Impact of Industrialization on Biodiversity - Comment. Industrialization is a major contributor to climate change and a major threat to biodiversity. Energy drives our industries, which is provided by burning of fossil fuels. This increases the emission of CO₂, a GHG, leading to climate change. Due to large scale deforestation, the emitted CO₂ cannot be absorbed fully, and its concentration in the air increases. Climate change increases land and ocean temperature, changes precipitation patterns and raises the sea level. This inturn results in melting of glaciers, water inundation, less predictability of weather patterns, extreme weather conditions, out break of squalor diseases, migration of animals and loss of trees in forest. Thus, climate change is an imminent danger to the existing biodiversity.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It was established in 1948 and located at Gland VD, Switzerland.

The most serious aspect of the loss of biodiversity is the extinction of species. The unique information contained in its genetic material (DNA), and the niche it possesses are lost forever.

Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth. That is, it is the number of different species of flora and fauna including microorganisms. These organisms can inhabit different ecosystems with, varying conditions like the Rainforests, Coral reefs, Grasslands, Deserts, Tundra, and the Polar icecaps. This variety (Biodiversity) is essential for the wellbeing of our planet and sustenance of life as a whole. The importance of biodiversity can be viewed and measured as:
a)Ecosystem services
b) Biological resources
c) Social benefits of biodiversity
The organization and functioning of ecosystems world over are affected and dependent on biodiversity and its richness. The major functional attributes are:
(i) Continuity of nutrient cycles or biogeochemical cycles (N₂, C, a,o, P, S cycles)
(ii) Soil formation, conditioning or maintenance of soil health (fertility) by soil microbial diversity along with the different trophic members
(iii) Increases ecosystem productivity and provide food resources
(iv) Act as water traps, filters, water flow regulators and water purifiers (forest cover and vegetation)
(v) Climate stability (forests are essential for rainfall, temperature regulation, CO₂ absorption, which in turn regulate the density and type of vegetation)
(vi) Forest resource management and sustainable development
(vii) Maintaining a balance between biotic components
(viii) Cleaning up of pollutants - microbes are the biggest degraders of molecules including many anthropogenic ones which are present in effluents, sewage, garbage and agro-chemicals
(ix) Ecological stability - the varieties and richness of species contribute to ecological stability and survival of species. Biodiverse regions are reservoirs of biological resources like food resources, gene pool, genetic resource, medicinal resources, bioprospecting
(x) To provide unique aesthetic value and hotspots for Ecotourism. Along with forest resources and wildlife, it has commercial significance
(xi) An indicator of the health of the ecosystem. Endemism is a crucial indicator of richness.

(i) Hotspots are areas characterized with high concentration of endemic species experiencing unusual rapid rate of habitat modification loss. Norman Myers defined hot spots as "regions that harbour a great diversity of endemic species and at the same tie, have been significantly impacted and altered by human activities."
(ii) A hotspot is a region that supports at least 1500 endemic vascular plant species (0.5% of the global total) has lost more than 70% of its original vegetation.
(iii) There are 35 biodiversity hotspots in the world. India is home to four biodiversity hotspots. They are:
(1) Himalaya: Entire Indian Himalayan region.
(2) Western Ghats
(3) Indo - Burma: Entire North-eastern India, except Assam and Andaman group of Islands (and Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Southern China)
(4) Sundarlands: Includes Nicobar group of Islands (and Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines).

(i) Development of human society is inevitable. Natural habitats are destroyed for the purpose of settlement, agriculture, mining, Industries and construction of highways
(ii) As a result species are forced to adapt to the changes in the environment or move to other places. If not, they become victim to predation, starvation, disease and eventually die or results in human animal conflict.
(iii) Over population, urbanization, Industrialization and agricultural advancements require additional land, water and raw materials every year.
(iv) This is made possible only through fragmentation or destruction of natural habitats by filling wetlands, ploughing grasslands, cutting down trees, forest, desilting rivers, constructing transport ways, caving mountains, extracting, ores, changing the course of rivers and filling of seashore.

The term biodiversity was introduced by Walter Rosen (1986). Biodiversity is the assemblage of different life forms. Each species is adapted to live in its specific environments.
The changes in climatic conditions are reflected in the distribution and pattern of biodiversity on our planet. The number of species per unit area declines as we move from tropics towards the poles. The Tundra and Taiga of northern Canada, Alaska, northern Europe and Russia possess less than 12 species of trees. The temperate forests of the United states have 20-35 species of trees, while the tropical forests of Panama have over 110 species of trees in a relatively small area.

(i) A species that has been categorized as very likely to become extinct is an endangered species. Endangered (EN), as categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
(ii) Red List, is the second most severe conservation status for wild populations in the IUCN's scheme after Critically Endangered (CR).
(iii) Example: In 1998 there were 1102 animal and 1197 plant species in the IUCN Red List
(iv) In 2012, the list features 3079 animal and 2655 plant species as endangered (EN) worldwide. 

Insitu and Exsitu are two types of biodiversity conservation strategies.

(i) Keystone species are those which have an extremely high impact on a particular ecosystem relative to its population. They are critical for the overall structure and function of an ecosystem and influence other and plants and animals that make up that ecosystem. Thus in the absence of a keystone species, many ecosystems will fail to exist.
(ii) Predator-prey relationship is an important example. Small Predators that consume herbivorous species prevent such herbivores from destroying the plant species in the ecosystem and are thus considered as keystone species.
(iii) If the number of predators was to decrease, the herbivore population would increase and the plant species in the ecosystem may perish very fast. In turn, the other organisms dependent on plants may also be impacted.
(iv) Thus extinction of a keystone species will lead to loss of biodiversity. Eg. Sea otter is considered to be a keystone species in the nearshore ecosystem. The Kelp forests are critical habitat for many organisms in nearshore ecosystems. These are fed by sea urchins. The Otters feed a Sea Urchins. In the absence of Otters, the sea urchins will destroy the Kelps forest which in turn will impact several other organisms and lead to loss of biodiversity in the ecosystem.