Correct Answer: (d) Mankind's over-exploitation/misuse of natural resources, fragmentation/loss of natural habitats, destruction of the ecosystem, pollution and global climate change.
Solution:Biodiversity represents the diversity of life on all levels on Earth from genes to biogeographically areas and ecological and evolutionary process. Biodiversity is the measure of the health of the ecosystem. The wider the biodiversity, the more full of health there will be. Five major Mass Extinction from the beginning of life on Earth resulted in a sudden drastic decline in the level of biodiversity. The rate of decline of biodiversity in this sixth (Holocene Extinction) mass extinction is higher than the prices of occurrence of five earlier widespread destructions in the fossil record. These incidents of destructions are primarily due to sudden changes in environmental and climatic conditions. However, the current rate of loss in biodiversity is higher than the natural background extinction. The main reason for this is human activity due to habitat fragmentation, degradation and damage, contraction in genetic diversity, alienation of alien species, over-exploitation of resources, pollution etc. Damage to biodiversity results in loss of natural wealth. In 2004, an 'International Collaboration' study conducted on four continents estimated that about 10 percent of the species would become extinct by the year 2050 due to climate change.
