Conservation Biology Exam 1

Conservation Biology

takes what we know about the natural world to use this as a guide to decision making and helps us evaluate different actions we could take

but natural science cannot suggest best actions without knowing our objectives

Conservation Biology is not -

an exact science

Pre 1850 conservation Biology

• religious ideas of stewardship

• enclosure and preservation of royal hunting grounds

• royal hunt was a vita; component of the political cultures

Romantic-transcendental conservation (preservationist) ethic

(Muir, Thoreau, Emerson) → Preservation for spiritual value→US National Parks

Resource Conservation ethic

(Pinchot) → Sustainable resource production→ US National Forests

Evolutionary-Ecologic land ethic

(Leopold) → Man as part of complex ecology

‘A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity,

stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when

it tends otherwise.’

Biomagnification of DDT

• increases as going to higher levels of predators on the food chain

Preservation

• leave it alone

Conservation

use it wisely

Preservation ethic

focus on biodiversity

Sustainable use ethic

focuses on ecosystem services

Provisioning Services

• products obtained from the ecosystem

• ex.) food, water, raw materials, medicines, biotechnology

Regulating Service

• benefits from regulation of ecosystem processes

• ex.) air, water purification, climate regulation, soil fertility, erosion control, pest and disease control, pollination, natural disaster mitigation

Cultural Services

• nonmaterial benefits obtained from ecosystems

• recreation, ecotourism, health and well-being, spiritual and religious, aesthetic and inspiration, educational, cultural heritage

Supporting Services

• ecological processes that control the functioning of ecosystems and production of all other services

• resource capture, biomass production, decomposition, nutrient recycling

Pleistocene overkill hypothesis

hunting by prehistoric humans caused the extinction of large-bodied animals across entire

continents

Biodiversity

the variety of organisms at all levels of biological organization

Taxonomic diversity focuses

species

About - species are known to science (named/identified)

1.5-2 million

More than - of species known to science are insects and almost - % are represented by just

half, 25

Total number of eukaryotic species: credible estimates from -

3-30 million

How many new species are found every year?

10,000

Recently discovered species

Psammitis abuliensis – crab spider found in alpine lava field 2024

4 new deep sea octopuses (2023)

Dwarf Deer (Pudella carlae) 2024

Morphological species concept:

individuals are grouped into species on the basis of morphological and physiological similarities

Biological species concept:

individuals that interbreed in the wild to produce viable, fertile offspring are considered to be members of the same species

Problems with the biological species concept

• can be hard to observe interbreeding directly

• How much interbreeding between populations is enough to call it one species?

Evolutionary/Phylogenetic species concept:

a distinct evolutionary lineage based on average genetic relatedness

Why do conservation biologists care so much about how we define a species?

Because this is the level at which laws are written and management is assessed

DNA barcoding in conservation:

 Rapid species identification

 Conservation

 Public health

 Identify meat/seafood

 Identify preserved specimens

Environmental DNA

collect stray DNA in environment and detect what species are present

Species richness

• the number of species in a defined community or area

Species - is very sensitive to sampling effort, if effort is different it is hard to compare species -

richness, richness

Species accumulation curves

species richness is plotted as a function of the total number of samples

Rarefaction

a method that lets you standardize effort to compare biodiversity across sites sampled in different ways

• compare at the same level of sampling

• cannot rarify if you are using different sampling methods (ex. traps vs sweep nets)

T or F: It is hard to get true total richness

T

species evenness

• the relative abundance of the different species (similar abundance = more evenness)

Disadvantages of richness as a metric:

• Does not account for relative abundance of species

• Very sensitive to the presence of rare species

Simpson diversity index

The probability that two individuals drawn at random are the same species

T or F: Simpson diversity index is sensitive to rare species

F

Shannon diversity

combines species richness and species evenness

Phylogenetic Diversity

• species weighted based on their evolutionary distinctiveness

• calculated using a phylogenetic tree, taking sum of all branch lengths connecting all species

• measures evolutionary dispersion of biotas

Functional Diversity

species weighted based on their ecological distinctiveness

• calculated based on characters (traits) representing niche dimensions (how each species influences ecosystem function)

• measures ecological dispersion of biotas, i.e., diversity of ecological roles within community

Plant functional diversity traits:

root depth, plant height, leaf type, pollination mechanism

Animal functional diversity traits:

body size, diet, habitat, metabolic rate

T or F: Diversity metrics tend to be correlated but not perfectly

T

Ecoregions

• large areas with similar mix of environmental conditions and relatively distinct group of organisms

• defined differently depending on the goals of the person doing the definition

Alpha Diversity

diversity of a local community on some scale of interest (i.e. a pond or a field)

within habitat diversity

Beta Diversity

change or turnover in species composition over some distance (between adjacent habitats)

between habitat diversity

Beta diversity is highest when

habitats vary over fine spatial scales (i.e, heterogeneous habitats, hills, or mountains)

Gamma Diversity

total biodiversity over a large geographic area such as a biome, continent, or ocean basin

• combined influence of local alpha diversity and beta diversity

gamma =

alpha x beta

Why care about the difference between alpha, beta and gamma diversity

often a human impact can impact diversity on only one spatial scale, or increase diversity on one scale while decreasing it on another

_ diversity is reduced with development

alpha

If development reduces alpha diversity, increases similarity between sites, then development:

reduces beta diversity, reduces gamma diversity

Increased similarity => - beta diversity

Reduced

Reduced Alpha and Reduced Beta => - gamma diversity

Reduced

What is the dominant pattern of change for global alpha diversity?

going down

Alpha diversity is - (increasing or declining) at a global scale

declining

Extinction rate exceeds - rate globally.

speciation

What is the dominant pattern of change for biogeographic alpha diversity?

going up

Alpha diversity is -(increasing or decreasing) at continental and regional scales

increasing

What is the dominant pattern of change for local alpha diversity around the world?

Local alpha diversity is about as likely to go up as down

What is the dominant pattern of change for spatial beta diversity around the world?

Spatial beta diversity is going down at most scales

temporal beta diversity (turnover) is going - (up or down)

up

Biodiversity patterns are more complicated at smaller scales because of

introduced non-native species