my question is - is biodiversity of planet earth GENERALLY increasing or decresing during history of planet earth?
Do you have any datas?
Of course evolutional processes also should be taken into account.
Thanks for your clues as deals answer for my question.
the_botanist
increasing…
arising of new evolutionary branches, as well as the seperation and spreading of many landmasses - islands and continents - and increased heterogenity in for example soil composition, have generally increased biodiversity over the ages
nevertheless… there have been periods with decreasing biodiversity… usually very strong, very abrupt and relatively short
we’re experiencing one now, by the way… although this one has an unusual cause: humans … and although it’s a very strong decline, we don’t know how long it will last
You sound very interesting but… can you prove your statements somehow?
I mean give some numbers to make me sure you are right that generally the number of species increases during earth’s history.
I would rather say it oscilates in more or less the same number. But it is my INTUITION - not the result of any scrupuolus studies.
cheers,
the_botanist
ps. people produce news species destroying others and generally species match to create hybrids and next new species… so the general number of species would rather oscilate than increase - my opinion.
for the reasons i gave you, biodiversity has historically increased, i can add increased diversity of landscape, soil structure, fysical and chemical build-up and dynamic to the mix… don’t believe me, find the information… try google scholar
follow this link:
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0066-4 … size=LARGE
to an abstract, where it says that the global number of species has been rising substantially for the past hunder million years… (basicly since the dino’s got screwed)
i thought i made it clear that indeed, biodiversity has fluctuated, but that large decreases in biodiversity were generally abrupt, short and the consequence of large ecological disaster
have you ever seen the saw-shaped picture that represents the number of species over time? (i couldn’t find it on google, but it has to be out there, good luck 
) if you look at it carefully, you see that this pattern clearly… long, slow rise of the ammount of species, followed the typical, strong, short decline and a slow, long rise again… if you find it, you will also notice the number of species reaches higher after every ecological ‘crash’
as for the present economical disaster:
click here to get an idea of what we’re currently dealing with
greetings
willem
Hi:)
Thanks for your clues and articles but still I think problem is very complicated. really. I need some more time to read the article about tropical forests but you know - tropical forests cannot be a picture of everything whatever this everything is (my opinion).
Lately I have been reading a bit about contemporary exctintions. I also deal a lot of in ecology but models given there are rather new. Can we count geological biodiversity at all? (at this point I have to note that I have problems to open link about geological biodiveristy).
As deals current times - I am not sure the number of species is increasing.
Lets take the world today. Is it increasing today? In the past I am also not sure that the general direction of biodiversity was to become richer and richer.
I mean - one day planet Earth will finish. when? when biodiversity will be too rich? or maybe a meteorite will hit the Earth according to scientifical versions? I mean - I am very sceptical as deals idea of general increasing of biodiversity. Fluctuation - that’s the ecological term that suits the best I think:)
Cheers,
the_botanist
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the biodiversity on planet earth is thought to be at its highest peak right now; its expected that it’ll start going down again.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Phan … ersity.png
A new mass extintion should be right around the corner
biodiversity has fluctuated throughout earth’s history.
willem… what is Galaxis ?
and what about current exctinctions? they do seem to be a big problem but you claim the general amount of biodiversity is increasing ( at the moment).
But think about invasive plants. They seem to be a big problem all over the world. Do you have any reliable scientifical datas to prove what you preach?
cheers,
the_botanist
to my knowledge, i have said no such thing
the biodiversity is generally declining at a very alarming rate
where i said biodiversity generally increased, i was talking about tendencies over billions of years… not counting human interference
Ofcourse not… nevertheless the biodiversity of our planet is still at its highest peak ever.
not anymore 
There have been mass extinctions in the past aswell… keep your pants on mate.
how the hell do we know what the biodiversity level is?
have we cataloged every single type of life on the planet? no
are we even close to cataloging every single type of life on the planet? no
have we EVER cataloged every single type of life on the planet? no
what makes us think that the little science we have now is the definitive answer to a question that spans literally billions and billions of life forms for billions and billions of years for life on this planet?
-Imp
Well i’m not sure; i’m not a scientist but they’re pretty sure. why dont you ask them ?
they don’t have the evidence!
they admit they don’t have the evidence!
they all prescribe environmental communism based on something for which they have no evidence!
-Imp
yea… 3 or 4 … they were great fun… let’s have another one
imp:
i think in your case it matters less if it’s happening or not, it’s that you don’t care about the consequences
so what?