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Biology 2e

Introduction

Biology 2eIntroduction
Satellite image shows a large blue lake surrounded by green land.
Figure 47.1 Lake Victoria in Africa, shown in this satellite image, was the site of one of the most extraordinary evolutionary findings on the planet, as well as a casualty of devastating biodiversity loss. (credit: modification of work by Rishabh Tatiraju, using NASA World Wind software)

Chapter Outline

47.1 The Biodiversity Crisis
47.2 The Importance of Biodiversity to Human Life
47.3 Threats to Biodiversity
47.4 Preserving Biodiversity

In the 1980s, biologists working in Lake Victoria in Africa discovered one of the most extraordinary products of evolution on the planet. Located in the Great Rift Valley, Lake Victoria is an enormous and deep lake about 68,900 km2 in area (larger than Lake Huron, the second largest of North America’s Great Lakes). Biologists were studying species of a family of fish called cichlids. When they sampled for fish in different locations of the lake, the researchers identified over 500 evolved species in total. However, the scientists soon discovered that the invasive Nile Perch was destroying the lake’s cichlid population, bringing hundreds of cichlid species to extinction with devastating rapidity.

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