1 The pandemic of wounded biodiversity Biodiversity - what was that again? A long, leisurely trip to La Jolla Directions 2 Teeming boisterous life The big picture The volleyball on Mission Beach ''A rose by any other name''.what''s a species? Morphological species Identifying species without ever seeing them Biological species Evolutionary species Naming species How many living species.and what are they? 1) To the nearest approximation (almost) every organism is an arthropod.? 2) Greenery: The Plantae 3) Fungi: Mushrooms, moulds and yeasts - The Fungi 4) Mollusca: Shell life 5) Chordata: Animals with backbones.mostly 6) Protozoa or Protista? 7) Nematoda: The roundworm that''s the fly in the ointment? 8) Bacteria and Archaea: Microbial life Remaining animal groupings Viruses: All the world''s a phage. or nearly New species Planting and growing the ''tree of life'' The great chain of being Linnaeus''s hierarchical classification Influence of evolutionary ideas Chatton''s two-domain idea Whittaker''s five-kingdom approach Woese and the three-domain model A new twist to the three-domain model .and when is a tree a bush? Designs on life The phylum and the Bauplan Most phyla are not very species rich An unequal distribution of life 3 Where on Earth is biodiversity? From Berkeley, south to the Sea of Cortez More is more Back to Bird Rock The species-area relationship Those who go down to the sea in ships Hotspots: A tale of two definitions Big-scale biodiversity: Biogeographical and political regions On land Sea Biodiversity by country Latitude for life? The land The sea Genetic diversity and latitude Why is there a latitudinal gradient? Altitude Lessons from the tops of Scottish mountains Biodiversity takes the hump with altitude Mountains as islands? Aerial plankton and organisms in flight Depth The short-lived azoic theory Out of our depth A journey to the centre of the Earth Staying close to home Congruence: The holy grail of diversity? 4 A world that was old when we came into it: Diversity, deep time and extinction One every twenty minutes? A life in the year of. Precambrian - before life? A schoolgirl changes our understanding of life before life - but no one believes her The garden of Ediacara A world of chemical energy, not driven by sunlight? How familiar is the Ediacaran fauna? Explosive Cambrian Cambrian forms Archaeocyatha: The only extinct phylum? Why diversify now? Cambrian explosion or short fuse? Cambrian biodiversity: Good designs.

or just lucky? How a small quarry in British Columbia changed our understanding of biodiversity ''It''s a Wonderful Life'' To conclude Post-Cambrian: Tinkering with successful designs? Palaeozoic - ''first life'' Middle and modern life The present - not set in stone Beginnings of evolution: The origin of species End of evolution: Extinction The ''big five'' Causes of extinction Extinctions as routine events in the history of life Early humans and biodiversity Extinctions post-1600s Proving extinction? The Red Data Book Other takes on extinction To conclude 5 Swept away and changed Threatening behaviour Living beyond our means Top five direct (or proximate) causes of biodiversity loss 1) Habitat loss and degradation 2) Direct exploitation Home economics Food, glorious food Industrial materials Medicine sans frontiers Ecotourism Controlling the natural world 3) Climate change 4) Introduced species The domino effect: Extinction cascades Some light relief: Complete elimination of biodiversity by extraterrestrial means The ultimate cause of biodiversity loss: You and me Once upon a time there were two people.now look how many Not just population size but where people live Not just population size but what people do It''s the poor that do the suffering To conclude 6 Are the most beautiful things the most useless? ''.and for everything else there''s Mastercard'' Costing a small planet Use now, pay when? What bees do for free is expensive Costing the Earth - literally How Biosphere 1 works - as one Earth, the Goldilocks planet - just right Lovelock''s Gaia hypothesis Critiques of Gaia How bits of Biosphere 1 work Build your own biosphere: Not-so-silent running The home marine aquarium Mysteries and hazards Valuable for what, and to whom? Keeping options open Bequest and bequeathal Full-on philosophers and laid-back religion? Value bestowed, not intrinsic Intrinsic value Valued as an object of worship or through kinship A creator gives biodiversity value To conclude 7 Our greatest hazard and our only hope? Saving private land Antecedents Oh, Rio Large brushstrokes Louder than words Arks in parks Out of place - but alive Buzzword for the twenty-first century Responses to Rio Millennium Assessment Aichi (2010) and ''Pathway for Humanity'' (2015) Strategic plan for biodiversity and Aichi biodiversity targets ''Pathway for Humanity'': UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015) Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2019) Aichi Target 11: Increasing protected areas Goal 16: Nagoya protocol in force Sustainability goals No room for the individual? Epilogue 8 No one is too small to make a difference Going further: Suggestions for wider reading Index.