biodiversity Flashcards
5 ethical principles of conservation bio?
- Biological diversity has intrinsic value
- The untimely extinction of populations and species should be prevented
• Currently have a 6th mass extinction occurring at an accelerated rate - untimely, correlated to humans - The diversity of species and the complexity of biological communities should be preserved
- Science plays a critical role in our understanding of ecosystems
- Collaboration among scientists, managers, policymakers, and the public is important and often necessary
- The untimely extinction of populations and species should be prevented
3 types of biodiversity?
- Species diversity
- Genetic diversity
- Ecosystem diversity
why is genetic diversity important
Genetic diversity is crucial to the species as a whole - the genotype impacts the actual property of an individual of a species
briefly describe ecosystem diversity importance
Ecosystem encompasses organisms in the context of their environment - ecosystem functions/roles - how organisms function in the system and the effects they have on each other - the roles the organisms play are impacted by what environment they are in
why do we need species? in conservation bio
- Why do we need to have species - for communication!!! So we know how/what to study and also to have a way to communicate our observations
- Species are the unit that is the basis for communication in the conservation field - universally understood
how were species understood historically? why?
- Historically species were mostly understood based on morphology
- Being able to identify things visually, quickly, and effectively
why is the morphological species concept faulty? two examples?
we have a wide range of variation that makes species hard to identify sometimes
○ Ex. Pigeons darwin talked about - very different morphs that fall under one species
○ Ex. At different life stages organisms can look very different - is it a different species or the same? This is hard for paleontologists in the context of our fossil record
Works well as a heuristic but brings about difficulties
what is the biological species concept
- 1960s
* Biological species are groups of organisms that have the potential to reproduce with each other
issues with the biological species concept?
hybrids exist in nature - ie black duck x mallard , ring species, asexual reproduction
describe ring species
circular arrangement of populations with one boundary characterized by reproductive isolation, but intergradation among populations elsewhere.
ring species example
§ Ex. Violets in the rockies - species hybridize at the point where they meet but diverge at their initial/core populations - makes a phenotypic gradient / “ring”
describe asexual reproduction issue with biol species concept
○ Asexual reproduction - the definition relies on members of the same species having the potential to reproduce sexually with each other. However, some organisms can reproduce asexually.
current debate about species definition?
Debate about how many species of bacteria exists due to arguments about how to define species
what is one way to measure species diversity
• All these concepts of species are scale dependent
• There are more species in larger areas
One way to break down diversity is Alpha, Beta, and Gamma diversity
describe alpha diversity
○ Alpha diversity is a local scale measure of diversity
§ Local areas differ for species based on how they move - for ex. The local area of a bear species will be much bigger than the local area of a springtail bug
describe gamma diversity
○ Gamma diversity is a regional scale measure of diversity
§ Ex. What is the diversity of a certain plant in elk island vs what is the diversity of the plant in all of Alberta
describe beta diversity - when are alpha and gamma similar
○ Beta diversity is the ratio of gamma/alpha species
§ Mountain example: Alpha is average amount of species, gamma is total across region, beta is gamma/alpha
Anything close to 1 means alpha and gamma are similar
why is Alpha/beta/ gamma concept important
• This concept is important for conservation:
○ If alpha and gamma are similar and you have limitations in allocation, protecting one local area could potentially protect the species at a whole
○ However, if alpha is low and gamma is high, you need to focus on the entire area for conservation
○ Helps us understand Structure of diversity - distribution, understanding the structure of the environment
do we know exactly how many speciesne there are? why is it hard to determi
- 1/4 of described species on the planet are beetles - raises questions about why there are certain overrepresented species
- We don’t know the true diversity of any groups
• Tremendous need for the ability to identify species - lots of job opportunities bc of the difficulty
• Having an awareness of species is a specialized but necessary aspect of conservation biology
• Difficulties with bookkeeping- knowing who knows what, awareness of the entire range of what a particular species looks like, etc
○ Ex. Slightly different morphs of moss - similarities within and outside of species makes identification hard
curve diagram of known species?
○ Curve diagram of the known species - if it plateaus, we can estimate that we have a good idea of how many species there are in a group
where are most species concentrated
• Most concentrated around equator
• Why does this latitudinal gradient exist?
○ Abiotic filter for life - only species that can survive extreme cold can live at the poles - equatorial conditions more favorable
○ More environmental stability near the equator - allows growth year round
○ Greater photoperiods - more light hitting the equator - more energy introduced to the system via photosynthesis, so more energy availability for capture may create a broader period of light capture
how can we measure/quantify species diversity
shannon index
describe shannon index variables
- Pi is the proportion of species measured
- Formula in notebook
- Proportion has to be between 0-1
- As pi increase, in decreases
- The greater the evenness, the bigger the H and vise versa
More even = less info, more diverse
is more diversity always a better system?
no, structure can matter too
issue with the index?
takes something complex and reduces it to just one number - simplification
still good for communication
benefits of index
simplicity, communication
