Endangered and Vulnerable Organisms Flashcards
There is an extraordinary variety of
life on Earth
Biodiversity refers to
this biological diversity of the millions of microorganisms, plants and animals that inhabit the Earth
What do the Caribbean islands, like most places, have
(culture) a rich heritage of biodiversity
In particular, there are a large number of
endemic species
endemic species are only found
in a single geographic area, maybe just on one island
there is a rapid decline in the
Earth’s biodiversity
Extinction can be seen as a
natural process
as environments change, naturally, over time,
some organisms will not be as well suited to the environment and will die out
What increased the rate of extinction and by how much
human activities to several hundred times greater than the natural rate
Example of increased extinction
believed to be less than 1000 giant pandas in the wild in China. Since 1974, their bamboo forests have died out at an alarming rate
This example is part of the
natural life cycle of bamboo, but increased population of the areas by humans has made the possibility of the panda becoming extinct much more likely
We now classify organisms that are at risk for extinction as follows
- endangered species are species whose numbers have been reduced to the point that the survival of the species is unlikely
- vulnerable species are those that may become endangered in the near future because their populations are decreasing at alarming rates
- extinct species are no longer known to exist
who regularly publishes lists of endangered organisms
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Reasons for increasing extinction rates
This is the result of many kinds of human activity
- habitat destruction, including deforestation
- pollution
- introduction of more competitive species
- hunting or cropping more than the population can sustain
