2010 International Year of Biodiversity

Were you aware that 2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) by the United Nations?

What is Biodiversity? Well, in short, Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth or in one particular place or era. It is essential for sustaining the natural living systems or ecosystems that provide us with food, fuel, health, wealth, and other vital services.

Humans are part of this biodiversity too and have the awesome power to protect or destroy it. Right now, we are destroying it faster than we are protecting it and losses are irreversible, damaging the life support systems we rely on to survive ourselves... could well be on our way to making the human race endangered or even extinct. We need to safeguard biodiversity and in order to bring this to light and raise awareness of the urgency for action the UN have appointed a whole year to such.

The fossil record at Joggins contains 195 species — and counting — offering the most comprehensive sampling of the biodiversity of terrestrial life (life on land) in the Pennsylvanian “coal age”. This record includes the plant life which became the vast coal deposits for which this period of earth history is named, as well as invertebrate and vertebrate fauna from both the aquatic and terrestrial realm, all preserved within their ecological context.

The entire food chain of the terrestrial “Coal Age” ecosystem is represented at Joggins, from the primary producers (plants) that captured the energy of the sun, to decomposing detritivores (invertebrates) and ultimately to predatory carnivores (tetrapods).

The record of plant life is represented most notably by standing lycopsid trees that constituted the ecological framework of the wetlands.

The Joggins Fossil Cliffs show a snapshot of life on land 300 million years ago and the vast biodiversity of this place as it stood. If we were to take another snapshot in 300 million years time, what changes would there be? How diverse would the ecology be looking back at today?

The Joggins Fossil Institute is working hard to ensure that we not just protect but enhance the biodiversity of our landscape through many methods including naturalised and chemical-free landscape management techniques.

If you know someone who is interested in making a career from natural landscaping or biodiversity, tell them to keep a watch on our website as we have an interesting 4 month internship opportunity coming up from April 2010 for a Landscape Interpreter, funded through the YMCA/YWCA EcoInternship Program.

For more information on the International Year of Biodiversity visit the Countdown 2010 site