ConBio exam 2

why are coastal grasslands important

planktonic (freefloating) animals that would be easy prey can live here without fear of predators

Bioaccumulation

chemical buildup through trophic levels

Hummingbirds are an example of what

top down control on inverts

Keystone vs dominant species

a keystone species is a species that has the ability to determine how well other creatures persist. They do not have to be in high quantity. An example of them includes wolves (low in number yet very imapctful)

a dominant species is a species that is only impactful due to their large abundance. In small numbers, they wouldn’t make an impact. an example of this is deer.

What can cause a trophic cascade

keystone species, Animals in one trophic level affect animals in antoher trophic level

keystone resources

resources that any living beings rely on. Streams, tree-holes, etc

Difference between healthy and stable ecosystem

healthy ecosystem: functions well with o without human influence

stable ecosystem: resistant to change/disturbance or is resilient enough to bounce back after disturbance.

bias in determining species richness

heavily biased towards what we see

tropical forests, coral reefs

Externalities

unintended impacts from a transaction. A coal power plant is built and it provides clean and cheap energy. However, externalities are a reduction in air quality and reduced visibility. these are distributed among society.

Open access reosurces

resources owned by no one such as air and water. With this, we see tragedy of the commons.

Environmental vs ecological economics

environmental economics places value on the compoents of the environment.

ecological economics is when we clarify that the human economy is a subset of earth. helps is strengthen arguments.

Precautionary principle

would rather not even remotely risk harm if we are a little uncertain of whether harm would occur. If something MIGHT cause harm, we shouldnt do it

Preverse subsidy

a subsidy (something that lowers cost of doing business) that makes environmental degredation more likely, For exmaple, more traffic increased pollution. more traffic is the preverse subsidy

how should GDP be calcuated

should include the value of natural resources

What are some ways we can raise money for conservation

most effective one is hunting, especially taxes on hunting equipment. We can also ask for donations and occasionally (admin depending) we may have govt money

What is the value on Palow Lake?

many peolple want to come here to see the fun animals like that one jellyfish! this raises money which helps out govt, which gives locals jobs, gives jobs to hotel staff

Direct vs indirect value

direct value is the value on private goods. Products harvested by people.

Indirect value is the use we can get from something without destroying it. Biodiversity can provide us with much value, including tourism and happiness :)

• this may include people wanting to preserve the land to help with possible harvesting in the future like medical uses and food sources

existance value of species

people may never use something but still like that it exists.

Cordyceps case study

people harvesting this for medicinal purposes near Himalayas. Some houses use this for maybe 40% of their income for the year

Three services an ecosystem provides (ecosystem services)

1) Provisioning services: material or energy outputs of ecpsystem like timber, venision for food, witch hazel for medicine.

2) regulatory services: water, air, and soil help to regulate pollution

3) Cultural Services; intellectual stimulation, art and science inspiration, spiritual value

two types of direct use

1) Consumptive Use Value: If we use up our natural resources too quickly, how much would it cost to still get it? This uses the replacement cost approach. Example would be in Botswana. Many people rely on wild meat. If we run through all of the our wildlife because we ate all fo them, how much would it cost to get meat?

2) Productive use value: Harvested and sold commercially like witch hzael for medicine and stuff, sphagnum moss for florists, wood turtles for asians.

Albatross

huge scavengers if the open ocean. Live a long time and throughout life have decent reproductive output but not at once or even at young age. they do it through their lifetime.

long line fishing decimates these populations

Evidence of Climate Change

Arctic Ice: take samples and measure the CO2 of the atmosphere through time. We can see that we are at record levels and we reached that in only a small portion of time (Huge rising since industrial revolution)

Tree Rings: Used trees to look at the different types of Carbon before and after human development. Trees show that our Carbon is from fossil fuels. we know this by looking at the different isotopes.

What do we mean when we say climate change is synergistic

this means that certain factors may enhance of reduce the severity of climate change in a specific area. For example, the tundra with a lot of snow heats up the most because once the snow starts to melt the dark soils underneath absorbs heat and heats everything up even more. This then leads to microbial soil respiration, releasing even more CO2 that will warm up the Earth even more

Why is it especially dangerous for trpical areas to face climate change

the tropics are generally very stable with no significant flucuations in temperature, precipitation, etc. the animals there have adapted to this kind of environment where they do not need to thrive in varying, changing conditions. The tropics becoming warmer is dangerous for smoe of the animals because they have a narrow thermal neutral zone and may overheat very easily. their operationn zone and especially preference zone is narrow in tropical species.

Sea levels rising - why and who does this affects

wamring temperatures are melting ice, which adds more water to the coean. Also, the water itself becoming warmer makes the particles further apart, which takes up more area. the sea levels rising can be detrimental for animals on islands or coasts because they are at an increased risk of flooding.

What are some of the shifts we expect to see in animals with rising temrpatures

we expect animals to move from the poles

we expect the boreal forst to become fragmented

shifs in phenology (timing of migration, repro)

migrants spending mroe time at summer grounds

Issues with protected areas

they often ar not well connected and large enoujgh to provide actual safe habitat. Often times they are traps. Protected habitats need habitat heterogeneity, to be large enough for minimal edges, and connected to toher areas.

What is happening with Pika populations!

they are moving from warmer to cooler areas. overall an issue ebcause cooler areas are higher up the mountains which have less area so overall its either more dense or animals die

Reason number 1 and 2 for loss of biodviersity

1 is habitat loss

2 is overexploitation

source sink dynamics

source is where births outpace deaths. sink is where deaths outpace births. trap protected areas are an exmaple

reudcing bycatch and increasing fish catch

albatross and shark by-catch is bad for their conservation, so we want to stop it. It also is bad for the fishermen because their bait and supplies are getting used up by animals they dont even want. Devices to reduce by-catch also help to increase fish yields

CITIES

appendix 1 is most protected

appendix 3 is partially protected

overall cities is a global list of endagered animals

How does data vary by site

some countries are less likely to collect reliable data. For exmaple, some african and central european countries are less reliable.

How does wildlife trade cause a negative feedback loop

People really want somethikng because it is pretty. Colelction begins, and now population is low in the wild. Now, it is seen as more valuable and rare, wihch raises cost. this rise in cost makes it more valiable are rare, which raises cost. Loop continues, Overall resulting in an increase od demand leading to lower populations

Issues with wildlife trade

terrorist organziations do it

can spread pathogens

reduce populations even to the point of extinctionW

Which animals are more targeted for wildlife trade

turtles, certain birds llike parrots

Phylogenetics and wildlife trade

An animal is often desired due to a specific attribute such as scales, ivory, etc. related animals are likely to have this same signal. If we look at phylogeny to determine closest relatives, we can predict what species will become the enxt target and preemptively prepare.

How and why do we control wildfires

Many stands are fire adapted to needing fire to germinate the seeds (they have serotinous seeds). This means they need fire that is not so intense to scorch the whole forest and disrupt neighbors but can still be enough to open seeds and burn brush to allow for new growth. We can have controlled burns where we burn flammable brush in the winter to prevent a hiuge wildfire from occuring that would threaten homes but still allow for nutreints and natural life history traits to persist.

Globalization

the interconnectedness of respruces and labor markets

for exmaple, everyone wants pine nuts but amur tigers need the trees those nuts come from. needs to happen for people, but needs strict regulation for tigers

this pine nut market herlps to give people money and sustainable harvest that may even raise money for tiger conservation.

ecological footprint

way to quantify the reosurces we use. goes up as we travel, own more things, own larger property, drive instead of walk, eat a lot of meaWht, etc

Where do we want to focus conservation

tropics and other areas with a lot of biodiversity, esepcially if its in a small area that is easily influenced.

North American birds

30% reduction since 1970 due to haitat loss, cats, then window strikes. can help with changes in regulation.

waterfowl made great rebound

Bermuda petrels

serve as ane xmaple of what can happen once a land is developed, everyone wants to live on a warm island but may not know or care that animals die in the process

what habitats are especially important

tropical deciduous forests, grasslands, freshwater, coasts, and coral reefs

Hutchison memorial forest

Issues include

• weird shape means a lot of edges where a lot of invasives thrive and very little “deep forest” areas for animals that can live on edge

• no connectivity ebcause surrounded by road which acts as a huge barrier for many animals. may also be too loud and polluted.

• surrounding area is void of resources ebcause its all ag land. Cant go out there to forage.

What happens when we create islands

toip predators start dying off because they need a large area to forage for food and lost that. Not enough food on their new island becauase there wasnt even enough space t begin with

What are we doing to restructure the ecosystem

we keep moving stuff around to intriduce invasive species and diseases into new environments

we trade animals to reduce populations