Question

How do biodiversity hotspots develop?

Answer 1

Biodiversity hotspots cover less than 2.5% of earth's surface but each such hotspot contains at least 1500 vascular plant species which are endemic to that particular geographic region.

Biodiversity regions are also the most endangered, unfortunately due to irresponsible human activity.

Both variety and variability of living organisms in a biodiversity hotspot are immense. Biodiversity that exists in biological hotspots appears due to millions of years of evolution, and there are several explanations for that.

Two most important reasons are:

1. Adaptive radiation that leads to appearance of a number of different species from a single common ancestor, a process also known as divergent evolution.

2. Rate of extinction of species very low as there are a variety of ecological niche available for all different kinds of organisms.