18- Conservation: Why History Counts Flashcards
what human modifications are changing disease dynamics?
- Humans eating bushmeat –> disease outbreaks
(ebola is related to chimp/ gorilla population declines) - Climate change
- climate warming could cause huge number of extinctions
- endangered species most affected because they are where most of the climate change will occur
- temperature will influence nutrients of food (increase in temp/rainfall/CO2 = decrease in protein)
what is background rate of extinction?
= the standard rate of extinction in earth’s geological and biological history before humans became a primary contributor to extinctions.
how are background rates of extinction determined?
By examining extinctions throughout the fossil record.
- how many species have gone extinct over the evolutionary history of a single family?
Limitations in relying on the fossil record.
major cause of new infectious diseases from animals that can jump to humans
many new infectious diseases that can jump to humans (ebola, AIDS, zika, SARS) come from eating bushmeat
how many degrees has the earth’s climate warmed in the past century? what are the estimates for this century?
earth’s climate has warmed by ~0.6 C in the past century. some estimates suggest that the climate could warm by 5.8 C this century
what changes in climate has kibale seen? and what consequences does this have on the risk of infection?
Kibale’s has recieved 300 mm more rainfall/year than at the start of the century
- less frequent droughts
- earlier onset of the rainfall season
- increase in average monthly temperature
Consequences: wet conditions allow parasite eggs to persist for longer and thus increase the infection risk.
predicted responses to leaf nutrients to climate change
Increasing temperature/CO2/ rainfall = decreased protein, increased fiber, increased tannins.
Leaf quality has declined in the directions predicted by climate change
