Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Memorial Lecture: II

- Sustainable service to humanity
- Rselience Regenerability-Degradabiligy
- Extent and nature of Natural/human
pertubations
- Energy Transfer
- Ecological processes: Photosynthesis: Water
cycle: Soil formation: Biogeochemical cycles
- Organic evolution: Mutation, Recombination
and Natural selection
- Life forms: Genetic System: Breeding and
Population Biology
- What, where and how to sample
- Database
- Enumeration and Distribution
Fig. 13: Increasing complexity in functions of individual population, community,
ecosystem & Bioshpere.
Biodiversity and Bioproductivity
It is well known fact that human beings have lived in hunter-gatherer societies for
99% of the time that have lived on this planet. However, it is during the last 1% of
historical time that human beings have lived in agricultural followed by industrial
societies. The latter resulted in a total physical and economic transformation of human
society with relatively less emphasis on biodiversity. However, during the recent years,
which better understanding, conservation of total spectrum of biodiversity (plants,
animals and micro-organisms) can no biodiversity. However, during the recent years,
with better understanding, conservation of the total spectrum of biodiversity (plants,
animals and micro-organisms) can no longer be regarded as an esoteric exercise, but
something that affects the totality of environment, on which the very existence of life
(including human life) depends. Essentially, it is a question of survival. Furthermore, the
prospect of climate change would invoke change in the biotic composition of
ecosystems and also their migration. Not knowing the exact nature of genetic changes,
there is a most urgent need to conserve as wide a genetic base as possible. As
discussed elsewhere (Khoshoo, 1992), biological diversity is the sum total of species
richness i.e. number of species of plants, animals and microorganisms living in a
community or an ecosystem. Biodiversity is a part of the biosphere supported by
biological processes and organic evolution the three elements are inter-dependent (Fig.
8)
Therefore, biodiversity is critical to our survival. More so, of the poorer assetless
section of our society whose wellbeing depends on biomass. The basic reason for this
is that biodiversity and bioproductivity are inter-dependent (Fig. 14). Hunter-gatherers in
harsh ecosystems have low productivity (LP). The pre-green Revolution Agriculture was
essentially based on high diversity (HD) and low productivity (LP) and low diversity (LD).
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