Protected areas are places that receive protection because of their environmental or cultural value. Theyhave many purposes, including the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Most countries have protected areas. There are over 100 000 protected sites around the world, covering around 12 percent of the Earth’s land surface.
Dry and subhumid lands, also known as drylands, cover about 47 percent of the Earth’s land surface and include everything from deserts to savannas to Mediterranean landscapes. Although drylands are commonly imagined to be barren, dead landscapes, they contain a number of important, well-adapted species.
It might not sound like an exciting place to live, but you’d be surprised how many living things chose soil as their home! Soil contains a myriad of organisms, such as earthworms, ants, termites, bacteria and fungi. In fact, a typical handful of garden soil contains billions to hundreds of billions of tiny soil micro-organisms!
Rainforests can be either temperate or tropical. Bothkinds have a few things in common: high rainfall all year round, and very lush, dense and tall vegetation. Both are also rich in plant and animal species, although the diversity is greater in tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests are warm and moist; while temperate rainforests are cool and moist.
Although trees are a renewable resource that can replenish themselves, they are being cut down faster than they can grow back. There are many factors behind this problem, for example:
As you know by now, biodiversity can be classified in three different ways (refer to Chapter 1). In Chapter 5 we learned that one way to classify it is by ecosystems, which includes the important category of terrestrial biodiversity. It might sound a bit creepy, but guess what: you’re part of it! And so am I. That’s right – unless you happen to be a fish, or maybe some super-intellectual seaweed (in which case you really should be on TV ), you count as a member of this group. So who are they (uh, we) anyway?
