- Research 6 regions and make a chart, 3 containing good biodiversity and 3 lacking biodiversity from your knowledge based off of the module 10 reading.
- Pick 2 regions, one containing good biodiversity and one containing bad biodiversity from the chart above and explain the reasons as to why the biodiversity is good or bad.
- Think about your hometown. Would you consider it has good or bad biodiversity? Why do you think this? What are ways to improve biodiversity in your hometown for the future?
1.
| Good Biodiversity | Bad Biodiversity |
| Amazon Rainforest | Sahara Desert |
| Pacific Ocean | Antarctica |
| The Cape Floristic Region | Nigeria |
- One of the regions I researched containing good biodiversity is the Amazon Rainforest. Being one of the biggest rainforests in the world, the Amazon is home to more than half the world’s biodiversity. The amazon has such great biodiversity from both anthropocentric and ecocentric reasons. Examples of anthropocentrism in the amazon relate to creating medicines from their natural resources and using their natural crops (fruits and sugar cane) for food. Ecocentricism in the amazon is very complex. Each relationship between species has a different outcome. Hunting, preying, and eating and reproducing are a natural and balanced activities each specie experiences, creating extreme biodiversity in the area. On the other hand, Nigeria is a region that is lacking biodiversity due to deforestation. They are one of the most specie threatened regions in the world. Over the past years Nigeria has destroyed 55.7% of its forest. This deforestation resulted from being a developing country. The trees are used for logging, timber exports, agriculture, domestic purposes, and fuel, which are all problematic factors.
- I live in a suburban town. There are many neighborhoods and commercial buildings but there is also a bay and unused land. I wouldn’t say my town has great biodiversity but I don’t think it has terrible biodiversity. I think the buildings take away the natural land species live in, car pollution can kill species, and garbage lying around can also cause a lot of harm to the biodiversity in my area. However, the bay is extremely clean and houses many fish and the land is fairly clean and healthy. Some ways to improve the biodiversity in my town is to use less cars, stop building more buildings, and cleaning up the streets. However I think it is impossible to abandon the use of automobiles, I think it is possible to reduce the amount a person drives a car a day. I believe those three factors are the main reason for the decreasing biodiversity. There are towns that are much filthier than my town that gives me inspiration to keep my town clean and healthy to help the biodiversity stay alive.
Hi Samantha! I thought your creation of your own learning activity was really great! I like how you not only incorporated information from the module, but also created questions about your hometown. I thought so much about talking about the bad biodiversity hotspots that I didn’t think about contrasting it with places that aren’t biodiversity hotspots like you did. I think it’s really important to realize those places that aren’t yet biodiversity hotspots so we can prevent them from becoming biodiversity hotspots. Here’s a link to my blog http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/12/not-so-hot-biodiversity-hotspots/
Hi Samantha. I enjoyed reading your creative assignment and well-worded response. I noticed that you chose to compare a large number of regions rather than closely examine one region like I chose to do. I think doing this provided you with more room to work with in your post and you made use of it by talking about a number of diverse regions. Adding in the question about the student’s hometown was good because you made them connect to something more personal. If you would like to check out my post, you can find it here: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/12/biodiversity-in-the-national-parks/.
Hey Samantha! My name is Caren, feel free to check out my blog:
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/12/module-10-biodiversity/
I really liked the way you organized good biodiversity versus bad biodiversity and expanded on it. I agree that the Amazon Rainforest has lots of biodiversity because it is rich with so many different forms of wildlife. My hometown seems very similar to yours, therefore I agree that if suburban neighborhoods took collective action to decrease car usage, decrease the amount of unsustainable building and took care of the environment around us, that we could impact biodiversity. Although I mentioned different issues in my blog, we both wrote about how pollution is one factor that threatens biodiversity.