Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth.
It encompasses diversity the number of species of plants and animals, the genetic diversity within and between these species and the different biomes and ecosystems of which they are part of.
These ecosystems can include the rainforest, tundra and desert.
Biodiversity also includes the diversity within microscopic organisms, including bacteria, viruses and fungi.
How does biodiversity affect us?
Biodiversity provides us with food directly or through pollination, medical discoveries and ecosystem services.
The latter include everything from cleaning water and absorbing chemicals, which wetlands do, to providing oxygen for us to breathe.
Threats to biodiversity
The Earth’s biodiversity is in decline due deforestation, land-use change, agricultural intensification, over-consumption of natural resources, pollution and climate change.
Some scientists believe that there is enough evidence to confirm that we are in the Earth’s sixth mass extinction event.
This is where there is a widespread loss of 75 percent of species over a relatively short geological time period of two million years.
There have been five mass extinctions so far, perhaps the most well-known one is the loss of the dinosaurs caused by the asteroid
But this current mass extinction is different, because it is caused by humans.