Why Biodiversity Matters

Why Biodiversity Matters

Biodiversity is the variety of life at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels. Its importance extends far beyond the preservation of individual plants and animals. Human societies operate within living ecological systems, and biological diversity helps sustain many of the processes upon which civilization depends. Food production, fertile soils, pollination, clean water, fisheries, medicines, climate regulation, carbon storage, disease regulation, livelihoods, recreation, and cultural traditions are all connected in different ways to functioning ecosystems.

Biodiversity also contributes to ecological resilience. Ecosystems contain networks of organisms performing different and sometimes overlapping functions. Greater biological diversity can give ecological systems more ways to respond when they encounter drought, disease, invasive species, pollution, habitat disruption, climate change, and other disturbances. Biodiversity conservation therefore concerns both the survival of species and the continued functioning of the ecological systems that support people.

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning

Ecosystems are complex networks rather than collections of independent species. Plants, animals, fungi, microorganisms, predators, prey, pollinators, decomposers, and soil organisms interact through food webs and ecological processes. These interactions contribute to productivity, decomposition, nutrient cycling, pollination, pest regulation, soil formation, carbon storage, and many other ecosystem functions.

Research on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning indicates that declines in biological diversity can alter how ecosystems operate. Species abundance and ecological interactions can matter alongside the simple presence or absence of species. Protecting biodiversity therefore requires attention to ecological communities and networks as well as individual threatened species.

Biological diversity can also contribute to ecosystem stability. Different species respond differently to environmental changes, potentially allowing some ecological functions to continue even when particular organisms decline. This functional diversity and redundancy can become particularly important during periods of environmental stress.

Biodiversity, Resilience, and Environmental Change

Resilience is the capacity of an ecological system to withstand disturbance, recover, or continue providing important functions despite changing conditions. Biodiversity can strengthen resilience by distributing ecological functions among different organisms and maintaining complex interactions across landscapes.

Habitat connectivity is also important. Connected landscapes allow organisms, genes, nutrients, and ecological processes to move between habitats. Fragmentation can interrupt these connections and make populations and ecosystems more vulnerable to environmental change.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are closely interconnected. Changing temperatures, precipitation, ocean conditions, drought, wildfire, and extreme weather can alter habitats and biological communities. At the same time, forests, wetlands, peatlands, oceans, grasslands, and other functioning ecosystems can store carbon and help communities adapt to climatic hazards.

Protecting and restoring ecosystems can therefore contribute simultaneously to biodiversity conservation and climate resilience. Nature-based approaches can provide flood regulation, shoreline stabilization, water management, carbon storage, habitat protection, and other benefits.

Food Security and Agriculture

Agriculture ultimately depends upon biological systems. Crops, livestock, pollinators, soil organisms, predators, microorganisms, genetic resources, and surrounding habitats all contribute to food production.

Agricultural biodiversity can make food systems more resilient to pests, diseases, climatic variability, and environmental stress. Genetic diversity within crops and livestock can provide characteristics that become valuable as agricultural conditions change.

Complex agricultural landscapes can also provide habitat for wildlife and beneficial organisms. Hedgerows, riparian buffers, agroforestry systems, uncultivated habitat, and other landscape features can support biodiversity while contributing to agricultural ecosystem services.

Biodiversity conservation and food production are therefore not necessarily separate goals. Sustainable agricultural systems can depend upon maintaining the ecological processes that make long-term production possible.

Pollinators and Food Production

Pollination provides one of the clearest examples of biodiversity's practical importance. Bees, butterflies, beetles, birds, bats, and other animals pollinate both wild plants and agricultural crops.

Diverse pollinator communities help sustain plant reproduction, agricultural production, nutrition, and ecological communities. Pollinator habitat can also support other ecosystem functions, including biological pest regulation and wildlife conservation.

The importance of pollinators illustrates a broader principle: organisms that may appear economically insignificant individually can collectively perform ecological functions with substantial consequences for human welfare.

Soil Biodiversity and Nutrient Cycling

A large share of Earth's biodiversity exists beneath the ground. Bacteria, fungi, insects, worms, and numerous other organisms participate in decomposition, nutrient cycling, soil formation, plant growth, water infiltration, and carbon cycling.

Healthy soils are therefore biological systems rather than simply physical substrates for agriculture. Soil biodiversity contributes to agricultural productivity, terrestrial ecosystem functioning, water regulation, and resilience.

Because much below-ground biodiversity is difficult to observe, its importance has historically received less public attention than that of large plants and animals. Research increasingly demonstrates that conservation strategies must consider biological diversity above and below the Earth's surface.

Forest Biodiversity

Forests contain a substantial portion of terrestrial biodiversity and provide numerous ecosystem services. Diverse forest communities contribute to wildlife habitat, carbon storage, water regulation, soil protection, food, materials, medicines, recreation, and livelihoods.

Tree diversity can influence forest productivity and the range of ecological functions forests perform. Different tree species can contribute differently to carbon storage, habitat creation, nutrient cycling, and resilience.

Preventing deforestation and restoring degraded forests can consequently generate multiple benefits. Forest conservation can protect species while maintaining carbon stores, watersheds, livelihoods, and ecosystem services.

Ocean and Coastal Biodiversity

Marine biodiversity supports fisheries, coastal communities, food security, tourism, recreation, and ecological processes across the world's oceans.

Coral reefs are particularly striking examples. Although they occupy a relatively limited area, reefs contain extraordinary biological diversity. They provide habitat for marine organisms while supporting fisheries, tourism, coastal protection, and potential medicinal resources.

Mangroves, seagrasses, tidal wetlands, kelp forests, and other coastal ecosystems also combine biodiversity benefits with services important to people. These habitats can serve as nurseries for fish, protect shorelines, store carbon, support livelihoods, and sustain culturally important resources.

Damage to coastal ecosystems can therefore produce ecological, economic, and social consequences simultaneously.

Freshwater Biodiversity and Water Security

Rivers, lakes, wetlands, streams, and other freshwater environments support exceptionally diverse biological communities while providing essential resources for people.

Wetlands can regulate floods, filter water, store carbon, support fisheries, provide wildlife habitat, and sustain local livelihoods. Rivers and lakes provide drinking water, irrigation, fisheries, recreation, transportation, energy, and other economic benefits.

Freshwater biodiversity faces pressures from pollution, dams and infrastructure, invasive species, habitat alteration, water extraction, and climate change. Protecting freshwater ecosystems is consequently connected with the broader challenge of maintaining reliable water resources for both ecosystems and societies.

Biodiversity and Human Health

Human health is connected to biodiversity through numerous pathways. Healthy ecosystems contribute to clean air, freshwater, nutritious food, medicines, temperature regulation, recreation, and protection from environmental hazards.

Biological diversity is also important to medical research. Plants, microorganisms, marine organisms, and other species contain biological compounds and genetic information that can contribute to pharmaceutical and scientific discoveries.

Relationships between biodiversity and infectious disease are complex, but environmental change can alter interactions among wildlife, pathogens, vectors, livestock, and people. Understanding ecosystem health is therefore increasingly relevant to public-health research.

Contact with biologically rich natural environments may also contribute to psychological well-being. Research has examined associations between biodiversity exposure and mental health, restoration, physical activity, social interaction, learning, and sense of place.

Biodiversity and the Economy

Economies depend upon natural systems even when conventional economic accounting does not fully recognize those dependencies. Agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism, water supplies, infrastructure protection, and numerous industries rely directly or indirectly upon functioning ecosystems.

The concept of natural capital attempts to recognize forests, soils, water, biodiversity, and other ecological resources as productive assets. Ecosystem services represent the flows of benefits generated by these assets.

Approaches such as Gross Ecosystem Product seek to make the economic contribution of ecosystems more visible. Such measurements can help demonstrate that environmental degradation may represent the depletion of economically valuable natural assets rather than merely an environmental externality.

At the same time, biodiversity cannot necessarily be reduced to monetary values alone. Ecological, social, cultural, ethical, Indigenous, and relational values can all influence how people understand the importance of nature.

Biodiversity and Climate Resilience

Biodiversity loss and climate change reinforce one another in important ways. Climate change can transform ecosystems, alter species distributions, disrupt ecological relationships, and increase extinction risks.

Conversely, ecosystem degradation can reduce carbon storage and weaken natural systems that help societies adapt to climatic hazards.

Forests, wetlands, mangroves, peatlands, grasslands, and marine ecosystems can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation when they remain ecologically functional. Their benefits can include carbon storage, flood regulation, erosion control, cooling, water regulation, and coastal protection.

Biodiversity conservation should therefore be considered alongside climate policy rather than as an entirely separate environmental objective.

Communities, Culture, and Human Well-Being

Biodiversity contributes to human well-being in ways that extend beyond material resources. Landscapes, wildlife, forests, rivers, oceans, and culturally important species can shape recreation, identity, traditions, spirituality, education, and people's sense of place.

Indigenous peoples and local communities have developed extensive bodies of knowledge concerning ecosystems, species, sustainable use, and environmental stewardship. These perspectives emphasize that relationships between people and nature can involve responsibilities, cultural values, and reciprocal relationships rather than solely economic benefits.

Citizen-science projects, ecological restoration, parks, gardens, wetlands, and other forms of engagement with nature can also provide opportunities for learning, recreation, physical activity, community participation, and social interaction.

Sustainable Development and Future Generations

Biodiversity is closely connected with sustainable development because economic and social development ultimately depend upon functioning environmental systems.

Conservation can support food security, water security, livelihoods, disaster resilience, public health, and economic stability. Ecological restoration can potentially rebuild wildlife habitat while generating employment, improving watersheds, storing carbon, and strengthening community resilience.

The consequences of biodiversity loss can also extend across generations. Species extinction can be irreversible, while degradation of soils, forests, fisheries, wetlands, and other ecosystems can reduce the natural resources and ecological options available to people in the future.

Protecting biodiversity therefore involves questions of intergenerational responsibility as well as contemporary environmental management.

Why Biodiversity Loss Matters

Biodiversity loss can gradually simplify ecological communities and disrupt relationships that have developed among organisms over long periods. The disappearance of a species may affect predators, prey, pollinators, plants, decomposers, or other organisms connected to it.

Major drivers of biodiversity decline include changes in land and sea use, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution, and invasive species. These pressures frequently interact rather than operating independently.

The consequences can extend beyond wildlife conservation. Degraded ecosystems may become less capable of providing food, clean water, carbon storage, pollination, fisheries, fertile soils, climate regulation, recreation, and other benefits.

For this reason, biodiversity loss is increasingly understood as a challenge involving environmental protection, public health, economic development, food systems, climate policy, and human welfare.

Conclusion

Biodiversity matters because humanity is part of the living world and remains dependent upon ecological processes. Genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity help sustain the biological systems responsible for food production, pollination, fertile soils, freshwater, medicines, fisheries, carbon storage, climate regulation, disease regulation, livelihoods, recreation, culture, and psychological well-being.

Biodiversity can also provide resilience. Diverse ecosystems contain multiple organisms, interactions, and ecological pathways through which important functions can continue when environmental conditions change.

The significance of biodiversity therefore extends beyond preventing extinction. Conserving biological diversity means maintaining the ecological infrastructure upon which human societies depend. Protecting and restoring biodiversity can simultaneously support ecosystems, economies, communities, public health, climate resilience, and the opportunities available to future generations.

Biodiversity, Human Well-Being, and the Living Planet

| Frontiers | Frontiers | April 9, 2026

Halting and reversing biodiversity loss is increasingly viewed as essential for protecting human well-being because ecosystem disruption can affect disease risks, rainfall patterns, agriculture, water supplies, and other natural systems on which societies depend.

| J. C. Fisher et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2025

Examines how declines in biodiversity can undermine ecosystem functioning while also reducing the psychological and well-being benefits people receive from interactions with diverse natural environments.

| Péter Batáry et al. | Nature Sustainability | 2025

Explores relationships between biodiversity conservation and human well-being, including the contributions of pollinators to food production and associations between biological diversity and mental health.

| Heather Seastedt et al. | Pediatric Research | 2025

Reviews connections among biodiversity decline, climate change, environmental conditions, and human health, emphasizing the importance of functioning ecosystems for children's health.

| Diego G. Vidal et al. | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | 2025

Discusses how incorporating diverse forms of nature into cities—including wetlands, gardens, green roofs, and other nature-based infrastructure—can support ecosystem services, climate resilience, and human well-being.

Food, Agriculture, and Pollination

| World Health Organization | WHO | February 18, 2025

Explains that biodiversity supports soil fertility, pollination, natural pest control, water regulation, food production, medicines, and numerous other ecosystem services fundamental to human health.

| Ismahane Elouafi | Science | 2024

Explains why biodiversity matters to agriculture and food systems, particularly because biological diversity helps farming systems cope with climate change, pests, diseases, and environmental stresses.

| Chia-Chen Wu et al. | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | 2024

Reviews research examining whether biodiversity in urban green spaces provides additional physical, psychological, resilience, longevity, and well-being benefits beyond the presence of green space alone.

| Natalia Estrada-Carmona et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2022

Finds that complex agricultural landscapes tend to contain greater biodiversity, potentially supporting agricultural production, ecosystem resilience, and human well-being.

| Almut Arneth et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2020

Examines the close relationship between climate change and biodiversity conservation and discusses important ecosystem contributions such as pollination that sustain global agricultural production.

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | 2019

Explains that biodiversity for food and agriculture supports food security by maintaining healthy soils, pollinating crops, controlling pests, providing habitat, and sustaining fisheries and agricultural livelihoods.

Ecosystem Functioning and Resilience

| Meng Liang et al. | Science | 2025

Investigates relationships among biodiversity, ecosystem stability, and spatial scale, contributing to understanding of why diverse ecological communities can be important for maintaining stable ecosystems.

| Joseph A. Tobias et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2025

Shows why conservation must consider ecological interactions as well as individual species, because ecosystem integrity and resilience depend upon the abundance and diversity of organisms participating in food webs.

| Fernando T. Maestre et al. | npj Biodiversity | 2024

Reviews evidence connecting biodiversity with ecosystem functioning in drylands and identifies important questions about how species diversity, microorganisms, soils, climate, and biological interactions determine ecosystem services.

| Henrique M. Pereira et al. | Science | 2024

Evaluates global trends and future scenarios for terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem services and explores pathways capable of reducing biodiversity losses while restoring nature's contributions to people.

| Hans-Otto Pörtner et al. | Science | 2023

Argues that biodiversity loss and climate change are interconnected crises and that protecting diverse ecosystems can strengthen ecological resilience and adaptive capacity while contributing to climate mitigation.

| Yixin Zhang et al. | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | 2022

Reviews connections among biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services, environmental health, and human health, emphasizing how ecological complexity helps sustain benefits people receive from nature.

| Pedro Jaureguiberry et al. | Science Advances | 2022

Identifies major direct drivers of modern biodiversity loss—including changes in land and sea use, exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution, and invasive species—helping explain why protecting biodiversity requires addressing multiple human pressures.

| Tom H. Oliver et al. | Nature Communications | 2015

Examines ecosystem resilience and notes that biological diversity contributes to essential functions including food production, pollination, pest control, decomposition, carbon sequestration, and cultural benefits.

Biodiversity and Human Health

| Rachel T. Buxton et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2024

Reports positive associations between biodiversity and mental health, contributing to growing evidence that the quality and biological richness of natural environments may influence psychological restoration and well-being.

| Rachel R. Y. Oh et al. | Frontiers in Environmental Science | 2024

Explores how participation in biodiversity citizen-science projects can benefit both conservation and human health through contact with nature, physical activity, learning, social interaction, and a sense of purpose.

| World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa | WHO | October 27, 2023

Describes healthy and biodiverse ecosystems as foundations for clean air, freshwater, medicines, nutrition, pollination, pest and disease regulation, climate regulation, and protection against extreme events.

| World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe | WHO | June 22, 2023

Explains that biodiversity and functioning ecosystems provide food, freshwater, medicines, energy, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, carbon storage, oxygen production, recreation, and other foundations of health.

| Jamie C. Fisher et al. | Nature Sustainability | 2023

Examines how people's interactions with species and their characteristics can produce physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual well-being benefits that may translate into meaningful public-health value.

| United Nations Environment Programme | UNEP | February 13, 2015

Summarizes evidence that biodiversity contributes to human nutrition and health through diverse crops, livestock breeds, wild foods, medicinal resources, and resilient agricultural ecosystems.

Biodiversity, Economies, and Ecosystem Services

| Zhiyun Ouyang et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2020

Develops the concept of Gross Ecosystem Product as a way of measuring the economic value generated by ecosystems, illustrating how natural assets and ecosystem services contribute directly to economic and social welfare.

| Kate A. Brauman et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2020

Examines global trends in nature's contributions to people, showing the wide range of material, regulating, and nonmaterial benefits societies obtain from functioning ecosystems.

| Sandra Díaz et al. | Science | 2019

Documents a broad human-driven decline in nature and shows that many of nature's contributions to quality of life have deteriorated, demonstrating the direct connection between biodiversity and human welfare.

| Nature Ecology & Evolution Editors | Nature Ecology & Evolution | January 4, 2017

Explains why biodiversity matters by connecting accelerating extinction with threats to ecosystem services and highlighting the importance of understanding and protecting Earth's biological diversity.

| Norman Myers | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 1996

Provides an influential overview of the environmental services supplied by biodiversity and argues that biological diversity contributes to ecosystem resilience and therefore to the continued provision of services on which humans depend.

Biodiversity, Society, and Sustainable Development

| United Nations Environment Programme | UNEP | Current

Presents biodiversity as a foundation of human health, food systems, economies, livelihoods, and well-being while documenting the severe consequences of the continuing global decline of nature.

| United Nations Environment Programme | UNEP | January 25, 2023

Explains how conserving biodiversity and ecosystems supports poverty reduction, social resilience, sustainable economic development, ecosystem services, and long-term human well-being.

| United Nations Environment Programme | UNEP | September 30, 2020

Presents biodiversity as the foundation of life on Earth and connects it with employment, health, economic security, environmental sustainability, and the welfare of future generations.

| United Nations Environment Programme | UNEP | January 28, 2020

Explains that severe biodiversity loss could disrupt food and health systems, ecological processes, economies, and international supply chains, making biodiversity conservation a societal as well as environmental priority.

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stability

| Researchers | PNAS Nexus | May 2, 2026

Provides empirical evidence that ecological restoration and management can rebuild ecosystem resilience while improving ecosystem services and human well-being.

| Researchers | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | February 6, 2026

Examines how conservation and nature-based solutions can simultaneously improve ecosystem functioning, conserve biodiversity, and generate social benefits.

| Zhen Wang et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | January 31, 2026

Connects ecological resilience with ecosystem-service provision and shows why conservation planning should protect places capable of maintaining both biodiversity and benefits to people.

| Florian Keck et al. | Nature | March 26, 2025

A global synthesis finds that human pressures alter biological communities and reduce local biodiversity across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, illustrating the scale at which human activity is changing ecological systems.

| Robin Naidoo et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2025

Explains why ecological connectivity matters for biodiversity by allowing organisms, genes, nutrients, and ecological processes to move across landscapes.

| Yann Hautier et al. | Science | April 17, 2015

Finds that biodiversity can stabilize ecosystem productivity, helping ecological systems remain functional amid environmental changes.

| David U. Hooper et al. | Nature | June 7, 2012

A major synthesis concludes that biodiversity loss can affect ecosystem functioning at magnitudes comparable to other major environmental changes.

| Bradley J. Cardinale et al. | Nature | June 7, 2012

Reviews decades of biodiversity experiments and finds strong evidence that biological diversity contributes substantially to ecosystem productivity and functioning.

Biodiversity as Natural Capital

| World Bank | World Bank | Current

Explains that forests, water, soil, biodiversity, and other forms of natural capital form an essential foundation for economic activity, employment, and development.

| World Bank | World Bank | Current

Describes healthy ecosystems and biodiversity as foundations for agriculture, fisheries, forestry, tourism, industry, food security, jobs, and economic resilience.

| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | Current

Describes clean water, disaster protection, fisheries, pollination, pest regulation, recreation, and other ecosystem services as components of human well-being and economic activity.

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | July 7, 2026

Explains that biodiversity supports ecosystem services essential for food, air, water security, and many additional benefits people receive from nature.

| Jasper O. Kenter et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2025

Argues for biodiversity economics that recognizes relationships among people, ecosystems, communities, cultural values, and ecological systems rather than reducing nature solely to market prices.

| Justin A. Johnson et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2023

Models how investment in nature can generate economic returns while simultaneously improving biodiversity and social outcomes.

| Kate A. Brauman et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2020

Examines global changes in nature's contributions to people and shows that ecosystem change has direct implications for human welfare.

| World Bank | World Bank Open Knowledge Repository | 2013

Examines the relationships among biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change, poverty reduction, and investments in natural capital.

| Robert Costanza et al. | Nature | May 15, 1997

Provides one of the most influential early attempts to estimate the enormous economic value of ecosystem services and natural capital.

Food Security and Agricultural Biodiversity

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | Current

Explains that agricultural biodiversity enhances ecosystem functioning and can provide biological redundancy that becomes particularly valuable when environmental conditions change.

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | Current

Reviews biodiversity for food and agriculture and the ecosystem services generated by pollinators, soil organisms, predators, and other components of agricultural ecosystems.

| Hannah Ritchie | Our World in Data | 2024

Examines policies for reducing agriculture's environmental impacts, including habitat destruction and biodiversity loss, while continuing to meet human food needs.

| Hannah Ritchie | Our World in Data | April 4, 2022

Explains how increasing agricultural productivity can reduce pressure to convert additional wildlife habitat while simultaneously improving food security and incomes.

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | February 22, 2019

States that biodiversity for food and agriculture and the ecosystem services it supports are essential components of sustainable agriculture and food production.

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | 2019

Provides a global assessment of the plants, animals, microorganisms, genetic resources, and ecosystems upon which agriculture and food production depend.

| Convention on Biological Diversity | CBD | November 27, 2018

Explains why biodiversity and ecosystem services are fundamental to food security, nutrition, and sustainable food systems.

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | 2003

Describes pollination, natural predation, nutrient cycling, and other ecological processes as valuable components of sustainable agricultural production.

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | 2003

Examines the ecosystem approach to agriculture and the need to sustain relationships among species, habitats, agricultural production, medicines, and livelihoods.

Pollinators and Biodiversity

| U.S. Department of Agriculture | USDA | Current

Explains how pollinator habitat increases native biodiversity while supporting pollination, biological pest control, education, and community benefits.

| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | Current

Describes research and monitoring aimed at understanding and protecting pollinator diversity and the ecological services pollinators provide.

| USDA National Agroforestry Center | USDA Forest Service | Current

Explains how hedgerows, windbreaks, riparian buffers, and agroforestry systems can provide habitat that sustains pollinator biodiversity within agricultural landscapes.

| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | Current

Shows how diverse pollinating insects support the extraordinary plant diversity and ecological complexity of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

| Agricultural Research Service | USDA | Current

Describes research aimed at protecting pollinator health by improving habitat and reducing exposure to pesticides, pests, pathogens, and other stressors.

| Researchers | Nature | May 6, 2026

Shows that pollinators support both nutrition and income, particularly for vulnerable populations, demonstrating a direct connection between biodiversity and human welfare.

| Researchers | Nature Communications | 2021

Examines the consequences of pollinator decline and reinforces the importance of diverse pollinator communities for wild plants and agricultural systems.

| Rich Iovanna et al. | USDA Farm Service Agency | 2017

Examines the ecosystem services generated by pollinator habitat and how agricultural conservation programs can enhance these benefits.

| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | April 2016

Highlights the economic and ecological importance of bees, butterflies, bats, birds, beetles, and other pollinators to crops and wild plant communities.

| Natural Resources Conservation Service | USDA | 2006

Reviews the extraordinary diversity of pollinating animals and the specialized ecological relationships connecting many plants with particular pollinator species.

Soil Biodiversity and Nutrient Cycling

| Natural Resources Conservation Service | USDA | Current

Explains how biologically active soils support plant productivity, nutrient cycling, water infiltration, wildlife habitat, and resilient agricultural systems.

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | Current

Explains that soil organisms drive nutrient cycling, decomposition, soil formation, plant growth, water regulation, and numerous other ecological processes.

| Carlos A. Guerra et al. | Science | January 15, 2021

Highlights the need to integrate soil biodiversity into conservation because below-ground organisms regulate essential ecological processes.

| Carlos A. Guerra et al. | Nature Communications | 2020

Examines global patterns of soil biodiversity and emphasizes the enormous but frequently overlooked diversity living below ground.

| Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | January 2020

Shows that soil biodiversity is associated with multiple ecosystem functions across global terrestrial ecosystems.

| Matthias C. Rillig et al. | Science | 2020

Examines the ecological importance of soil organisms and argues that below-ground biodiversity must be considered when addressing environmental change.

| Researchers | Frontiers in Environmental Science | 2020

Reviews relationships between soil biodiversity, ecosystem services, agricultural production, and sustainable land management.

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | 2020

Provides a global assessment of soil biodiversity and describes the fundamental role of organisms beneath the ground in maintaining ecosystem functioning and human welfare.

| Luca Montanarella et al. | Ecosystem Health and Sustainability | 2015

Reviews the global importance of soil resources for food production, biodiversity conservation, water regulation, carbon cycling, and other ecosystem services.

| Diana H. Wall et al. | Nature | November 2014

Discusses the ecological importance of soil organisms and the extensive biodiversity that supports terrestrial ecosystem functioning beneath the surface.

Forest Biodiversity

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | Current

Examines the global importance of forests for biodiversity, climate regulation, livelihoods, food, water, materials, and sustainable development.

| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | FAO | Current

Provides global evidence on forest extent, biodiversity, carbon storage, conservation, and the ecological resources supplied by forest ecosystems.

| Convention on Biological Diversity | CBD | Current

Describes forests as repositories of terrestrial biodiversity that provide food, shelter, water regulation, climate benefits, medicines, and livelihoods.

| United Nations Environment Programme | UNEP | Current

Discusses the environmental and economic case for investing in forests and other ecosystems that sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services.

| CIFOR-ICRAF | CIFOR-ICRAF | 2024

Examines the importance of forests and trees for biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate resilience, food systems, and livelihoods.

| Max Roser | Our World in Data | February 9, 2022

Explains how ending deforestation would protect biodiversity while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and allowing expanding forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

| Researchers | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2021

Explores relationships among forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, carbon storage, and resilience to environmental change.

| Jingjing Liang et al. | Nature | October 2018

Examines global relationships between tree diversity and forest productivity, helping demonstrate the functional importance of maintaining diverse forest communities.

| David J. Gamfeldt et al. | Science | 2017

Investigates how tree diversity contributes to multiple ecosystem services, demonstrating that different tree species support different ecological functions.

| USDA Forest Service and Partners | USDA Forest Service | 2010

Reviews the role of forest biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem goods and services associated with forestry, agriculture, fisheries, and human livelihoods.

Ocean and Coastal Biodiversity

| NOAA Office for Coastal Management | NOAA | Current

Explains the economic importance of coral reefs for coastal protection, tourism, fisheries, businesses, and community livelihoods.

| NOAA Coral Reef Watch | NOAA | Current

Highlights the immense biological diversity of coral reefs and their contributions to fisheries, coastal protection, tourism, and potential medicines.

| U.S. Coral Reef Task Force | NOAA | Current

Explains how reef biodiversity supports commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries, food security, cultural traditions, tourism, and pharmaceutical resources.

| Conservation International | Conservation International | Current

Explains how mangroves, seagrasses, and tidal wetlands store carbon while providing nursery habitat, fisheries, coastal protection, and cultural benefits.

| Conservation International | Conservation International | Current

Examines the importance of kelp and other seaweed forests for marine biodiversity, habitat, productivity, and long-term carbon storage.

| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | NOAA | February 11, 2026

Explains that coral reefs support exceptional biodiversity while protecting coasts, supporting employment, sustaining fisheries, and providing recreational opportunities.

| Conservation International | Conservation International | May 6, 2025

Reports research showing that conserving seagrass and other vegetated coastal ecosystems can preserve biodiversity while preventing substantial releases of stored carbon.

| National Ocean Service | NOAA | December 12, 2024

Describes how coral reef biodiversity supports fisheries, coastal protection, water filtration, recreation, and other ecological functions.

| A. Dabalà et al. | Nature Communications | 2023

Identifies priority areas for mangrove conservation by considering biodiversity together with carbon storage, fisheries, coastal protection, and other ecosystem services.

| NOAA Fisheries | NOAA | April 5, 2022

Describes research showing why monitoring reef biodiversity is important for understanding the condition and resilience of complex coral ecosystems.

Freshwater, Wetlands, and Water Security

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | Current

Reviews indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem condition and explains how human activities can alter the ecological systems that provide essential benefits.

| Convention on Wetlands | Ramsar Convention | Current

Explains how wetlands support freshwater supplies, biodiversity, fisheries, flood regulation, carbon storage, livelihoods, and cultural values.

| Convention on Wetlands | Ramsar Convention | Current

Describes wetlands as highly productive ecosystems that sustain wildlife while providing water purification, flood protection, food, and other benefits to people.

| World Wildlife Fund | WWF | Current

Explains how healthy freshwater ecosystems sustain wildlife, drinking water, agriculture, fisheries, energy production, communities, and economies.

| International Union for Conservation of Nature | IUCN | Current

Examines relationships among freshwater biodiversity, water security, ecosystem management, climate resilience, and human development.

| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | Current

Provides scientific information for understanding and managing freshwater resources that support ecosystems, communities, agriculture, and economies.

| M. Matela et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026

Examines ecosystem health in Baltic coastal lakes and discusses how effective protection can improve habitat condition and preserve aquatic biodiversity.

| Fengzhi He et al. | Nature | February 2020

Documents the global freshwater biodiversity crisis and calls for conservation strategies capable of protecting rivers, lakes, wetlands, and their ecological functions.

| Andrea J. Reid et al. | Science | April 12, 2019

Identifies major emerging threats to freshwater biodiversity, including climate change, pollution, invasive species, infrastructure, and changing hydrology.

| David Dudgeon et al. | EPA HERO | 2006

Reviews the extraordinary biological richness of freshwater ecosystems and the multiple human pressures threatening rivers, lakes, wetlands, and their species.

Biodiversity and Climate Resilience

| United Nations | United Nations Climate Action | Current

Explains how biodiversity and climate are interconnected and why functioning forests, peatlands, oceans, wetlands, and other ecosystems form part of humanity's natural defense against climate change.

| International Union for Conservation of Nature | IUCN | Current

Shows how healthy ecosystems can reduce vulnerability to climate hazards through services such as shoreline stabilization, flood regulation, and protection from storm surges.

| International Union for Conservation of Nature | IUCN | Current

Explains how protecting, restoring, and sustainably managing ecosystems can address climate change, disaster risks, water security, food security, biodiversity loss, and human health together.

| International Union for Conservation of Nature | IUCN | Current

Describes ecosystem integrity and biodiversity as life-supporting foundations for climate regulation, water, food, and human health.

| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | July 19, 2024

Describes examples in which nature-based restoration increases biodiversity and carbon storage while delivering water, pollination, and other ecosystem benefits.

| Researchers | Nature Climate Change | 2021

Examines interactions between biodiversity conservation and climate action and emphasizes the potential for well-designed approaches to provide benefits for both.

| Convention on Biological Diversity | CBD | November 29, 2018

Explains that climate change and biodiversity loss are intertwined and that conserving biodiversity strengthens ecosystem-based climate mitigation and adaptation.

| Demelash W. Sintayehu | Ecosystem Health and Sustainability | 2018

Reviews climate-change impacts on African biodiversity and the resulting consequences for agriculture, ecosystem services, food security, livelihoods, and human well-being.

| Convention on Biological Diversity | CBD | 2010

Shows how healthy ecosystems can protect people against drought, flooding, climate disruption, and other environmental hazards.

Biodiversity, Health, Medicine, and Quality of Life

| International Union for Conservation of Nature | IUCN | Current

Explains that biodiversity contributes to clean air, freshwater, food security, livelihoods, economic prosperity, and multiple dimensions of physical and social well-being.

| Conservation International | Conservation International | Current

Examines connections between healthy ecosystems and disease prevention, medicines, nutrition, clean water, climate regulation, and psychological well-being.

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | Current

Explores the many pathways through which ecosystems influence human health, including cleaner air and water, heat reduction, recreation, and hazard mitigation.

| Convention on Biological Diversity | CBD | Current

Provides resources on the connections among biodiversity, human health, nutrition, medicines, infectious disease, ecosystem services, and environmental change.

| The Royal Society | The Royal Society | Current

Explains that diverse plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms sustain the processes that create healthy ecosystems and ultimately provide food, air, water, and other necessities of human life.

| A. Stocco et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026

Studies whether woodland structural complexity and species composition influence psychological and physiological health responses in people.

| Nature Reviews Biodiversity Editors | Nature Reviews Biodiversity | January 15, 2025

Highlights the growing scientific evidence connecting biodiversity change, infectious disease, wildlife health, environmental change, and human health.

| Convention on Biological Diversity | CBD | 2024

Describes biodiversity as an important environmental determinant of human and animal health and links conservation with the maintenance of essential ecosystem services.

| Researchers | Scientific Reports | 2021

Investigates relationships between exposure to biologically diverse environments and human health, contributing to research on biodiversity's public-health value.

| Convention on Biological Diversity and Partners | CBD | 2012

Explains that biodiversity underpins ecosystems providing food, fresh water, climate regulation, flood regulation, medicines, recreation, livelihoods, and cultural benefits.

Biodiversity, Communities, Culture, and Future Generations

| Conservation International | Conservation International | Current

Shows how ecosystem restoration can simultaneously protect biodiversity, increase water security, support livelihoods, create employment, and strengthen climate resilience.

| Conservation International | Conservation International | Current

Describes ecological restoration as a means of rebuilding biodiversity, carbon storage, wildlife habitat, ecosystem functioning, and human well-being.

| Hannah Ritchie, Fiona Spooner and Max Roser | Our World in Data | Current

Provides data and research on Earth's biological diversity, extinction risks, pressures on wildlife, and conservation responses.

| International Union for Conservation of Nature | IUCN | Current

Explains that human well-being depends on healthy ecosystems for food, water, climate regulation, protection from natural hazards, and many other benefits.

| Katharine R. E. Sims et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2026

Develops principles for conservation programs designed to produce biodiversity benefits while also improving economic outcomes, equity, and community welfare.

| Hannah Ritchie | Our World in Data | 2025

Explains how diverse mammal communities contribute to disease regulation, seed dispersal, pest control, nutrient cycling, habitat engineering, and ecosystem functioning.

| Conservation International | Conservation International | October 15, 2024

Explains that biodiversity matters not only for wildlife but because healthy ecosystems provide freshwater, fertile soils, pollination, food, medicine, and resilience for human communities.

| Our World in Data | Our World in Data | July 18, 2023

Tracks international efforts to conserve terrestrial ecosystems, prevent species loss, combat invasive species, protect habitats, and incorporate biodiversity into development planning.

| IPBES | Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services | 2022

Highlights Indigenous and local knowledge concerning biodiversity, ecosystem stewardship, sustainable use, community well-being, and relationships between people and nature.

| Unai Pascual et al. | Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability / IPBES | 2017

Explains why nature's contributions should be valued using economic, ecological, social, cultural, Indigenous, and relational perspectives rather than a single monetary measure.