity. The Protected Areas Strategy (PAS), initiated by the Provincial Government in 1992, has designated 13 per cent of BC as provincial parks. In addition, further initiatives in partnership with the Federal Government are underway to protect marine areas along BC's coast, for shoreline, intertidal and open water species. However, in the case of PAS, it is restricted to provincial Crown land, and 13 per cent of this land base is too small to maintain viable populations of many species. Therefore, the protected areas may be inadequate to prevent extinction of threatened species that occur primarily in low elevation areas where the land is privately owned.

Unfortunately, the resources available, in terms of land and funds, are insufficient to conserve all biodiversity. Therefore, a strategic plan is required to conserve as much of our unprotected biodiversity as possible. This requires the identification of provincial goals that coordinate conservation efforts of government and non-government organizations, and the general public. Development of provincial goals will require systematic inventories of species, especially in areas that have not been extensively surveyed, scientific research that examines biodiversity structure and function in unique ecosystems, classification of regional threats to biodiversity, and prioritization of regions for protection.

Priorities for conservation can be determined by identifying hotspots, gaps and complementary areas. Hotspots are areas with high species diversity or high numbers of rare or threatened species. Gaps are areas with species that are not already under protection. Complementary areas serve to complement protected areas by identifying new areas that contain the most unprotected species. The complementarity method identifies areas that represent the maximum amount of biodiversity in the minimum amount of areas. This is important given that resources are limited. The Centre for Biodiversity Research at the University of British Columbia is currently analyzing the potential of complementarity for aid in determining conservation priorities in BC. While this methodology does not provide any guarantees, it provides an explicit, scientifically based conservation strategy.

What Can We Do?

We can participate in biodiversity conservation by increasing our knowledge of environmental issues, increasing our awareness of the impacts of biodiversity loss, and increasing support for government policies and actions that conserve our valuable ecosystems. We can become educators and role models as stewards of the environment by aiding in the recovery of species at risk and preventing other species from becoming at risk. Habitat stewardship consists of activities that range from enhancing the quality of soil, water, air and other natural resources to monitoring and conserving wildlife species and their habitat by donating or leasing property to a land trust.

Participating in Biodiversity Conservation

  •  Identify locations of critical wildlife habitat for species at risk and the threats to these areas. Where possible, eliminate threats and maintain natural areas. Leave critical wildlife habitat undisturbed, especially nesting and denning sites. Promote wildlife use by setting up bird and bat houses.
  •  Eradicate and control introduced weeds on your property. Keep vehicles on main roads to reduce the spread of weeds and disturbance to wildlife.
  •  Leave native plants undisturbed, and landscape using native trees and vegetation. Native plants are well adapted to local conditions and provide a low maintenance, drought resistant garden and can prevent local flooding. Attract "good" insects by planting pollen and nectar plants.
  •  Maintain wetlands by conserving water and reducing irrigation. Avoid draining water bodies on your property.
  •  Construct fences to protect riparian areas and other sensitive habitat from trampling and other disturbances.
  •  Manage livestock grazing to maintain good quality range conditions. Leave some areas ungrazed to determine range characteristics to manage for.
  •  Maintain old standing dead trees and mature forest stands. Large dead trees provide nest cavities for many species and mature forest will be replaced by old growth over time.
  •  Consider donating or leasing property to land trusts, or placing a conservation covenant on your property. This process allows you to protect your land and benefit from potential tax breaks. Under Environment Canada's Ecological Gift program, a gift of land provides the greatest tax benefit of any charitable gift.
  •  Use natural products and methods for pest control such as BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) for caterpillar infestation; use pesticides that have minimal residual effects such as pyrethrins, insecticidal soaps and dormant oil sprays; use a high-pressure water stream from a hose to control aphids; use barriers and collars around plants to keep pests away.
  •  Monitor and assess your pets' impact on biodiversity. Some domestic animals, especially cats, are predators of wild animals and can devastate local population of native species. Cats have been estimated to kill tens of millions of birds each year in North America.
  •  Learn as much as you can about nature and share your knowledge with others. Visit ecological interpretation centres, natural history museums and native fish hatcheries to study local ecosystems. Volunteer at an organization that focuses on conservation or restoration of habitat.
  •  Encourage and support local government initiatives that protect habitat and decrease threats to biodiversity.
  •  Use environmentally friendly products. Dispose of hazardous material safely. Chemicals that enter the sewer system can contaminate freshwater and ocean ecosystems.
  •  Recycle, reuse and reduce. Recycling decreases pollution by decreasing energy, electricity, and water consumption and the need for landfills.
  •  Drive less, walk, ride or carpool more. Learn about low emission vehicle research and availability.