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Paper 2: Environmental Processes and Change > C: Life on Earth > Flashcards

C: Life on Earth Flashcards

1
Q

Harari (2011)

How long ago did Earth form

A

4.5 bn years ago

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2
Q

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How long ago did organisms form

A

3.8 bn

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3
Q

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How long ago did humans evolve

A

2.5m years ago

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5
Q

Harari (2011)

Where and how long ago did Homo Sapiens evolve?

A

Africa
300,000 yeara ago

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6
Q

Harari (2011)

First empire

A

Akkadian Empire of Sargon

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7
Q

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When did capitalism first emerge

A

500 years ago

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8
Q

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When did IR come about

A

200 years ago

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9
Q

Harari (2011)

Characteristics of IR

A
  • Family and community replaced by state and market
  • Mass extinction of flora and fauna

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10
Q

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Humans

A

A being related to the genus Homo; does not specify Homo Sapien

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11
Q

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What % of energy does brain consume whilst at rest

A

25%

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12
Q

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What has evolution favoured

A

Species with strong social ties

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13
Q

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When did humans become top of food chain

A

Last 100,000 years
- Before were in the middl

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14
Q

Harari (2011)

What affect did cooking have on eating time

A

Reduced 5x

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15
Q

Harari (2011)

How does evolution occur (basic)

A

Mutations

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16
Q

Harari (2011)

When was the Cognitive revolution?

A

70,000 - 30,000 years ago

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17
Q

Harari (2011)

What was the cognitive revolution?

A

New ways of thinking and making things

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18
Q

Harari (2011)

What is unique to humans

A

Only species who can imagine imaginary things

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19
Q
A
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20
Q

Harari (2011)

Impact of humans being able to imagine imaginary things

A

Large numbers of people can cooperate by believing in common myths
- Nationality
- Laws
- Justice
- Human rights

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21
Q

Harari (2011)

What is Legal Fiction

A

No physical existence; all imagination

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22
Q

Harari (2011)

Example of legal fiction

A

Limited Liability Companies
e.g., Peugeot
- Very good invention as separted risks from individual humans -> allowed innovation
- Legaally independent of the people in them, the money invested or those who manage it

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23
Q

Harari (2011)

What is a dual reality

A
  • Nations, organisations and human rights are all a social construct
  • Objective vs imagined realities
  • Objective reality has become dependent on imagined realities -> objective reality defined by social constructs

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24
Q

Harari (2011)

What type of evolution has modern human kind gone through?

A

Cultural evolution, not genetic evolution

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25
Q

Harari (2011)

Example of how in modern society most members are not humans but animals

A

New Zealand
- 4.5m people
- 50m sheep

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26
Q

Harari (2011)

Differenec about survival needed today vs past

A

Do not need much knowledge about natural world to survive

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27
Q

Harari (2011)

What was better during forager times

A

Less infectious diseses and better diets

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28
Q

Harari (2011)

Why are there so many unique species on islands

A

Evolved in isoltion over millenia

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29
Q

Harari (2011)

How have humans adapted to new challenges without evolution

A

Use of tech and skills

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30
Q

Harari (2011)

Why is the settlement of Australia 45k years ago important

A

First time Sapiens left African landmass

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31
Q

Harari (2011)

Impact of foragers on Australian fauna

A

23/24 of the animal species weighing more than 55kg went extinct

  • Extinction of Australian mega fauna was the first significanty mark homo-sapiens left on the planet

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32
Q

Harari (2011)

How often have ice ages occurred

A

Every 100k years
(last one was 75k-15k years ago)

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33
Q

Harari (2011)

What according to Harari (2011) are humans

A

“Ecological serial killers”

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34
Q

Harari (2011)

What is interesting about humans and animal interactions

A

Human phenotype is not threatening and thus animals have evolved to fear humans

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35
Q

Harari (2011)

How do fossil records show human impact in Australia?

A

Eucalyptus trees regenerate well after fires. Humans burned lots of Australaia to attract easily hunted animals. Spread and other trees dissapreared

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36
Q

Harari (2011)

How many waves of extinctions have there been?

A

3
1. Spread of foragers
2. Spread of farmers
3. Industrial society

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37
Q

Harari (2011)

Challenge of IR and capitolocene argument

A

Long before IR humans were the organisms driving extinctions

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38
Q

Harari (2011)

What date marked the beginning of when sapiens began to manipulate flora and fauna

A

10,000 years ago

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39
Q

Harari (2011)

True of false: No major plant or animal has been domesticated in the last 2000 years

A

True!

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40
Q

Harari (2011)

Elaborate on the idea that plants have domesticated humans

A
  • We have adapted our behaviour to a lifestyle of nurturing plants such as spending days cultivating fields

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41
Q

Harari (2011)

Latin for domesticate

A

Domus
- Latin for house
- Sapiens are now living in houses, not wheat

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42
Q

Harari (2011)

Harari (2011) view of agricultural revolution

A

More people alive under worse conditions

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43
Q

Harari (2011)

What do luxuries become

A

Neccessities

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44
Q

Harari (2011)

What do farmers in New Guinea do to domesticate pigs

A

Cut off part of snout which stops them smelling which causes pain and thus stops them wandering away

–> done through brutality

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45
Q

Harari (2011)

How do evolutionary successes often translate into individual experieces

A

Cause more suffering

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46
Q

Harari (2011)

Where was the first human civilisation

A

Mesopotamia

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47
Q

Harari (2011)

What does the state do

A

Force people to act in accordance with an imagined order

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48
Q

Harari (2011)

What is the only way an order can survive

A

If people believe in it
- We believe capitalism is the best economic system because we believe there are immutable laws of nature

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49
Q

Harari (2011)

Reasons we accept values (3)

A
  1. Built into material life (e.g., individualism and personal rooms)
  2. Imagined order shapes our desires (Romanticism tells us today we needs as many different experiences as possible; consumerism tells us to be happy we must consume as much as possible)
  3. The imagined order is inter-subjective (shared imagined wiwth many people - law, money, gods and nations)

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50
Q

Harari (2011)

How to change an inagined order

A

Mass population need to believe in a different imagined order

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51
Q

Harari (2011)

Why was writing invented and by whom

A

By Sumerians
Needed to store more data

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52
Q

Harari (2011)

What does every imagined system try to claim itself as

A

Natural

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53
Q

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What are all societies based on

A

Imagined hierarchies

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54
Q

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What does it mean to be natural

A

Whatever is possible
- Biology enables, culture forbids
- Natural and unnatural are taken from Christian theology

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55
Q

Harari (2011)

What defined the roles and rights of people

A

Myths, not biology
(sex is a biological category and gender is a cultural category)

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56
Q

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What is culture

A

Artifical instincts

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57
Q

Harari (2011)

What does culture enable for

A

Large scale co-operation

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58
Q

Harari (2011)

Give an example of contradictory social values

A

Equality and individual freedom
- Equality can only be achieved by curtailing the freedoms of those better off
- This represnets the entire political history since 1789 FR

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59
Q

Harari (2011)

What does Harari (2011) claim about culture

A

No authentic cultures free from external influences left

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60
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Island that interests biologists 2300km Southeast of Cape Town

A

Marion Island

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

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61
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is biodiversity

A

The variety of life

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62
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Fact about definitions

A

Most developm on simple variety of life. DeLong 1996 reviewed 85 definitions of biodiversity

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63
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Definition of biodiversity by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (Article 2) - signed by 150 nations in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

A

“Biodiversity means the variability among living organisms from all sources, including inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other equatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part”
“This includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems”

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64
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How do Gaston and Spicer (2004) add to biodiversity

A

All biodiversity past and present

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65
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How is the term biodiversity laden

A

Is good per se
Its loss is bad
It should be maintained
–> laden as there are clear perceptions

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66
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

3 types of biodiversity

A
  • Ecological
  • Genetic
  • Organismal

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67
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Genetic diversity

A

The variation in the genetic make up between individuals within a population and between populations

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68
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Organismal diversity

A

Encompasses the taxonomic hierarchy and its components, from individuals upwards to species, genera and beyond

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69
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Ecological diversity

A

The scale of ecological differences from populations, through niches and habitats, on up to biomes

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70
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What type of biodiversity is often most commonly thought of

A

Organismal (Species)

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71
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is a biological species

A

A group of interbreeding natural populations that do not successfully mate or reproduce with other such groups (and, some would add, which occupy a specific niche)

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72
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is an Ecological Species

A

A lineage which occupies an adaptive zone different in some way from that of any other lineage in its range and which evolves seperately from al lineages outside its range

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73
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What are Morphological Species

A

The smallest natural populations permanently separated from each other by a distinct discontinuity in heritable characteristics

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74
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Why does biodiversity need to be measured

A

To answer fundemental questions such as how biodiversity has changed over time, where it occurs, and how it can be maintained

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75
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is species richness

A

The physical number of species in a given area

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76
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is there not

A

An all-embracing measure of biodiversity

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77
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Why is biodiversity important

A

Used for taking conservation action

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78
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How can genetic diversity be measured

A

Directly - identifying nucleotides, genes and chromosomes
Indirectly - quantifying phenotypic features

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79
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Pros of Species Richness

A
  • Practical application
  • Existing info
  • Surrogacy
  • Wide application

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

80
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Cons of Species Richness

A
  • Definition of species (at least 7 major species concepts ranging from theoretical to practical)
  • Different kinds of diversity

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

81
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is biodiversity

A

Biodiversity is the variety of life, in all its manifestations

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

82
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What are the 2 main sources of the knowledge of historical biodiversity

A
  1. fossil records
  2. Molecular data

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

83
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Why is understanding past biodiversity important

A

Interpreting present and future structures of biodiversity

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

84
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Limitations of fossil records

A

Show more abundant and longer lived species
- Soft bodies organism like jellyfish will not show

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

85
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Stats showing how unrepresentative fossil records are

A
  • 95% of all fossil species are marine animals
  • 85% of today’s recorded plants and animals are terrestrial
  • Only 7% of all primate species known to have existed are known from fossils

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

86
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is playing an increasingly significant role in understanding biodiversity

A

Molecular evidence

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

87
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Why is the fossilr record likelyy to underestimate dates of first appearance

A
  • Likelihood of early individuals being fossilised and the fossils recovered is low

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

88
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What did all known organisms originate from

A

A common ancestor

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

89
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

When did life originate

A

4500 Myr in the Precambrian
- First multicellular organisms

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

90
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How old is Earth

A

4.543bn year old

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

91
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Evidence that biodiversity is relatively new on a geological timeframe

A
  • Multicellular organisms did not begin to diversify until 1.4bn years ago - 60% of the history of life had passed

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

92
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is the pattern of diversity over time

A

Increase

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

93
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What determines the overall temporal change in biodiversity

A

Difference between rates of speciation (adding species) and extinction (losing species)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

94
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How many species ever have become extinct over Earth’s history

A

90%

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

95
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How many species are extimated to have become extinct during mass extinctions

A

75%-95%

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

96
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What % of extintions do mass extinctions contribute for

A

4%

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

97
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What does exanct mean?

A

Alive; surviving

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

98
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Fact about distribution of biodiversity

A

The bulk of biodiversity is contributed by only relatively few taxonomic groups of organisms; most groups are not particularly diverse

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

99
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is the best estimate of exanct species

A

13.5 million (large potential errors)
- Only 1.75 million currency described

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

100
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is media

A

Air, soil, water…

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

101
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Biodiversity distribution

A

Not even across Earth or through media (air, soil, water…)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

102
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Spatial scales of biodiversity according to Whittaker et al. 2001

A

Alpha - species locally in communities
Beta - turnover of species between communities
Gamma - number of species across a region

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

103
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What are 2 issues of scale that affect species richness

A
  • Species-Area relationships
  • Local-regional relationships

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

104
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Species-Area relationship

A

As the size of an area increases, so does the number of species which it contains (MacArthur and Wilson, 1967)
- Explain more than 50% of the variation in species richness between areas.
- Formula - S= cA^z (s= species, A = areas, c and z = constants

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

105
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What are the 4 reasons explaining the species-area relationship

A
  1. Sampling (there may be no relationship between species and area but more species are recorded from larger areas because more individuals are sampled)
  2. Habitat diversity (larger areas = more habitats = more species. More opportunities for organisms to establish and persist. More habitats as topographically and environmentally more diverse)
  3. Colonisation/extinction (As the number of species increases, colonisation declies and extinction rates increase)
  4. Speciaton/extinction (species with larger geographic range have a higher chance of speciating in larger areas. And more individuals = less change of chance events causing extinction

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

106
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What could be an exception to species-area relationships

A

Latitude
Example: the small tropical country of Costa Rica (51,100km2) contains 218 reptile species, 796 bird species and 203 mammal species. Canada (9,970,610km2) contains 32 reptile species, 434 bird species and 94 mammal species.
(Medellin and Soberon, 1999.

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

107
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What % of Earth’s surface do oceans cover

A

67%

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

108
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is Earth’s surface area

A

511 million km2

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

109
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Biodiversity could be different depending on taxonomic level being considered

A
  • 90% of all classes known are marine
  • 15% of all species named are marine
    -(Reaka-Kudla, 1997)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

110
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How many biogeographic regions are commonly recognised

A

6-8

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

111
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Biodiverse hotspots

A

Areas of high biodiversity. They of concern to conservation biologists.

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

112
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Problem with conservation measures at a spatial scale

A

Biologically meaningful scales do not always fall within geopolitical units (states, countries)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

113
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Brazil biodiversity

A
  • 56,000 species of plant
  • > 300 species of freshwater fish
  • 517 species of amphibians
  • 468 species of reptiles
  • 1622 species of birds
  • 524 species of mammals
    (Mittermeiter et al. 1997)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

114
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How many countries have 66-75% of world’s biodiversity expressed in terms of species richness

A

17
(Mittermeier et al. 1997)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

115
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Some factors influencing biodiversity in terms of species richness

A
  • Area
  • Latitude
  • Topographical diversity
  • Habitat diversity
  • Human history

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

116
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How many species in UK

A

> 88,000 (Pimentel et al. 1997)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

117
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How many biodiversity hotspots have been identified

A

25

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

118
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is a biodiversity hotspot

A

Areas that contain exceptional concentrations of endemic species and are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat (Myers, 2001)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

119
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What % of land surface do biodiversity hotspots comprise?

A

1.4%

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

120
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What % of exanct plant species do biodiversity hotspots contain

A

45% (135,000)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

121
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What % of exanct invertebrate species do biodiversity hotspots contain

A

35% (9650)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

122
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Why may some continental locations have high levels of endemism

A
  • Long-term ecoclimate stability
  • Evolutionary hotspots

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

123
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What does Erwin (1983) term “the last biotic frontier”

A

Tropical rainforest canopies
- Areal extent more than 11m km2
- High levels of species richness

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

124
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Importance of coral reefs

A

-Cover just 0.18% of oceans
- Has 25% of all marine species

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

125
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Estimates of species in the deep sea

A

10 million
(Grassle and Maciolek, 1992)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

126
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Most significant influence on biodiversity

A

Latitude
- Species richness of most organisms increases from high to low latitudes
- Historical obersvation - (Humboldt and Bonpland, 1807), (Wallace, 1853), (Bates, 1862)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

127
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

4 Important points about latitudinal biodiversity

A
  • It has been a persistent feature for much of the history of life on Earth
  • The peak of biodiversity is seldom at the equator. Often 20-30 degrees North (Crame, 2000)
  • Gradient far from symmetrical around the equator (like. a pear, not an egg)
  • Steepness of gradient varies. Butterflies more tropical than birds

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

128
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How many species of butterfly are there for each species of bird

A

2

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

129
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How does latitude affect humans

A

Diversity of human langauges and ethnic groups greater at the equator (Cashdan, 2001)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

130
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Why is it harder to understand latitudinal patterns in marine environments

A
  • Depth
  • Inadequate levels of sampling

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

131
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Proposed mechanisms for latitduinal gradinets in biodiversity (Rohde, 1992)

A
  • Area
  • Energy available
  • Time
  • Competition
  • Mutualism
  • Predation
  • Patchiness
  • Environmental stability
  • Environmental predictability
  • Productivity
  • Number of habitats
  • Ecological time
  • Evolutionary time
  • Solar energy

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

132
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Area effects - latitude effects

A
  • Tropical regions have larger land area than temperate ones –> higher rates of speciation and lower rates of extinction
    (Rosensweig, 1992)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

133
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Energy availability - latitude effects

A
  • Higher energy at lower latitudes = wider resource base = more species (Wright, 1983)
  • ## Relationship between energy and species richness largely positive

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

134
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Time - latitude effects

A
  • Greater evolutionary time in the tropics
  • Why? large scale pertubations such as glaciation or clmatic drying are less frequent in tropics = more time for evolutionary process
  • High origination rate
  • Low extinction rate

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

135
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Altitude and depth - latitude effects

A
  • Earth is not flag. 3D not 2D.
  • Land area varies with elevation
  • Energy availability higher at lower altitudes - daytime temps allow more photosynthesis and cooler evenings allow lower plant respiration = wider resource base
  • ## Higher elevations more isolated (think mountain peaks) = less immigration = less speciation and more extinction. Lower species richness but higher endemism

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

136
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Species below Earth

A
  • life occurs below Earth too
  • Organisms rely on chemosynthetic energy production rather than photosynthesis
  • Bacteria found up to 4000m underground
  • Depth is marine equivalent of altitude (not totally accurate as no species spends whole life in air whereas some species spend whole life at great depths)
  • Oceans average 3.8km in depth. Max is more than 10km
  • Species richness peaks at depths 150-300m below

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

137
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Define briefly the species-area relationship

A

On average, as the size of a geographical area increases, so too does the number of species that it contains

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

138
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Define briefly the local-regional richness relationship

A

Local species richness tends to be positively correlated with regional species richness

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

139
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Comparison of species and taxa between marine realm and terrestrial realm

A

There are more higher taxa in the marine real than in the terrestrial one, but more species in the latter than in the former

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

140
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Global spatiality of species

A

-Tropical regions contain at least 2/3 of exanct terrestrial species
- Marine biodiversity highest in Indo-Western Pacific

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

141
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Summary of uneven distribution of species between provinces

A

Distribution of terrestrial
biodiversity between provinces is uneven, with 17 mega-diversity countries posessing 66-75% of the world’s species

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

142
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Most important feature affecting biodiversity

A

Latitude (need to know why latitude though)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

143
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

General pattern of species richness and altitude/depth

A

In the terrestrial realm, species richness declines towards high elevations, often with a peak at intermediate elevations, whilst in the marine realm the relationship with depth is typically hump-shaped

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

144
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How can the value of biodiversity be divided in 2

A
  1. Use value
  2. Non-use values

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

145
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What are direct use values

A

Concerned with the consumption and production of marketable commodites
- Food, medicine, biological control, industrial materoals, recreational harveting and eco-tourism

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

146
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Direct use value: Food

A
  • Vegetables, fruit, nut, meats
  • In 1997 global agriculture provided 99% of energy consumed by humans
  • 75% of human energy intake comes from just 12 kinds of plants (such as bananas, neams, cassava, maize, potatoes, rice, wheat, sugar cane…)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

147
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Direct use value: medicine

A
  • Maintaining health of human populations
  • More than 60% of world pop relies on plant medicines as primary health care (Harvey, 2000)
  • Animals also of use. Bears are the only mammal not go get osteoporosis (Chivian, 2001)

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

148
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Direct use value: biological control

A
  • Environmentally friendly alternative to pesticides
  • Biocontrol programmes
  • Cost benefit ratio for the control of cassava mealybug by the encrytid wasp in Africa was estimated to be 1:149

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

149
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Direct use value: industrial materials

A
  • Building materials, fibres, dyes, rubber, oil, chemicals

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

150
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Direct use value: recreational harvesting

A
  • Hunting and fishing
  • Harvesting of animals
  • Pets
  • Plants for gardens
  • On British Isles, 25,000 plant species grown in Botanical gardens
  • Illegal trade in wildlife ranks 2nd to arms and drugs market

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

151
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Direct value use: ecotourism

A
  • ## One of fastest growing industries globally

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

152
Q
A
153
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Indirect use value

A
  • Biota cycles 10^15 Gt annually of elements such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur
  • Biogeochemical cycling sustains life
  • Functions it performs are vital to human wellbeing

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

154
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Examples of ecosystem services provided by biodiversity

A
  • Atmospheric regulation
  • Climatic regulation
  • Hydrological regulation
  • Nutrient cycling
  • Pest control
  • Photosynthesis
  • Pollination
  • Soil formation and maintenance

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

155
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What type of use value is harder to recongise

A

Indirect use value

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

156
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How might ecosystem processes respond to reductions in species richness (Johnson et al., 1996)

A
  1. Redundancy - other species will perform the function
  2. Rivet popping - affected after a tipping point is reached
  3. Idiosyncracy - magnitude and direction of change is unpredictable because individual species have complex and varied roles

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

157
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Non-use value

A

The value even if not directly or indirectly exploited
1. Option value - for future use or non-use
2. Bequest value - passing on a resource for future generations
3. Existence value - value to people irrespective of use or non-use
4. Intrinsic value - inherent worth, independent on of that placed on it by people

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

158
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Why are indirect values of biodiversity more difficult to quantify

A
  • Not subject to direct trading in the marketplace

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

159
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

At its most basic level why must we preserve biodiversity

A

It is not possible to build artifical systems that could provide us with the life supporting systems that natural systems provide us for free

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

160
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What does higher species richness do

A
  • Increases species redundnacy
  • Increases temporal resillience of ecosystem functioning, increasing reliability of functioning

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

161
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How is biodiversity loss epitomised

A

Species extinctions

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

162
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How have humans caused species loss

A

Colonisation

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

163
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

How many recorded extinctions of plant and animal species have there been sicne 1600?

A

1000

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

164
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Projected extinction rates?

A

Orders of magnitude greater than background extinction rates seen in the fossil record

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

165
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What are the primary causes of biodiversity loss

A
  1. Direct exploitation
  2. Habitat loss, degredation and fragmentation
  3. Effect of introduced species
  4. Extinction cascades

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

166
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What do the ultimate causes of biodiversity loss concern

A
  • Size of human population
  • Rate of human population growth
  • Scale of human enterprise

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

167
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is one of the main global attempts to set an agenda for maintaining biodiversity

A

The Convention on Biological Diversity 1992

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

168
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What is the main objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity 1992

A
  • Conservation of biological diversity
  • Sustainable use
  • Fair and equitable sharing of benefits

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

169
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What wil conservation require

A

Network of protected areas for insitu protection

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

170
Q

Carrington (2018)

What % of living life do humans represent

A

0.01%

Carrington (2018)

171
Q

Carrington (2018)

What % of loss has humans causes to all wild mammals and plants

A

83% mammals
50% plants

Carrington (2018)

172
Q

Carrington (2018)

Plants represent what % of all living matter

A

82%

Carrington (2018)

173
Q

Carrington (2018)

Where is biomass found

A

86% on land
1% on ocean
13% deep sub-surface bacteria

Carrington (2018)

174
Q

Carrington (2018)

What % of all birds for farmed poultry make up

A

70%

Carrington (2018)

175
Q

Carrington (2018)

What % of all mammals on Earth are livestock and humans

A

96%
- This means only 4% are wild mammals

Carrington (2018)

176
Q

Carrington (2018)

How much of Earth’s animals are thought to have been lost in the last 50 years

A

1/2

Carrington (2018)

177
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

What has happened to the rate of extinctions since 1950

A

Reduced

178
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Why are we underestimating extinctions

A

Assumption of exanct unless proven extinct

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

179
Q

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

Define net primary producivity (Pimm, 2001)

A

The net accumulation of organic carbon resulting from the surplus of fixation over respiration

Gaston and Spicer (2004)

180
Q

Equilibrium Theory of Biogeography

A

MacArthur-Wilson (1967)
- It suggests that species richness on islands reaches an equilibrium point where the rate of new species immigration equals the rate of species extinction.

181
Q

Non-Equilibrium Theory of Biogeography

A

The non-equilibrium theory challenges the equilibrium perspective, emphasizing that ecosystems are often not in a state of balance due to ongoing disturbances, environmental changes, and historical contingencies
- Historical Factors: Past events (e.g., glaciations, continental drift) significantly influence current species distributions, and these legacies may not align with equilibrium predictions.
- Disturbance and Change: Frequent disturbances (e.g., volcanic eruptions, storms, human activities) prevent ecosystems from reaching equilibrium, leading to constantly changing species compositions.

182
Q

Summary of how latitude affects specices richness

A

Climate - higher metanolic rates and more precipitation
More niches
More habitat complexity
Longer growing seasons = more time to diversify
Historical stability = accumulation and persistence of species over time
More speciation
Less extinction
More competition
Larger land area
Higher NPP

183
Q

How much greater is NPP in tropical rainforests as opposed to temperate rainforests

A

60%

184
Q

Causes of ecological release

A
  1. Natural migration and colonisation
  2. Introduction of invasive species by humans
  3. Removal of keystone species
185
Q

Consequences of ecological release

A

Adaptive radiation
Speciation
Diversification
Population growth
Population decline
Extinction

186
Q

Define ecological release

A

When a species is freed from limiting factors in its initial environment resulting in a population increase (Whittaker and Fernandez-Palacio, 2007)

187
Q

Why do islands provide a strong example for ecological release

A
  • Small size
  • Distinct boundaries
  • Geographical isolation
  • In essence they are closed systems and unqiue ot the otcomes of general evolutionary trends that occur on continental land
188
Q

Example of adaptive radiation

A

On the Hawaiian islands, cardueline radiation has reproduced mosy of the variation in the entire order of passerine birds, including warblers, beaks, tanagers and creepers

189
Q

Example of speciation not occurrin gon small islands but occuring on small island arhcipeligos

A
  • Anolis Lizard have speciated on the larger islands of teh Greater Antilles but not on the Lesser Antilles
190
Q

Example of adaptive release not always resulting in speciation

A

Small islands

191
Q

Example of Estrada et al., 2016 finding factors such as breeding speed, environmental tolerance and diet requirement being key in determinig what species could colonise

A

European ground squirrels
- Can only like in grasslands
- Cannot expand its habitat even as Europe becomes more suitable due to warming weather as traits do not allow

192
Q

Example of invasive species brough by humans

A
  • Accidential introduction of mice by sailors onto the Gough Islands in St Helena in 19th century
  • Mice evolved by be 50% larger than average house mice and rapidly colonised
  • Reduced the pop size of critically endagered tristan Albatross and Atlantic Pestrel population by eating likeseabird chicks left alone in winter - only 21% survived the 2017-8 breeding season
193
Q

Example of species adapting which can be a disadvantage

A

18/20 endemic species on Gough Islands have reduced wings (Cox et al., 2016)

194
Q

Example of island rule

A

Phymy elephants in the Mediterranean whose small ancestors were able to drift on ocean currents (Allen, 2001)

195
Q

Example of Keystone species

A

Wolves in Yellowstone National Park
Paine (1996) - purple sea star on Tatoosh Island, Washington. Sea star was keystone species and removal led to an explosion in mussel pop which crowded out othter species such as benthic algao which supported sea snails and limpets. Biodiversity cut in half from 15 to 8 species

Paper 2: Environmental Processes and Change (6 decks)

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