EEB 2100E Test 2

What countries have majority (85%) of Phosphorous reserves?

China, Morocco, and USA

Phosphorous

P is a limiting nutrient in freshwater

• ignites eutrophication in freshwater

• 70% of P from fertilizer goes into wildlands/waterways

• Need phosphorous for energy and ATP

• Food waste losses = 55% P

Phosphorous Cycle

1) weathering breaks down P in rocks

2) absorption, soil —> micro organisms use to grow

3) decomposition, P goes through animals from plants —> die —> inorganic (mineralization)

4) sedimentation in rocks —> cycle repeats

What are the recycling rates of Phosphorous for Boreal Forests and Rain Forests?

Boreal —> slow

Rain Forest —> high, due to high biodiversity

Slash and burn agriculture

process where you cut and burn forest to release nutrients

• sustainable in low density areas NOT high density

What type of species make up the majority of earth?

Insects, majority flies and smaller insects

Why Conserve BioDiveristy?

1) Ecosystem Function (food web)

2) Ecosystem Services (pollination, decomposition)

3) commodity value (food medicine)

4) Ecotourism

All field require the environment

Marine Biodiversity over time

diversity increases over time except for mass extinctions

• 5 mass extinctions (75% of marine species lost)

• best fossil record comes from marine animals

Extinctions over time (rate compared to avg record)

extinction is the fate of all species

• rate of extinction is 10-1000x greater than the average record

• bigger the animal more extinction because of resources and range needed

• major groups will emerge when other groups go extinct (ex; dinos to birds)

What caused previous mass extinctions? (percentage of large animals lost in last 50 years)

1) hot house to icehouse shift, 2) hot house to icehouse shift, 3) volcano, sea anoxia and acidification, 4) volcanism, 5) meteor and volcano

• climate change is always involved

• lost 70% of large animals in last 50 years

What have been recent leading drivers in mass extinction?

• changes in CO2

• methane release (arctic permafrost)

• Ocean acidication

• ocean anoxia (absence of O2)

• Bolide impacts (meteor)

• volcanic activity + glaciation

Population

individuals from the same geographic region

• want 100 individuals in a given population

Extinction Debt

species will go extinct without intervention

• ex; species that are the last of its kind (box turtle, blue whale, etc.)

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), what species group are most endangered?

Red list to categorize threatened species

• cycads most endangered

Recent Extinctions (# of mammal species, birds, amphibians)

129 species of mamals, 130-150 species of birds, large number of amphibians

• rate is accelerating

How many species have been assessed in the IUCN Red list?

more than 176,000

Vertebrate extinction trends

have increased and are 8x higher than backgorund rate.

faster since 1900 (22x)

Why do large bodied species have a higher extinction rate?

they need more food and space

Keystone species

species that are vital to the environment

• beavers, wildebeest

Insect population trends (worldwide, regionally, locally?)

• not a decline worldwide, varies across region

• Can change over short distances

Coral Reefs Importance

Coral reefs develop 11 trillion/year

many nations rely on reefs

new drugs coem from coral reefs

Insect conservation (what type of species should we prioritize conservation for, why?)

• should focus on abundant species

• the ones responsible for ecosystem function (pollination, nutrient recycling)

Measuring insect biodiversity

• biomass

• abundance

• species richness

• range

• genetic diversity

many studies do not address how individual species are doing

Insect decline trend and causes (small percentage)

• land use change is a major part of insect decline (fertilizers)

• we’ve also had a very large insect decline before pesticides were used (not the main dricer)

• ~1-5% decline per year —> 75% decline in 27 years of flying insect biomass

What are some reasons there have been current habitat loss threats?

agriculture, droughts, climate change, nitrification, invasive plants, pathogens, pesticides, light pollution, deforestation, urbanization

Butterfly decline in the US

• declining in all 7 regions

• Southwest has the highest loss rate

Drought Pattern in the US (how many trees have died in CA)

extreme droughts

• 237 million trees died between 2010 and 2023 across California

Why are insects at higher risk than other?

• less mobility

• little volume to store water which is needed for energy

• direct air delivery to EVERY cell group

ecosystem functions

biological processes that govern flows of matter (decomposition, food/energy, food web, decomposition)

ecosystem services

ecosystem providing stuff for humans (food, flood control, tourism, education, nutrient cycling)

ex; water purification —> nutrients and pollution absorbed by plants, soil and mico organisms detoxify and purify water

Estimated values of Nature

125 trillion/year, GDP 87 trillion/year, losses from pest, 4-20 trillion/year

High value ecosystem values

coral reefs: 198,000/ha/year

coastal systems: $26,000/ha/year

wetlands 12-17k

pollination $235-577 billion USG / year

Natures contributions to people

totality of contributions, both positive and negative, of nature to peoples quality of life

ex; food provisions, nutrient cycling, aesthetics, disease transmission, crop pest loss

Monbiots Approach

environmetnal protection requires legal limites, political mobilization, public participation, and appeal to societys intrinsic core values

Externalities

production or consumption of a good affects a third party

Main drivers of biodiversity loss

habitat destruction, climate change, exotic species invasions, disease, overexploitation of species

Why are extinction rates hard to estimate?

• lack of data, less than 10% have been described worldwide —> focus on traits to make predictions

• rates derive from well studied groups and species area relationships (fossil records)

High-risk life history attributes

• specialized taxa

• apex predators

• species with complex life cycles

• low birth rate, high gestation periods

• low dispersal capabilites

Species-area relationships

• number of species increases as a function of habitat area

• large islands have more species

high extinction rates

Neoliberalism

political ideology that champions free market capitalism, privatization, deregualtion, and reduced government spending

Pollution Paradox

the more damaging a commercial enterprise is, the greater incentive to invest in politics —> politics dominated by the dirtiest industries

Plastic

carbon polymers

• single use: 40%

• long half-life

• microplastics created

• increased in production and plastic waste

• 73% beach litter is plastic, 90% of plastic polluting into oceans is carried by just 10 rivers

Why do people not recycle?

• expensive

• recycled plastic of limited quality

• cheaper to generate virgin plastics

• most recycling plants shutting down

Big Oil and Plastic

• less than 10% of all plastic has been recycled

• big oil says that recycling is good to make people feel less bad for using so much

Solutions to reduce Plastic Waste

• reduce use of single plastic, stop littering, biotechnology, recycling tech improvements, hold companies accountable, policy to address problems

Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2021

legislation to phase out throwaway plastics made from fossil fuel to hold the industry accountable for its waste

• first introduced in 2020 and then reintroduced in 2021

Ozone Layer

layer right outside of the first layer (troposphere)

• made up of O2

• high concentrations in thin protective layer

• absorbs UV radiation preventing it from reaching earths surface

Biological Effects of high UV exposure

• damages RNA/DNA

• mutations/burns

• skin aging

• skin cancer

CFCs and Ozone Depletion

ChloroFluoroCarbona (CFC) —> used as refrigerants, aerosol, and in some plastics —> each molecule can destroy thousands of ozone molucles

• CFCs were reaching stratosphere, ozone holes over poles

• CFC released chlorine

1987 Montreal Protocol

• 80 countries committed to halving CFCs by 1998

• CFCS replaced by HCFCs not dangerous to ozone, but is a powerful GHG

• ozone concentration have started recovering

Global Temperature Rise

~1.5 degrees C

Predictions for precipitation

• decreases over dry regions

• high latitude increases

• in CT, rain increase, snow decrease

• west is hit hard with droughts

• The rain avergae may be the saem but when it rains changes

Three Components of Climate Change

1) Global Warming 2) intensity, duration, and frequency of climate anomalies 3) climate variation

Droughts and their knock on effects

• diminished nectar resources

• loss of surface waters

• soil drying: tough on animals/biodiversity

• less snow cover

• elevated fire risk

• lowered host plant fitness

• host plant losses

Climate Change Responses

1) Move 2) Plasticity (flexibly adjust) 3) Adapt 4) Die

Niche

environmental conditions in which a population has a positive fitness, role in the environment (importnat are temp and precipitation)

Species Ranges

range that a species can live,

• often follow climate gradients, ex; if gets warmer north, species move north

Climate Velocity

how fast and far you would need to move in order to remain your climate niche

• velocities greater in flat plains, lower in mountainous (moving up the mountain)

noanalogue climates

temperatures and patterns that have never been experienced in history

Climate change and biodiversity movement

requires a species to disperse well

varies across and within taxanomic groups

Plasticity to Climate change

example, Quino chckerspot butterfly

• originally ate plantain —> higher elevation to match climate and adjusted to feed on owls clover

Phenological asynchrony

when linked taxa respond differently to sets of environmental cues ex; birds respond to day lengths when to migrate

Adaption to Climate Change

important for species with low dispersal capacity, faster evolution, or rapid generation times REQUIRES genetic variation. occurs over multiple generations

ex; Brassica rapa, drought limits growing season, foudn evolution of earlier flowering

What happened on Vieques?

• US and NATO used as target practice —> bomb remains

• foot print of war

• compounds TNT and C4 caused increased, diabetes, cancer, hypertension

• no funds for clean up because that means the Dep of Defense would have to validate the problem

What happened in Lake Erie?

• from war there was munitions dumps —> created algal blooms

• farmers were blamed from algal bloom

• found that the nitrogen was coming from the munitions —> working on removing