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Vladimir State University

THE PROBLEM OF BIODIVERSITY

Savin I.A.

The animal world is incredibly rich and diverse. The planet has a large number of species of flora and fauna that spread and inhabit different natural zones. Such biodiversity in different climatic conditions is different: some species adapt to the hard conditions of the Arctic and tundra, others learn to survive in deserts and semi-deserts, third love the warmth of tropical latitudes, the fourth inhabit the forests, and the fifth spread over wide steppes. The state of the species, which at the moment is on Earth, has been forming during a long period of evolution. biological diversity climatic turtle

Nowadays there are a large number of global problems, and one of them is the reduction of biodiversity.

What is biodiversity? What are the reasons for its reduction?

Biodiversity (biological diversity) 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.

The main reasons for declining biodiversity are:

1) changing of the climate;

2) habitat destruction;

3) lack of genetic diversity;

4) lack of food;

5) environmental pollution;

6) growth of the planet's population and development of its economic activity.

The most interesting representatives, who have forever disappeared from the face of our planet, are:

Ivory turtle

The Abingdon turtles dwelt only on the uninhabited Pinta island.

Abingdon elephant turtles fully justify their species name "elephant". These were real giants, sometimes their body weight reached 300-350 kg.

In the morning turtles crawled out to bask in the sun, because they were cold-blooded animals. Then the tortoises spent most of their time searching for food. Elephant turtles differed almost undeveloped hearing, but excellent sense of smell and good vision.

The main reason for the disappearance of turtles is almost all the vegetation on the island was exterminated by feral goats.

Lake dolphin

At first they lived in the lake "Dongting" in 1000 km from the mouth of the Yangtze River (China) and in the rivers flowing into the lake. But later they also met in the Yangtze River, 150 km from the lake.

The Chinese dolphin differed from other dolphins by a dorsal fin resembling a flag. The length of the body was up to 2.5 meters. Their weight was from 100 to 150 kilograms. They had poor eyesight. The body color is pale bluish-gray above and palely below. They lived in shallow muddy water in lakes, river mouths and rivers, and ate fish.

Most of them died, entangled in fishing nets. The river, where these amazing dolphins lived, was flooded with ships, which led to pollution of the habitat and the death of the animal.

Steller's cow

Steller's cow lived only near the coast of the Commander Islands. It was a very large animal. Steller, who described in detail the female cow, considered the length of her body at 295 inches (about 7.5 m).

Body weight was very significant, of the order of several tons: about 4-11.2 tons, so Steller's cow could be even heavier than the African elephant. This animal had a good ear.

Most of the time Steller's cow fed, slowly swimming in the shallow water.

Usually, the female and male were together with the cub, in general, the cows usually kept themselves in numerous herds. Attachment of animals to each other was very strong.

Steller's cows ate only seaweed grown in coastal waters, primarily sea cabbage (that is why they were called “cabbage”).

Industrialists and researchers who arrived on the Commander Islands hunted for steller cows for their meat.

Dodo

These amazing animals lived on the island of Mauritius. The bird has become one of the symbols of the state of Mauritius: its image is part of the country's emblem (approved in 1906) and is widely used as a local mascot and souvenir.

The appearance of the dodo is known only from images and written sources from the 17th century. The remains show that the Mauritian dodo was about 1 meter high and could weigh 10-18 kg. In the pictures, the bird had a brownish-gray plumage, yellow legs, a small bundle of tail feathers and a gray head with a black, yellow or green beak.

The main habitat of Dodo was the forests in the drier, coastal areas of the island. The dodo were not afraid of people at all. This lack of fear and the inability to fly made the bird an easy prey for sailors.

Taiwan Smoky Leopard

They lived on the island of Taiwan. In 1992, the Taiwan post released a stamp with a picture of smoky leopard. The smoky leopard was an important animal in the Taiwan aboriginal culture. Leopard fells were used for making clothes and religious ceremonies. The hunter who killed the smoky leopard was recognized as a hero. The fell of the smoky leopard was an attribute of power and social status.

The Taiwanese clouded leopard was a small predator weighing up to 20 kilograms and living on trees. Due to the development of industry and deforestation, leopards were forced to go to the mountains, where poachers continued to hunt them.

Solving the problem of biodiversity conservation

In order to preserve biodiversity on the earth people create nature reserves and natural parks, where animals are monitored, create conditions for life and increasing populations. Also, plants are bred artificially to increase their habitats to preserve valuable species. Works to preserve the world of flora and fauna are carried out by various international organizations, in particular, Greenpeace and the UN.

In addition, it is necessary to carry out measures to preserve forests, protect water bodies, soils and the atmosphere from pollution, and apply environmental technologies in production and everyday life.

I believe that people can create robots, which will be able to monitor conditions of the environment in a particular area. These robots could have animal interface which is programmed for the habitat and lifestyle of a particular animal. The purpose of Animal-robot interface is to serve as an autonomous mobile source of information, transferable to people. When the habitat parameters are changed to be unsuitable for the life of the animal, the robot will do reports. Such requirement brings the necessity of research focused on designing and improving certain robot means to get essential information from the environment.

Most of all, preservation of nature on the planet depends on us, of each person, because we can make a choice: to kill an animal or save its life, to cut down a tree or let it develop, to pick a flower or plant a new one. If each of us protects nature, then the problem of biodiversity will be overcome.

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