The Biodiversity in Madagascar

The role of the biodiversity

Biodiversity plays a major role in increasing productivity of an ecosystem where each species has a niche so that an ecosystem can thrive. For example, plant diversity ensures variety of fruits being produced. Animal diversity allows sustainability for all life in an ecosystem and a diverse ecosystem is more likely to survive a natural disaster. 

On the subject of biodiversity, there are a few places on this planet that still have thriving ecosystems as there are in Madagascar. Madagascar as compared to the size of modern-day United Kingdom makes UK look tiny. The biodiversity in Madagascar is unique as it used to be a part of mainland Africa and India before the continental drift made it cut off from both the continents almost 80 million years ago. This split allowed the species on the island to evolve uninterrupted.

But this isolated evolution makes Madagascar all the more important in terms of conservation of biodiversity. A recent survey showed that almost 80 percent of the species found in Madagascar are endemic and must be conserved. Most diverse of these species are the groups of Lemurs and Chamelions which are unique to Madagascar because of the undisturbed evolution.

The unicity of Madagascar

Biodiversity plays a major role in increasing productivity of an ecosystem where each species has a niche so that an ecosystem can thrive. For example, plant diversity ensures variety of fruits being produced. Animal diversity allows sustainability for all life in an ecosystem and a diverse ecosystem is more likely to survive a natural disaster. 

On the subject of biodiversity, there are a few places on this planet that still have thriving ecosystems as there are in Madagascar. Madagascar as compared to the size of modern-day United Kingdom makes UK look tiny. The biodiversity in Madagascar is unique as it used to be a part of mainland Africa and India before the continental drift made it cut off from both the continents almost 80 million years ago. This split allowed the species on the island to evolve uninterrupted. 

But this isolated evolution makes Madagascar all the more important in terms of conservation of biodiversity. A recent survey showed that almost 80 percent of the species found in Madagascar are endemic and must be conserved. Most diverse of these species are the groups of Lemurs and Chamelions which are unique to Madagascar because of the undisturbed evolution.