The Importance of Biodiversity

THE IMPORTANCE OF BIODIVERSITY

“We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.”  - E. O. Wilson

One of the things we should be completely responsible about and in reality we care a little or even nothing is taking care and respecting biodiversity.

Biodiversity has a giant content due that it is everything in our planet; in this essay I define it as the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is one measure of the health of ecosystems. Life on Earth today consists of many millions of distinct biological species.

As we know biodiversity has direct economic, aesthetic and scientific values. Biodiversity is important to our biosphere just because it is life and our biosphere is everything that surrounds us; here is where we can notice the aesthetic value. Our biosphere needs a perfect balance in between all its species to keep on working and have a nice stability. The food chain is a crucial role in the biosphere and it only happens with the balance of our biodiversity. In the same way, biodiversity is important in maintaining different types of animals so that once a change happens, there are many different types of animals that are available to adapt into the changing environment. Too many people do not recognize that, that change is part of the natural state of things and when they try to prevent any change, they are in fact interfering.(1) (Biodiversity – Species Richness of the Biosphere.)

           

            Now, maintaining biodiversity has as well a direct impact to humanity. Here is where we can find its economic value. Biodiversity performs a number of ecological services for humankind. The notion that biodiversity has provided us with many benefits is well understood. Some of these benefits come in the form of goods that can be directly values and costed because they provide something that can be extracted and sold. These goods include everything from all the domesticated agricultural crops that form the basis of the world's food supply, to medicines that protect and cure us to the fibers that make up the clothes we wear. Thus biodiversity is widely valued as food pantry, genetic storehouse for biotechnology and a place to retreat to when we need to get away from our intense urban existence.(2) (Importance of biodiversity. Quebec Biodiversity Website) The humans are the only ones capable of altering completely the biodiversity, and we are the ones that don’t even notice sometimes the big changes and mistakes we are doing on it. There is going to be the time when we figure out all the damage that we have made, but it is going to be too late to start restoring it, however human being are the ones that are going to be more damaged not only in the aspect of food but also, as I explained before, in the industrialization of clothes and medicines just to name some.

I’m glad to know that Mexico is a country that at least has conscience about the damage that we are making to biodiversity, but the sad part of it, is that we almost don’t do anything to conserve it. The loss of biodiversity has impacted Mexico’s economy in the way that the government had invested lots of money trying to maintain a good quality on the crops, preserving healthful fertile soils, making many scientific experiments and treatments to cure human diseases, restoring big territories after floods, droughts or any other natural disaster caused by a change or alter in our biosphere, etc.(3) (Regina’s Biology notebook from Ms. Zohemy’s class.)

Finally, I would like to propose some ways to maintain or restore biodiversity in Yucatan. Yucatan is a vast state in animals, plants and ecosystems, thus they are in danger because it doesn’t have rivers neither lakes and the cities are rapidly growing, making disappear the jungles and green areas.(4) (Recuperando Biodiversidad en Yucatan, Mexico.) What I propose is to take care of our beaches, mangrove swamps, green areas, water holes, our birds, animals and the sea, in the way of not polluting, or leaving trash in anyplace, respecting the wildlife and being conscientious of their value.   

References –

·         (1) Biodiversity – Species Richness of the Biosphere.                    

I.E. School of biology.

http://science.jrank.org/pages/865/Biodiversity.html

·         (2) Importance of biodiversity.

Quebec Biodiversity Website

http://redpathmuseum.mcgill.ca/Qbp/2.About%20Biodiversity/importance.html

·         (3) Regina’s Biology notebook from Ms. Zohemy’s class.

·         (4) Recuperando Biodiversidad en Yucatan, Mexico.

http://www.grain.org/biodiversidad_files/biodiv234.pdf

Panspermia Handout and Activity!

Sickle Cell Disease Essay

Regina Gonzalez Toledo                                                                             September 17th, 2010.

Sickle Cells Disease                                                                       http://reginagt.blogspot.com/

SICKLE CELL DISEASE

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder characterized by defective hemoglobin, the molecule that transports oxygen in the blood. It gets it name from the shape of the red blood cells under low oxygen conditions. Some red blood cells become “sickle shape”, almost like a quarter moon shape and these get stuck in small blood vessels, and some parts of the body don’t get the oxygen needed to function properly. The disease is caused by a single letter change in the DNA. This change alters one of the amino acids in haemoglobin protein. The oxygen becomes low in the body and this brings later an attack.[i] By reading this essay, I hope you get a better understanding of this disease as well as its problems and consequences.

Genetics, biochemistry, cytology, mathematics, and chemistry just to name some, are the biology branches and sciences dedicated to study more and treat the sickle cell disease. A disease that is taking the life of hundredths of people every year.  

While having this disease most of the levels of organization of matter are affected; this is because this disease affects the blood, which is needed in all body functions, so our cells are damaged, as well as, our macromolecules, tissues, organs, organ systems, our whole organism and the rest of the population when it is transmitted from generation to generation.

Due to the problem that this disease cause to the body, our macromolecules are strongly involved, especially our biological macromolecules which are composed by carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. This macromolecules are also known as sugars and their main functions are: source of energy and to provide structural support.

Haemoglobin, the molecule that is affected in this disease, is the iron-containing protein attached to red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Haemoglobin bonds with oxygen in the lungs, exchanges it for carbon dioxide, and then transports the carbon dioxide back to the lungs to be exhaled. Hemoglobin has characteristics of both the tertiary and quaternary structures of proteins. Most of the amino acids in hemoglobin form alpha helices, connected by short non-helical segments. In most humans, the hemoglobin molecule is an assembly of four globular protein subunits. Each subunit is composed of a protein chain tightly associated with a non-protein heme group.

A mutation or error in this gene is what causes sickle cell disease. This mutation is thought to have originated in areas of the world where malaria was common, since people with sickle trait do not get malaria. The sickle trait actually protects them from the parasite that causes malaria, which is carried by mosquitoes. Malaria is most often seen in Africa and in the Mediterranean area of Europe. Children who inherit the genetic mutation from both parents will have sickle cell disease. Children who inherit the mutation from only one parent will not have the disease, but will carry the trait for it and can pass it on to their children. The mutation affects the normal development of the protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells, called haemoglobin.  What happens in the sickle cell disease is a missense mutation. With a missense mutation, the new nucleotide alters the codon so as to produce an altered amino acid in the protein product. The replacement of A by T at the 17th nucleotide of the gene for the beta chain of hemoglobin changes the codon GAG (for glutamic acid) to GTG (which encodes valine). Thus the 6th amino acid in the chain becomes valine instead of glutamic acid, as shown in this chart:[ii]

This disease, brings within many problems, as I mention before mostly all the levels of organization of living matter are affected, this means that all major organs are affected too by sickle cell disease. The liver, heart, kidneys, gallstone, eyes, bones, and joints can suffer damage from the abnormal function of the sickle cells and their inability to flow through the small blood vessels correctly. Some of the problems can be:

·         increased infections

·         leg ulcers

·         bone damage

·         early gallstones

·         kidney damage and loss of body water in the urine

·         eye damage.[iii]

We can't prevent sickle cell anemia because it's an inherited disease. However, people can take steps to reduce its complications. People who are at high risk for sickle cell anemia and are planning to have children may want to consider genetic counseling. A counselor can help them understand the risk of having a child who has the disease and help explain the choices that are available for the couple. [iv]

With all of this, we can now know that Sickle Cell Anemia is a serious disease in which the body makes sickle-shaped red blood cells. This cells don't move easily through your blood vessels. They're stiff and sticky and tend to form clumps and get stuck in the blood vessels. Early diagnosis of sickle cell anemia is very important, people who have the disease need prompt and proper treatment. There is no available cure; however, there are treatments for the symptoms and complications of the disease. Some treatments may include medicines, fluids, or even bone marrow transplants may offer a cure in a small number of cases.

With good health care, many people who have sickle cell anemia can live productive lives. They also can have reasonably good health much of the time and live longer today than in the past. If someone have sickle cell anemia, it's important to adopt or maintain a healthy lifestyle, take steps to prevent and control complications.

 

Refences:

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[i] Sickle Cell Disease Association of America. http://www.sicklecelldisease.org/about_scd/index.phtml Last updated: unknown, last accessed: 16/09/10.

[ii] Mutations. http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/M/Mutations.html Last updated: September 2, 2010, last accessed: 16/09/10.

[iii] University of Maryland, Medical Center; Blood Diseases.  http://www.umm.edu/blood/sickle.htm Last updated: January, 30, 2008, lat accessed: 16/09/10.

[iv] US Department of Health and Human Services http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Sca/SCA_LivingWith.html Last updated: unknown, last accessed: 16/09/10.