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Department of Education STEM Education Biology Students Resource Book Grades 11 Term 2 DOMAIN PHYLA Flashcards

Agricultural Biodiversity in Papua New Guinea

Key Concepts

  • Understanding of biodiversity: Grasping the fundamental concept of biodiversity.
  • Levels of biodiversity: Comprehending the different tiers or types of biodiversity.
  • PNG's biodiversity: Recognizing and valuing the rich biodiversity found in Papua New Guinea.
  • PNG as an agricultural civilization: Acknowledging Papua New Guinea's historical significance as one of the world's oldest agricultural civilizations.
  • PNG's agricultural biodiversity: Appreciating the diverse range of native crops in Papua New Guinea.
  • Limits to agricultural development: Identifying the constraints and challenges in Papua New Guinea's agricultural advancement.
  • Wild relatives of agricultural crops: Recognizing and understanding the importance of wild relatives to cultivated crops.
  • Genetic diversity of native crops: Understanding the genetic variability within Papua New Guinea's native crops.
  • Factors influencing genetic diversity: Identifying the factors that contribute to the genetic diversity of native crops.
  • Genetic diversity of other native crops: Being able to describe the genetic diversity of crops beyond the primary staples.
  • Importance of genetic diversity: Recognizing the significance of genetic diversity and its potential for manipulation in economic development.
  • Ornithology: Understanding that ornithology is the study of birds.
  • Diversity of Birds of Paradise: Appreciating the diversity of Birds of Paradise and their cultural and ecological importance to Papua New Guinea.
  • Inspiration from bird behavior: Gaining insights from studying bird behavior and applying these insights in geopolitics and corporate settings.

General Biodiversity

  • Definition: Biodiversity, short for biological diversity, encompasses all organisms, species, and populations; the genetic variation among them; and their complex assemblages of communities and ecosystems.
  • Interrelatedness: Biodiversity refers to the interrelatedness of genes, species, ecosystems, and functions, and their interactions with the environment.
  • Health of Ecosystems: It is a key measure of the health of any ecosystem and the entire planet.
  • Interdependence: Every organism in an ecosystem or biome relies on other organisms and the physical environment.
  • Variety: Biodiversity describes the variety an ecosystem has in terms of resources, species, and genetics within species.
  • Resilience: A more diverse ecosystem has more resources to help it recover from famine, drought, disease, or extinction.
  • Levels: There are several levels of biodiversity, each indicating how diverse the genes, species, and resources are in a region, enabling functioning in an ecosystem.

Four Levels of Biodiversity

  • Genetic Diversity
    • Definition: All the different genes contained in all individual plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms.
    • Description: Describes how closely related the members of one species are in a given ecosystem.
    • Low Diversity: If all members have many similar genes, the species has low genetic diversity.
    • Endangered Species: Endangered species may have low genetic diversity due to inbreeding, posing a threat due to inheritance of undesirable traits or increased susceptibility to disease.
    • High Diversity: Having high genetic diversity helps species adapt to changing environments.
  • Species Diversity
    • Definition: All the differences within and between populations of species, as well as between different species.
    • Description: Every ecosystem contains a unique collection of species, all interacting with each other.
    • Ecosystem Comparison: An ecosystem with a large number of species, but no species greatly outnumbering the rest, would be considered to have the most species diversity.
    • Ecological Threats: A large number of species can help an ecosystem recover from ecological threats, even if some species go extinct.
  • Ecosystem Diversity
    • Definition: All the different habitats, biological communities, and ecological processes, as well as variation within individual ecosystems.
    • Description: A region may have several ecosystems, or it may have one.
    • Low Diversity: Wide expanses of oceans or deserts would be examples of regions with low ecological diversity.
    • High Diversity: A mountain area that has lakes, forests, and grasslands would have higher biodiversity.
    • Resources: A region with several ecosystems may be able to provide more resources to help native species survive, especially when one ecosystem is threatened by drought or disease.
  • Functional Diversity
    • Definition: The way species behave, obtain food, and use the natural resources of an ecosystem.
    • Species-rich Ecosystem: A species-rich ecosystem is presumed to have high functional diversity due to many species with many different behaviors.
    • Ecological Conservation: Understanding an ecosystem’s functional diversity can be useful to ecologists trying to conserve or restore damaged ecosystems.

Papua New Guinea’s Biodiversity

  • Global Significance: Papua New Guinea occupies 1% of the global land area but hosts 5% of the world’s total biodiversity.
  • Endemism: Two-thirds of the biodiversity (both flora and fauna) are endemic to PNG.
  • Megabiodiversity: PNG is considered one of the world’s megabiodiversity countries, remarkably diverse in species, landscapes, and ecosystems.
  • Undiscovered Species: Scientists estimate that more than half the plants and animals found in Papua New Guinea have yet to be scientifically named.
  • Flora Estimates: Estimates for the number of vascular plant species for the entire island of New Guinea range from 11,000 to 25,000 species.
  • Rainforest Extent: The forests of the island of New Guinea constitute the third-largest expanse of tropical rainforest on the planet, after the forests of the Amazon and the Congo Basin.
  • Forest Cover: Rainforests cover 28.2 million hectares of Papua New Guinea and comprise 80% of the forest estate, with the rest comprised of dry evergreen forest, swamp forest, and mangroves. The total forest estate covers approximately 71% of the land area.
  • Plant Species: The number of plant species is estimated to be in the range of 15,000 to 20,000, which represents about 6% of the world’s flora.
  • Animal Species Estimates: PNG has approximately:
    • 150,000 species of insects,
    • 314 species of freshwater fishes (82 endemic),
    • 2800 species of marine fishes,
    • 641 species of amphibians and reptiles (328 endemic),
    • 740 species of birds (77 endemic), and
    • 276 species of mammals (69 endemic).
  • Marine Biodiversity: Extensive biodiversity is also found in the marine and aquatic environment in PNG.
  • The Coral Triangle: The country is part of the coral triangle, the area of the world’s highest known marine biological diversity.
  • Coral Reefs: Its coral reefs and associated marine habitat are home to about 2800 species of fishes, about 10% of the world's total.
  • Reef Types: Almost all reef types found in PNG waters are within fringing and/or barrier reefs, with an estimated area of 40,000 km^2.
  • Mangrove Diversity: Mangrove swamps occupy 51.6 million hectares and there are 33 species of mangrove trees known, representing the highest mangrove diversity in the world.
  • Plant Utilization: It is estimated that there are about 1,035 different plant species being utilized for various purposes in PNG.
  • Wildlife in Diets: Wildlife plays an important part in traditional diets, supplying the primary intake of proteins and fats in many highland areas and other isolated areas of the country.
  • Marine Diets: In coastal areas, a wide variety of seafood, including fish, mollusks, and turtles, dominate local diets.
  • Role in Food and Agriculture: Biodiversity plays an important role in food and agriculture as the genetic resource base.
  • Threats to Biodiversity: The rich biodiversity of the country is now being threatened by agro-forestry (oil palm plantations), logging, mining, and other extractive industrial applications.
  • Need for Conservation: The need for conservation has become prominent as of late.

Agricultural Biodiversity

  • Definition: Agricultural biodiversity includes all components of biological diversity relevant to food and agriculture, and all components of biological diversity that constitute agricultural ecosystems (agro-ecosystems).
  • Components: This includes the variety and variability of animals, plants, and micro-organisms, at the genetic, species, ecosystem, and functional levels, which are necessary to sustain key functions of the agro-ecosystem, its structure, and processes.
  • Early Agriculture: Papua New Guineans settled on the land and became farmers, cultivating the land and utilizing the abundant biodiversity for food and feed over 9,000 years ago while the Europeans were still hunters and gatherers.
  • Kuk Valley: The people in the Kuk Valley in Western Highlands Province started the global Agricultural Civilization where drainage, planting, digging, and staking of plants have been used to cultivate taro, banana and yam between 7,000 – 10,000 years ago.
  • Agricultural Development: These agricultural practices have propagated throughout different societies that settled in PNG dating back to 9,000 years.
  • Agricultural Hotspot: As a result, PNG has the world’s largest agricultural biodiversity and therefore the world’s largest agricultural gene pool.
  • Reliance on Agriculture: 70% of the country’s seven million people depend on agriculture.
  • Centre of Diversification: PNG is the world’s centre of diversification of traditional root and tuber crops, leafy vegetables, fruits and nuts, cooking bananas, underutilized food crops, sugarcane, medicinal plants, ornamental trees, and timber trees.
  • Resource: These are a rich and valuable resource that must be appropriately utilized and conserved for future generations.
  • Sweet Potato: The sweet potato is a central component of the Papua New Guinean diet, with an estimated 5,000 cultivars of this staple found within the country.
  • Cultivated Species: Numerous other plant species have traditionally been cultivated, including
    • more than 30 root crops,
    • 21 legume species,
    • 40 leafy green vegetables,
    • 60 other vegetables and roots,
    • 43 varieties of nuts,
    • 102 fruits, and
    • 89 other plants used for food or seasonings.
  • Wildlife in Diets: Wildlife plays an important part in traditional diets, supplying the primary intake of proteins and fats in many highland areas and other isolated areas of the country.
  • Coastal Diets: In coastal areas, a wide variety of seafood, including fish, mollusks, and turtles, dominates local diets.

Wild Relatives of Agricultural Crops

  • Genetic Diversity: The crop wild relatives (CWR) of Papua New Guinea constitute an enormous and unique resource of genetic diversity which may be vital for future crop improvement, climate resilience, and food security, particularly because they may harbor many valuable traits for agricultural adaptation to changing climate.
  • Knowledge Gap: Yet so little is known about the CWR in a country so biodiverse.
  • Loss of Habitats: Habitats in PNG continue to be lost or degraded.
  • Recent Findings: Kambuou et al recently searched for CWR in PNG and found several species of wild taro and wild rice.

Limitations to Agricultural Development in Papua New Guinea

  • Agricultural Practices: Agricultural civilization in Papua New Guinea did not evolve into an advanced stage much like the Asian or the European agricultural development that includes large scale farming for two specific reasons:
    • Volcanic Eruption: The Volcanic Eruption of Mt. Hagen diverted the Waghi River towards Simbu Province, forming a high montane lake that flooded the Kuk Valley.
      • This caused the early settlers to migrate up into the mountains and became more animistic (believe in a deity).
      • Only in the 1950s after the government drained the swamp and created settlements did people from other provinces resettle in the newly created blocks
    • **Lack of