The Web of Life
Biodiversity is the variety of life. All living organisms on our planet, their genetic diversity and the multitude of ecosystems they form are linked to each other by a multitude of complex interactions. Humans are included in this web.
A web of connections and interactions holds the natural world together. Humans benefit from nature’s complex web: it provides food, medicine, recreation, climate regulation, clean water, and air. For example, a large majority of flowering plants, and most of our food plants, rely on insects, birds or mammals for pollination or seed dispersal.
Many of us have a special relationship with biodiversity: we enjoy nature while walking, in recreational activities, or gardening. But our actions often endanger this diversity by modifying ecosystems, that can trigger the loss of species, their genetic diversity, and their interactions with each other. When diversity is lost, the web that holds our world together also weakens – to the point where it may no longer be sustainable.
Explore the web of life and your relationship to biodiversity.
Researchers in the University of Zurich Research Priority Program on Global Change and Biodiversity (URPP GCB) explore interactions between organisms, how human actions impact on biodiversity and what shapes humans’ relationships with nature. Learn about ecosystem interactions with a replica of a real Swiss meadow. Discover how organisms are linked in the web of life, and how human activities may change interactions in this intricate web while playing a game. In the process, you will also learn about the methods that URPP GCB researchers use to study interactions between organisms at different scales.
