Conservation Bio Exam 1

What kind of science is conservation biology?

Applied science

Conservation is driven by what?

The value of a given species

Who is John Muir?

Environmentalist, conservationist, advocate for the protection of nature. Founder of the Sierra Club

Who is Gifford Pinchot?

Resource conservation ethic, founder of the U.S. Forest Service

Who is Aldo Leopold?

Evolutionary-Ecological land ethic, believed every species has intrinsic value as part of ecosystems

What are some of the reasons people want to protect biodiversity?

Aesthetic reasons, moral or ethical reasons, economic reasons, ecological services, ecological integrity

What are economic reasons to protect biodiversity?

Agriculture, medicine, meat

What ecological services are provided through biodiversity?

Prevention of flooding and filtered water through wetlands, vegetation prevents erosion/desertification, pollination done by insects helps crops

What is ecological integrity?

The degree to which an ecosystem's natural composition, physical structure, and biological functions resemble its undisturbed or reference state

What is the rivet popping metaphor?

The idea that an ecosystem (plane) can lose some species (rivets) and still survive (fly) just fine, but the number of species (rivets) lost that would lead to ecosystem collapse (plane crash) is unknown, so it is better to lose no rivets

What is the world wildlife society?

A group that measures species richness, abundance, and variability of plants, animals, and communities with the ecological processes that link them to each other and with soil, air, and water

What is the UN convention on biological diversity?

A government group that discusses the variability among living organisms from all sources and the ecological complexes of which they are part

What is sustainability?

The ability to maintain something over time without diminishing it

How is ecosystem integrity broader than biodiversity?

It is inclusive of all of the elements of an ecosystem

What is the primary biological scale upon which conservation biology is focused?

Species diversity

What is the biological species concept?

A group of populations whose individuals have the potential to interbreed and produce fertile offspring

How is species diversity measured?

Per unit area and accounts for abundance

What is species richness?

Number of species per unit area

What is species abundance?

Number of individuals of a given species

What is relative abundance?

The proportion of the total abundance of individuals a given species occupies

What is species evenness?

Weighted measure of importance, usually based upon abundance

What are some ways genetic diversity can be measured?

Polymorphism, number of alleles per gene, heterozygosity

Why is genetic diversity highlighted over organismal diversity?

Because of species with conservation concern and species with enormous economic value

What is population diversity?

Natural variation in population structure over space, suggests that protecting a species over its entire geographic range is important

What are cryptic species?

Different species that look so similar they are often mistaken for one species

What is community diversity?

All of the different species that interact with each other in a specific area.

What is the diversity of phenomena?

Migration events, seasonal changes, etc. that span multiple habitats that require thoughtful planning to preserve

What are keystone species?

Species that are critical to ecosystem integrity

What are umbrella species?

Species that provide blanket coverage of whole ecosystems

What is an ecosystem engineer?

A species that creates, modifies, or maintains physical habitat

How many species are there?

Between 10 and 100 million

What species dominate numerically?

Bacteria, roundworms, insects, and mites

What are undescribed species?

Organisms that lack a formal, scientific description

What is intrinsic value?

Value independent of value to humans or human society

What is a baseline decision?

Probability of extinction over a short time span

What factors determine intrinsic value conservation status?

Geographic range, population size, and habitat specificity

Reduction in what factors are indication for change in conservation statues?

Geographic range and population size

What is extinction?

The permanent loss of all members of a species.

What does the RedList do?

Categorizes the conservation status of species

What is the Endangered Species Act?

The Endangered Species Act is designed to protect any plant or animal species in danger of extinction.

What are the shortcomings of the Red List?

Lack of knowledge, and no policy, just providing information

What is instrumental value of species?

Assigning value to species based upon human needs or wants

What are factors that would increase the instrumental value of a species or ecosystem?

Economic value, spiritual value, scientific value, ecological value, strategic value

What are some examples of economic value of a species or ecosystem?

Food, medicine, clothing, shelter, fuel, recreation, services

What is realized value of a species?

The tangible, actualized benefits, ecological functions, or economic contributions that a species provides in practice, rather than its theoretical or potential worth

What factors do ecosystem classifications lack?

A species concept and classification system

What factors must a ecosystem classification consider?

Abiotic and biotic components

What factors does ecosystem classification consider?

Vegetation, latitude, and geological/abiotic factors

How much of Earth's land surface area has been affected by human activity?

>83%

What are the two most affected ecosystems affected by human activity?

Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands in which >80% lost, and Mediterranean habitats in which 72% has been lost

Can ecosystems be valued in the same way as species?

Mostly yes

What is a big part of conservation priority of ecosystems?

Uniqueness

What contributes to water loss?

Alteration of forest and wetlands, increased tapping of water tables

What drives increasing land-based food costs?

Arable land availability, water availability, biofuel competition, cost of fuel, increasing consumption

What portion of world fisheries are fully or over exploited?

3/4

What is the market price method?

The economic value for ecosystem products/services that are bought and sold in commercial markets

What is the productivity method?

Economic value of ecosystem products/services contributing to production of commercially marketed goods

What is the hedonic pricing method?

Economic value of ecosystem/environmental services that directly affect market prices of other goods

What is an example of the Hedonic Pricing Method?

Housing prices

What is the travel cost method?

Economic value of how ecosystem/sites are used for recreation

What are the damage cost avoided, replacement cost, and substitute cost methods?

Economic value based on avoided damages from lost ecosystem services, cost of replacement, and cost of substitution

What is the contingent valuation method?

Economic value for any ecosystem/environmental service

What scales are there to consider when discussing genetic diversity?

Phyla and families among species and populations and within populations and individuals

What is a common allele?

An allele that may comprise nearly 100% of all genes in a population

What is a rare allele?

Frequency of less than 0.05 or 5% of alleles in a population

What is polymorphic gene?

A gene that has more than one common variant

What is polymorphism?

Proportion of genes that are polymorphic in a population

What is heterozygosity?

The proportion of heterozygous genotypes at each locus

What are continuously polymorphic characters?

Polygenic characters that require quantitative phenotype measurements to understand the population level capacity tolerance to environmental change

What is the major issue in measuring genetic diversity?

Sampling limitations

What are some methods of sampling individuals for genetic diversity?

PCR, Electrophoresis of proteins and DNA, sequencing of loci or whole genomes

What is the importance of genetic diversity?

Evolutionary potential, loss of fitness

What is evolutionary potential?

The potential rate of evolution is directly proportional to the amount of genetic variation in a population

What is loss of fitness?

Low genetic variability, even in the absence of environmental change, low fertility, high infant mortality, and deformarion

What are some reasons for loss of fitness?

Increased homozygosity, increased expression of deleterious alleles, lower evolutionary potential,

What are some causes of loss of fitness?

Inbreeding depression, outbreeding depression, conservation issues

What are processes that diminish genetic diversity?

Bottlenecks and genetic drift

What is effective population size?

The number of individuals in a population that breed and reproduce

What are the genetic implications of artificial selection?

Loss of genetic diversity, risk of genetic disorders, unintentional trait changes, change in allele frequency

Why is maintaining older varieties of staple crops and domesticated animals important?

They are more disease-resistant and hardy, preserving older varieties of staple crops and domesticated animals is key for maintaining vigor in crops and animals

What has been the rate of ice loss over the last 7 years?

Has more than doubled in Greenland and Antarctica

What is the annual acceleration in ice melt rate?

17%

What is the annual acceleration in rise in sea level?

5%

What have been the two major verified mass extinction events?

Permian and cretaceous-tertiary extinctions

Describe the permian extinction event

251 mya, ~75% of marine animals, large fraction of insects and reptiles went extinct

What caused the permian extinction event?

Continental drift, shifting sea levels, CO2 release, climate change caused the extinction event

How long did the permian extinction event last?

Tens to hundreds of thousands of years

When did the Cretaceous-tertiary extinction happen?

~65mya

What caused the cretaceous-tertiary extinction?

Climate change and a meteor strike along with a subsequent dust cloud

What species were lost in the cretaceous extinction?

All of the dinosaurs, ~40% of marine species, majority of terrestrial plant species, etc.

How long did the cretaceous extinction last?

Not clear, may have been tens of years but more likely thousands

What is the lifespan of the average species?

Around 1 million years

What are current extinction rates compared to pre-human rates?

100-1000 times greater

What percentage of extinction are humans responsible for?

Between 5-20% of bird, mammal, and fish extinctions

Why are species more likely to go extinct now compared to prior large changes in environmental stresses?

Because of human modification of landscape, freshwater, and marine environments, many species cannot "migrate away" from climate change that is detrimental to their survival

Extinction is a greater threat to what kind of species?

Rare species with limited geographic ranges

Where have most verified extinctions occurred?

Islands

What are some factors that contribute to human-caused extinctions that are not rarity?

Limited adaptability, human attention, ecological overlap, large space requirements

What is niche-vacancy?

An unoccupied ecological role where specific skills are scarce

What is MacArthur's diversity stability hypothesis?

Increasing richness increases the ability of populations to recover abundance after disturbances