L12 and 13 John Bridle - Rainforests and Economy

Question 1

Whats an example of knowledge of ecosystems not being used to help them.

Answer 1

Cairns, 80% of corals are bleached despite scientists publishing data of temperatures that would cause this.

Question 2

Are economy and environment separate?

Answer 2

No, they are not. Cannot sacrifice environment without losing the economy. Economy is nested in the environment. Human life relies upon biodiversity for generating the resources we depend on.

Question 3

How much of the earths surface do tropical rainforests cover and how much biodiversity do they hold?

Answer 3

2% and >50%

Question 4

4 important services the rainforests provide.

Answer 4

• Regulate the climate, huge gas exchange surfaces for water/airflow and regulate temperatures.
• Supply of freshwater, 20 bn tonnes of water per day ‘exported’ from amazonia - only 7million leaves as a river, and the rest is ‘flying river’ in clouds.
• Carbon store, 50% of worlds carbon - 1.4bm tonnes stored in amazon. Deforestation is a major source of CO2 emmissions (20-30%)
• Food, fuel, soil and watershed protection.

Question 5

Where is BD loss highest and lowest?

Answer 5

In areas with many humans. Europe, India, Eastern USA, E Africa.
Lowest in v N hemishpere, N africa and Australia,

Question 6

Where are the environmental costs of BD loss felt?

Answer 6

Costs felt by poorer people in the areas which are losing BD, whereas benefits are felt by richer countries usually more N or S, who are driving BD losses.

Question 7

Indonesia…

Answer 7

doesnt have much forest left but is losing it at the fastest rate.
It is V accessible to other countries which is problematic.

Question 8

How does the WWF living planet report regard BD loss?

Answer 8

Considers geographical ranges and genetic diversity when stating BD loss, not just species loss.
BD loss is about loss of populations and abundance, not just species.

Question 9

How much BD has been lost in the past 50 years?

Answer 9

50% of worlds BD has been lost in the last 50 years.

Question 10

Why may it seem that there is an increase in temperate BD?

Answer 10

Started at 1.0 living planet index, after all the very sensitive species had been lost after industrialisation.

Question 11

How could deforestation cause drought?

Answer 11

Deforestation leads to a rapid mvt of warm air into upper atmosphere, causing big storm events and big shifts in temperature and rainfall worldwide.
eg. large amounts of deforestation in the amazon could cause drought in Utah
Deforestation in African forest could cause drought in eastern USA and ukraine.

Question 12

What 5 commodities cause the most deforestation?

Answer 12

Soy, beef, palm oil, paper and timber.

Question 13

where does timber go which is exported from indonesia>

Answer 13

9% Europe
27% China
22% Japan
11% N america
26% Asia
However this is only the regulated trade.

Question 14

What countries are involved in some of the unregulated export of illegally logged timber?

Answer 14

Kalimantan and Sumatra to Singapore, K, Europe, Japan and N America.
Much Corruption and bribery involved.

Question 15

How are some markets of harmful products driven?

Answer 15

Super rich individuals are driving the markets for harmful commodities.
$1000 per cubic metre of Gonystylus timber.
People like us cannot affect the markets.
Extreme market failure

Question 16

What 4 reasons are why deforestation is still happening at such a high level?

Answer 16

• The benefits of ecosystems are huge but felt over very long periods of time. eg takes 10 years for water from amazon to reach ~Utah in clouds.
• Subsidies distort markets and make environmental destruction very profitable for some. International governments are weak compared to national ones.
• Lack of transparency in sourcing/labelling. This can be solved by will and power by us! Global economy is making tragedy of the commons likely, as we can feel the benefits and none of the costs.
• Need for government consensus for international governance - currently one country can veto.

Question 17

Which countries have the biggest ecological footprint?

Answer 17

USA Europe, australia.

If everyone consumed similarly to europeans we would need 6 planets, americans - 10.

Question 18

What is driving unsustainable consumption?

Answer 18

Public subsidies and externalising of costs.
US fishery subsidises $27 billion/year, causing ge to fisheries.
FF subsidies $650 billion in 2008, allows long distance transport to be kept cheap, also drives food waste.

Question 19

Which major global industries are profitable?

Answer 19

Virtually none when environmental consts are included.
eg. Cattle farming, impact due to land use costs $312.1bn, whereas the revenue is $16.6bn. This has an impact ratio of 18.7.

Question 20

What social injustices does BD loss cause?

Answer 20

World’s poorest people suffer the most and fastest from BD loss, even though they are the least responsible for fundamental causes and have the lease financial/political power.
Poor rely most directly on BD for well being, 75% of GDP is in Indonesia directly reliant on BD. Economy underestimates this as it doesnt involve financial markets.

Question 21

What is REDD+

Answer 21

Reducing Emissions due to Deforestation and forest Degradation.
Scheme was agreed at Nagoya convention on BD on 2010. Rio 2012 will determine how it will be funded.
Needs strong commitment from developed countries for a long term global economy. However if it is poorly implemented, there is likely to be conflicts with indigenous people.

Question 22

What is TEEB and a potential problem with their approach?

Answer 22

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity - aims to make natures values visible to decision makers.
Approach is based on land area visible for each functioning ecosystem (assumes homogeneity) and does not value BD per se.
How much overlap is there between BD and ecosystem function?
This is good for the current timescales we have to work on this problem and sampling techniques.

Question 23

Quote from a politician showing recognition of natures significance

Answer 23

Angela Merkel, 2010 ‘The economic invisibility of Biodiversity is one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th Century.’

Question 24

Describe how:
1. Convincing international governments, 
2. actions of individual governments,
3. new corporate commitments
can make a difference to deforestation.

Answer 24

1. Convince international governments - Trickle down Morality rather than money, and increase political will eg ParisCOP 20 and S america giving $20million for forest regeneration shows real progress. However, trump and brexit reflects our inability to present information.
2. Actions of individual governments - Huge investments in National parks eg Chiribiquete in Colombia, REDD+ funding in Norway paid for by oil taxes. Decoupling deforestation from economic growth - policy interventions in Beef and soy supply chains in brazil. 3.2bn tonnes of CO2 saved. Marina Silva - politician driving this.
3. New corporate commitments - big businesses commititing to ‘zero deforestation’ commodities, driven by ‘conscious consumers’- this is fragile, as people are only conscious when they have money.
   Forest 500 program - provides info to customers on conscious products, creates transparency and identifies key players who can eliminate deforestation from supply chains.

Question 25

How did Rockstrom describe the Urgency of environmental degradation in 2009?

Answer 25

Using the ‘9 planetary boundaries’ which are essential for the planet to operate.
Nitrogen cycle and phosphorous cycle,
BD loss,
Ocean acidification,
Climate change,
Chemical pollution,
Ozone depletion,
FW use
Land use changes (loss of habitat).
Infogram shown ‘safe operating space’ and which of these boundaries have been passed.
We have exceeded the boundary in Climate change, BD loss, and Nitrogen cycle.

Question 26

Why are our estimates of BD loss not often accurate?

Answer 26

Metrics for measuring BD are poor, lots of uncertainty. Difficult to measure BD loss for lots of organisms.
Should measure abundance, not species loss.
Drones and remote sensing could prove useful for this in the future.

Question 27

How much of world’s biomass to humans make up?

Answer 27

Prior to indutrialisation, humans and commensual animals made up 1% of worlds biomass. Massive BD loss in 17-1800s due to industrialisation, now humans and livestock are 98% of worlds biomass.

Question 28

Ecosystems are still functioning and we can still grow crops so whats the problem with BD loss?

Answer 28

BD and ecosystem services are well correlated, but it is not a linear relationship. There is likely to be a tipping point, when it all falls apart.

Question 29

Why do we need a deeper scientific understanding of communities?

Answer 29

Climate change will make a new environment, and we dont know how these novel communities will react.
We need a deeper scientific understanding to determine the ‘safe operating limits’, as species extinction does not accurately reflect local loss and community changes.

Question 30

What is the rivet hypothesis?

Answer 30

A certain amount of redundancy will buffer loss of species/niches, until enough bd is lost that it just falls apart. Due to the non linear relationship between BD and ecosystem function it is difficult to predict long term costs of BD loss.
We have already lost the species that were holding the ecosystems together so we are studying a damaged system. this is maybe why it hard to see a linear correlation, because we have lost all the really important ones already.
analogy to WW2 bomber planes returning. We have lost all the sensitive species, just as the most important parts of the planes were lost.

Question 31

Where is most BD in rainforests?

Answer 31

in the canopy.
aggregate of tree crowns, foliage, twigs, fine branches and epiphytes.
Understorey is surprisingly dark and dry.

Question 32

Why are tropical rainforests so much more diverse than temperate ones?

Answer 32

1. Greater stability of tropics in past, glaciation events in temperate zones.
2. Predation and competition in the tropics may result in greater species richness.
3. Solar energy may control organic diversity in non limiting water conditions.
4. Tropical ecosystems may provide more ecological niches [species packing] and niche differentiation in terms of resources and enemies.

Question 33

How do epipytes add to species packing?

Answer 33

vascular epiphytes root in the crowns of host trees, not in soil. Huge diversity, accounts for 10% of forest biomass.
in Panama, an area of 0.4Ha has over 12,000 epiphytes and >100 species.
not much understanding of host specifity, either due to competition and coevolution, of hosts and epiphytes, and the microclimates found up and down the tree, even at different ages. Or they are not so specialised.

Question 34

How are interactions between fungi and bacteria an example of species packing?

Answer 34

Many ascomycete species found only on the surface of living canopy leaves. Feed on the detritus on leaf surface, and waste products of piercing and sucking insects, or absorb nutrients directly from leaf.
Mycorrhizalfungi, interactions between roots, critical for rainforest soil fertility: bacteria at root nodes fix nitrogen in leguminous understorey.
Also grow on wood, important for decomposition and may be pathogens.

Question 35

What is the Janzen Connell hypothesis?

Answer 35

from 1970s, explains why plants of the same species don’t grow next to each other. Conspecifics have the same natural enemies, so if offspring are close together, at major risk.
Strong negative density dependent effects, so high local diversity of trees(lots of diverse niches for other organisms).
If species is common, little safe places to grow and vice versa. This negative feedback allows species to coexist and gives locally rare species an advantage.

Question 36

Why doesnt the Janzen Connell hypothesis apply to temperate climates?

Answer 36

Tropics have a greater rate of pathogen transmission. If

Question 37

What did Bagchi et al demonstrate in 2014?

Answer 37

Why there is so much biodiversity in tropical forests.
Collected seeds and grew with:
insecticide - diverse seedling community grew
Water - same as insecticide
Fungicide - Low diversity, fungus limits recruitment of dominant tree species.

Question 38

Why is the microhabitat for herbivores so diverse in tropical forests? (much more than temperate)

Answer 38

• Structure and array of tree crowns is heterogeneous, including different species, sizes, phenologies and ages.
• tropical forests are spatially complex and temporally dynamic 3D structures.
• these systems generate stratification and habitat segregation of forest organisms, especially insect herbivores.

Question 39

Why is species turnover so high in tropical forests?

Answer 39

Combinations of rainfall, altitude etc

????

Question 40

what are the differences between micro climate in the upper canopy and understorey?

Answer 40

UPPER CANOPY: 100% solar energy, 
high fluctuations of air temp
Water condensation at night
UV levels high
Leaf area density if high
abundance of young leaves
High level of secondary metabolites
UNDERSTOREY: 0.1-0.5% solar energy
Low temp fluctuations
RH 90%
Low UV levels.
Levels of secondary metabolites low.
Low leaf area density.