7.1 Introduction
Conservation biology is the scientific study of biodiversity oriented to protect
species, habitats and ecosystems from unsustainable exploitation, uncontrolled
extinctions and the increasing weakening of biological interactions. Conservation
biology involves the interaction among apparently unrelated disciplines such as
social and natural sciences, economics and computational and political sciences,
among others, promoting integrative and transdisciplinary views on ecosystem
health and aiming to formulate the scientific basis for the best practices in natural
resource management. Unlike with plants and animals, microscopic organisms
have been mostly excluded in conservation studies and microbiology has been
developed as a scientific discipline lacking a natural history background (Margulis
et al. 1986). Apparently, the study of microorganisms lacks naturalistic attractive
and conservation-orientated perspectives because of microbial inconspicuousness,
low probabilities of extinction and potential widespread distribution. Therefore,
environmental managers and lawyers, citizens and stakeholders, in general, have
obviated the fate of natural microbial communities among their daily worries and
strategic planning beyond pathogens. Threats on microorganisms have been not
considered as part of the natural resources management policies or in the estimation of the influence of human activities in nature. Ecosystem functioning
carried out by microorganisms appears to rely on a high functional redundancy and
its maintenance could be largely uncoupled to microbial biodiversity erosion
(Wertz et al. 2006). Microorganisms, however, are the most abundant and widespread forms of life on Earth and encompass the highest taxonomic, metabolic,
genetic, and functional diversity. They rule the whole biodiversity on Earth and
their activities have a major ecosystem effect (Madigan et al. 2015). Conservation
biology perspectives where the fundamental unit in the conservation of biodiversity is not the species but the habitat would probably apply very well for
microorganisms.
In the early 90s of the past century, the International Programme of Biodiversity
Science DIVERSITAS, a programme promoted among others by the International
Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and now migrated to both Future Earth (http://
www.futureearth.org/) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), tried to reverse this lack of
knowledge highlighting the crucial role that microbial biodiversity plays in the
maintenance of many ecosystem services. The term “ecosystem services” describes
ecosystem resources and processes that benefit human society, and its identification
and value quantification can provide additional arguments for the protection of
species and ecosystems that could easily reach public opinion and policy decisions
(Daily et al. 2009). DIVERSITAS emphasised the immense genetic diversity of
microorganisms and their crucial and unique roles as essential components of food
chains and biogeochemical cycles and included “microbial biodiversity” within the
nine fundamental cross-cutting research themes of critical importance for
158
E.O. Casamayor
Conservation biology is the scientific study of biodiversity oriented to protect
species, habitats and ecosystems from unsustainable exploitation, uncontrolled
extinctions and the increasing weakening of biological interactions. Conservation
biology involves the interaction among apparently unrelated disciplines such as
social and natural sciences, economics and computational and political sciences,
among others, promoting integrative and transdisciplinary views on ecosystem
health and aiming to formulate the scientific basis for the best practices in natural
resource management. Unlike with plants and animals, microscopic organisms
have been mostly excluded in conservation studies and microbiology has been
developed as a scientific discipline lacking a natural history background (Margulis
et al. 1986). Apparently, the study of microorganisms lacks naturalistic attractive
and conservation-orientated perspectives because of microbial inconspicuousness,
low probabilities of extinction and potential widespread distribution. Therefore,
environmental managers and lawyers, citizens and stakeholders, in general, have
obviated the fate of natural microbial communities among their daily worries and
strategic planning beyond pathogens. Threats on microorganisms have been not
considered as part of the natural resources management policies or in the estimation of the influence of human activities in nature. Ecosystem functioning
carried out by microorganisms appears to rely on a high functional redundancy and
its maintenance could be largely uncoupled to microbial biodiversity erosion
(Wertz et al. 2006). Microorganisms, however, are the most abundant and widespread forms of life on Earth and encompass the highest taxonomic, metabolic,
genetic, and functional diversity. They rule the whole biodiversity on Earth and
their activities have a major ecosystem effect (Madigan et al. 2015). Conservation
biology perspectives where the fundamental unit in the conservation of biodiversity is not the species but the habitat would probably apply very well for
microorganisms.
In the early 90s of the past century, the International Programme of Biodiversity
Science DIVERSITAS, a programme promoted among others by the International
Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and now migrated to both Future Earth (http://
www.futureearth.org/) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), tried to reverse this lack of
knowledge highlighting the crucial role that microbial biodiversity plays in the
maintenance of many ecosystem services. The term “ecosystem services” describes
ecosystem resources and processes that benefit human society, and its identification
and value quantification can provide additional arguments for the protection of
species and ecosystems that could easily reach public opinion and policy decisions
(Daily et al. 2009). DIVERSITAS emphasised the immense genetic diversity of
microorganisms and their crucial and unique roles as essential components of food
chains and biogeochemical cycles and included “microbial biodiversity” within the
nine fundamental cross-cutting research themes of critical importance for
158
E.O. Casamayor