Biodiversity

Biodiversity, or biological diversity, encompasses all levels of life—from the diversity of genes to that of species and of habitats. It secures our material needs and generates valuable services that humans require from their environment. These include food, clothing, pure drinking water and clean air. At the same time, species diversity safeguards medical care and the continued fertility of the soil and provides protection from natural disasters. But biological diversity is also the basis for the functioning of ecosystems. According to what we know today, the functions of our ecosystems cannot be sustained without the network of a wide range of organisms.

Recording the Diversity of Species

One task of biodiversity research is to record existing species in various ecosystems and to make the collected data available. The search for new methods of species determination is as central to this work as are questions related to the automation of both the process of species determination and the entry of data into databases. [ more ]

Biological diversity ensures functioning ecosystems.

Species Diversity as a Basis of Life

The immeasurable diversity of living creatures has always fascinated mankind. The desire to better understand this diversity stood at the beginning of biological research. Since the times of Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné, researchers have worked to systematically record and classify the diversity of organisms. [ more ]