Chapter 9: Sustaining Biodiversity: The Species Approach

Fish and Wildlife Services

Protect and identify all other species.

Endangered Species

Species with few members that the species could become extinct

Threatened Species (vulnerable species)

Still enough members to survive, but numbers declining -- may soon be endangered

Biological Extinction

No species member alive

Background Extinction

Natural low rate of extinction

Extinction Rate

Percentage or number of species that go extinct in a certain time period

Mass Extinction

50-95% of species become extinct usually due to a major global change in environmental conditions.

H

Habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation

I

Invasive (nonnative) species

P

Population and resource use growth

Second P

Pollution

C

Climate change

O

Overexploitation

Habitat Fragmentation

Large intact habitat divided by roads, crops, urban development

Bioaccumulation

Increase in concentration of a pollutant in an organism

Biomagnification

Increase in concentration of a pollutant in a food chain

Jane Goodall

Primatologist and anthropologist

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)

Singed by 172 countries in 1975

Convention on Biological Diversity

It focused on ecosystems and was ratified by 190 countries. (Not in the US)

Endangered Species Act

Identify and protect endangered species in the US and abroad. It also does not allow federal agencies from funding projects that threaten species that are already endangered

National Marine Fisheries Service

Protect and Identify ocean species

Gene or seed banks

Preserve genetic material of endangered plants

Precautionary Principle

Act to prevent or reduce harm when preliminary evidence indicates its needed