ABSTRACT
Many of us are aware of the issue of ‘biodiversity’ in biology. In nature, ecosystems host a wide variety of plants, animals and microbes which rely on each other in complex ways to survive. Because of human activity, many species are now becoming endangered or extinct. If many extinctions happen at the same time in an ecosystem, biologists and ecologists worry that the whole system will be thrown out of balance, causing further extinctions. When plants and animals are threatened with extinction, biodiversity campaigners try to raise public awareness and funds to protect such species, for example the Sumatran tiger, the mountain gorilla and the whooping crane. At the moment, so many species are becoming endangered that biologists talk of a ‘biodiversity crisis’ in progress.
