Conservation Units

Question 1

Why do we need conservation units?

Answer 1

Not enough money to protect all

Protect biodiversity at different levels with and between ecosystems - select from these units

Question 2

Genetic Diversity

Answer 2

Important for increasing pop resilience (SPP)
Varies spatially
Plants useful for improving yield
Practicality - conserved better adapted to future? CC?
Lots of species, no idea about GD for all
Surrogates? alternative for easy info

Question 3

Populations

Answer 3

Lots of pops = max GD, protects local adpatations and insures for local disasters
Needs strict defintion
Need lots data - like genetics and gene flow (difficult)
How many pops? hard to know and hard to save all
Parochial conservation - not looking globally - Great Crane project when 11 other spp are endangered and that one isn’t
Focus on global priorities !!

Question 4

Sub-species

Answer 4

focuses on characteristics of populations - diagnosable differences
Conserve spp GD is save sub-spp
Duskey seaside sparrow - extinct and genetically identical to non-threaded sub spp
Problematic as populations
Don’t always show GD
Promote parochial conservation

Question 5

Species

Answer 5

+Irreplacable and public get it
+Lots of data in this unit
+Easy to recognise and define
-Unstable taxonomy - subspp recognised as its own spp
E.g. Manx and Balearic Shearwater B endangered and only just recognised as own spp - decline due to lack of attention?
E.g. from 13 albatross to 22 spp
33 to 100 spp of Lemur
Good only if you know what the species is
Most species are not described (especially uncharismatic)

Question 6

Habitats

Answer 6

\+protects many spp that live there
\+helps to stop habitat loss
\+good data on loss to back it
-Shifting baselines - loss in future vs loss in past
-Habitat definitions hard at finer scale
-Ecotones, types of woodland etc. 
-Cannot describe specifically
Amphibians restricted to very small habitats - easy to miss this

Question 7

Type of Ecosystem Services

Answer 7

Supporting services - necessary for others (primary production) - excluded from economic value
Provisioning services - products obtained from ecosystem food etc. - pollination global value $27b/y
Regulatory services - benefits from regulation - climate, sea defence by Mangroves reduced deaths by 69%
Cultural services - non-material, wellbeing - greater mental health in parks with more plant species

Question 8

Ecosystem Services pros and cons

Answer 8

+Provides financial incentive for conservation
-Ecosystem disservices - disease -malaria $12b/y
-Lack data on where highest ESs are - only 4 mapped
Biodiversity ignored
-Cultural - perceived rather than actual biodiversity
-No relationship between endemic spp and ES (4 that were mapped)