The term biodiversity describes the diversity of life on Earth. Diversity can occur at a number of levels of biological organisation, from genes, through to individuals, populations, species, communities and entire ecosystems.
Significant losses in biodiversity have been documented in the UK and around the world over the last 50 plus years. These changes have largely been due to human activities, for example changes in land use, farming methods, pollution and climate change. Changes in the way humans use the earth’s resources will influence what species occur, where they occur, their abundance and how they function in terms of providing ecosystem services.
Interactions between different components of our biodiversity are many and complex, and losses or gains at one level may have a multitude of knock-on effects. It is important to understand these interactions and the implications of changes at one level to the dynamics of all other levels of biological diversity, so that we can inform management and guide restoration, whether it is action to restore habitats or to reintroduce or remove specific species, for example.
The James Hutton Institute has an international reputation in biodiversity research and application. Our research aims to improve our understanding of how drivers of change, such as land-use, pollution and climate change, impact on biodiversity and the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity. This knowledge helps us to advise policy makers, land managers, conservationists and other stakeholders on methods to help safeguard our natural capital and to improve the resilience of species and habitats to environmental change.
Our current research includes the following.
Outputs from our work on biodiversity can be found on our Research Outputs page [1].
Links:
[1] http://www.hutton.ac.uk/research/themes/safeguarding-natural-capital/research-outputs