Agnese and her blog

There exist many theories around the causation of biological diversification. More generally, it is found that speciation is dependent primarily on large-scale changes in lithospheric (geomorphological) complexity (Cracraft 1985). This is easily demonstrated by allopatric speciation being the preferred mode as well as tectonic changes being the main cause of geographic and ecological barriers' formation (Cracraft 1985). On top of this strictly geographical assumptions, diversification began within the species themselves through means of natural selection (Darwin 1859). All living beings originate from a common cellular ancestor which earliest signs are documented at 3.5 to 4 billion years ago in marine environments (Benton 2016). With the evolution of organisms, modern biology identifies three main domains of life which originated from the diversification of species: Bacteria, Archea and Eukarya, which is actually a ramification of the Archean branch (Koonin 2010). In particular, p...

The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service's (IPBES) defines biodiversity as "the variability among living organisms from all sources including, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part. This includes variation in genetic, phenotypic, phylogenetic, and functional attributes, as well as changes in abundance and distribution over time and space within and among species, biological communities and ecosystems. " (UN Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992). Biodiversity is essential for the overall functioning of ecosystems as different species cover different roles in servicing the survival of the environment (Gamfeldt 2008). Therefore, the loss of natural biodiversity leads to unhealthy ecosystems more prompt to exacerbating climate-change consequences and thus undermining food security and livelihood of the local communities (UNEP, Facts about the nature crisis).  But what...