Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, & Environmental Decline

If you watch or read the news, you get the idea that biodiversity concerns are principally about pandas, tigers, elephants, whales, polar bears, etc. These are what conservation biologists refer to as the flagship species biodiversity, i.e. species who you are likely to recognize and care about. The flagship ecosystems are tropical rainforests and coral reefs. No matter how you divide up the planet in terms of what is important from a sustainability perspective, biodiversity is always one of the main categories. This probably seems strange to the average person who wonders why scientists are so concerned about the survival of these species. After all, will the planet really be in peril if they end up existing only in zoos? The reality is that the biodiversity concerns of scientists are with the entire, vast array of millions of species from tiny to large that drive ecosystem functions, functions upon which we humans depend in innumerable ways. The other reality is that it usually takes something as a cute as a panda or big as an elephant to get the attention of most people.