14 DAY TRIAL // Despite literally thousands of studies into the issue, scientists admit that they are barely beginning to scratch the surface in understanding the level of interconnectedness our planet displays.
As part of the efforts to make sense of how things relate to each other, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) has just awarded 14 more grants in its Dimensions of Biodiversity campaign.
What experts fear the most is that our creeping influence on the environment may destroy this still-unrecognized biodiversity before we even get a chance to study and understand it.
The very goal of the Dimensions of Biodiversity campaign is to transform the way we understand the role of life on this planet, and also to understand how this complex web of interactions appeared.
“Dimensions of Biodiversity is accelerating the pace of biodiversity research and discovery, and enables scientists to think at grand scales,” explains the acting director of the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences, Joann Roskoski.
“Collaborative teams have formed to tackle some of the big questions using novel and integrative techniques,” the official goes on to say.
“Taxonomists are talking to geneticists; geneticists to ecologists; and ecologists to taxonomists. This is not business as usual,” Roskoski reveals.
The international scientific community have been drawing attention to the fact that we are destroying the environment for many years, but economic interests have always prevailed over the public interest.
In destroying Earth's biodiversity, we are punching large holes in the web of life that services all ecosystems on the planet. We are also depriving ourselves of the means needed to understand the past and future of the living world.
Our collective behavior is also jeopardizing future discoveries in various domains, such as food, fibers, fuels, pharmaceuticals, and other forms of nature-inspired innovation.
“Dimensions of Biodiversity combines a rapid campaign with a new way of thinking about biodiversity that integrates genetic, taxonomic, and functional questions,” Roskoski explains.
“Dimensions may accomplish in 10 years what, with a piecemeal approach, would have taken 50 years – a half-century we can no longer wait,” she concludes.