biodiversity
Biological diversity refers to the variety of organisms in a given area. Biodiversity is critical for healthy ecosystems with fully-functioning food webs. A food web is an interconnected system of food chains, comprised of producers (plants), consumers (animals), and decomposers. These organisms have co-evolved over thousands of years, forging complex interdependent relationships. The loss of just one plant or animal species can cause an entire ecosystem to collapse.
Urbanization is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity. Habitat loss and fragmentation reduce the available space for wildlife, leading to population declines and localized extinctions. Not only are natural landscapes lost to new construction, but America’s unhealthy obsession with the perfect lawn has created roughly 50,000 square miles of dead space, which is about the size of Greece.
An American preference for manicured lawns and gardens is worsened by an affinity for exotic plants and foreign ornamentals, like Crape Myrtle and English Ivy. But these plants don’t have any ecological value here and many of them have escaped cultivated landscapes and are wreaking havoc on the natural world.
There is a growing trend towards converting lawns into ecologically functional gardens. Every native plant installed and every lawn converted into a natural habitat presents a tremendous opportunity for increasing biodiversity and safeguarding nature’s delicate balance. In today’s rapidly changing world, the burden is on homeowners to help restore native habitats.