Module #13: Conservation Biogeography

Question 1

Conservation

Answer 1

the science of the protection and management of biodiversity

Question 2

preservation

Answer 2

to maintain, unchanged; to protect

Question 3

restoration

Answer 3

directed attempt to speed the recovery of damaged areas/ecosystems

Question 4

Why conserve species, habitats, and ecosystems?

Answer 4

1. Economic/utilitarian: needs of individuals or society to gain economically or survive from an environmental resource
2. Cultural: the environment is important to art, song, dance, has spiritual and historical value to society
3. Aesthetic: biological/landscape diversity adds to the quality of human existence
4. Ecological: organisms sustain life-supporting functions of the ecosphere (such as nitrogen fixing bacteria)
5. Moral: species, communities, and landscapes have a right to exist independently of humans, and we have a moral responsibility to preserve them.

Question 5

Ex-situ (off site) conservation

Answer 5

Involves human supervisors that maintain individuals under artificial conditions (such as in zoos.)

-cost decreases with animal size, but increases with # of individuals

Question 6

In-situ conservation

Answer 6

Preserving populations where they live

-The best strategy for safeguarding for the long-term survival of individuals species

-only wild species are open to evolutionary interactions within a natural community that lets them adapt to changing environmental conditions

-insensitive to population size, so cost isnt as bad for more individuals than ex-situ

Question 7

Threatened species management: short and long term objectives

Answer 7

Short term: lessen risk of extinction

long term: encourage conditions in which species retain their potential for evolutionary change without intensive management. Basically, so they can live their own life

Question 8

Value of large ecological reserves

Answer 8

-safeguard water quality
-sustain interior patch species (IBT)
-provide a buffer against extinction during environmental decline (IBT)
-maintain near-natural disturbance regimes

issues: cost, land availibility

Question 9

Value of small ecological reserves:

Answer 9

-support high density of species and large populations of edge species
-provide needed habitats and stepping stones for dispersal and recolonization after local extinction of interior species
-providing escape cover for prey species, decreasing wind fetch and erosion (augment matrix heterogeneity)

issues: disfavors specialists/interior species, disfavors species with large home ranges, extinction rate higher and colonization rate lower (IBT)

Question 10

Possible effects of convoluted shapes for reserves

Answer 10

-greater length exposed to matrix –> may raise succeptibility to external stresses or disturbances from humans
-more edge may result in more edge effects than less convoluted patches of same size
-contain less interior habitat

Question 11

Reserve edges

Answer 11

Edges can create a species rich area, but can also attract more weedy and invasive species (fragmentation)

Question 12

Connectivity between reserves… why?

Answer 12

-IBT says that islands (habitat patches) closer to a mainland (source area) will have higher species diversity
-Metapopulation model depends on migration/dispersal to maintain the population with colonizations
-migration rates influence genetic diversity, less inbreeding

Question 13

Positive effects of connectivity via corridors

Answer 13

-boost dispersal between reserves, and facilitates recolonization and metapopulation dynamics
-increasing foraging area of wide-range species
-provides temporary refuge for species moving between patches
-offers a mix of habitats for those needing diversity
-may assist large-scale species migrations due to climate change

Question 14

Negative effects of connectivity via corridors

Answer 14

-may hasten spread of disease, exotic predators, and disturbances such as fire
-may increase exposure of wildlife to poachers and hunters
-corridor habitat might be of low quality
-may impoverish genetic variability by facilitating gene flow

Question 15

Species translocation

Answer 15

the capture, transport, and release or introduction of a species from one location to another

positives:
-can save a pop or species from extinction
-recolonize habitat to expand pop size and buffer against loss somewhere else

negatives:
-erases genetic distinctness
-humans don’t deal with underlying issues

Question 16

characteristics of a better reserve

Answer 16

-larger (more interior species)
-intact rather than fragmented
-closer/overlapping is better than isolated
-clumped better than linear (easier dispersal)
-connected via corridors
-round (decreases amount of edge)

Question 17

Reserve Functioning

Answer 17

-ecological completeness is desirable, instead of just focusing on one species of concern
-can be focused on the connection between reserve size and the scale of the natural disturbance regime

Question 18

Effects of disruption of reserve ecosystem functioning by habitat fragmentation:

Answer 18

biotic effects from habitat fragmentation:
-extinction cascades from when a top carnivore goes extinct
-incursion of edge habitats into interior habitats

abiotic effects:
-changes in sediment budget and land-surface water cycle could affect plants/animals
-microclimates can be altered (wind, temp, humidity)

Question 19

Conservation triage

Answer 19

the process of prioritizing the allocation of limited resources to maximize conservation returns, relative to the budget conservation goals, under a constrained budget