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The activities of every ecosystem, be it a lake, or a forest or a coral reef, are largely controlled by living things. As has been mentioned throughout this book, different organisms play major roles in maintaining an environment able to sustain human life. In addition, scientific research has lately revealed that biodiversity increases the productivity of ecosystems, their efficiency and resistance. The more species in a given environment, the healthier and better-ordered is the system's functioning.
As stated in an article titled "Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Maintaining Natural Life Support Processes," written by 12 scientists137 from various universities, American and European experts have clearly shown that there is a direct correlation between species numbers and efficiency.138 To put it another way, species diversity means high productivity. For example, seven years of research by Prof. David Tilman and his team determined that in any given environment, an area made up of several plant species gives more products than an equal area composed of only a few. A field sown with 16 species of plant produces 2.7 times greater biomass than a field sown with only one.139 According to Professor Tilman, the reason for this is that many species use the resources in the field more efficiently. Every species in the ecosystem can be compared to a different sphere of work in a human society. In the same way that overall well-being increases as these various different jobs increase, so an ecosystem's productivity rises as its number of species increase.140
According to these research and experiments, the reason why productivity increases is the co-operation between species.141 Yet Darwinism has no room for such joint endeavors as co-operation. According to Darwinism, nature is somewhere in which living things struggle to the death, and in which the weak are eliminated. But observations have once again refuted the theory of evolution.
Another fact, recent research reveals is that the diversity of species increases the resistance of an ecosystem. Biodiversity is literally an insurance mechanism against the negative impact of drought, insect pests, disease and climate changes.142 Ecosystems with biodiversity are less vulnerable and less affected by adverse circumstances. In addition, biodiversity influences ecosystems,143 so that following negative conditions an ecosystem re-assumes its former state much faster. In Africa, for example, parts of the Serengeti plains that are rich in species, return to their former state faster after animals have been grazing on them.144