Biodiversity hotspots are the geographical areas with high species diversity which need maximum protection. There are ________ such biodiversity hotspots present all over the world ________ spreading over the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka is one of the biodiversity hotspot in India ________ Sanctuary in Assam is under threat due to indiscriminate use of water _________ and _________ are endangered species in this region _________ sanctuary of West Bengal is Reserved for tigers
Answers
A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened with destruction. For example forests are considered as biodiversity hotspots. The status is designated by Conservation International.[1][2]
Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in “The Environmentalist” (1988),[3] and 1990[4] revised after thorough analysis by Myers and others “Hotspots: Earth’s Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions”[5] and a paper published in the journal Nature.[6]
To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot on Myers 2000 edition of the hotspot-map, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 0.5% or 1,500 species of vascular plants as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70% of its primary vegetation.[6] Around the world, 36 areas qualify under this definition.[7] These sites support nearly 60% of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species, with a very high share of those species as endemics. Some of these hotspots support up to 15,000 endemic plant species and some have lost up to 95% of their natural habitat.[8]
Biodiversity hotspots host their diverse ecosystems on just 2.3% of the planet's surface,[9] however, the area defined as hotspots covers a much larger proportion of the land. The original 25 hotspots covered 11.8% of the land surface area of the Earth.[10] Overall, the current hotspots cover more than 16% of the land surface area, but have lost around 85% of their habitat.[11] This loss of habitat explains why approximately 60% of the world's terrestrial life lives on only 2.3% of the land surface area.