Lecture 10- Measuring Biodiversity Flashcards
Why do we monitor biodiversity? (Three)
- The understand how populations change in response to stress
- Understand species response to specific interactions
- Assess whether the recovery of species is effective
How is biodiversity measured? Why is it measured like this?
Biodiversity is measured via:
- The number of genes, species and ecosystem interactions or
- Processes: interspecific competition, interactions, nutrient cycles etc
Explain how the impacts of climate change on Dendrobates is measured
- Climatic factors controlling vegetation ectones and patters of species richness across the region
- Habitat availability and landscape linkage
- Climatic controls on regional and local disturbance regimes
- Physiological tolerance of individual species
- Dispersal capacities of individual species
- Genetic variation between different populations of the same species
What are the three conceptual aspects of biodiversity?
- Structural diversity
- Compositional diversity
- Functional diversity
What is structural diversity?
Physical organisation or patterns, such as habitat complexity
What is compositional diversity
Identify and richness(eg. Species or phylogenetic diversity)
What is functional diversity?
Ecological and evolutionary processes (eg. Gene flow, nutrient cycling)
What are measurements of biodiversity a function of?
Scale
What makes an effective biodiversity indicator? (8 points)
- Sensitive enough to detect change
- Widget distributed
- Provides continuous measurements over a wide range of stressors/time
- Results/reactions are in dependant of sample size
- Easy to measure
- Cheap to measure
- Relevant to the current threat/ecological issue
- Easy to differentiate responses to natural vs anthropogenic change
What three factors makes birds and beetles good indicator species?
- We’ll studied (so responses are known
- Preform many ecological functions (so disturbances are visible)
- Cheap to measure
What is resolution and what does it vary across?
- The level of detail required in the data, is a function of: scale and precision
What are the four different ways of analyses:
- Time series
- Spatial statistics (eg. Jacquard index)
- Indices
- Comparisons
Why are birds and butterfly’s good indicators of change in conservation? (Five reasons)
- Natural rare, meaning notable response to change
- Habitat specialists
- Performed important ecosystem functions (so disturbances will be visible)
- “Normal” behaviour is well studied
- Charismatic species
What is a generalist species?
One that can exist in a variety of habitats
What two factors is conservation “useless” without?
Knowledge of species location and abundance
How many years have species of uk birds and butterfly’s been recorded?
> 200 years
When were the periods of intensive monitoring of UK birds and butterflies?
- 1968-72
- 1988-91
- 2007-2011
What three types of data are provided from the monitoring of uk birds and butterflies?
- Extinction of species
- Range of decline/increase
- Responses to climate change
What has been the observed decline in species distribution of uk birds, and how many extinctions?
-55% species decline in distribution
NO extinctions
What has been the observed decline in species distribution of uk butterflies , and how many extinctions?
- 72% of species have declined in distribution
- TWO HAVE GONE EXTINCT
Give information on the UKs breeding bird survey
- done annually since 1994
- random 1km squares across the Uk sampled
- > 3000 squares sampled annually
- 2 early morning visits during breeding season, all birds in square sampled
When is the uk bird breeding season ?
May to June
Give information on the UK butterfly monitoring scheme
- fixed 1-2km route set for sampling across 1400 sites
- each site sampled weekly fro. April 1- September 30
What type of birds have decreased in distribution, and which have increased?
Farmland +woodland birds have decreased, sea birds have increased
How many species action plans are there in the uk, and what are these broken down into?
There’s 1150 species action plans and these are broken into:
- 59 birds
- 24 butterflies
- 154 moths
How has bird species abundance changed?
45% of bird species have decreased in abundance, 55% have increased
How has butterfly species abundance changed?
54% of species have decreased in abundance, 46% have increased in abundance
Why is monitoring data important in species action plans?
It allows for the identification of decline to occur, and thus the implementation of the most effective management strategies
Explain the monitoring of the High Brown Fritillary
- 79% of distribution lost in the last 40 years
- 85% population decline in the last 10 years
How do we monitor species? (Thre ways)
- Traditional and local ecological knowledge
- Public collaborations
3 traditional methods 9eg. Camera traps, satellites)
