Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve

Biodiversity refers to the diversity of all life forms and at Ball levels of organization.

- Kanchan Puri*, Ritesh Joshi and Satish C. Garkoti

The levels of biodiversity are the diversity within a species (genetic diversity), the diversity of species (species diversity) and the diversity of ecosystems (habitat or ecosystem diversity). Talking about the Marine Biodiversity, Oceans and major seas cover 70% of the earth and 50% of all species on Earth (under the ocean). India has a vast coastline of 7, 517 km and an Economic Exclusive Zone of 2.02 million sq. km. There are several types of coastal ecosystems in India namely inland freshwater wetlands, inland brackish water wetlands, estuarine wetlands, coastal mudflats, sand dunes, rocky shores, mangrove forests and coral reefs. This coastline supports human population that is dependent on the rich coastal and marine resources.