IN-SITU AND EX-SITU IN BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

0.1. WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY

From dictionaries, Biodiversity is the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable.

Specifically Biodiversity: is defined as ?the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystem and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.

0.2. THE LINK BETWEEN BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

1. ?         Supporting services
2. ?         Regulating services

0.2.0 Regulating services are invasion resistance.

The preservation of the number, types, and relative abundance of resident species an enhance invasion resistance in a wide range of natural and semi-natural ecosystem (medium certainty).

1. a.       Pollination: Pollination is essential for the provision of plant-derived ecosystem services, yet there have been worldwide declines in pollinator diversity (medium certainty).

1. b.      Climate regulation: Biodiversity influences climate at local, regional, and global scales, thus changes in land use and land cover that affect biodiversity can affect climate.

0.2.1. Supporting services are:

Ecosystem services that is necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services.

Some examples include biomass production, production of atmospheric oxygen, soil formation and retention, nutrient cycling, water cycling, and provisioning of habitat.

Therefore, based on the Supporting and regulating services discussed above, it is very clear that we have to protect and conserve well our BIODIVERSITY for our healthy life.  

0.3. How do we conserve Biodiversity?

v  When we conserve and protect the whole Ecosystem, its Biodiversity at all levels is protected. We save the entire forest to save the tiger within that forest; this approach is called in-situ (on site) conservation.

v  When there are situations where an animal or plant is endangered or threatened and needs urge measures to save it from extinction, ex-situ (off site) conservation is the desirable approach. It means with ex-situ you can move the organism from where is suffering and protect it in another site, like zoo, green houses, etc..

0.4. Summary and recommendation

The study of Biodiversity is the best way to understand environment and the importance of protecting environment, hence we are facing the problem of some species extinction in now days which is a result of climatic change, I would recommend everyone to think properly on ex-situ and in-situ conservation, before taking a decision of conserving and protecting Biodiversity; as it explained above the two approaches are good but you have to choose one based on your objective and the situation on the site. LET US SAVE ANIMALS AND PLANTS FROM EXTINCTION.