SIGNS OF THE TIMES: BIODIVERSITY, SYSTEMATICS AND EDUCATION

Abstract

Biodiversity is the variety and variability of living things and of the ecosystem that they constitute. It can be studied at
three levels: genes, species, and ecosystems. The most common way to quantify biodiversity is using the species level.
Estimates place the number of species in the world at around thirteen million, yet only 1.7 million of these have been
identified and described. There is evidence that we are destroying species faster than we are identifying them. This paper
is a presentation of the problem of the loss of biodiversity as a sign of our time. Also biological systematics and education
are discussed as tools to ameliorate the problem.