Which statement best captures the role of biodiversity in climate resilience?

Which statement best captures the role of biodiversity in climate resilience?

• A. Biodiversity has no impact on climate resilience.
• B. Climate resilience depends only on technology, not biodiversity.
• C. Healthy biodiversity supports adaptation to climate change and lowers disaster risk.
• D. Biodiversity hinders adaptation to climate change.

Answer: (C)

Biodiversity boosts climate resilience by maintaining a suite of ecosystem services that help communities cope with and adapt to climate-related changes. When ecosystems have a rich variety of species, they can perform essential functions more reliably under stress. For example, diverse forests store more carbon and regulate water and soil better, helping to stabilize landscapes and reduce erosion. Coastal ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs break wave energy, lowering storm surges and protecting shorelines. In agriculture, a variety of crops and wild relatives provides genetic resources that breeders can use to develop drought- and heat-tolerant varieties, supporting food security as climates shift. This combination of ecological redundancy, functional diversity, and protective services makes systems more capable of absorbing shocks, adapting to new conditions, and reducing disaster risk. The other ideas miss how interdependent living systems are with climate outcomes. Biodiversity clearly influences resilience; relying only on technology ignores the crucial support that ecosystems provide. Saying biodiversity hinders adaptation contradicts evidence of how diverse systems respond more robustly to stress.

Biodiversity boosts climate resilience by maintaining a suite of ecosystem services that help communities cope with and adapt to climate-related changes. When ecosystems have a rich variety of species, they can perform essential functions more reliably under stress. For example, diverse forests store more carbon and regulate water and soil better, helping to stabilize landscapes and reduce erosion. Coastal ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs break wave energy, lowering storm surges and protecting shorelines. In agriculture, a variety of crops and wild relatives provides genetic resources that breeders can use to develop drought- and heat-tolerant varieties, supporting food security as climates shift. This combination of ecological redundancy, functional diversity, and protective services makes systems more capable of absorbing shocks, adapting to new conditions, and reducing disaster risk.

The other ideas miss how interdependent living systems are with climate outcomes. Biodiversity clearly influences resilience; relying only on technology ignores the crucial support that ecosystems provide. Saying biodiversity hinders adaptation contradicts evidence of how diverse systems respond more robustly to stress.