En-en adult card 25 terrestrial biodiversity

Card #25: Terrestrial Biodiversity

Causes		Consequences
Disruption of the Water Cycle Temperature Rise		Vectors of Disease Decline in Agricultural Yields

Animals and plants are affected by the changes in temperature and the disruption of the water cycle.
They may migrate, become extinct or, more rarely, proliferate.

Explanation

Today, the Earth's biodiversity is being undermined above all by factors other than climate change, such as deforestation, disappearance of natural habitats, use of pesticides and various forms of pollution. However, climate change will largely contribute to the disappearance of species in the coming decades.

Facilitation advice

Very often this card is equated with animal biodiversity. However, it refers to both plant and animal biodiversity. If the participants only talk about animal diversity, it may be interesting to ask them to define what they call biodiversity.

Correction

Causes

• Disruption Water Cycle
• Temperature Rise

Consequences

• Vectors of Disease
• Decline Agricultural Yields

Other possible links

Other causes

• Agriculture Pesticides (especially Round-up or neonicotinoids) come to mind here. No link with the climate, but an interesting link to make.

• Deforestation Deforestation causes a huge loss of biodiversity:
  • Of animal biodiversity because the forest is home to many species. The forest biodiversity index fell by 53% between 1970 and 2014.
  • Of plant biodiversity because of the 60,000 known tree species, 8,000 are considered threatened.

Marine biodiversity The two types of biodiversity can interact with each other.