Chapter 8 Flashcards
Genetic divserty
Encompasses the differences in DNA composition among individuals.
What are the 3 types of diversity?
Species, genetic, and ecosystem.
Why might populations be more likely to persist?
Genetic diversity better enables them to cope with environmental change, without it they could suffer inbreeding depression.
Inbreeding depression
occurs when genetically similar parents mate and produce weak or defective offspring.
What is conservation biology?
Studies biodiversity loss and seeks ways to protect and restore biodiversity.
Endangered Species Act (ESA)
The ESA of 1973 was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction.
What are biodiversity hotspots?
An area that contains a lot of endemic species, which are found nowhere else. Susceptible to habitat loss and human activities. Must contain 1,500 species of vascular plants, and has to have lost 70% of its og habitat
What is the sixth great extinction?
Holocene extinction, or Anthropocene extinction and its due to biological cause
The Red List
A regularly updated list of species facing high risks of extinction.
5 causes of extinction
Habitat loss, pollution, over harvesting, invasive species, and climate change.
Benefits of biodiversity
Enhances food security, provides drugs and medicines, and ecosystem services
Biophillia
An instinctive love for nature and an emotional bond with other living things.
Discuss today’s extinction crisis in geologic context
Species have gone extinct at a background rate of one species per 1-10 million species every year.
Losing species
Specialists, limited to a small range, needing stable conditions, typically large, and slow reproducing.
Winning species
Generalists, geographically widespread, able to cope with fast-changing conditions, typically small, and fast-reproducing
Living Planet Index
Compares the population size of a species now to how it was in the year 1970.
Extirpation
The disappearance of a particular population from a given area.
How much did the LPI fall between 1970 and 2012?
58% - meaning that population sizes became 58% smaller.
What percentage of all species are now extinct?
99%
Does extinction occur naturally?
Yes.
Efforts to conserve threatened/endangered species
The ESA, CITES and Convention on Biological Diversity treaties, captive breeding, reintroduction, and tracing illegally poached animals.
Conservation efforts above the species level
Parks and protected areas conserve biodiversity at the landscape level. Also, community-based conservation empowers people to invest in conserving their local species and ecosystems.
Subspecies
Populations of a species that occur in different geographic areas and are similar.
Species diversity
The abundance of each species in an area.
Species evenness
The degree to which species in a given area differ in numbers of individuals (greater evenness means they differ less)
An important component of biodiversity
Genetic diversity
Ecosystem diversity
The number and variety of ecosystems
Generalists
Species that can tolerate a wide range of circumstances
Specialists
Species highly adapted to particular circumstances
What is the rate of the current extinction?
100-1000 times greater than the background extinction rate
Background extinction rate
Most extinctions preceding the appearance of humans occurred for reasons referred to as this
What is the intent of the ESA?
To protect species and also “the ecosystems upon which they depend.”
4 ways humans alter habitat
Overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation
Indirect causes of biodiversity loss
Land use change, climate change, invasive species, overexploitation, and pollution
Examples of species that have recovered due to the ESA
California condor, black-footed ferret, peregrine, falcon, and the bald eagle
Dominant species
Species that have a high abundance
Umbrella species
Protecting these species indirectly protects the many other species that make up the ecological community of its habitat
Endemic species
Likely to develop on isolated areas such as islands
Intercontinental species
Specific areas that contain essential features to the conservation of a certain species.
When is a species considered endangered?
When there are fewer than 2,500 individuals
6 major components of the ESA
Esthetic, ecological, education, recreational, and scientific value to our Nation and its people
Critical habitats
A habitat needed to support the recovery of certain species and are required to contain “all areas essential to the conservation” of the target species
The polar bear example
The polar bear became the first species listed under the ESA as a result of climate change
2 major conservation (federal) systems that protect habitat and biodiversity
The National Wildlife Refuge System and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)
If the oil industry allowed to drill in ANWR, what impacts might we see?
Oil and gas drilling would devastate the polar bears, should a spill occur.
Of all insects, what percentage are beetles?
40%
When a population shrinks, what happens?
It loses genetic diversity and its geographic range becomes smaller.
How much of the Great Plains is left?
Less than 1%
What is the single greatest threat to biodiversity?
Habitat loss
Novel communities
Newly formed mixtures of native and non-native species
Minimum viable populations size
Helps decide how vital it may be to increase a population
Warranted but precluded
Means that a species needs protection but have not been added to the endangered species list because of funding
Habitat conservation plan
Grants a landowner an “incidental take permit” to harm some individuals of a species if he or she voluntarily improves habitat for the species
Safe harbor agreement (mandate)
When the government agrees not to mandate additional management requirements if the landowner acts to assist a species’ recovery
What are the characteristics of threatened and endangered species?
Population reduction rate, geographic range, population size, population restrictions, and probability of extinction
The IUCN Red List estimates that _____ of species are threatened with extinction
12-52%
Intercontinental species
Species that can be found on two or more continents
Which two federal agencies is the ESA administered by?
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
A species is threatened if it _____.
“Is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future.”
A species is endangered if it _____.
Is “in danger of extinction.”
The greater sage grouse is a species whose addition to the Endangered Species List is _____ by science, and ______ by a lack of funding.
“Warranted” and “yet precluded”
Animal use of the Coastal Plain
Porcupine caribou use as calving site, polar bear denning site, 135 species of birds make migratory stops, gray wolves etc.
How did Mr. Smits and his team “restore the rainforest?”
He involved the people of Borneo, a fair trade system, used fungi to break down alang alang grass, planted over 1000 trees, and planted fire and flood resistant sugar palms.
Ecosystem capital
The sum of all goods and services provided to humans by natural systems
Examples of instrumental value
Ecosystem sustainability, sources of medicine, recreational value, aesthetic value
Intrinsic value
A right to an animals existence just because they are born
Threatened species
Species whose populations are declining rapidly
Endangered species
When a species population is near the critical number
Critical number
The survival and recovery of a population depends on a certain minimum population number, which is referred to as the populations critical number
How many species are endangered in the U.S.
1,001
How many plants and mammals are endangered in the U.S.
599 and 69
Conversion
Natural areas converted to farms, suburbs, etc.
Simplification
Cleaning up, dredging streams, etc
Intrusion
Structures like towers kill up to 50 million birds each year
Use of the _____ may be warranted when the costs associated with ecosystem changes may be high or the changes irreversible
Precautionary principle
What approaches do conservation biologists use?
Drawing blood, radiotracking, checking camera traps, and sampling insects
Consequences of biodiversity loss
Loss of structural (diversity of species) and functional (goods and services) components of an ecosystem
What two diseases are killing native birds in Hawaii?
Malaria and avian pox
What is the second-greatest known cause of amphibian declines, after habitat loss?
Pollution
