Conservation of biological diversity. The problem of preserving natural diversity

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Back in the middle of the 19th century, the American geographer G. Marsh noticed the essence of the problem of protecting animal and plant species. He paid attention. that man, consuming animals and herbal products, reduces the abundance of species. At the same time, he destroys so-called “harmful” (from his point of view) species that harm the number of “useful” species. Thus, a person changes the natural balance between various forms living and plant life. In the twentieth century, the process of depletion of biodiversity on our planet assumed alarming proportions.

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IMPACT ON BIODIVERSITY: 1. Huge areas of the surface of our planet are occupied by a few species of cultivated plants (monocultures) with pure varieties, aligned according to hereditary qualities. 2. Many types of natural ecosystems are destroyed and replaced by anthropogenic cultural and technogenic landscapes. 3. The number of species in some biocenoses is decreasing, which leads to a decrease in the stability of ecosystems. 4. Some species and populations become completely extinct due to environmental changes or are completely destroyed by humans.

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Vegetation is an inexhaustible source of various medicines, used in the textile industry, construction, production of furniture and various household items. Forest resources play a special role. There is a process of extinction of some types of vegetation. Plants disappear where ecosystems die or are transformed. On average, each extinct plant species takes with it more than 5 species of invertebrate animals.

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Animal world- this is the most important part of the planet’s biosphere, numbering approximately 2,274 thousand species of living organisms. Fauna is necessary for normal functioning the entire biosphere and cycles of substances in nature. Many animal species are used as food or for pharmaceutical purposes, as well as for the manufacture of clothing, footwear and handicrafts. Many of the animals are friends of humans, objects of domestication, selection and genetics.

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The fauna belongs to the group of exhaustible and renewable resources. natural resources, however, the deliberate extermination of certain animal species by humans has led to the fact that some of them can be considered exhaustible non-renewable resources. Over the past 370 years, 130 species of birds and mammals have disappeared from the Earth's fauna. The rate of extinction has increased continuously, especially over the last 2 centuries. Currently, approximately 1 thousand species of birds and mammals are facing extinction.

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In addition to the complete and irreversible extinction of species, a sharp decline the number of species and populations intensively exploited by humans. North American bison Great auk Red-crowned crane

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In nature, there are not even two completely identical organisms - representatives of the same population or species. The processes of extinction of species always occurred for natural reasons. This is evidenced by data from archeology and paleontology. However, in the last 2-3 centuries, especially in the 20th century, the biological diversity on our planet began to noticeably decline due to the fault of people, and the process of impoverishment of biodiversity assumed alarming proportions. Drainage of swamps, irrigation of dry lands, expansion of urban settlements, open-pit mining, fires, pollution and many other types of human activities have worsened the condition of natural flora and fauna.

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Communities of living organisms and ecosystems themselves can exist and function stably only if a certain level of biodiversity is maintained, which ensures: mutual complementarity of parts necessary for the normal functioning of communities, biocenoses and ecosystems; - interchangeability of types; - reliability of self-regulation of ecosystems;

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Ways to preserve biological diversity.

General concept of biological diversity. Biodiversity is the diversity of life on our planet - plants, animals and ecosystems. This concept also includes the relationships between living things in ecosystems. This term was first used by G. Bates (1892) in his work “A Naturalist in the Amazon,” when he described his impressions of encountering 700 species of different butterflies during an hour-long excursion. However, it came into wide circulation only in 1972. – from the UN Stockholm Conference on environment. Now this is one of the most common concepts in scientific literature, the environmental movement and international relations, since it is considered as the main parameter characterizing the state and functioning of any ecosystem and biosphere of our planet as a whole.

The most authoritative assessment species diversity carried out at UNEP in 1995. According to this estimate, the most likely number of species is 13–14 million, of which only 1.75 million, or less than 13%, have been described. The highest hierarchical level of biological diversity is ecosystem, or landscape. At this level, patterns of biological diversity are determined primarily by zonal landscape conditions, then local peculiarities natural conditions (relief, soil, climate), as well as the history of the development of these territories. The greatest diversity of species is (in descending order): moist equatorial forests, coral reefs, dry tropical forests, moist temperate forests, oceanic islands, landscapes of the Mediterranean climate, treeless (savanna, steppe) landscapes.

High species diversity ensures following properties ecosystems: 1) complementarity and interchangeability of species in biocenoses; 2) ensuring regulation of the number of species and the system’s ability to self-regulate; 3) reliability of providing the main functions of the biocenosis - the creation of organic matter, its destruction and regulation of the number of species. They say that there are many more species of life on Earth than there are stars in the sky. To date, about 1.7 million species of plants, animals and microorganisms have been identified and given their names. We are also one of these species. The exact number of species living on Earth is still not known. Their number ranges from 5 to 100 million! Biological diversity is an invaluable global asset for present and future generations. But today the number of threats to the gene pool, species and ecosystems is greater than ever before. As a result of human activity, ecosystems are degraded, species die off or their numbers decline at alarming rates to unsustainable levels. This loss of biodiversity undermines the very basis of Life on Earth and is truly a global tragedy.

UN Convention on Biological Diversity The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), to which 190 countries have joined, aims to protect and conserve diverse species of animals and plants and their habitats. The Convention obliges states to preserve biodiversity, ensure its sustainable development and provides for the fair and equitable distribution of benefits from the use of genetic resources. Its Cartagena Protocol, which entered into force in 2003, aims to ensure safe use genetically modified organisms are currently signed by 143 countries.

The structure of an ecosystem (biogeocenosis) according to N. F. Reimers.

In the last two decades, biological diversity has begun to attract the attention of not only biologists, but also economists, politicians, and the public due to the obvious threat of anthropogenic degradation of biodiversity, which far exceeds normal, natural degradation. According to the UNEP Global Biodiversity Assessment (1995), more than 30,000 species of animals and plants are at risk of extinction. Over the past 400 years, 484 animal species and 654 plant species have disappeared.

Reasons for the current accelerated decline in biological diversity

Rapid population growth and economic development, bringing huge changes in the increase in human migration, growth in international trade and tourism; Increasing pollution natural waters, soil and air; Insufficient attention to the long-term consequences of actions that destroy the living conditions of living organisms, exploit natural resources and introduce non-native species; The impossibility in a market economy to assess the true value of biological diversity and its losses. Over the past 400 years, the main direct causes of extinction of animal species were: the introduction of new species, accompanied by the displacement or extermination of local species (39% of all lost animal species); destruction of living conditions, direct seizure of territories inhabited by animals and their degradation, fragmentation, increased edge effect (36% of all lost species); uncontrolled hunting (23%); Other reasons (2%).

Main reasons for the need for conservation genetic diversity.

All species (no matter how harmful or unpleasant they may be) have the right to exist. This provision is written in the “World Charter for Nature” adopted by the UN General Assembly. Enjoying nature, its beauty and diversity has the highest value, not expressed in quantitative terms. Diversity is the basis for the evolution of life forms. The decline in species and genetic diversity undermines the further improvement of life forms on Earth. The economic feasibility of preserving biodiversity is determined by the use of wild biota to meet the various needs of society in the fields of industry, agriculture, recreation, science and education: for the selection of domestic plants and animals, the genetic reservoir necessary for updating and maintaining the sustainability of varieties, the manufacture of medicines, as well as for providing the population with food, fuel, energy, timber, etc. There are many ways to protect biological diversity. At the species level, there are two main strategic directions: in situ and out of habitat. Protecting biodiversity at the species level is an expensive and time-consuming path, possible only for selected species, but unattainable to protect the entire richness of life on Earth. The main focus of the strategy should be at the ecosystem level, so that systematic ecosystem management ensures the protection of biological diversity at all three hierarchical levels. The most effective and relatively economical way to protect biological diversity at the ecosystem level is through protected areas.

In accordance with the classification of the World Conservation Union, there are 8 types of protected areas:

1.Reserve. The goal is to preserve nature and natural processes in an undisturbed state. 2.National park. The goal is preservation natural areas national and international significance for scientific research, education and recreation. These are usually large areas in which the use of natural resources and other material human impacts are not permitted. 3.Nature monument. These are usually small areas. 4.Managed natural reserves. The collection of some natural resources is permitted under the control of the administration. 5.Protected landscapes and coastal species. These are picturesque mixed natural and cultivated areas with the preservation of traditional land use. Statistics on protected areas usually include lands of categories 1–5.

6. Resource reserve created to prevent premature use of the territory. 7. An anthropological reserve created to preserve the traditional way of life of the indigenous population. 8.Territory for the multi-purpose use of natural resources, focused on the sustainable use of water, forests, animals and flora, pastures and for tourism. There are two additional categories that overlap with the above eight. 9.Biosphere reserves. They are created to preserve biological diversity. They include several concentric zones of varying degrees of use: from a zone of complete inaccessibility (usually in the central part of the reserve) to a zone of reasonable, but quite intensive exploitation. 10.Places world heritage. They are created to protect unique natural features of global importance. Management is carried out in accordance with the World Heritage Convention.

In total, there are about 10,000 protected areas (categories 1–5) in the world with a total area of 9.6 million km, or 7.1% of total area sushi (no glaciers). The goal that the World Conservation Union sets for the world community is to achieve the expansion of protected areas to a size constituting 10% of the area of each large plant formation (biome) and, therefore, the world as a whole. This would contribute not only to the protection of biodiversity, but also to increasing the sustainability of the geographical environment as a whole. The strategy of expanding the number and area of protected areas is in conflict with the use of land for other purposes, especially in view of the growing world population. Therefore, to protect biological diversity, it is necessary, along with protected areas, to increasingly improve the use of “ordinary” inhabited lands and the management of populations of wild species, not only endangered ones, and their habitats on such lands. It is necessary to apply such techniques as zoning of areas according to the degree of use, creating corridors connecting land masses with less anthropogenic pressure, reducing the degree of fragmentation of biodiversity hotspots, managing ecotones, conserving natural wetlands, managing populations of wild species and their habitats.

TO effective ways protection of biological diversity include bioregional management of large areas and waters, as well as international agreements on this issue. The UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992) adopted international convention on the protection of biological diversity. An important agreement is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. There are also a number of other conventions protecting various aspects of biological resources and biodiversity: the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the Convention on the Conservation of Wetlands, the Whale Protection Convention, etc. Along with global conventions, there are also numerous regional and bilateral agreements governing specific biodiversity issues. Unfortunately, for now it can be stated that, despite numerous measures, the accelerated erosion of the world's biological diversity continues. However, without these protections, the rate of biodiversity loss would be even greater.

Links: http://ecodelo.org/9158-problemy_sokhraneniya_biologicheskogo_raznoobraziya_zemli-geoekologiya http://referatyk.com/biologiya/16148-statya:_globalnyie_izmeneniya_biologicheskogo_raznoobraziya.html http://ru-ecology.info/term/48695 / http:// www.un.org/ru/development/progareas/global/biodiversity.shtml http://nature.air.ru/biodiversity/book3_1.html)

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According to this convention, biological diversity includes 3 interrelated concepts: 1) genetic diversity of individuals of a species, which determines its viability; 2) the number of species and the ratio of the number of their individuals in natural communities, 3) the diversity of ecosystems ( ecological systems) - areas of land or water with their living population, constantly exchanging substances and energy with their habitat. Animals are an important component of natural communities of living organisms in ecosystems. In 1992, in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi, the international Convention on Biological Diversity was signed, adopted by many countries, including Russia.

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Each ecosystem is characterized by a special ratio of organisms belonging to different biological species. The composition of these species and the ratio of their individuals characterize the biological diversity of the ecosystem. If several species (or even just one species) are completely excluded from the community (or, conversely, added), this can lead to a significant, and sometimes even catastrophic, change in the properties of the entire ecosystem. Rainforests and coral reefs – classic examples terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems with exclusively high level biological diversity The composition and ratio of species of living organisms in a community (“biological diversity”) largely determine the quality of the natural environment. Therefore, preserving the composition of animal species and the number of their individuals in ecosystems is the most important environmental task.

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Destructive human activity has led to the fact that the Earth's biodiversity, including the diversity of animals, began to rapidly decrease. A large role in this was played by the destruction of their habitats, predatory exploitation of natural resources, pollution of water, air and land, intentional or accidental human settlement of biological species in places unusual for them. Human-induced decline in biodiversity continues. This can lead to dangerous irreversible changes in the properties of the entire living community of the Earth and, because of this, to strong changes in living conditions. Preserving the diversity of life on Earth in general and the diversity of animals in particular is essential condition our survival. The entry of pollutants into the air is called “emission”, into water – “discharge”

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The development of a system of biosphere reserves has three main goals: 1) preserve natural biodiversity; 2) regularly observe natural changes in undisturbed areas of nature, so that against this background it is possible to identify changes introduced in other places by man; 3) educate and train environmental specialists here in the field. Some reserves that preserve a typical area of a natural zone in its original form are included in the international system of biosphere reserves. Biosphere reserves are standards of the most diverse natural zones of the Earth in their natural state. They are the property of all humanity. As you know, a reserve is a piece of land or water that is completely and for an unlimited time free from economic use and from other human influences. Nature reserve system of Russia

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INTERNATIONAL BIOSPHERE RESERVES In the USSR and Russia, many reserves that already existed at that time acquired the status of international biosphere reserves. After all, many of the ideas of domestic scientists that formed the basis for the creation of our nature reserves, were also aimed at creating such a network of undisturbed standards of different natural zones. There are now several hundred biosphere reserves in the world. Of these, 28 are located in the territory Russian Federation, for example: Name of the reserve Subject of the Russian Federation Natural area Area, thousand hectares Astrakhan Astrakhan region semi-deserts 68 Barguzinsky Republic of Buryatia mountain taiga 374 Voronezhsky Lipetsk, Voronezh region. forest-steppe 31 Caucasian Krasnodar region, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Adygea. highlands, subtropical forests 280 “Kedrovaya Pad” Primorsky Krai coniferous-broad-leaved forests 18 Prioksko-Terrasny Moscow region. broad-leaved, coniferous-broad-leaved forests 5

Biological diversity (BD) is the totality of all forms of life inhabiting our planet. This is what makes Earth different from other planets solar system. BR is the richness and diversity of life and its processes, including the diversity of living organisms and their genetic differences, as well as the diversity of the places where they exist. BR is divided into three hierarchical categories: diversity among members of the same species (genetic diversity), between various types and between ecosystems. Research global problems BR at the gene level is a matter of the future.

The most authoritative assessment of species diversity was carried out by UNEP in 1995. According to this estimate, the most likely number of species is 13-14 million, of which only 1.75 million, or less than 13%, have been described. The highest hierarchical level of biological diversity is ecosystem, or landscape. At this level, patterns of biological diversity are determined primarily by zonal landscape conditions, then by local features of natural conditions (topography, soils, climate), as well as the history of the development of these territories. The greatest diversity of species is (in descending order): moist equatorial forests, coral reefs, dry tropical forests, moist temperate forests, oceanic islands, landscapes of the Mediterranean climate, treeless (savanna, steppe) landscapes.

According to the UNEP Global Biodiversity Assessment (1995), more than 30,000 species of animals and plants are at risk of extinction. Over the past 400 years, 484 animal species and 654 plant species have disappeared.

Reasons for the current accelerated decline in biological diversity-

1) fast growth population and economic development, bringing enormous changes to the living conditions of all organisms and ecological systems of the Earth;

2) increased migration of people, growth of international trade and tourism;

3) increasing pollution of natural waters, soil and air;

4) insufficient attention to the long-term consequences of actions that destroy the conditions of existence of living organisms, exploit natural resources and introduce non-native species;

5) the impossibility in a market economy to assess the true value of biological diversity and its losses.

Over the past 400 years, the main direct causes of extinction of animal species were:

1) introduction of new species, accompanied by displacement or extermination of local species (39% of all lost animal species);

2) destruction of living conditions, direct withdrawal of territories inhabited by animals and their degradation, fragmentation, increased edge effect (36% of all lost species);

3) uncontrolled hunting (23%);

4) Other reasons (2%).

The main reasons for the need to preserve genetic diversity.

The economic feasibility of preserving biodiversity is determined by the use of wild biota to meet the various needs of society in the fields of industry, agriculture, recreation, science and education: for the selection of domestic plants and animals, the genetic reservoir necessary for updating and maintaining the sustainability of varieties, the manufacture of medicines, as well as for providing the population with food, fuel, energy, timber, etc.

There are many ways to protect biodiversity. At the species level, there are two main strategic directions: in situ and out of habitat. Protecting biodiversity at the species level is an expensive and time-consuming path, possible only for selected species, but unattainable to protect the entire wealth of life on Earth. The main focus of the strategy should be at the ecosystem level, so that systematic ecosystem management ensures the protection of biological diversity at all three hierarchical levels.
The most effective and relatively economical way to protect biological diversity at the ecosystem level is protected areas.

In accordance with the classification of the World Conservation Union, there are 8 types of protected areas:

1.Reserve. The goal is to preserve nature and natural processes in an undisturbed state.

2.National park. The goal is to preserve natural areas of national and international importance for scientific research, education and recreation. These are usually large areas in which the use of natural resources and other material human impacts are not permitted.

3.Nature monument. These are usually small areas.
4.Managed natural reserves. The collection of some natural resources is permitted under the control of the administration.

5.Protected landscapes and coastal species. These are picturesque mixed natural and cultivated areas with the preservation of traditional land use.
Statistics on protected areas usually include lands of categories 1-5.

6. Resource reserve created to prevent premature use of the territory.

7. An anthropological reserve created to preserve the traditional way of life of the indigenous population.

8.Territory for the multi-purpose use of natural resources, focused on the sustainable use of water, forests, flora and fauna, pastures and for tourism.
There are two additional categories that overlap with the above eight.

9.Biosphere reserves. They are created to preserve biological diversity. They include several concentric zones of varying degrees of use: from a zone of complete inaccessibility (usually in the central part of the reserve) to a zone of reasonable, but quite intensive exploitation.

10.World Heritage Sites. They are created to protect unique natural features of global importance. Management is carried out in accordance with the World Heritage Convention.

In total, there are about 10,000 protected areas (categories 1-5) in the world with a total area of 9.6 million km, or 7.1% of the total land area (excluding glaciers). The goal that the World Conservation Union sets for the world community is to achieve the expansion of protected areas to a size constituting 10% of the area of each large plant formation (biome) and, therefore, the world as a whole. This would contribute not only to the protection of biodiversity, but also to increasing the sustainability of the geographical environment as a whole.

The strategy of expanding the number and area of protected areas is in conflict with the use of land for other purposes, especially in view of the growing world population. Therefore, to protect biological diversity, it is necessary, along with protected areas, to increasingly improve the use of “ordinary” inhabited lands and the management of populations of wild species, not only endangered ones, and their habitats on such lands. It is necessary to apply such techniques as zoning of areas according to the degree of use, creating corridors connecting land masses with less anthropogenic pressure, reducing the degree of fragmentation of biodiversity hotspots, managing ecotones, conserving natural wetlands, managing populations of wild species and their habitats.

Effective ways to protect biological diversity include bioregional management of large areas and waters, as well as international agreements on this issue. The UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992) adopted the International Convention on Biological Diversity.

An important agreement is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. There are also a number of other conventions protecting various aspects of biological resources and biodiversity: the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the Convention on the Conservation of Wetlands, the Whale Protection Convention, etc. Along with global conventions, there are also numerous regional and bilateral agreements governing specific biodiversity issues.

Unfortunately, for now it can be stated that, despite numerous measures, the accelerated erosion of the world's biological diversity continues. However, without these protections, the rate of biodiversity loss would be even greater.

The concept of biological diversity includes all species of plants, animals and microorganisms, as well as ecosystems, integral part which they are. This term covers varying degrees natural diversity, including both the number of species and their frequency of occurrence.

Maintaining the biological diversity of plant and animal species on our planet is important both for modern life people and for future generations. According to various expert estimates, the total number of species of plants, animals and microorganisms on Earth ranges from 5 to 30 million. Of this number, about 2 million are described and have a species name. It is known that most species are found in the tropics, and many have not yet been described.

The entire history of mankind is associated with the use of plants, animals and microorganisms to ensure normal conditions of its existence, but it uses only a few thousand species for its own purposes. Thus, our cultivated plants, which number only 150 species, are widely used as a source of food, and only 5000 species from total number 265–000 have ever been cultivated by humans. We still don't know enough about beneficial properties plants and animals that could be used in agriculture, medicine and other sectors of our economy. The use of microorganisms is probably only in the early stages.

The widespread use of fauna by humans began with the hunting of large mammals, fish and birds. The development of agriculture has led to the reduction of forests. One of the results of such management has been a decrease in biological diversity. Currently, there are serious concerns about the rapid decline in the number of species on Earth, especially in last years. The loss of biological diversity is both the loss of a valuable gene pool and the loss of ecosystem stability. The rapid decline in diversity at the species and ecosystem level (especially tropical ecosystems), according to experts, could lead to a situation where we could lose about 1 million species in the next 20-30 years. This means that we will lose up to 100 species every day. If we judge the loss of species from the point of view of genetic engineering, taking into account that each life form is unique, then the extinction of just one wild species means the irreversible loss of 1,000 to 10,000 genes with unknown potential properties.

Currently, there is no ecosystem that is not, to one degree or another, experiencing the powerful impact of the results economic activity humans, which ultimately leads to a restructuring in the species composition of communities or to the loss individual species, however, the relationship between diversity and ecosystem sustainability hardly fits into the simple formula “the more the merrier.” Tropical forest or coral reef communities, with their enormous species diversity, are more resilient to fluctuations in the numbers of their native inhabitants than communities at higher latitudes, but they are less resilient to disturbances from outside sources, including anthropogenic impacts. The loss of biodiversity has serious scientific, aesthetic and moral implications.

Reserve. Photo: Natalia V

Disturbances in species diversity inevitably lead to disturbances in the structure of communities and the destruction of entire ecosystems and, ultimately, can lead to environmental disasters. It is known that in our country the ecosystems of the steppes and the ecosystem of the Aral Sea are under threat of extinction; lakes Baikal and Sevan, the Baltic and Caspian Sea, as well as the northern regions of our country in the zone of their intensive development. All over the world, deserts are advancing and tropical forests are shrinking, and it is in the tropics that the most species are found. All this causes natural anxiety.

The conservation of biological diversity is not only the preservation of the ecosystem, but, most importantly, it is the preservation of those natural environmental conditions in which normal life and human activity.

To discover, systematize and preserve biological diversity, it is necessary to train a new generation of conservation biologists and give priority to museums, universities, environmental organizations and other structures working in this field. Such an orientation will require a significant shift in existing political and social thinking. Governments and people around the world must understand that biological diversity is extremely valuable to human existence. Of course, change can happen if we understand that as we continue to destroy biological communities, we are actually losing something valuable.

Obviously, it is most advisable to preserve sufficiently large, species-rich ecosystems, in which all the species included in them will be preserved. This is the general line in the struggle to preserve the species diversity of life - the creation of territories in which economic activity is partially or completely prohibited, and the presence of people is limited to security staff and researchers. Such areas are called nature reserves. “Softer” forms of protection are possible, in which certain forms of activity are permitted, for example Agriculture, and others are prohibited - hunting, fishing, logging. Such territories with limited economic use are called reserves. There is a sufficient variety of forms of protection of natural complexes in the world, but only nature reserves with strict regime protections are true reserves for wildlife species.

According to calculations made by various authors, it is possible to stop the catastrophic extinction of species by creating new reserves if 30 to 40% of the land area is completely withdrawn from economic use and transferred to a regime of strict protection.

Of course, reserves should cover all soil and climatic zones and be created primarily in the most populated countries and regions where nature is especially strong pressure civilizations and where the number of threatened species is particularly high. It is obvious that in the coming decades humanity will not yet be able to “share” the Earth with wildlife and the necessary areas will not be able to be made protected.

Another option to save rare species consists in increasing the number of zoos and botanical gardens, breeding endangered species in captivity with the subsequent return of the multiplied species to the natural environment. There are many examples of successful conservation of individual species in this way. For example, the European bison, which by the early 1930s had survived only in captivity, was successfully bred in nature reserves under semi-free conditions and then released into the wild. At the same time, since crossing with a closely related species, the American bison, was used to restore the species, a sufficient number of “not purebred” bison were obtained, which formed the basis of the bison herd of the Caucasus Nature Reserve. “Pure-blooded” bison now live in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Oksky and Prioksko-Terrasny reserves. Their numbers have exceeded critical levels, although the genetic consequences of the stage at which inbreeding was inevitable are still being discovered, and this requires continued breeding work.

Ussurian tiger. Photo: Jean

The “last line of defense” in the fight against the decline in species diversity of life on Earth is genetic cryobanks, the creation of which is just beginning. Back at the beginning of the 20th century, soon after technology learned to produce liquefied gases with very low temperatures boiling, it was found that many plant seeds and even some animals, such as tardigrades, adapted to drying, do not lose viability after freezing in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -196 degrees. A new branch of biology has emerged that studies the effects of low and ultra-low temperatures on living cells, tissues and organisms - cryobiology. It turned out that main reason Cell death during freezing is the destruction of cellular structures by ice crystals growing in cellular and intercellular fluids. Natural and artificial cryoprotectants have been found - substances that influence the formation of ice crystals in the cytoplasm and thus prevent the formation of large crystals that destroy cellular structures.

If you treat wild animals with enough care, many of them are able to live next to humans. For example, one of the best feathered singers of our forests, the blackbird, which still lives in our most remote forests, rarely visited by people, has already become a typical bird of city parks in many European countries. In recent years, beavers in Canada have begun to willingly settle on rivers near cities where hunting is prohibited.
The development of norms and principles of land use that optimally combine the interests of the economic use of land and the preservation of the species diversity of the original landscape complexes of various territories is one of the most important tasks, the solution of which is necessary to ensure a prosperous future for people on Earth and in every country.