Biodiversity rain forest

Based on the rate at which novel microorganisms are being discovered, one can make an estimation of the amount of different organisms that have been identified up to now relative those that remain uncharacterized (Table 5.8). The overwhelming biochemical diversity present in nature makes that the isolation of microorganisms with novel enzymatic activities is worthwhile (reviewed in Bull, Goodfellow Howard Slater, 1992). Preferred sites to find novel enzymes include so-called mega-diversity countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Brazil or India and biodiversity hot spots like rain forest and deep seas. 

Balick MJ, Mendelsohn R. (1992). Assessing the economic value of traditional medicines from tropical rain forests. Conservation Biology, 6, 128-130. See also Svastad H, Dhillion SS. (2000). Responding to bioprospecting—from biodiversity in the south to medicines in the north. 

The importance of the search for new paradigms for biodiversity conservation and new approaches to the discovery of drugs from the rain forest have been described in several recent publications, as well as in the RFA referred to above, and need not be discussed further here. The reader interested in more information is referred to any of the recent publications in this area.1016... 

Some researchers and environmental scientists are setting up preserves within the rain forests to maintain the forests biodiversity. Others are attempting to grow rapidly disappearing plant species in rain forest nurseries. With these methods, scientists are trying to maintain the complex rain forest ecosystems for future research. 

Great concern should be expressed about the continuing erosion of tropical rain forest species, which is accelerating as the twenty-first century begins (22). Approximately 25 hot spots of especially high biodiversity have been proposed that represent 44% of all vascular plant species and 35% of all species of vertebrates in approximately 1.4% of the earth s surface (23). At present, many of the endemic (or native) species to these biodiversity hot spot areas have been reported to be undergoing massive habitat loss and are threatened with extinction, especially in tropical regions (22,23). 

Myers N, Mittermeier RA, Mittermeier CG, Fonseca GAB, Kent J (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403 853-858. doi 10.1038/35002501 Teixeira AMG, Soares BS, Freitas SR, MetzgCT JP (2009) Modeling landscape dynamics in an Atlantic rain forest region implications for conservation. Forest Ecol Manag 257 1219-1230. doi 10.1016/j.foreco.2008.10.011... 

Proposals to implement a biorefinery approach for platform chemical production have ignited a debate on whether biorefinery feedstock production threatens food security and increases the rate of deforestation (Ravindranath et al., 2008). It s worrying because the feedstock suitable for biorefinery implementation is procured primarily from forests. Any activity such as feedstock production, which puts considerable pressure on the forest cover, endangers natural heritage and biodiversity (Achten et al., 2013). This chapter discusses various forest-based feedstocks for biorefinery. Moreover, it seeks to elaborate the industrial applications of this feedstock, their characteristics and land requirements (essentially the extent of theoretical deforestation), their production, and procurement. Clearly the influence of biorefinery on woodlands will rely on the nature of the feedstock being used. For example, Brazil utilizes deforested land for sugarcane cultivation and subsequent ethanol production. However, in the case of Indonesia, rain forests were cleared for palm oil production. All of the biorefinery processes require cellulose as the raw material, and since the major source of cellulose in nature is in the form of trees, large-scale deforestation seems to be a plausible end scenario (Gao et al., 2011). 

As discussed, nature provided the source of inspiration for the synthesis of aroma chemicals. This remains as true today as it was in the nineteenth century. One of the reasons to explore the rain forests is biodiversity prospecting, which is the search for novel chemicals from biological sources. Rain forests are home not only to the majority of the world s flowering plants but to the majority of insects as well. This diversity of new flowers and pollinators increases the probability of discovering new aroma chemicals. 

To summarize the present global pattern, latitudinal diversity gradients rising [from north and south] toward the tropics are an indisputable general feature of life. And on land biodiversity is heavily concentrated in the tropical rain forests. 

---