Maintaining biodiversity Flashcards
Economic reasons to conserve animal and plant species
- Ecotourism
- Source of drugs/medicine/useful product/food/timber/fuel
Ecological reasons to conserve animal and plant species
- Maintain habitats
- Part of food chain/web
- Helps regulate climate: photosynthesis removes CO(2) and adds O(2)
- Decomposers recycle minerals, contributing to soil fertility
- May be a natural predator of a certain pest species
Ethical reasons to conserve animal and plant species
-Right to exist, duty to conserve ecosystems/species for future generations
Aesthetic reasons to conserve animal and plant species
-Give enjoyment/beautiful species/well being/health
Agricultural reasons to conserve animal and plant species
- Part of food chain/web
- Source of food/timber
- Helps regulate climate: photosynthesis removes CO(2) and adds O(2)
- Decomposers recycle minerals, contributing to soil fertility
- Genetic resource: breed with domestic species to give new varieties with useful features such as drought or salt resistance
- Allows introduction of new alleles so maintains genetic diversity
- Greater diversity of crop plants: less susceptible to disease
- Pollinators of fruit and veg crops
- May be a natural predator for certain pest species
Effects of climate change on biodiversity: agriculture
- More CO(2) = different photosynthesis
- Higher temps = higher growth rates
- Longer growing seasons
- More evaporation of water = more rain
- Change in distribution of rain
- Loss of land due to sea level rise; salinity of soil increased
- Selectively bred crops at most risk, as loss in genetic variety results in inability to evolve
Effects of climate change on biodiversity: spreading disease; crops
- If crops migrate, they will encounter new pests and diseases and won’t have immunity
- Longer growing seasons mean pests can increase in number more
- Pests may be able to survive through winter and infest earlier
- Lower yields = less food
Effects of climate change on biodiversity: spreading disease; humans
- Human diseases migrate
- Tropical diseases a problem in Europe
- Malaria mosquito + sleeping sickness fly may live in new areas, spreading that disease
Conservation in situ
Conserving a species in its normal environment. E.g. passing legislation to stop hunting/clearing land for development and agriculture; creating conservation areas such as national parks/nature reserves
Conservation ex situ
Conserving a species by activities that take place outside its normal environment. E.g. wildlife parks/zoos breed endangered species to increase numbers of individuals; seed banks
Advantages and disadvantages of conservation in situ
Advantages:
-Larger population protected
-Greater chance of population recovering
-Money from ecotourism
-Less disruptive
-Conserves habitats/ecosystems and other species
-Opportunity for ecologically sustainable land use
-Educate people
Disadvantages
-Conflict of interest with local population
-Needs wardens/rangers
-Difficult to control poaching, predators, climate change, disease
Advantages and disadvantages of conservation ex situ
Advantages:
-Check health and spread of disease
-Protect individuals from predators
-Decrease competition for resources
-Educate people
-Manipulate breeding (using IVF, frozen sperm and hormones)
-Captive breeding programs aim to re-introduce into wild
-Money from visitors
Disadvantages
-Animals may not breed well
-Limited space so small numbers only which limits gene pool: need to avoid inbreeding
-Expensive
-May not be able to survive re-introduction into wild as can’t find food/mates
-Less successful than in situ conservation
-Can’t adapt to wild (loss of immunity to parasites/pathogens, loss of fear of humans)
Botanic gardens
- Controlled environment
- Grow variety of rare plants for conservation, research, display, education
- Grow endangered species and those extinct in the wild with the aim of reintroducing them into suitable habitats
Seed banks
- Seeds/cuttings collected from species in the wild, build up a population
- Some seeds can be frozen, stored for long periods
- Useful source of seed if natural reserves lost by disease/fire
- Germinated at regular intervals to check viability
- Source of genetic variation for breeding future varieties
- Kew Millenium Seed bank (collect and store 10% of world plant species), collected from different sites to give a range of genetic variation
CITES
Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species.
Aims to:
-Regulate and monitor international trade in selected species of plants and animals
-Ensure international trade isn’t harming the chances of survival of wild species
-Prohibit commercial trade in wild plants
-Allow, with permit, trade in artificially propagated plants
-Allow, with permit, trade of less endangered species, as agreed with import and export countries
