Assisted by
Dr. Tobias Schneck (SGN)
Steven Seet (IZW)
Silke Ehle (IZW)
Utilising texts and images provided bythe biodiversity. representatives of numerous Leibniz Institutes, assisted. bythe Working Group on Press and Public Relations inthe Leibniz Association underthe direction of Josef Zens.designed and produced by. UNICOM GmbH • Hentigstr.
Printed by. Druckpunkt
Cover photo by. © E. Flückinger, Pixelio.de
The Biodiversity Research Themes at Individual Leibniz Institutes4the President’s Preface.dear Readers,Our brochure on biodiversity researchinthe Leibniz. Association seems to have touched anerve with people: none of our publications has ever been snapped up. as quickly as this one. Which is why we have decided to run areprint - after all,the issue is just as topicaland urgent as ever. Biodiversity and related research. have long since ceased to be peripheral themes and are. now occupying all levels of society.decision-makersin small rural communitiesare under exactlythe same. obligation to keep an eye on conserving ecosystems. as heads of governmentin large countries. And to this. end they need scientifc advice, i. E. political consultancy based on intimate knowledge ofthe feld. The commitment to preservethe diversity of nature is nothing. less than acommitment to our own future. This is why. we consciously chosethe sub-title we did: Biodiversity. is anational responsibility. in
We want to enhancethe networking within this diversity and have thus bundled our expertiseinthe feld. of biodiversity. The Leibniz Network on Biodiversity. has been formed and already started work. It is coordinated by Professor Klement Tockner,the Director ofthe Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland. Fisheries (IGB)in
The Leibniz Association attaches great importance to this initiative which originatedinthe institutes themselves, and weare especially grateful to Professor Tockner who has agreed to be spokesperson forthe network. The Executive Board. explicitly supportsthe network and has appointed Professor Volker Mosbrugger ofthe Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (SGN)in Frankfurt/Main asthe Board’s representative on biodiversity. A number of5
Greeting. very active thematic groups have already been formed. withinthe Leibniz Network on Biodiversity, dealing indepth with various aspects ofthe research feld. If you. turn to page 24 of this brochure you will fnd alist. ofthe institutesinthe Leibniz Association conducting. biodiversity research.
Thereare some areas of research like health, climateand energy,in which public outreach is exceptionally. important;in avery special way, biodiversity is one. of them. It is often human behaviour - be itin thefeld of tourism, industrial production, road traffc or. settlement activity - that leads to aloss of biodiversity.
Carving up habitats, incipient pollution and overexploitationare but afew examples. Soin addition to political consultancy, we attach great importance to disseminating information tothe public.
And this isthe reason why our institutes decided to holdthe Leibniz Biodiversity Weekin September ***
Special programmes and guided tours were organisedin seven German towns to demonstrate tothe public. just how exciting and important biodiversity research. is. One focus wasthe scientifc meeting pointin
I am especially grateful tothe coordinators of this. brochure: Professor Volker Mosbrugger ofthe Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (SGN) and Professor Heribert Hofer ofthe Leibniz Institute for Zooand Wildlife Research (IZW)in
Without them,this review would not have been possible.
This brochure is designed as an introduction tothe diversity of our institutes involvedinthe feld of biodiversity and allthe issues immediately relating to it.
Happy, informative reading!. Sincerely,Prof. Dr. Dr. h. C. Ernst Th. Rietschel,Präsident der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft6
Tsity) is currently developing into amega-topic. This he research feld of “biodiversity” (biological diver became particularly clear atthe 9th UN Confer- -ence on Biological Diversity (Convention on Biological. Diversity)in Bonnin May 2008 which was attended by. environment ministers and delegations from more than. 190 countries. The aim ofthe conference was to make. signifcant advancesin driving forward international efforts to protect biological diversity. Media reporting inthe major daily newspapers and weekly magazines as. well as on radio and television was duly extensive.
Loss of biodiversity and its consequences. Growing interestinthe topic of “biodiversity” is certainly legitimate because biodiversity -the diversity of lifein its entirety, fromthe diversity of genes via thediversity of species and ecosystems tothe diversity of habitats (biomes) andthe interaction between them - is currently being degraded at an astounding rate at all. levelsinthe hierarchy:1
Diversity of Life - avaluable resource. • Every year, an area of some 13 million ha. is subject to deforestation.
• Important ecosystemsare threatened: roughly 6 million ha. ofthe remaining virgin forestsare wiped out. annually; nearly 80% of coral reefs have been destroyed; more than 30% of mangroves have been. razedinthe last 20 years.
•the rate at which speciesare becoming extinct isa. hundred to athousand times greater than normal;. nearly 40% of all known speciesare threatened by. extinction, whereby we probably only know about. 2%-10% of allthe species that actually exist - important habitats such asthe deep seaare still largely. unexplored.
• Sincethe 19th century, 75% ofthe cultured varieties. of crop plant have died out.
The most important question is: how necessary is it to preventthe further degradation of biodiversity? Often,ethical and romantically idealised argumentsare used. asthe main reason for conserving biological diversity:human beings do not havethe right to destroy life that. has developed over millions of years;the diversity of organisms and habitats must be preserved. Leaving. asidethe arguments for or againstthe soundness of this positionin scientifc and philosophical terms, another purely utilitarian argument wins through at this. point: biodiversity has to be conserved because humans depend on it. The fact thatthe biosphere merits. protection is thus an immediate result of its relative, i. E. conditional and limited “value” as aresource for human purposes, which comprises two components.
Ecosystem goods and services. Onthe one hand, biodiversity has an immediate utility value for human beingsin terms of its products(“ecosystem goods”). Numerous plantsare used for. foodstuffs,the wood fromthe trees for construction. material or paper production, as well as plant and animal substances for medical-pharmaceutical or chemical. products. Thusthe degradation of agrobiodiversity isa. serious cause for concern:the disappearance of potentially important useful plants and animals as well as theextinction of as yet unknown and unexamined species. which might contain substances or genetic information. of importance to medical or technical applications. in addition to this, there is an indirect utility value inherentin biodiversity which is aproduct of its “service. effects. ” These fgurative services includethe pollination of useful plants, natural pest control,the regulationand stabilisation of major materials cycles, like those of Regenerative “value” of near-natural ecosystems(© Mandy Kretschel,Pixelio.de)7
water and carbon,the minimisation of erosion and theinfluence on climate, air, soil and water quality. The aesthetic or regenerative “value” of near-natural ecosystems (alsointhe sense of health care) is yet another ofthe “services” provided by biodiversity. All these service. effectsare common goods and, as such,are extremely. important, indeed vitally important. However, they are. usually ignored, or at least underestimated. To this day,their economic relevance has barely been investigated.
3the value of biodiversity forthe economy as awhole. As aresult,the total value and yield of biodiversity forthe economy as awhole have hardly been quantifed.
A.comprehensive study conductedin 1997 (Nature, Vol.
387) putsthe fgure forthe amount we extract fromthe biosphere every year at about $33 trillion - most. of it outsidethe marketplace. Other estimates (by Lord. Robert May, for example,the former President of theRoyal Societyinthe
Quite apart from correct quantifcation, it is certainly. now quite clear thatthe affluence and well-being ofthe human raceare both directly and indirectly dependent onthe ecosystem products and services.
Any attempt to predictthe ecological and economic. damage potential inherentinthe loss of biodiversity,which has already occurred and will probably continue to occur, faces amajor problem: It is generally known. that biodiversity,the “hard disc of life”, is gradually. being deleted, but it is impossible to assessthe consequences this might have with any degree of reliability.
The gradual degradation of biodiversity is like removing random bricks from aperfectly sound building. As. long asthe staticsare not affectedthe building remains. standing and can be lived in. But,in contrast to abuilding, nowadays, no-one is able to name allthe “structurally” relevant parts ofthe ecosystem; smaller or larger. parts, or indeedthe whole system might collapse at any. time. The development of processes and measures to predict and prevent such problems is one ofthe debts. modern biodiversity research is required to pay.
Biodiversity researchinthe Leibniz Associationthe Leibniz Association has accepted this signifcant. global challenge and sees it as anational responsibility.
Biodiversity research is one ofthe most important featuresin its scientifc portfolio: at 13 Leibniz institutes it. is biodiversity research that shapesthe profle, at afurther 16 institutes substantial contributionsare made to investigating biodiversity and its ecological, economicand social signifcance. This brochure outlinesthe major. challenges facing biodiversity research and provides an. overview ofthe burning issues being addressed by theLeibniz Association today.
Extinctinthe wild since 2008: Southern White Rhinoceros(Ceratotherium simum simum); Northern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni)
A virus reservoir:the cassava plant [German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ)]. Attaching asatellitebased necklace transmitter to an African. elephant (Loxodonta. africana) [Leibniz. Institute for Zoo and. Wildlife Research(IZW***
Tof which approximately one millionare just spe cies of insect; another 300,000are plants. Vastly hereare currently som***
8 million known speciesmore species of plants and animals do actually live on. earth: estimates based primarily onthe natural correlation between area and diversity of species suggest. thereare 20 to 100 million species. Thusthe task of merely surveyingthe species alive today is monumental. Whilst several thousand speciesare discovered every year -the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (SGN)in Frankfurt/Main records about 50***
new species annually;the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ) more than 80 new. species, strains and genera of microorganism - this is. actually just adropinthe proverbial ocean. Investigations have shown that it takes ascientist roughly ayear to record anew species. If we work onthe assumption. that thereare about 50 million as yet unknown species. of organism, it would approximately 50 million years. for one scientist to survey and record them all, or 50years if one million taxonomists acrossthe globe all devoted themselves tothe tas***
Taxonomy and systematics. However, taxonomists and systematicians, who deal. with recording and classifying organisms,are themselves something of an endangered species amongst biologists. This particular specialisation is (hardly) taught at universities any more, and there is now alack of specialists for many groups of organisms both at homeand abroad. As aresult,the shortage of taxonomists. will increasingly become alimiting factorin advancing research projects likethe ecology of evolution orthe investigation of natural substances. Ultimately, any. valorisation of biodiversity (see below) is based on taxonom***
Of allthe major science organisationsin
Surveying and Recording Biodiversity. tion to extensive expeditions, wide-ranging feld workand feld investigations.
Collections. One ofthe most important but frequently underrated. aspects of taxonomic work isthe recording of speciesinthe form of collections: collectionsarethe archives. of life and alsothe “prototype metre” for biodiversity.
Exactly what makes Bellis perennis adaisy, Pan troglodytes achimpanzee or any ofthe other 1
8 known species exactly what theyare is determined bythe holotype, i.
E. the original specimen that was classifed whenthe species was frst recorded and is keptin one of thecollections for general reference. Inthe three major collections alone -the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK)in
microorganisms and cell cultures and its facilities for.despatching biological materials aroundthe globe inaccordance withthe strictest security standards is internationally unique.
It goes without saying thatthe value ofthe collections. increases with time and every new specimen. They are. archives of life and, as such, acentral research infrastructurein biodiversity research; they not only provide. insights intothe passage of evolution but also into thechangesinthe environment, pollution, orthe causes. of extinction. By comparison with plants preserved inherbaria sincethe 18th and 19th centuries, we can. observe that today, many plants have adapted to thesignifcant increaseinthe carbon dioxide contentin theatmosphere by greatly reduced stomatal density, which. improves their water usage effciency; stomataare little. pores onthe leaves which terrestrial plants use for gas. exchange.
The value ofthe collections is further enhanced by current mass anthropogenic extinction which is 100 to 1,000 times greater than normal background extinction.
It is caused, above all, by changesin land use, nonnative invasive species (neubiota), pathogens and climate change. In future, many ofthe species wiped out. by humans will only continue to existin collections: theQuagga,the Great Auk and Steller’s Sea Coware justa. few famous example***
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