A species preserved in a zoo or botanical garden, for example, would technically be saved from extinction, but if local populations vanish from the wild, the ecological damage is done. Recent research also strongly suggests that any study of biodiversity must reach much further than rain forests. Recent explorations are revealing incredible species richness in other habitats. In particular, new methods for exploring and sampling the oceans have led scientists to new species and previously unknown ecosystems. But coral reefs alone are likely to harbor at least a million species and perhaps up to 9 million, says marine biologist Marjorie Reaka-Kudla of the University of Maryland.
Marine species are also more vulnerable than biologists once believed.
But as biologists realize that sea creatures' habitats are smaller than was assumed, and as more of these habitats are plundered by overfishing, construction, pollution, and the introduction of alien species, the resilience of marine biodiversity is no longer taken for granted. Few marine extinctions have so far been documented. Another biological frontier is emerging underfoot. Scientists had long known that the Earth's soil teems with insects, worms, and microbes. But new research techniques are revealing far more diversity than once imagined.