Research Paper on:
Examination of Biodiversity

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
It is interesting to say the least knowing the diversity between one pinch of soil that can contain more than ten billion bacteria, up through to entire regions, or  hotspots, that are rife with not only different species but also endangered species, from insects up to the largest of mammals. This paper will focus on some of these  hotspots as well as further serve to explain what biodiversity is. BIODIVERSITY According to some researchers, species are now becoming extinct "at least 100 and possibly as  much as 10,000 times faster than new ones are being born" (Wilson 2002, 86). Many experts believe that at the present rate of environmental change half the worlds surviving species  could be gone by the end of the century. Hotspots are considered by conservation biologists to be those natural areas on the globe that sustain unusually large numbers of  species which are endangered and are not found elsewhere. "The most familiar hotspots include the Philippines, Californias Mediterranean-climate coast, and Madagascar. Less well known are Choco-Darien-Western Ecuador, the Western  Ghats of India, and the Succulent Karoo of South Africa" (Wilson 2002, 86). If one were to consider only twenty-five of the top hotspots on the planet these twenty-five  would occupy only "1.4 percent of the planets land surface, roughly equivalent to Alaska and Texas combined" (2002, 86), and yet amazingly enough these are home to more than forty-four  percent of the plant species known to man and up to thirty-five percent of the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians (Wilson 2002). Fortunately more and more attention is being paid  to these areas in the way of conservation efforts. But is it too little too late? One must wonder about the effect of man and his ability to