1. How does biodiversity come in the equation with other sections of this course? (150-250 words)
2. What is the biodiversity where I live? (150 – 250 words)

1. Biodiversity is an incredibly important piece in the puzzle that is our planet. The increasing number of species in this planet allowed it to be the planet we know today, starting with microbial life that first dominated the oceans and allowed it to have enough oxygen to allow for multicellular life to thrive and conquer land. In essence, we highly depend on it to even exist, and to have a continued existence. Our food for example is a part of this life which allowed us to move forward. For millennia we used horses to travel between cities and help the process of human development get to where it is now. It is such a crucial part that we have an ethical obligation to defend it as much as possible and to raise awareness of the damage that we can potentially do to it. We must develop methods to achieve a sustainable development, as right now we are in the path of potential destruction of much of this diverse planet we depend on. Coral reefs are dying. Deforestation is rampant in the Amazon. These actions have and will cause potential natural hazards that affect vast amount of people. It also contributes to climate change as the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen in our atmosphere starts becoming disproportionate. The sheer number of factors linked with biodiversity are still being counted.
2. In Puerto Rico one would experience a very tropical fauna and flora. Among the most unique animals we have is called the coqui. The coqui is a frog which goes “coquí” during the night and before rainfall. It is actually native just to the island and they’re everywhere. So much so that we use it as a symbol to represent ourselves. Oftentimes outsiders find them annoying during the night because they’re so present. Us natives just find them to be background noise. Being such a small place we have a pretty diverse set of life though. We have a dry area where you would find cacti and other dry plants with its own set of animals. We also have the only rainforest in the US where it is rich and full of life. We have our coastal animals with pretty safe waters (no sharks). There’s also a system of caverns around the northern part where we find a completely different variations of animals such as bats and unique insects. Puerto Rico is so diverse it would take one a solid week of traveling through it in order to fully experience what we are as a whole. It’s an incredibly beautiful place which I feel really lucky to have been raised in and now about to leave it to live in the states permanently with a heavy heart. I will never forget the sheer beauty I experienced and its diverse culture and environment.

View from a mountain

El Yunque rainforest

Sunset at Arecibo beach

Coqui frog which I took from here.