L. 30 - Conservation Flashcards
LO
- The Extinction Crisis – effect of the human footprint
- Paradigms for conservation biology
- The ‘Evil Quartet’ and ‘HIPPO’
* Alien species
* Overhunting
* Habitat loss
* Co-extinction - Role of experimentation and modelling in conservation biology
- Understand the principles of restoration ecology
- What can you (BIOL 1XX7) do?
Conservation Biology
- Endangered species management
Aims: - Describe problems and understand processes
- Predict impacts of threats
- Develop solutions
- Stop more species from going extinct
Patterns and processes of Extinction
Jared Diamonds “Evil Quartet”:
- Alien species
- Over Hunting
- Habitat Loss
- Co-extinction
Edward O. Wilson “HIPPO”
- Habitat Destruction
- Invasive Species
- Pollution
- Human Over-Population
- Over-Harvesting
Alien Species
- Australia has 56 introduced species of vertebrates
- Only some have a big impact on ecology
- Megafauna = big animals and cattle from EU
- Smaller = cats, rabbits, cane toad, bees, plants
Invasion processes
Deliberate introduction:
- Biological control
- Domestics
Human Traffic:
- Trade routes
- Poor quarantine
Native invaders
The Tens rule for species in Australia
1/10 species brought into a region will ecape into wild
1/10 of those will be naturalised
1/10 of those species will become invasive
Predicting Invaders
Tend to:
- Be Highly reproductive
- Be able to have large dispursal of population
- Be ecologically flexible
- Have traits of pioneer species in succession
Over-Hunting
- Part of “evil quartet”
As food/ resources:
- fisheries management
As potential competitors:
- Kill animals to reduce competition for sheep
Habitat Loss and the extinction debt.
Extinction debt = the future extinction of species due to events in the past
- Habitat destruction is the major cause of species extinctions
- Extinction debt reflects the future ecological cost of current habitat destruction
Co-extinction
- Critical ecosystem functions are lost when a species is lost/ extinct
Solutions: Experimenting
- Key to identifying processes driving extinction and allowing management and future predictions to be made
- Eg. removing predator species
Solutions: Modelling
- Models of population dynamics are useful to prodict impacts and to identify management options
Population Viability Analysis
- Most effective at comparing management options
- Requires lots of data
Solutions: Other Evidence based approaches
Ecological solutions:
- Evidence based
- Addressing casual factors rather than patterns
Integrate Pest Management:
- Need good ecological understanding as controlling 1 will just benefit other pests
Restoration Ecology and rewilding
Restoration
- Ecological restoration is the process of repairing damage caused by humans to the diversity and dynamics of indigenous ecosystems
Goals:
- Enhance habitat quality
- Restore ecosystems to pre-impact state
- Restore via re-introductions
