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what is a biodiversity hotspot? why is india consideres as a mega biodiversity hotspot?


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Sanina 9th Dec, 2021
Answers (2)
Parneet 18th Jan, 2022
Hello
Hope you are doing well
A biodiversity hotspot can be defined as a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that are threatened by human habitation.  The current hotspots cover more than 15.7% of the land surface area, but have lost around 85% of their habitat. Example can be a biodiversity hotspots are forest habitat.
The reason India is called a mega diversity center is  because of the large number, the variety of organisms are found in this country. There are over 40,000 species of plants and over 90,000 species of animals living across a diverse geographical landscape, comprising of sea-coast, mountain, desert, forest, grassland, and marshland ecosystems, thus India is called as a mega biodiversity hotspot.
India hosts 4 biodiversity hotspots: the Himalayas, the Western Ghats, the Indo-Burma region and Sundaland (including the Nicobar Islands).

roshni 18th Jan, 2022

Hello,

Biodiversity Hotspots :-

The hotspots provide crucial ecosystem services for human life, such as provision of clean water, pollination and climate regulation. Biodiversity hotspots are forest habitats  as they constantly face destruction and degradation due to illegal logging, pollution and deforestation. According to Myers 2000 edition of the hotspot-map, a region only qualifies as a biodiversity hotspot if it meets two criteria. To be classified as a biodiversity hotspot, a region must have lost at least 70 percent of its original natural vegetation, usually due to human activity. There are over 30 recognized biodiversity hotspots in the world.

These hotspots are helpful in many ways like protecting natural resources like pure water, soil, maintenance of the ecosystem, controlling pollution and recycling the nutrients of the ecosystem. Biodiversity hotspots are also a good source of many of the medicinal resources, pharmaceutical drugs, and wood products. The biodiversity importance of hotspots is due to the high vulnerability of habitats and high irreplaceability of species found within large geographic regions. Social-cultural values – Given the richness of hotspot ecosystems, hotspots are often areas which offer essential ecosystem services.


India is one of the megadiverse countries where diversity of global species is found. that's because :-

  1. A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region that is both a significant reservoir of biodiversity and is threatened with destruction. Mega biodiversity refers to the diversity in various life forms.
  2. A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under threat from humans.
  3. A hotspot is an area which faces serious threat from human activities and supports unique biodiversity (endemic, threatened, rare species) with representatives of evolutionary of speciation and extinction.
  4. There are 4 biodiversity hotspots (the area where large species diversity is present) in India, they are Himalayas, Indo-Burma, Sundaland, The Western Ghats and Sri Lanka.
  5. India has the maximum number of rich biodiversity hotspots having a high level of species richness and high level of endemism i.e. species are confined to a particular region and that species do not exist anywhere else in the world. It has four exceptionally high biodiversity regions- Western ghats, Sundaland, Indo Burma, and Himalaya. India has four biodiversity hotspots out of 34 hotspots in the world. These hotspots have numerous endemic species of flora and fauna.



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