Biodiversity chapter 10

3/7 threats to bio diversity from chapter 10

• Overexploitation

• Invasive species

• Disease

Over exploitation of resources

• 1/4 endangered word to raise in US

• ¾ endangered raise in China due to large poor rural population that depends on wildlife for food and medicine

Bluefin tuna

• Example of intensive Harvesting that has reached crisis levels in many of the world fisheries

Bushmeat crisis

• Sharp decline and wild animal populations caused by humans hunting for food

• Concerned for wildlife and conservation

• Dire in Africa

• Increases likelihood of spreading new diseases to human populations

Masked palm civet (Paguma larvata)

• example of bush meat sold in market in Laos

Fauna over exploitation and over harvesting in coastal areas

• Fish

• Sea turtles

• Whales

• Dolphins

• Manatees

American ginseng (Panax

quinquefolius)

• example of plant over harvesting

• Roots harvested for medicinal properties

• Difficult to find in wild

Use of roots of American ginseng

• lowers blood sugar and cholesterol

• Promote stress Relief

• Diabetes treatment

• Sexual dysfunction in men

Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora

• Himalayan medicinal plant

• Paste of rhizome used for a cold/cough

Video: Pacific Yew Tree

• paclataxol for ovarian/breast cancer

• Taxol

• Bark of Yew tree

• Slow growing tree

Major targeted groups of the worldwide trade in wildlife

• Primates

• Birds

• Reptiles

• Fish

• Coral Reefs

• Orchids

• Cacti

Why are primates targeted?

• Used for biomedical Research

• Also pets, zoos, circuses, and private collections

Why are birds targeted?

• Zoo and pets

• Mostly perching

• Legal and illegal trade of parrot

Why are reptiles targeted?

• Zoo and pets

• Raw skin

• Used in manufactured products

• From wild and farms

why are fish targeted?

• Maybe caught by a illegal mythic that damage other wildlife and surrounding coral reef

Why are coral reefs targeted?

• Mind to provide aquarium decor and coral jewelry

Why are orchids targeted

• 10% of international trade comes from the wild

• Deliberately mislabeled to avoid regulation

Why are cacti targeted?

• 15% come from the wild with smuggling as a major problem

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)

• listing species with this organization often leads to protection from further exportation

International whaling commission

• Group created by whaling nations to regulate sustainable whaling practices

Trophy fish caught in Key West, Florida

• 1957: fish abundant and large

• 2007: Fish, smaller, less abundant, less diverse

Amphibian/frog over exploitation

• Indonesia exports to Western European countries for luxury meals

• USA exports for food, pets, clothing, etc.

Seahorse over exploitation

• Harvested in China

• Medicinal uses for infertility, baldness, asthma, and arthritis

• Tourist industry

Ymax = rK/4

• model made by conservation biologist and wildlife fisheries and fisheries management enforcement management

Y max

• maximum sustainable yield

• Greatest amount of resource that can be harvested each year and replace through population growth without detriment to the population

r

• maximum population growth rate

K

• carrying capacity

Maximum sustainable year usually occurs when

• Population size is about half the carrying capacity or when the biomass is half of its maximum value

Why is the Y max model unrealistic in application?

• we don’t have enough key biological information to make the model efficient

Bycatch

• Animals of no commercial value killed unintentionally during large scale fishing operations

Animal decline due to bycatch

• skate

• rays

• Albatross

• Sea turtles

• Dolphins

Harvest and fishing operations

• 25 to 75% dumped back into the sea to die

Video: over exploitation of tuna fishing (greenpeace)

• Only Pacific Ocean

• Yellow fin in decline

• Solution = shifting politics

• Close to fishing by everyone

• Pacific Islands retain any economics

Invasive species

• Species outside their natural range due to human activity that spread and rapidly increase in abundance, often causing damage or displacement to the native species via competition for limiting resources

Exotic species

• Species that occur outside their natural range because of human activities that do not become established because the new environment is not suitable to their needs or they do not have sufficient numbers to establish a new population

Anthropocene

• unofficial term for the present geological period in which people significantly affect ecosystem processes

Native species

• Species that is found in a certain ecosystem due to natural processes

• No human intervention brought to the area or influenced its spread

• A.k.a. indigenous species

Kudzu

• Invasive Plant species From East Asia to US

• on purpose in 1870/80s to provide shade

• Roots as thickener and medicinal use but properties don’t outweigh damage

• A.k.a. The vine that ate the south

Video: generalist versus specialist

• Frank versus Oliver

• Frank is a big city species that eat anything

• Oliver small island species that eats a specific plant

• Frank comes to small island and eats everything including Oliver‘s specific plant

How are species introduced to new environments?

• European colonization

• Agriculture, horticulture, agriculture demands

• Accidental transport

• Biological control

Biological control

• When a species becomes invasive release a native predator to consume it, it can be successful

opossum shrimp (Mysis relicta)

• example of invasive species in flathead lake

• Introduced on purpose

• Eat zoo plankton that was eaten by the lakes Salmon population

Gypsy moth

• Example of invasive species accidentally introduced by French scientist

• Used to try to create a silk, spinning, moth, hybrid resistant to disease

• Kills native insects that usually control other piss

• Larva kill many oak trees by feeding off of it

Red fire ant

• Example of invasive species introduce accidentally from South America through a shipping port in Mobile, Alabama

• Decline native spider species by 40%

• Affect native Birds such as northern bobwhites

northern bobwhites (Colinas virginianus)

• example of species affected by invasive species

• Decline over 20 year period following the arrival of red fire ant

• Attacked particularly in the nesting stage

• Also compete for food resources

Example of islands being more vulnerable to invasive species

• Brown tree snake

Why species introduced to Lake and streams?

• For sport

• For commercial production

• Accidental through Boat ballast water

• Purpose release of aquarium fish

Examples of aquatic invasive species

• Now perching Lake Victoria of East Africa harm the cichild population

• Sea lampreys in Great Lakes of North America devastate trout

• Zebra and quagga muscles in Great Lakes of North America

Video: silent invaders

• Zebra muscle native to black and Caspian sea introduced to lake erie/sinclare 1988

• Quagga Introduced in 1989

• Over four quadrillion muscles

• not only eating food, but changing ecology

• Clearwater= No food for fish to eat and easier for predators to see prey

• Muscle vissel threads to stick to any surface

• Clogged machinery in boats

Silent invader solution

• NY state Museum in Malloy discovered deadly bacteria to zebra and Quago mussels and not others

• Zequinox

Nutria rat

• Example of invasive species

• From South America to Louisiana in 1930s fur trade

• Decimates, wetlands, and tramples

• Edible and killed $4 per Tail

Water hyacinth

• Plant invasive species

• From Amazon river to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1890s

• Spreads and suffocate life below the surface and swamps

European beach grass

• Plant invasive species

• Dominated Humboldt Bay natural wildlife refuge in California

• Removed by human aid

Strategy for reducing impact of harmful invasive species

1. Prevention

2. Detection and early intervention

3. Long-term management

GMO

• Genetically modified organisms

GMO fear

• Will harm birds, insects, soil, organisms, and other species, including humans

GMO hope

• Will produce more food and require less pesticide, resulting in an improved water quality and healthier animals

Groups of organism susceptible to increase disease spread due to loss of biodiversity

• Flora

• Fauna

• Humans

• From bacteria virus, fungi, and self

Video: MIDAS/NIH

• Bill Wheaton studies how infectious disease spread and a data to support that model

• Model showed, who got the disease, who did it and who transmitted it

• Consequences of epidemic on society

• American community survey

• Provide info to policy makers to prevent/protect

Video: biodiversity and pandemics/conservation international

• Conservation sufferers to:

1. Lack of enforcement effort

2. Loss of funding

3. Lack of government support

• Save Vietnam wildlife

• Deforestation and illegal poaching increased

• Activities that bring wildlife in contact with people increased

• Barrier prevents new disease transmitted from wildlife

• Need government help and NGOs

• Companies can help by investing in nature and practicing nature conservation actions

Discula destructiva

• fungus causing anthracnose Disease in Eastern North American forest Declining flowering dogwood populations

West Nile virus

• First appeared in 1999 in New York

• Rapidly spread to all areas of US by 2012

Video: Ted ED– Ebola

• Summer 1976 and Central Africa

• Attacks immune system

• Symptoms 2-12 days after contraction

• Vomiting and diarrhea

• Loose function of liver and kidney

• Cytokinin storm is the cause of death

• Fatal in 6 to 16 days

• Only exist in bodily fluids

• Direct contact

• Difficult to study

• Mostly in poverty regions that can’t contain

• No vaccine in 2014

Box 10.1: Endangered whales

• Wales are largest and most intelligent animals on earth

• Humans have been greatest threat to all world species through commercial wailing

• international whaling commission created

• Efforts made to limit injury and deaths related to human activities

• Recover of many whale species

Box 10.2: GMO’s

• many species being investigated as sources for potential gene transfer, including viruses, bacteria, insects, fungi, and shellfish

• Fear of crossovers between unrelated species

• Fear that species will hybridize with related species leading to an invasion of new aggressive weeds, and diseases

• GMO’s could harm non-crops species, such as insects, birds, and soil organisms

• Benefits of GMO‘s need to be examine and weighed against the potential risk