Exam 2 Biodiversity (Chapter 5-8)

Indirect Use Values

processes or services that provide present and future economic benefits without being harvested or destroyed during use

• will not appear in Gross Domestic Product- they’re not goods or services in the economic sense. (but they’re crucial)

Ecosystem Service

range of benefits provided to people from ecosystems, including flood control, clean water, and reduction of pollution

Can societies survive without ecosystem services?

no, they would be destroyed

What are some indirect use values?

• ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration

• water protection

• soil protection

• waste treatment and nutrient retention

• climate regulation

• species relationships and environmental monitors

• Amenity Value

Total plant cover

the percentage of the total surface area occupied by plants

Carbon sequestration (Review slide 7)

the process involved in carbon capture and the long term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming.

What are some examples of carbon sources?

• factories

• universities

• vehicles/ airplanes

• forestry- cutting down forests

What are some examples of Carbon sinks?

• forests and restored forests

• saline reservoirs

• oceans

• wetlands

• bogs

social value of carbon

financial impact on society of producing a ton of carbon, then to tax carbon emission and subsidize sequestration based on this value

Flooding is what?

the most common natural disaster globally

What are some major areas that have flooded due to landslides?

bangladesh, india, philippines Thailand, Central America

What are some major areas that have flooded due to hurricanes?

Louisiana (New Orleans), Florida, Carolinas

What are some major areas that have flooded due to conversion of floodplain habitat to farmland?

areas along the mississippi river, Missouri river, Rhine River (Europe)

Saving Louisiana’s Coast

• Sarah Mack

• was losing wetland at one football field and hour

• 80% of flooding was due to levee breaching

• foresting breaks the waves off of the the flooding. so its protecting the land a little better.

• treated wastewater mimics Mississippi river water

• carbon sequestration is a byproduct of photosynthesis

  • plants tend to grow faster, removes carbon dioxide from the air (undergoes photosynthesis) and stores the carbon in the trees and soil

• 
  

regulating ecosystem service examples

swamps, lakes, rivers, floodplains, tidal marshes etc., can break down toxic pollutants such as heavy metals and pesticides released into the atmosphere by human activities.

• this is valued at more than $2 trillion per year

How does plants regulate climate at a local level?

trees provide the shade and evaporated water from their leaf surfaces during photosynthesis- which reduces local temps.

How does plants regulate climate at a regional level?

• the capture of precipitation and transpire

• loss of vegetation reduces the average annual rainfall

• loss of vegetation reduces the CO₂ uptake

How does plants regulate climate at a global level?

• rising sea level reduces coastal marshes and mangroves

• rising temps causes forests to die back.

Brazilian free-tailed bat

can eat half of its weight in insects in one night- pest control

Lichens

serve as warning indicators to chemical toxins. Also, absorbs rainwater

Species relationships and environmental monitors​

• bats and insects (pest control )

• Lichens- water absorbent and warning indicator to chemical toxins

• bees and crops (pollination )

• bean root- bacteria symbiosis

Amenity value

the monetary value of the recreational activity

ecotourism

category of recreation where people visit places and spend money to experience an unusual biological community (like rainforests, the savanna, coral reefs, deserts)

Option value

part of indirect use value that evaluates possible future benefits to humans such as new medicines, sources of food, changing genetic resources

Bioprospecting

searching the world for new species that may fight human disease or have other economic value

Existence value

the amount people are willing to pay to prevent species from going extinct, habitats from being destroyed, and genetic variation from being lost.

Bequest value

how much people are willing to pay to protect something of value for their own children and for future generations

Louisiana Disappearing Video

• climate change

• every hour, a football field of land is lost

• Dulac, LA sits 3 feet above sea level

• used to be marsh land, but gas companies kept digging (land began dying off)

• The coastal master plan

  • get the land back to how it used to be

• 
  

What is Coastal Erosion

• a natural process that occurs from waves, tides, or currents hitting the shore (washing away the coast line)

• four ways that waves cause erosion.

  • the constant force of water against the shore wears it away

  • when particles of rock and sand in the waves grind cliffs down

  • water causes rocks and pebbles to collide and break up

  • Acids in the sea slowly dissolve certain types of rocks

• 
  

Watch the last two videos in chapter 5 on slide 27

Environmental ethics

a discipline of philosophy that articulates the intrinsic value of the natural world and people’s responsibility to protect the environment.

Environmental economics

a discipline that examines the economic impacts of environmental policies and decisions

Ethical Values

1. Ethical arguments for preserving biodiversity has been debated.

2. Each species has a right to exist (intrinsic value).

3. All species are interdependent (coevolution, symbiosis).

4. People have responsibility to act as stewards of the Earth (religious or not).

5. People have a duty to neighbors (increased use of resources increases pollution) In the US, we are less than 5% of the population but we use more than 25% of the energy.

6. People have a responsibility to future generations.

7. Respecting human life and diversity is compatible with a respect for biodiversity.

Environmental justice

movement to empower poor and politically weak people, who are often members of minority groups to protect their own environments which in the process will protect their well-being and the protection of biodiversity

affluenza

the unsatisfying and unending pursuit of increasing material wealth

Watch videos on slide 11 (Chapter 6)

DO IT

In the USA, what percent of vegetables that used to be cultivated are now extinct?

97%

Extinct or Globally extinct

a species is considered extinct when after a thorough search, no member of the species is found alive anywhere in the world.

Extinct in the wild

a species remains alive only in captivity or in other human controlled situations such as zoos or botanical gardens

Locally extinct or extirpated

a species is no longer found in a specific area it once inhabited but is still found elsewhere in the wild

Regionally extinct

a species is extinct in a country or region but still persists in another part of its range. Its species is no longer found in part of its former range but still lives elsewhere.

Ecologically extinct

a species persists at such reduced numbers that its effects on other species in its community are negligible.

Extinction debt

presumed eventual loss of a species following habitat destruction and fragmentation, or the inevitable extinction of any species in coming years as a result of current human activities

Extant

a species that is still alive, just critically endangered

Highest extinction rates are on islands. Why?

1. limited range

2. small population sizes

3. small numbers of populations

4. some defenses not evolved against new predators

5. disease threatens

endemism

is the ecological state of a species being unique to a single, defined geographic location and found nowhere else on Earth

What species have higher rates of extinction? Island species or mainland species?

island species have higher rates of extinction than mainland species

What species are more vulnerable to extinction? freshwater species or marine species?

freshwater species are more vulnerable to extinction than marine species

island biogeography model

shows the distribution of biodiversity on islands originally developed in 1967 by MacArthur and Wilson.

• It can estimate future rates of extinction on islands based on the formula for the relationship between island size and number of species living on the island

Species- Area relationship

• the number of species found in an area increases with the size of an area. More species are found on large islands than small islands.

• S= CA^z

• S= number of species on an island

• A= area of the island

• C,z are constants that depend on the type of islands (tropical vs. temperature, wet vs. dry) and the types of species involved (birds vs. reptiles)

MacArthur and Wilson

hypothesized that the number of species occurring on an island represents a dynamic equilibrium between the colonization (and evolution) of new species and the extinction rate of existing species

extinction rates are ______ on large islands due to greater habitat diversity and greater numbers of populations.

lower

the rate of immigration is _____ on islands near the mainland because its easier to disperse to an island closer by than far away.

higher

If a habitat is reduced by _____ then 10% of the species in the group will be expected to disappear.

50%

If the habitat is reduced to _____, half the species will be lost.

90%

What are the assumptions and generalizations in the island biogeography model?

1. estimates are based on typical values for the species- area curves.

   1. groups with broad ranges (like marine mammals) have lower rates of species extinction than the model predicts.

2. Assumes all endemic species are eliminated from areas that have been largely cleared of forest.

   1. some species can survive in isolated patches or become adapted to selectively logged environments.

3. Assumes the habitat areas are eliminated at random.

   1. Areas with high species richness are targets of conversation efforts. A greater percentage of species may be protected than assumed by the model.

4. degree of habitat fragmentation may affect extinction rates.

   1. Fragmenting land via hunting, clearing, etc. may lead to further species loss than predicted

Speciation and Extinction,Bozeman Science, June 24, 2011 Video notes

• how we go from one species to two (speciation)

• How we go from one species to none (extinction)

• evolution- how we get more species

  • evolution can give us diversity. yet when the environment change it can either give us more diversity(speciation) or extinction

• sticklebacks

  • there were 3 spined sticklebacks (low armored)

  • They poisoned the lake and out of the blue, fully armored sticklebacks arise.

• Honey creepers

  • adaptive radiation

    • an evolutionary process where a single ancestral species rapidly diversifies into a wide variety of new forms adapted to different environmental niches

• The different characteristics that could have led to mass extinction:

  • Pangaea, comet, volcanoes, CO₂, gamma rays, sea level, climate change, methane hydrate, oxygen anoxia, ocean circulation

What are rare species?

• they have narrow geographical range

• it occupies one or a few specialized habitats

• they’re found only in small populations

What is an example of a critically endangered species?

Lynx - there’s only a few hundred scattered throughout spain

Which species may be particularly vulnerable to extinction?

Endemic

Neoendemics

species that occupy a small area or range because they have only recently evolved from closely related species.

Paleoendemics

ancient species with a narrow range whose close relatives have all gone extinct

What are the 5 categories used most in conservation planning?

1. Species with a narrow geographical range.

   1. a fish that only lives in one lake. A tropical bird whose range changes due to climate change.

2. species with only one or a few populations.

   1. species with many populations less likely to go extinct compared to species with few populations. Factors like earthquakes, fires, disease, human activity could easily destroy one or few populations.

3. Species in which population size is small.

   1. Species with small populations such as large predators or extreme specialists are more vulnerable to genetic loss than a species with a large population.

4. Species in which population size is declining.

   1. Population trends tend to continue, so species in decline will tend to stay in decline unless the reason for decline can be identified and corrected.

5. Species that are hunted or harvested by people.

   1. Overharvesting can rapidly reduce the population size of a species. If there little or no regulations in place, the species can easily be driven to extinction.

what are the 10 lesser categories of species that are vulnerable to extinction?

1. Species that need a large home range. (if a species needs a large range and part of that range is cut off or destroyed, the species may go extinct.)

2. Animal species with large bodies. (Characteristics of large bodied animals include the following: large ranges, low reproductive rates, large food intake, often hunted by humans. All of those factors impact the vulnerability.)

3. Species that are not effective dispersers. (in a rapidly changing environment due to human hands, species must be able to adapt. Those that can not disperse are more susceptible to extinction)

4. Seasonal migrants. (these species depend on two or more habitats, so either one is damaged ir a barrier is created, then the threat to existence would be real)

5. Species with little genetic variability (Genetic variability can allow a species to adapt to changing environment. Species with little or no genetic variability may have a tendency to become extinct due to a new disease or predator.)

6. Species with specialized niche requirements. (If their habitats is changed, they are in peril)

7. Species that are characteristically found in stable, pristine environments. (When a normally stable environment becomes unstable or disturbed (logging grazing, burning) the species there may not be able to adapt well )

8. Species that form permanent or temporary aggregations (Species that group together are highly vulnerable to extinction)

9. Species that have not had prior contact with people.

10. Species that have closely related species that are recently extinct or are threatened with extinction. (Closely related groups such as primates, cranes, sea turtles, orchids)

Allee Effect

inability of the species’ social structure to function once a population of that species falls below a certain number or density of individuals

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

a major international conservation organization that categorizes species in order to determine preservation actions.

Red list criteria (Review slide 13 PPT 8)

quantitative measures of threat based on the probability of extinction developed by the international union for conservation of nature (IUCN)

Endangered Species Act

the principal conservation law protecting species in the united states passed in 1973 and amended in 1978 and 1982

What is an example of category “1.Species that need a large home range”?

lions, tigers, bears, elephants, giraffe, rhino, hippos

What is an example of category “2. Animal species with large bodies.”?

lions, tigersm bears, elephant, giraffe, rhino, hippos, and mammoths

What is an example of category “3.Species that are not effective dispersers.”?

Giant tortoise, lava lizard

What is an example of category “4. Seasonal migrants.”?

birds and whales

What is an example of category “5. Species with little genetic variability”?

potatoes in ireland and koalas

What is an example of category “6. Species with specialized niche requirements. ”?

clownfish, sea anemone, ocellated birds

What is an example of category “7. Species that are characteristically found in stable, pristine environments”?

palm

What is an example of category “8. Species that form permanent or temporary aggregations ”?

prairie dogs and ciclid fish

What is an example of category “9. Species that have not had prior contact with people.”?

Deep oceans

What is an example of category “10. Species that have closely related species that are recently extinct or are threatened with extinction?”

Primates, cranes, sea turtles, and orchids