In the scientific (?) discussion of today, we tend to use buzzwords of various reasons and for various purposes. "Biodiversity", of cource, is one of them.
What it all comes down to, is about UNDERSTANDING NATURE, for purely scientific reasons, or in order to manage our environment (use or protect). One way of doing this is by focusing on the living components of the ecosystem (i.e. taxonomy); taxonomy is important, but it is even more important to know how these components interact, and how interactions are driven and altered by the (non-living) environment, i.e. "ecology": Biodiversity is part of ecology, and I feel science (in this case in the baltic Sea) should focus more on functions, and less on lists of species (stamp collections tend to be rather static by default).
regards,
Erik Bonsdorff |