Many scientists think the Earth is undergoing a crisis in biodiversity as the number of different living species around the globe drops dramatically. Can anything be done? Dr. Daniel Brooks, a U of T zoology professor, thinks the answer is yes.
Brooks is involved in creating a parasite inventory in Costa Rica, as part of a larger project to understand biodiversity in the equatorial nation. Studying natural parasites can provide risk assessments about the potential cause of disease.
The biodiversity crisis is partly an information crisis, since not enough is known about animal extinction and many species are lost without anyone realizing. A good step would be to learn more about the biological world by creating a comprehensive inventory of the planet’s living resources. Brooks predicts that more projects like the one he is working on would reveal that many species are more valuable than we realize.
Some species are valuable as marketable commodities, but others maintain the ecosystems that support those marketable species. Many microbes, earthworms and fungi are required for tree survival, for instance. Changes to the soil ecosystem can result in lack of biodiversity and the inability of valuable forests to regenerate themselves, which means that wood resources will become depleted.
Much of the current crisis is caused by humans, through pollution and habitat destruction. The simplest solution is to stop altering natural ecosystems, but that is a practical impossibility. Brooks argues that it’s not fair to demonize humans for altering habitats. We do it, often unintentionally, to improve living standards for people.
Instead, Brooks believes we should try to find ways of preserve biodiversity while still maintaining our way of life. He uses the example of a rare orchid to show how organisms could be used to generate income without destroying it. Rather than selling all the wild orchids in an area for short-term gain, conservationists could identify the orchid, take cuttings or seeds and raise them in a greenhouse. The wild type is thus always conserved and profit is still produced. Knowledge of species allows biodiversity to be put to work for people.
Species diversity is dropping rapidly. Brooks said, “We are trying to buy time. Speeding up the inventories is a way of buying time.” Scientists like Brooks need more funding so they can work harder to catalogue and understand the world’s species.
Brooks explained that everyone can be involved in a solution: “Everyone can be better informed about the issues.”
But the problem whenever we make a decision about the environment is that “you’re going to spend your entire life without any guarantee that it will get better. The only thing we know for certain is if we don’t do anything it will get worse.”
