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Biodiversity

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Biodiversity refers to the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem. It is necessary for life to thrive on Earth.

Aldo Leopold, one of the great thinkers of conservation, observed more than half a century ago the importance of protecting species. "To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering," he wrote. Losing species is like throwing away one by one the engine parts of an airplane while flying.

Biodiversity is a major initiative of Conservation International.

Biodiversity conservation provides substantial benefits to meet immediate human needs, such as those for clean, consistent water flows; protection from floods and storms; and a stable climate. 

Curated by mokiethecat

This Bird Song Went Viral
July 09, 2020
In the 1990s researchers in western Canada noticed a local variant of the song of white-throated sparrows — ending with two notes rather than three. There are well-documented cases of bird species changing their song over time. But new dialects tend to stay local instead of replacing the traditional song more widely. In this case, though, a study found that the once-rare two-note song went "viral" among birds across more than 1,800 miles of Canada between 2000 and 2019. Now it has completely replaced the historic song in the region. Nobody knows why sparrows found the two-note ending so catchy. "As far as we know, it's unprecedented," says Ken Otter, senior author of the research. "We don't know of any other study that has ever seen this sort of spread through cultural evolution of a song type." More at: https://biodiv.us/2Dor21u