Conservation Biology Flashcards
What is an extinction vortex?
A bottleneck positive feedback loop where inbreeding and genetic drift and inbreeding depression reducing adaptation reduces population size even further.
What does Ne stand for? What does it mean?
Effective population size is the size of an idealized mating population that shows the same level of heterozygosity as the population of interest.
When is Ne (effective population size) the same as N (actual population size)?
- The population has a balanced 1:1 ratio of males to females
- All individuals contribute equally to the next generation
- There are simultaneous births for each generation
- Population size remains constant over time.
Generally what is the relationship between Ne and N?
The Ne is less than N, heterozygosity and genetic diversity will be decreased.
What is the formula to calculate the Ne?
it is equal to ((4Breeding femalesbreeding males)/(breeding females + Breeding males))
What is the MVP of a population?
It is the minimum viable population, a value for the smallest a population can be and survive.
What are the 7 threats to biodiversity? Describe them.
- Habitat loss is changes in habitats for species that can’t adapt
- Invasive species are accidentally introduced species that negatively affect populations.
- Overharvesting is extensive exploitation of populations by humans
- Pollution is excessive release of nitrogen and phosphate in aquatic environments that promotes algal blooms that take all the oxygen.
- Acid precipitation is the release of sulfur oxides into the atmosphere that decreases the pH of lakes.
- Biomagnification is the increase in concentration of a toxic substance up the food chain due to the amount of biomass ingested from the level below.
- global warming, the greenhouse effect raises global temperature.
What are the three levels of diversity?
Genetic diversity is the diversity within and between populations.
Species diversity is the variety of species within an ecosystem or across the biosphere.
Ecosystem diversity is the variety of ecosystems
What is the difference between extirpation and extinction?
Extirpation is the local species loss, and extinction is species loss across the biosphere.
What are the three classifications of ecosystem diversity?
1.Collapsed
2. Critically endangered
3. Endangered
Name some reasons why we should protect biodiversity
There are lots of benefits in medicines, fuel, food, spices etc. and more will be discovered.
Moral obligation as they are a record of our evolution
Emotional and spiritual connection
The natural function provides services to us like water purification and pollution breakdown and pollination.
What is a biodiversity hot spot?
It is a relatively small area that contains many endemic species and a large number of endangered species.
What is conservation biology?
It is the study of ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology, molecular biology, and genetics that sustains biological diversity of all levels.
What did the 2018 WWF study say?
Diversity in amniotes is down 68 percent between 1970/2020. Expected 50% diversity loss before 2100
What are 3 conservation initiatives?
- Captive-breeding programs breed endangered species in zoos to build a higher population before releasing them back into the wild.
- The international Potato Center is a research organization dedicated to finding a way to (sustainably) acquire affordable nutrition.
- There are 39 Canadian national parks covering 3.3% of land area, so it aims at protecting the presence of species there as well as maintaining the processes that are expected in the region.
