Why is Diversity Important What is Diversity

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Why is Diversity Important?What is Diversity?

• LOW DIVERSITY
• 5 SPECIES
• Note _at_ 60 different corals in the Caribbean and
  over 600 in the Indo-Pacific

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What Is Diversity
Higher Diversity- 10 Different Corals 1 Species
Dies
Coral Reefs provide a habitat for fish and all of
the other organisms living in and around the
Cayman Islands.
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Low Diversity ExampleOne Coral Species Dies

50 reduction
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Indo-Pacific Caribbean Basin
Diseases Bleaching
Dynamite Fishing Cyanide Disease Bleaching
Algal Growth
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What do we (need to) know or do to sustain and
improve marine diversity?
Scientists 1. need to identify solid reasons
that will improve the life for all humans if
coral reefs are to survive Biomedical 2. Need
to study the diseases and mortality. 3. Need to
know what we have.
Society 1. Ask what it is that we enjoy or what
gives us our competitive advantage in Cayman and
learn about the connections between man and our
environment. Reefs are responsible for Clear
water - boating, swimming, diving Warm weather -
Carbon cycle
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National Oceanographic Atmospheric
Administration, Coral Reef and Biodiversity
Conservation

• Humanity depends on biological diversity, or
  biodiversity for the very sustenance of life.
  Marine ecosystems, and the diversity of species
  they support underpin our economy and provide
  humanity with food, medicines, clean air,
  aesthetic enjoyment and other values we are just
  beginning to understand. Yet human populations
  and their activities are disturbing marine
  species and their habitats, disrupting natural
  ecological processes, and even changing climate
  patterns on a global scale.

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Sustaining Improving Marine Diversity for
Future Generations