Final Exam Study Guide

Role of Zoos in Conservation

  • SSPs

    • Began in 1981 

    • Manages breeding of species

    • 450+ SSPs

    • Pedigree 

    • Studbook

      • Contains vital records for each individual

    • Husbandry manual

    • Reintroduction projects

  • Captive breeding methods

    • Cross-fostering

    • Artificial incubation (head starting)

    • Artificial insemination

    • Embryo transfer

  • Limitations

    • Cost

    • Population size

    • Adaptation

    • Learning skills

    • Genetic variability

    • Continuity 

    • Concentration

    • Surplus animals

Establishing New Populations

  • Reintroduction vs. augmentation vs. introduction

    • Reintroduction: release within their historical range where the species no longer occurs

    • Augmentation: release into an existing population to increase its size and gene pool

    • Introduction: release to area outside their historical range

  • Considerations for successful programs

    • Genetic 

      • Low variability

      • Adaptations to captivity

      • Inbreeding

      • Selected from similar environments

    • Soft release vs hard release

    • Educational value

  • Additive vs. compensatory mortality

    • Additive mortality: immediate reduction in survival

    • Compensatory mortality: no reduction in survival

  • Steps in adaptive management

    • Assessing the problem, designing a plan, implementing it, monitoring the results, evaluating the outcomes, and adjusting the plan based on the evaluation

    • (couldn’t find in notes from google)

Protected Areas

  • Types

    • Biological station: managed mainly for science

    • Wilderness area: managed mainly for wilderness

    • National park: ecosystem protection and recreation

    • National monument: conservation of specific natural features

    • Species management area: conservation through intervention

    • Protected landscape/seascape: conservation and recreation

    • Managed resource protected area: sustainable use of natural ecosystems

  • MPAs & their classification system

    • Areas where resources are given more protection than surrounding waters

    • Classification system:

      • Conservation focus

      • Level of protection

      • Permanence of protection

      • Constancy of protection

      • Ecological scale of protection

  • How they are established

    • Government action

    • Land purchases

    • Customs of indigenous people

    • Biological field stations

  • Criteria for what should be protected

    • Distinctiveness (or irreplacebility)

    • Endangerment (or vulnerability)

    • Utility 

    • Wilderness areas (wildlands network)

      • Connect core reserves with wildways

      • Little human activity in core reserves

  • The four R’s

    • Representation

    • Resiliency

    • Redundancy 

    • Reality

  • Theory of island biogeography

    • Predicts that the number of plant and animal species on an island is related to the area of the island's landmass and the degree of isolation of the island. 

    • The theory states that smaller, more isolated islands have fewer numbers of plant and animal species.

    • (couldn’t find in notes this is from google)

  • SLOSS

    • Single large

      • More species

      • Large, wide-ranging, low-density species

      • Minimize edge habitat

    • Several small

      • Variety of habitats

      • More populations of rare species

      • Protection against catastrophes

  • Principles of reserve design

    • Large reserve will hold more species

    • Multiple small reserves should be close together

    • Cluster arrangement better than linear

    • Circular reserves

  • Habitat corridors – benefits/limitations

    • Strips of land running between protected areas

    • Migrate from winter areas to summer areas

    • Strips of land running between protected areas

    • Need to be customized 

    • Greater predation risk

    • Expensive

Restoration Ecology

  • Restoration vs. reclamation vs. mitigation

    • Restoration: Return to previous condition

    • Reclamation: Return land to some type of use

    • Mitigation: Reducing effects of an action

  • Purposes of LWD, settling ponds, limestone, & rock veins

    • Large woody debris (LWD)

      • Crucial for channel morphology

      • Create pools, glides, and riffles

      • Can be used to increase sinuosity 

      • Stop bank erosion

      • Overhangs for habitat

    • Settling ponds

      • Reduce heavy metals entering streams

      • Reduce fine particulates that enter the water system

      • Pond size is related to drainage area

    • Limestone

      • Used to buffer acidity (low pH) from Acid Mine Drainage or Acid Precipitation

    • Rock veins

      • Evidence of Fluid Flow

      • Geological History

      • Pathways for Fluids

      • Mineral Deposition 

      • Stress and Strain Indicators 

      • Geological Clues

      • (this is from google couldn’t find in the notes)

  • SMCRA

    • Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act

    • Governing force that controls current mines and builds funds for reclamation of abandoned mines.

    • Does this by taxing coal extraction

      • $0.31.5 per ton for surface-mined coal 

      • $0.15 per ton of coal mined underground 

      • $0.10 per ton for lignite.

U.S. Policy

  • Lacey Act

    • 1900

    • Prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold

    • 2008 amendment- includes timber

  • Migratory Bird Treaty Act

    • Enacted 1918- Harriet Hemenway

    • All native migratory birds and their parts fully protected

    • U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan, Russia

    • Administered by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

    • Accidental or incidental killing originally resulted in take

  • Marine Mammal Protection Act

    • Enacted in 1972

    • Prohibits take of marine mammals

    • 1994- revisions for incidental take for incidental take from commercial fisheries

    • Administered by NOAA Fisheries

  • Endangered Species Act

    • Enacted in 1973

    • Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries

  • Listing

    • Endangered species’: in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range

    • ‘Threatened species’: likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future

    • Endangered or threatened because of:

      • Present or threatened destruction of habitat

      • Overexploitation

      • Disease or predation

      • Inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms

      • Other natural or manmade factors

    • Economics can now be considered during listing

  • Distinct Population Segments

    • Recognized as a ‘species’ under the ESA 

    • Only applies to vertebrates

    • Discreteness of the population segment in relation to the remainder of the species to which it belongs

      • Markedly separated by physical, physiological, ecological, or behavioral factors

        • OR

      • Delimited by international boundaries within which different management exists

    • Significance of the population segment to the species to which it belongs

      • Unusual or unique ecological setting

      • Loss would result in significant gap in range

      • Only surviving natural occurrence 

      • Differs markedly in its genetic characteristics

  • Critical habitat

    • Habiatat: abiotic and biotic setting that currently or periodically contains the resources and conditions necessary to support 1+ life processes of a species

    • Critical: essential to the conversation of the species

    • Economics is considered

  • Section 7

    • Consultations with Federal Agencies

    • Any action authorized funded, or carried out by a federal agency shall insure it is not likely to:

    • jeopardize the continued existence of any listed species

      • OR

    • Result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat

  • Section 9

    • Protection on private lands

    • With respect to any fish or wildlife… it is unlawful for any person to TAKE any such species

    • Take: harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, captue, or collect, or to attempt to do any of those things

    • Harm: can include significant habitat modification where it kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns

  • HCPs

    • Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs)

  • Clean Water Act

    • Established in 1972

    • Water population

    • Regulates ‘navigable waters’

    • Administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

    • Section 404: polluting, filling, dredging prohibited

    • Permits offered by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

  • What’s protected (currently & in the past)

  • Wetlands

    • Presence of hydric soils and hydrophytes

    • Protected waters are ‘navigable waters’

    • 2001- isolated wetlands no longer protected

      • Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v USACE (SWANCC case)

    • 2008- wetlands adjacent to navigable waters or their tributaries

      • Rapano v. US

      • Carabell v. US

    • Clean Water Rule- 2015

      • Isolated wetlands protected when they influence downstream waters

      • Normal farming, ranching, and forestry practives remain exempt

      • Never went into effect and was repealed 

    • Proposed Navigable Waters Protection Rule (2020)

    • Filial Navigable Waters Protection Rule (2022)

      • Adjacent wetlands are protected if:

        • Relatively permanent

        • Significant nexus

        • Adjacent to traditional navigable water

    • Sackett vs EPA (2023)

      • Any waterway that doesn’t connect at its surface to another body of federally protected water doesn’t get the same protection

International Policy

  • CITES (including different appendices)

    • Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

    • Enacted in 1975

    • Regulates international trade

    • 184 participating countries

    • Lists species by threat (Appendix I, II, III)

    • Appendix I

      • species threatened with extinction

      • trade generally prohibited

      • import & export permits required

    • Appendix II

      • trade must be controlled

      • only export permit required

    • Appendix III

      • protected in at least 1 country

      • export permit only required from requesting country

  • RAMSAR

    • Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

    • Enacted 1971 in Iran

    • International cooperation for the conservation of wetlands and their resources

    • Includes lakes and rivers, tidal flats, mangroves, coral reefs, & human-made sites

    • Ramsar sites: List of internationally important wetlands

  • CBD

    • Convention on Biological Diversity

    • 1993

    • 3 main goal

      • Conservation of biodiversity

      • Sustainable use

      • Sharing benefits from genetic resources equitably

  • CMS

    • Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (Bonn Convention)

    • Enacted in 1983

    • Terrestrial, aquatic, and avian migratory species

    • Focus on CITES Appendic I, II species

  • IUCN Red List & criteria

    • Threatened: high risk of extinction within a short time frame

      • Critically endangered

      • Endangered

      • Vulnerable

    •  Extinct

    •  Extinct in the wild

    •  Near threatened

    •  Least concern

    •  Data deficient

    •  Not evaluated

  • Recognize the NGOs

    • IUCN (International Union for the Conservaation of Nature)

      • 1948

      • Red List of threatened species

    • Conseravtion International

      • Founded 1987

      • Biodiversity hotspots (34 globally)

    • The Nature Conservancy

      • Formed in 1946

      • Land acquisition

      • “Debt for nature swap”

      • Ecoregional approaches

Role of Citizens

  • Good governance principles

    • Consideration of rights

    • Legitimacy and voice

    • Access to authority

    • Fairness

    • Direction

    • Accountability

    • Information sharing

  • Economic considerations (ICDPs and Extractive Reserves)

    • Integrated Conservation Development Projects (ICDPs)

      • Integrating economic needs of community with conservation

      • Traditional societies eroding due to outside influence

      • Wildlife management projects, ecotourism

      • Monitoring is necessary

    • Extractive Reserves

      • Local people can extract resources