Jim Radford, Jann Williams and Geoff Park

Biodiversity is the variety of all life forms – species of plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genes they contain, and the populations, communities and ecosystems they create – and the interactions between and among them and the physical environment that generate ecosystem (or ecological) processes (SEAC 1996, Saunders 2000, SER 2004). Examples of ecosystem processes include carbon fixation by plants (photosynthesis), nutrient cycling by micro-organisms, nitrogen fixation by bacteria, decomposition of organic matter, water filtra tion, pollination of flowering plants by fauna and seed dispersal. Ecosystem processes that are of direct benefit to humans (e.g., carbon sequestra tion, water production, pest control) are called ecosystem services (Daily 1997, CSIRO 2001).

Documents: 

NCCMA 28681 - Effective Landscape Restoration for Native Biodiversity in Northern Victoria