NADISHA.B    Roll No : 118

Marine and Coastal Biodiversity

 Marine Biodiversity is the theme for International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB), 2012. The oceans cover 70% of the planet’s surface area, and 95% of the biosphere. They produce a third of the oxygen that we breathe, offer a valuable source of proteins , and are among the largest natural resources of Carbon dioxide and moderates global climatic change. Some species, such as the great auk and the sea mink, are extinct; others, notably the great whales, have been hunted to fractions of their original populations. Species diversity is known to be as high as 1000 per square metre in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, and new oceanic species are continuously being discovered, particularly in the deep sea. Tropical marine ecosystems of Kerala coasts includes lagoons, mangrove swamps, sandy and rocky shores and open sea front. Apart from fishes Kerala coast has a rich array of Crustaceans, corals, echinoderms, mollusks, turtles etc.