Biodiversity Conservation Exam 1

biodiversity

• Includes all of the species in the universe

• All the genetic variation within an among the species

• All the biological communities in their ecosystem level interactions

Conservation biology

• Science arising in the 1980s in order to study biodiversity and the loss of biological diversity

Previous extinctions were…

• geologic

Present extinctions are…

• human induced

Natural resources humans consume

• Wood/timber

• Coal And oil

• Fish and plants

• Freshwater

• Wild land

Average US citizen energy consumption

• five times more than others

• 10 times more than Chinese citizen

• 28 times more than Indian citizen

Threats to biodiversity

• species extinction

• Increasing population size

• Deforestation

• Draining of wetlands

• Soil erosion and pollution

• Water pollution

• Overuse of grasslands for crops

• Decreasing genetic diversity

• Introduction of invasive species

• Overharvesting

• Climate change

synergistic

• Acting in concert or are confounding with additive effects

• Interaction of two or more things to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects

Goals of conservation biology

• Record and discover the full range of biodiversity on the planet

• Investigate how we impact species, genetic variation and ecosystems

• Create methods and translatable strategies to prevent extinction, promote genetic diversity and protect and restore communities and ecosystems

When did conservation biology begin?

• 1980s

Why did biodiversity begin?

To fill a niche in resource management

Environmentalism

• political and educational role of activism in order to prevent pollution and habitat destruction/degradation

Basic sciences yield…

• New ideas and approaches for resource management

Resource management yields

• Field experience and research needs for basic sciences

Five main principles of conservation biology

1. The diversity of species and ecosystems should be preserved

2. The extinction of species and populations should be prevented

3. Ecological complexity should be maintained

4. Evolution should continue

5. Biodiversity has intrinsic value

Kemps Ridley Sea Turtle

• rarest and smallest of the world sea turtle species at 70 - 100 cm

• 95% of nesting happens in Tamaulipas in NE Mexico

When and who started the Kemps Ridley Project?

• release project started in 1966 as Mexican projeect

When did the kemps ridley project become binational?

1978

Drastic spiral of Kemps Ridley was due to…

• years of egg poaching by human and animal predators

NGO important to Kemp Ridleys project

• Texas parks and wildlife

Nesting females needed in 1 year in order to remove kemps ridley from endangered species lsits

• 30,000

Samoans in origins of conservation biology

• Plant gods

Hindus and origins of conservation biology

• killing animals

Native Americans in origins of conservation biology

• purification prior to hunting

European origins of conservation biology

• used the Bible book Genesis to exploit and degrade the land

18th and 19th century British scientific officers noticed…

• Water shed, and soil being damaged

• Extinctions of species like the dodo bird

Ralph Waldo Emerson ideals

• nature can connect people to the spiritual world and enlightenment

Henry David Thoreau ideals

• against materialism and live near Walden Pond in a simple cabin

• Published Walden in 1854

American origins of conservation biology

• protect natural areas, 19 century

• Philosophers: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau

• Establishment of world‘s first national Park (Yellowstone) and US national Park system

John Muir

• American wilderness advocate used ideas of Emerson and Thoreau to campaign for preserving natural areas

• Presented the preservationist Ethic

• Argued for intrinsic value

preservationist ethic

• natural areas, such as forest groves,, mountain tops, and waterfalls has spiritual values that are generally superior to the tangible material gain obtained by their exploitation

intrinsic value

• something has it’s own value regardless of scientific, economic, or aesthetic value

Gifford Pinchot

• first head of U.S. Forest Service

• Argued for resource conservation ethic

• Started discussion on sustainable development

resource conservationist ethic

• The world is human beings and natural resources

• The natural resources should be distributed fairly among people and use for the greatest good other people for the longest time possible and with little waste

sustainable development

• development that best meets present in future human needs without damaging the environment and biodiversity

Aldo Leopold

• Government Forester

• Originally believed in resource conservation ethic, but eventually believed it only viewed land as a collection of goods to exploit

• Developed land ethic

land ethic

• most important goal of conservation is to maintain healthy, ecosystems and processes

• Humans are a part of nature

• Human should be involved in land management to find a balance between over exploitation and land preservation without human use/activity/presence

ecosystem management

• combining Pinchot and Leopold

• Priorities are placed on cooperation among businesses, conservation organizations, government agencies, private citizens, and other parties to provide for human needs, and also maintain the health and wild species and ecosystems

US agencies that have sprouted

• wilderness Society

• Audubon Society

• Ducks Unlimited

• The nature Conservancy

• The Sierra club

Ellen Swallow Richards

• professional chemist

• Developed first course in ecology

• Water quality sampling

• First water, quality, standards, and development of modern sewage treatment plants

Rachel Carson

• wrote the book Silent Spring in 1962

• Criticize by chemical industry for campaigning the band of DDT

• Recovery of Falcons Eagles osprey proved her observations correct

Silent Spring

• written in 1962 By Rachel Carson

• Documents role of pesticide in loss of bird populations

When was DDT agriculture use banned in most developed countries?

• 1970s-1980s

First international conference on conservation biology

• 1978 in San Diego

6 Biodiversity values

1. Economic value

2. Ecological life support

3. Cultural value

4. Recreational value

5. Scientific value

6. Negative value

Anthropocene

• an unofficial unit of geologic time describing the current period when human activity has become the dominant influence on earths climate and ecosystem

3 challenges of science

1. Address biodiversity decline

2. Understand complexity of biodiversity

3. Inform resource use discussions

Most species rich ecosystems

1. Tropical forest

2. Call Reese

3. Deep sea/large tropical lake

4. Mediterranean climate

Tropical forest

• Most species rich ecosystem

• Only 7% of land, but greater than 50% of the world species

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Endemic species

• Species that are found in a particular location in nowhere else

Coral reefs

• High primary product

• Mutualistic relationships

• High levels of endemic species

Where vertebrae species richness is the highest

• Tropical regions with Abundant rainfall

Where vertebrae species richness is the lowest

• Desert

Why are there so many species in the tropics?

• Higher productivity due to more solar energy annually and more abundant rainfall

• Environmental stability

• Warm temperature and high humidity

• More intense species interaction and more competition/niche specialization

• Large area equals greater rates of speciation and lower rate of extinction

Entomologist

• scientist who studies insects and their relationship with people, other organisms, and the environment

Methods of discovering new species

• Entomologist

• Dirigible w platform

• Fog misters and microscopes

Robert Paine

• scientist responsible for observing pisaster ocracheus starfish and impact on environment if they were removed

James Estes

• scientist responsible for observing sea otter relationship with sea urchins and growth of kelp

• On alaskan islands

Tim Tinker

• scientist that observed that otters are also being eaten by orcas, decreasing their numbers

Green world hypothesis

• Carnivore/predators roll in keeping herbivores in check and the world green

Hydrothermal vents

• Underwater openings in The earths crust

• Where extremely hot water, sofas, and other dissolved Minerals escape from

• Support a perfusion of species in the deepest part of the ocean

• Only active ecosystems for about a couple decades

Petroleum-seep communities

• Exist at ocean depths far below the reacher sunlight

• Initial source of energy comes from the petrochemicals (oil) seeping from cracks in the ocean floor

For every one human gene in your chromosomes

… You host 100 bacterial genes

Species diversity

• The entire range of species in a given area/ecosystem

Genetic diversity

• The genetic variation found within each species

Three levels Of biodiversity

1. Species diversity

2. Genetic diversity

3. Ecosystem diversity

Ecosystem diversity

The variety of ecosystems present in a place or geographic area

Major goal of conservation biology

• Identifying and classifying species

Morphological definition of a species

• A group of individuals that is morphologically, physiologically, or biochemically distinct from other groups and some important characteristics

Biological definition of a species

• A group of individuals that can breed amongst themselves in the wild, but not with other groups of individuals

Evolutionary definition of species

• A group of individuals that share unique and similar DNA and they share an evolutionary pass

Taxonomy

• The science of classifying living organisms

Taxonomist

• an individual who specializes in identifying unknown specimen and classifies those species usually initially based on the morphological definition of a species

Why morphological definition is preferred

• biological and evolutionary definition can be difficult and expensive

DNA barcoding

• A relatively new technique in which the DNA of an individual species can be sequence and a barcode created

• Stored with the sample of the species as voucher, specimen, or preserved specimen

Hybrid

• Genetic cross between two distinct species in which a new species is developed from its crossing

Taxonomy levels

• Kingdom

• Phylum

• Class

• Order

• Family

• Genius

• Species

Genus

• Group of similar species

• Plural: genera

Family

• Group of Similar genera

Order

• Group of similar families

Class

• A group of similar orders

Phylum

• Group of similar classes

• Plural: phyla

Kingdom

• biggest level of organization

• Groups of similar phyla

Binomial nomenclature

• System of which scientific species names consist of two words

• The first word is the genius name

• The second word is the specific species name

• Created to avoid confusion

Speciation

• Process of new species formation, whereby one species is transformed into another species or more new species

Speciation was first described by

• Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace

Adaptive radiation

• Process where local adaptation leads to speciation from barriers

• Where one species will become many

Example of adaptive radiation

• Hawaiian honeycreeper

• Galapagos Island with Darwin‘s finches

Species richness

• The number of different species in a certain place

• Part of measuring species diversity

The three biodiversity index

• Alpha

• Gamma

• Beta

Alpha

• Number of species in a relatively small area

• Number of species per mountain

• Total number/number of areas

Gamma

• Number of species in a region or continent

• Species per region

Beta

• links Alpha and gamma index

• Gamma/Alpha

Population

• A group of individuals that meet with one another and can produce offspring

• Small numbers or millions, but must be able to breed

Different genotypes x Same environment equal

• Different phenotypes

Same genotype x Different environments equal

• Different phenotypes

Genotype

• The particular combination of alleles at an individual possesses

• Impacts phenotype

Phenotype

• outward appearance of individual representing morphological, physiological, anatomical, and biochemical characteristics, resulting from the individual genotype and environment

Natural selection

• Overtime individuals with certain alleles are better suited for their environment

• The frequencies of genes will change over time to promote the desirable trait or character

Heterozygous

• Individuals receive a different letter from each parent

• These individuals usually have greater fitness