Biodiversity exploration,utilisation & conservation

FLORISTIC DIVERSITY: EXPLORATION, UTILISATION

& CONSERVATION

Invited Lecture in National Seminar on

Biodiversity- An Endless ExplorationSt. Aloysius College (Autonomous), Mangalore

February 22, 2010

Dr. M. Jayakara BhandaryDepartment of Botany

G. A. S. College, KarwarKarnataka, India

Email:jaikarb@yahoo.com

Biodiversity is “the variability among all living organisms from all sources, including, inter-alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems”.

CBD

WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY?

TOTAL WEALTH OF LIFE

ON EARTH……

PLANTS+ANIMALS+MICROORGANISMS+

ECOSYSTEMS WHICH INVOLVE THEM

GENES – GENETIC DIVERSITY

SPECIES – SPECIES DIVERSITY

ECOSYSTEMS - ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY

ESTIMATES….GLOBALAPPROXIMATION -

80 – 120 LAKH SPECIES

DISCOVERED & DESCRIBED SO FAR –

16 LAKH ONLYINDIA2.2% LAND AREA

7.5% SPECIES

(1.2 LAKH SPECIES)

ONE OF THE 12 MEGADIVERSITY NATIONS

THE BIODIVERSITY SUPER POWERS!

SPECIES DIVERSITY…. 

GROUP GLOBAL DIVERSITY

INDIA ENDEMICS

ProkaryotesFungiAlgaeAngiospermsInsectsMolluscsFishesAmphibiaReptilesBirdsMammals 

4,80069,00026,9002,50,0008,00,00050,00023,0004,2006,3009,0004,000

85023,0002,50017,50060,0005,0502,5002044461,250372

 -

--5,750---1101877044

30% of Plants (5750 Species ?)

• 400 higher vertebrates, 44 mammals

• 70 Birds, 187 reptiles, 110 amphibia …..

RICH in ENDEMIC SPECIES

Species restricted only to narrow regions

Eastern Himalaya & The Western Ghats Treasures of Endemics under serious threats

TWO among the 25 (Now 34) GLOBAL HOTSPOTS

INDIAN CENTRES OF ENDEMISM… 

GROUP Eastern Himalaya

Western Ghats

Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Angiosperms Reptiles Amphibia Mammals 

3,500 20 25 -

1, 720 91 84 7

144 23 2 -

Biodiversity Hotspots• Norman Myers 1988, 2000 • 18/25/34?• Centers of Diversity, endemism(1500spp)

and threat (70% lost).

1.4% Area, 60% Plants

The Western Ghats

1700 plants, 84 amphibia, 16 birds, 7 mammals –

Found no where else!

213 spp of endemic plants occur in Dakshina Kannada & Udupi Districts.

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Some Western Ghats endemics

Moullava spicata

Garcinia indica

Artocarpus hirsutaCalophyllum apetalumMyristica malabaricaVateria indica…

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KARNATAKA…

Diverse Ecosystems

(Forests, Grasslands, wetlands,

Mangroves, agri fields, etc.)

…Biologically Rich

22,000 species ?4,500 plants, 500 birds,

800 fishes, 160 reptiles,

160 mammals, 70 amphibians …

© Jayakara Bhandary

Floristic explorations – Pages from History

• Earliest Records of Medicinal Plants in Materia medica (1000 – 0 BC)

• Samhithas – Charaka (600 plants), Sushruta (760 Plants)

• Vrikshayurveda • Sarangadhara samhitha …

European Influence….

• Indian Botany reborn in the 16th century with the arrival of Portuguese.

• GARCIA DA ORTA – Physician, settled in Goa - OS COLOQUIOS in 1565 (observations on medicinal plants based on conversation with locals)

• Heinrich van Rheede – Dutch Governor of Malabar – HORTUS MALABARICUS

• 12 VOLUMES, 794 PLATES• Employed about 200 plant collectors, 15 local

physicians, Artists, etc.• Linnaeus used this work as a basis to name

many Indian plants in his Species Plantarum (1753).

18th Century…..

• Koenig – 1768 • William Roxburgh (Army surgeon)

– FATHER OF BOTANY IN INDIA – Plants of Coromandal Cost– Hortus Bengalensis– Flora Indica– Unpublished Icones (2533 colour plates)

• Flora of British India – J. D. Hooker – 7 vols. 1872-1897

Flora of Madras Presidency – Gamble 1915-1936

Flora of Bombay Presidency – T. Cooke 1901-08

….BSI, FRI, Universities etc continued explorations..

DIGITAL FLORAS…

• Isoglossa variegata -discovered in the Princess of Wales Conservatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

• among more than 250 new plant and fungus species discovered and described by the gardens' botanists in the past year.

20 new species were discovered in Brazil

Scientists have found over 350 new species in the Eastern Himalayas over the past ten years

• Impatiens namchabarwensis

Two new species each of bamboo and cinnamon and three species of ginger were among total 167 plants

discovered by scientists in 2008 in the country.

Cinnamomum Chartocerus

EndlessExploration…

BIODIVERSITY LOSS….

•20% in next 30 years?

•50% by end of 21st century ?

REASONS…..

•Natural extinction

•Habitat destruction

•Overexploitation …..

•HIPPO (Wilson)

Exotic weed invasion….

Ipomoea carnea

from S. AmericaEichornia crassipes

THREATENED PLANTS

DISAPPEARING PLANTS

DROSERAPITCHER PLANT

DIONEA

SPECIES BELIEVED TO BE EXTINCT ….RECENTLY RELOCATED

HUBBARDIA HEPTANEURON,

From Jog Falls, Karnataka, India

WHY SHOULD WE WORRY ?

MATERIAL RESOURCES

(Food, medicine, material needs…)

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

(Climate, Water , soil….)

ETHICS, AESTHETICS

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o Ethical

o Ecological

o Economic

o Aesthetic

o Evolutionary

REASONS TO SAVEBiodiversity

MEDICINAL PLANTS….

Akanayaka

Sarpagandha

Nela nelli

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BIODIVERSITY in traditional livelihoods

ENCASHING DIVERSITY…..

FUTURE POWERFUL TECHNOLOGIES GENE BASED.

BIOTECHNOLOGICAL WORLD – BIODIVERSITY IS BASE

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES TECHNOLOGY + ECONOMY.

WANT EASY, CHEAP ACCESS TO BIODIVERSITY RESOURCES AND RELATED KNOWLEDGE CONCENTRATED IN TROPICAL DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES RIGHTS + RETURNS.

THE BIODIVERSITY DIVIDE…

INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS…..CONVENTION ON BIODIVERSITY (CBD) – 1992 More than 170 signatories

Objectives: Biodiversity conservation, Sustainable exploitation & Equitable sharing of profits.

2002 December – Biodiversity Act of IndiaSOVEREIGN RIGHTS OVER BIODIVERSITY ESTABLISHED

Biodiversity management responsibilities -

National B.D. Authority – National Authority

State B. D. Boards – at State levels &

Local B. D. Management committees – at Local body levels

• Exploration of biodiversity for commercially valuable genetic and biochemical resources.–Eisner 1989, Reid et al, 1993.

• The systematic search for genes, natural compounds, designs and whole organisms in wild life with a potential for product development by biological observation, and biophysical, biochemical and genetic methods without disruption to nature.–Nicolas Mateo et al., 2001.

WHAT IS BIOPROSPECTING?

Chemical Prospecting Drugs and pharmaceuticals Pesticides Cosmetics Food additives Other industrially valuable

Chemical products

Gene Prospecting Genetic engineering Crop development Fermentation Cell culture

BIOPROSPECTING

CONSERVATION

PA’S OF KARNATAKA

5 National parks21 Wildlife sanctuaries Total 6447 sq. kms 3.6% geographical area17.5% of the Forest area

© Jayakara Bhandary

Pieces of vegetation existing at present as a consequence of religious refugia offered to them are called sacred groves.

Traditional, community-linked, oldest form of forest conservation.

Occur in Asia, Africa, Europe, America and Australia.

Early manifestation of nature worship, played important role in conservation of forest and constituent biodiversity elements..

Models to be examined and explored to transform forest conservation a community oriented process.

Traditional Conservation: SACRED GROVES ?

Sacred Groves: Repository of huge trees and liana……..

Gigantic wild mango tree Liana of stunning girth (Entada purseatha)

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• ECOLOGICALLY

UNIQUE PLANTS

• SHORE PROTECTION

• BREEDING GROUND

FOR FISHERY RESOURCES

• NUTRITION

• LOCAL NEEDS

Aerial roots of mangroves

Mangrove trees fringing the river bank

MANGROVES

© Jayakara Bhandary

Mangrove diversity…..

Aegiceras corniculatum

Lumnitzera racemosa

Bruguiera gymnorrhiza

Excoecaria agallocha

Acrostichum aureum

(Mangrove fern)

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MYRISTICA SWAMPS…only habitats for Myristica fatua, Gymnacranthera canarica, & Semicarpus kathalekanensis (New species)

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Semecarpus anacardium

Restricted to the Myristica swamps of Uttara Kannada

Only 250 plants allover the world

Species Recovery Pgm.

© Jayakara Bhandary

Paracautleya bhatii – new species from Manipal, Udupi District.

ISACHNE veldcampii – NEW GRASS

© Jayakara Bhandary

THANK YOU

© Jayakara Bhandary

Waiting to be fully explored….

Slide Nos. 6,28,34, 43, 44-46, 48-50Borrowed from:‘THE STORY OF LIFE’

Sharavathy V

alley, Karnataka

Dandeli Karnataka

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