Case Studies Flashcards
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Chapter 2: The Yellow-Headed Parrot
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- Social, easy to tame, mimic human voices well.
- Popular in pet trade.
- Protected by CITES Appendix 1, but are still poached illegally.
- Population dropped 95% since 1970s.
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Chapter 2: The Snow Leopard
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- Threatened by habitat loss, loss of prey species, hunting for skin.
- Snow Leopard requires 6 - 10 skins.
- Worth £30,000 on black market.
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Chapter 2: Rhinoceros Horn
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- Used in traditional medicines for nosebleeds to smallpox.
- Used to make ornamental dagger handles.
- All species protected by CITES Appendix 1, still hunted illegally.
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Q
Chapter 2: The Barn Owl
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- Hunt small mammals in grassland, including roadside verges.
- Light so pulled in behind one passing car and hit by the next.
- Councils cut verges very short so they won’t hunt there.
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Chapter 2: The Nile Perch
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- Introduced into Lake Victoria, Africa in the 1950s to improve food supplies.
- It ate indigenous fish species such as Cichlids, some are extinct.
- Overfishing has reduced Nile perch numbers.
- Nile perch preserved by smoking, uses wood.
- Extra demand for wood has increased deforestation.
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Chapter 2: The Flamingo
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- Build mud nests in shallow water in lakes.
- Only breeding huge colonies that can’t be created in captivity.
- Using mirrors around them makes it seem like there is a large colony encouraging them to breed.
- Seen at Wildfowl and Wetland Trust centre at Slimbridge.
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Q
Chapter 2: The Hawaiian Goose
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- Population dropped from 25,000 to 30 because of hunting.
- captive breeding and release programme at nature reserves.
- Wildfowl and Wetland Trust centre at Slimbridge.
- Helped build wild population up to 800.
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Chapter 2: The Bongo
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- Forest antelope from Africa, some populations wiped out by hunting.
- Captive breeding programmes proved successful.
- Bongo embryos successfully transferred into female eland.
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Chapter 2: The Scimitar Horned Oryx
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- Desert antelope from North Africa.
- Hunting reduced numbers, wiped out in Chad and Niger.
- 10 oryx from Marwell and Edinburgh zoos taken to Bou Hedma National Park, Tunisia.
- Site was suitable: water available, no natural predators.
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Chapter 2: The Red Kite
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- Persecution, habitat loss, egg collecting and poisoning by pesticides reduced population to 10.
- Release chicks born in Spain to re-establish a wild population.
- Feeding stations to support birds after release.
- Now over a 1,000 breeding pairs in the UK.
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Chapter 2: Machair Grassland
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- Rare calcareous grassland habitat.
- Found in north-west Scotland, Outer Hebrides.
- Ground nesting birds such as the endangered Corncrake.
- Conservation involves hay mowing, stopping cutting for silage and preventing overgrazing.
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Chapter 2: Hay Tor Quarry
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- Granite quarry, exploited until 100 years ago.
- Species colonised the quarry site.
- Valuable wildlife habitat.
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Chapter 3: Lady’s Slipper Orchid
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- Collection by orchid enthusiasts reduced numbers.
- Bred by micro-propagation.
- Reintroduced into suitable sites.
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Chapter 3: Dormouse
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- Feeds on flower nectar, hazel nuts, insects and blackberries in hazel woodland.
- During summer they live on upper branches, moving from tree to tree.
- Ideal habitat is coppiced hazel woodland, managed by regular cutting intervals.
- Few woodlands are coppiced properly, dormouse becoming rare.
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Chapter 3: River Test
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- River Test, Hampshire is a clean aquifer-fed chalk stream.
- Valuable habitat for water voles, otters and kingfishers.
- Managed for trout fishing, wildlife conservation is high priority.
- Bank repairs and islands maintain the flow to create gravel beds needed for trout breeding.
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Chapter 3: Hedge-laying
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- Planted to keep livestock in become less effective as they age.
- Stems get woody, fewer side branches, animals flee through gaps.
- Hedge-laying involves cutting stems and bending them over to produce a denser hedge base.
- Greater wildlife value with more ground cover.
16
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Chapter 4: Panama
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- Darien and Chagres National Parks protected by donation.
- $2.5 million from The Nature Conservancy in the USA.
- Panamanian government has increased National Park protection.
- Panamanian rainforests are economically important.
- Catchment area around Panama Canal, regulate water flow.
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Chapter 4: Korup Rainforest, Cameroon
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- Korup National Park purchased 1,260km of rainforest.
- Money came from public donations in the UK.
- Was not popular because several villages were removed, people relocated to buffer zone outside of park.
- High biodiversity: 600 tree species, 160 mammal species and 1,000 butterfly species.
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Chapter 4: The Rio Bravo Rainforest Reserve, Belize, Central America
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- Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area includes 100,000 hectares of rainforest, threatened with clearance for farming.
- Managed by Programme for Belize (PfB), independent charity.
- Protects tree species and animals: Jaguar, Baird’s Tapir, Ocelot, Yucatan Black Howler Monkey.
- Funded by ecotourism, sustainable logging and donations.
- Ecological and archaeological research carried out by PfB.
- Some edge areas are exploited for forestry.
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Chapter 4: Crown of Thorns Starfish and its Predators
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- Large starfish, destroys coral by secreting enzymes that digests polyps.
- Human actions allowed starfish numbers to increase, reef destructions.
- Giant Triton is a mollusc that eats starfish, number reduced by collection as tourist souvenirs.
- Humphead Wrasse is a starfish predator but were overfished.
- Fertiliser runoff from farmland, increased growth of algae and plankton.
- Starfish larvae eat plankton so survival has been increased.
20
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Chapter 4: British Antarctic Survey
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- BAS operates four stations in Antarctica.
- Research on: climate change, geology, biodiversity and sustainability of exploitation of marine ecosystems.
- Environmental impact has been reduced.
- Oil tanks have secondary containment in case they leak.
- Abandoned bases have been cleaned up and wastes removed.
21
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Chapter 5: The Sundew
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- Plants that live in anaerobic, waterlogged soils often have a shortage of nitrates.
- Sundew trap and dissolve insects to provide nitrogen compounds for their proteins.
- If solid dries out it will become aerobic, nitrogen availability will increase.
- More vigorous plants such as grasses may out-compete the sundews.
22
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Chapter 5: Squirrel Pox
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- Grey squirrels carry the disease squirrel pox, kills red squirrels.
- Attempts to keep the two squirrel species apart were made.
- Feeding stations were not used as it would increase the risk of both species meeting.
23
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Chapter 6: Glensanda Super-Quarry
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- West coast of Scotland, produced huge amounts of granite.
- The coastal location can be exported by ship not road.
- One huge quarry focuses the environmental impact on one area.
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Chapter 6: Dinorwig HEP Station
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- Built within Snowdonia National Park.
- The environmental impacts were reduced.
- Turbine, generator rooms built underground in excavated chambers.
- Pipes between reservoirs were tunnelled underground.
25
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Chapter 6: Poole Harbour
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- Large relatively shallow and enclosed estuary, heavily used by people, great importance to wildlife.
- All users must abide by general restrictions.
- Different areas are allocated to different activities to reduce conflict.
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Chapter 6: Westport Lake Local Nature Reserve, Stoke-on-Trent
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- Several lakes and ponds developed from an flooded clay pit.
- Sailing is permitted on the largest lake during the summer.
- Winter is reserved for water birds that migrate to the UK.
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Chapter 6: Golf Course at Starcross, Devon
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- Golf is not permitted between October and March when grass provides important grazing for rare absent geese that migrate to the UK during winter.
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Chapter 6: The Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
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- Home to many species: lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards, giraffes and hippos.
- Part of a year the grazing animals move out and compete with livestock.
- Herdsmen gain little benefit from tourism.
- The greatest overall financial benefit would be to pay the herdsmen to continue tolerating wildlife on their land.
29
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Chapter 7: The Kyoto Protocol (1997)
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- Legally bound to reduce emissions by an average of 5.2%.
- Failure to achieve this would result in a further 30% cut.
- EU identified 12,000 factories that have been given a CO2 quota.
- If exceeded, they purchase extra allowances or penalties.
- LEDCs have no legally binding emission limits as it would hinder their development.
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Chapter 8: Aquifer Depletion
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- Aquifers in the UK are rapidly recharged by rainwater percolating into the ground.
- Hot, dry countries contain a lot of water, but it has taken time to accumulate.
- Any exploitation is unsustainable unless the aquifer is extensive.
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Chapter 8: Conflicts of Interest
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- The Syr Darya River flows through 4 countries in Central Asia.
- The Toktogul reservoir in Kyrgystan used to generate electricity.
- The government would like to reduce summer flow to increase winter electricity generation.
- Countries downstream use the water for crop irrigation and demand more in summer.
- Disputes between other countries e.g. Turkey and Iraq.
33
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Chapter 8: Water Demand in Devon and Cornwall
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- Demand for water increases as population grows.
- Water use is rising as affluence increases and appliances.
- Demand is highest in summer when tourists increase the population but is rainfall is lowest and evaporation highest.
- Extra water supplies are met by storage of surplus winter rain in reservoirs.
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Chapter 8: The Ogallala Aquifer, USA
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- Lies under eight states of the mid-west of the USA.
- Supplies one-quarter of the irrigated farmland in the USA.
35
Q
Chapter 8: Water Transfer in Australia and the UK
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- Snowy Mountain HEP scheme was completed in Australia, 1966.
- Generates electricity and transfers water to the dry Murray-Darling catchment area.
- UK, water transferred from four reservoirs in Elan Valley, Wales, to Birmingham.
36
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Chapter 9: The Gaia Hypothesis
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- Single complicated interacting system made up so biotic and abiotic parts that maintains stability.
- Some consider Earth as a single organism with a conscious will.
- Humans can cause changes that stop feedback mechanisms working e.g. Deforestation.
