Everyone recognizes the wisdom of the old saying, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

Today's corollary is, "Don't put all your chickens in one egg." After all, if that egg were broken, the future would be pretty bleak for chickenkind.

The future of chickenkind lies in producing lots of different eggs, with lots of varieties of chickens -- some with resistance to diseases, some that are comfortable in hot climates, some that can withstand the cold. That kind of diversity will allow chickens to adapt and survive in whatever conditions the future brings.

Diversity on a larger scale, biodiversity, is important for the future of the planet. The term, biodiversity, refers to the variety of life on earth and the complex interdependence of living things. Changing or losing a single component can send unexpected and often dangerous repercussions rippling through the living network called an ecosystem.

"The public is way ahead of researchers on this," says Dave Mossop, instructor and biodiversity researcher at Yukon College. "The public is demanding ecosystem information."

Mossop recently organized a forum on biodiversity at Yukon College. Funded by the Yukon Department of Renewable Resources and organized by the college through the Northern Research Institute, the forum was part of the territory's response to its responsibilities under the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy, an action plan for protecting biodiversity in Canada.

Canada is in the process of changing and losing more than a few components of its biodiversity. A fact sheet on biodiversity, published by the Sierra Club of Canada, estimates that Canada is home to 140,000 species of plants, animals, micro-organisms, and fungi. It also estimates that natural habitat is being lost at a rate of 240 hectares an hour.

A 1994 assessment by Environment Canada said more than 75 percent of Canada's identified 177 terrestrial regions are at risk of losing biodiversity. That means we risk losing species of plants and animals that might help supply oxygen to the atmosphere, purify water, provide future medicines, or contain the genetic material needed to adapt to an uncertain future.

We need to know more about ecosystems and how they function in order to protect biodiversity, says Mossop.

Yukon researchers are already studying a variety of subjects, including frogs, insects, birds, plants, and assorted large animals, he says.

"The problem is a lot of those studies have been done independently. It's important to bring them together, to develop ideas at the ecosystem level."

The biodiversity forum came up with a number of recommendations designed to help pull existing information together and identify where more information is needed, he says. The recommendations will be summarized in a report based on discussions at the forum.

Mossop says he hopes there will be another biodiversity forum to carry the recommendations further.

"It's important to develop a research community in the Yukon," he says. "Especially in the biology game, we're so suspicious and defensive. Scientists have to get together to co-ordinate our efforts."

Co-ordinating different kinds of science and knowledge is the only way to get an understanding of the broader concepts of ecosystem and biodiversity, says Mossop.

For more information on biodiversity, contact Environment Canada, Whitehorse, or Dave Mossop at Ayamdigut Campus, Yukon College, Whitehorse.