Healthy ecosystems clean our water, purify our air, maintain our soil, regulate the climate, recycle nutrients and provide us with food. Biodiversity is the key indicator of the health of an ecosystem. A wide variety of species will cope better with threats than a limited number of them in large populations.

Increase ecosystem productivity; each species in an ecosystem has a specific niche—a role to play. Support a larger number of plant species and, therefore, a greater variety of crops. Protect freshwater resources. Promote soils formation and protection.

Biodiversity plays a crucial role in human nutrition through its influence on world food production, as it ensures the sustainable productivity of soils and provides the genetic resources for all crops, livestock, and marine species harvested for food.

Biodiversity gives resilience—from the microbes that contribute to the formation of the human biome to the genes that help us adapt to stress in the environment—supports all forms of livelihoods, may help regulate disease, and is necessary for physical, mental, and spiritual health and social well-being.

Reason for Loss of Biodiversity

• Habitat destruction. Habitat destruction is a major cause of biodiversity loss.
• Invasive Species.
• Over-exploitation of Species.
• Global Warming and Climate Change.
• Pollution.
• Human Overpopulation.
• Natural Calamities.
• Genetic Pollution.

6 Ways to Preserve Biodiversity

1. Support local farms. Regularly buying from small local farmers at stands or markets helps to keep dollars in the local economy and supports agricultural efforts to conserve biodiversity.
2. Save the bees!
3. Plant local flowers, fruits and vegetables.
4. Take shorter showers!
5. Respect local habitats.
6. Know the source!

So we can say that the human doesn’t have a very important role to play in sustaining diversity rather the presence of human being is becoming the cause of destruction of biodiversity. humans won’t be able to survive without biodiversity. Greater is the biodiversity, better the chances of survival.

More in Center for Biodiversity & Conservation. The term biodiversity (from “biological diversity”) refers to the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and can encompass the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life.

Direct or indirect actions by humans have resulted in the decrease of biodiversity. Some of the direct human drivers are changes in local land use and land cover, species introductions or removals, external inputs, harvesting, air and water pollution, and climate change (Climate, 2005).

The greatest of all threats to Earth’s biodiversity, however, is deforestation. In recent history, deforestation has led to approximately 36 percent of all extinctions, and as the habitat loss accelerates, that number is bound to increase [source: University of Michigan].