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Food and Forest > Part I > Flashcards

Part I Flashcards

1
Q

conservationist

A

someone who advocates or practises the sensible and careful use of resources

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2
Q

preservationist

A

someone who advocates allowing some places/creatures to exist w/ significant human interference

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3
Q

environmentalist

A

someone who is concerned about impact of people on environment quality

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4
Q

ecologist

A

scientist who studies the relationship b/w organisms and enviro (often analogous in media to environmentalist)

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5
Q

history of

  1. preservation
  2. environmentalism
  3. ecology
A
  1. establishment of Yellowstone national park marks beginning of gov. policy of preservation
  2. ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson in 1962: treatise on pesticides
    • global environmental movement in UN 1972
  3. not in public eye until advent of environmentalism
    • new gov. agencies, advocate groups, etc. that needed ecologists
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6
Q

Callicott ethics

A
  • Romantic Transcendental Preservation ethic
  • Resource conservation ethic
  • Evolutionary-ecological land ethic
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7
Q

romantic-transcendental ethic

A
  • John Muir C19th
  • communication w/ nature brings people closer to god
  • visiting ancient forests for this purpose morally superior to using for agro
  • i.e. nature is a temple sullied by people
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8
Q

resource conservation ethic

A
  • Gifford Pinchot C19th
  • nature consists solely of natural resources and should be used to provide the greatest good for greatest #people for longest time
  • not a call to plunder land but to distribute benefits efficiently and fairly
  • emphasized not short changing future
  • can recognise aesthetics as a resource
  • natural resources should be owned/regulated by gov.
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9
Q

evolutionary-ecological land ethic

A
  • Aldo Leopold C20th
  • people are citizens of biotic system, not separate
  • people have righ tot use/manage nature but responsible for recognising value of other species
  • could use destructive tools to mend environment
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10
Q

conservation biology

A

applied science of maintaining Earth’s biology

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11
Q
A
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12
Q

biodiversity

A

variety of life in all forms and at all levels of organization

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13
Q

genes

A

self-replicating pieces of DNA that shape form+function of each individual organism

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14
Q

ecosystem

A

gorup of interacting organisms and physical environment they inhabit at a given time

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15
Q

species

A

groups of actually/potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups

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16
Q

Why is diversity of ecological functions so enormous?

A
  • millions of species interacting w/ each other
  • every species interacts w/ own environment
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17
Q

functional biodiversity

A

variation in processes carried out in diff. levels of biodiversity

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18
Q

structural biodiversity

A

variation in way parts are organised (e.g. population structure)

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19
Q

why do biologists usually focus on maintaining structural biodiversity rather than functional?

A
  • more straightforward (easier to inventory species than interactions)
  • if maintain SD, FD maintained as well
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20
Q

how to measure biodiversity?

A
  1. determine which elements of biodiversity are present (richness)
  2. determine relative abundance of diff. species (evenness)
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21
Q

extinction

A

disappearance of a species from earth (or smaller area - extirpations)

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22
Q

endemic

A

species only found in a defined geographic area

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23
Q
  1. alpha
  2. beta
  3. gamma

diversity

A
  1. diversity w/in ecosystem
  2. diversity among ecosystem
  3. geographic-scale diversity
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24
Q

maximise biodiversity

A
  • implies manipulation
  • e.g. increasing alpha diversity of ecosystem
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25
Q

maintain biodiversity

A

keep all elements of biodiversity despite human activity

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26
Q

enhance/restoring biodiversity

A

may be short-sighted, unless means restoring ecosystem to previous state

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27
Q

protecting biodiversity

A

similar to maintaining but w/ emphasis on -ve human impact

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28
Q

preserving biodiversity

A

similar to protect and implies only way to maintain biodiversity is to isolate from humans

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29
Q

conserve biodiversity

A

use it carefully and not diminish LR

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30
Q

biotic integrity

A
  • wholeness of a biological system
  • includes presence of all elements at appropriate densities and occurence of all processes at appropriate rates
31
Q

sustainability

A

ability to maintain something over time w/out diminishing it

32
Q

why is it difficult to define a species?

A

lack of clear classification

33
Q

evolutionary significant unit (ESU)

A

population that has been reproductively isolated long enough to have evolved significant genetic/ecological divergence from other groups of same species

34
Q

management units (MU)

A

local populations that, b/c so little dispersal among them, have evolved genetic differences

35
Q

distinct population segment (DPS)

A

takes into accounts ESU/MU but also involves political boundaries

36
Q

how many species?

A
  • 3.6-117 million (13.6 is reasonable working figure)
  • scientists know 1.7 million
37
Q

value of species to conservationists

A
  • independent of value to humans or even to own ecosystem
  • each species has intrinsic value
  • therefore, species threated w/ extinction prioritised
38
Q

IUCN Red List

A

primary international standard for conservation of various species

39
Q

rarity

A
  • geographic range
    • only found in small area (local endemics)
  • habitat specificity
    • only occur in specific, uncommon habitats
  • local population size
    • occur at low pop. densities where they are found
40
Q

extinct categories in IUCN Red List

A
  • extinct
    • no reasonable doubt a species had died (e.g. great auk)
  • extinct in the wild
    • known only to survive in cultivation/captivity/naturalised pop. outside past range (e.g. Guam rail)
41
Q

threatened categories in IUCN Red List

A
  • threatened: critically endangered
    • meets any A-E criteria + therefore faces extremely high risk of extinction in the wild (e.g. black rhino)
  • threatened: endangered
    • ” “ very high “ “ (e.g. giant pandas)
  • threatened: vulnerable
    • ” “ high “ “ (e.g. cheetah)
  • near threatened
    • close to qualifying for threatened category in future (e.g. jaguars)
42
Q

other categories in IUCN Red List

A
  • least concern
    • widespread and abundant
  • data deficient
    • inadquate data to assess risk of extinction (e.g. many fish)
  • not evaluated
    • not yet assessed - most species fall into this category (e.g. all invertebrates)
43
Q

quantitative criteria for assessing threatened status

A
  • A: reduction in pop size
  • B: geographic range
  • C: absolute pop. size <250 and declining pop. projections
  • D: “ “ “ <50
  • E: probability of extinction >=50%
44
Q

economic value of species

A
  • food
  • medicine
  • clothing/shelter/ tools/ trinkets
  • fuel
  • recreation
  • services
45
Q

issue of wild species as food

A
  • most domesticated species are closely realted to species that are wild and wild species source of genetic material
  • wild species may be source of new domesticates
  • wild species still major food source for people
46
Q

dominant species

A

species constitutes a large portion of biomass of ecosystem

47
Q

controller species

A

major roles in controlling movement of energy/nutrients

48
Q

keystone species

A

species that play critical ecological roles that are of greater importance than we would predict form abundance

49
Q

ecological extinction

A

species becomes too rare to fulfill its role in an ecosystem

50
Q

umbrella species

A
  • species w/ large home ranges and broad habitat requirements
  • sprotecting habitat for their populations protects habitat for many other species across broad set of ecosystems
  • e.g. tiger
51
Q

indicator species

A
  • health of these populations is an easy way to monitor environmental conditions/status of other species
  • smaller species more sensitive e.g. lichens
52
Q

why is distinguishing b/w ecosystems difficult?

A
  • web of interactiosn doesn’t have clean breaks
  • ecosystems thought about at variety of spatial scales (e.g. earth can be considered an ecosystem)
53
Q

reasons for ecosystem classifications

A
  • efficient communication
  • data reduction and synthesis
  • interpretation
  • land management and planning
54
Q

why do ecosystem classifications emphasize vegetation?

A
  • vegetation is major component of terrestrial communities
  • integrating measure of site factors
  • relatively accessible features
55
Q

value of ecosystem

A
  • summation of value of constituent organisms
  • also economic and spiritual value to humans
56
Q

mechanisms for higher diversity increasing stablity

A
  • if more species in ecosystem, food web more complex, w/ greater redundancy among species in terms of ecological niche
  • diverse ecosystems less likely to be invaded by new species that would disrupt ecosystem
  • in species-rich ecosystems diseases spread more slowly b/c each species relatively less abundant –> average distance b/w species increases
57
Q

why are we interested in landscape phenomena?

A
  • many endangered species are large animals w/ large homes that encompass many ecosystems - must sustain entire landscapes to suit needs
  • human activities have left many natural ecosystems isolated in matrix of human-altered ecosystems
58
Q

genetic diversity @ 5 levels of organisation

A
  • higher taxonomic categories e.g. phyla and families
  • among species
  • among pop.
  • w/in pop.
  • w/in individuals
59
Q

protein electrophesis

A
  • tissues collected from many individuals
  • macerated
  • separated by electrophoresis
  • stained for enzymatic/protein activity
  • patterns compared + gels scored for bands
60
Q

restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)

A
  • high molecular weight DNA cut w/ site specific restriction enzyme
  • electrophoresed and stained for nucleic acids
  • determine lengths of fragments by distringuishing fragments which have gained/lost sites
  • closely related taxonomies have particular sized fragments
61
Q

random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD)

A
  • purify DNA
  • isolate random fragments using polymerase chain reaction
  • electrophorese, then stain + diagnose
  • ADV: allows for analysis of tiny samples
62
Q

simple sequence repeat (SSR) polymorphism (microsatellites)

A
  • visualise bonding patterns at specific locus
  • diff. banding results from diff. #repeating nucleotides
63
Q

amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP)

A
  • uses selective PCR amplification of restriction fragments
  • if mutations occurs, will not show up mutant on electrophoresed - called dominant markers
64
Q

DNA sequencing

A
  • specific genes isolated using PCR
  • fragments diff. size sorted in electrophoretic gel
65
Q

polymorphism

A

proportion of genes that are polymorphic (frequency of most common allele less than arbitrary threshold)

66
Q

rare alleles

A
  • frequency less than .005, .01 (depends)
  • have to fitness advantages for individuals
67
Q

heterozygosity

A

proportion of genes at which average individual is heterozygous

68
Q

why is genetic diversity important?

A
  • evolutionary potential
    • some individuals must be fitter than others
    • if everyone genetically identical no change
  • loss of fitness
    • inbreeding depression: creates small, weak individuals if breed w/ close relatives
    • homozygosity –> expression of recessive deleterious alleles usually suppressed
    • pop. will die in event of disease, natural disaster, etc.
  • utilitarian values
    • diversity allows people to decide what they want to breed for
    • allows us to grow same species in diff. enviro
    • source of genetic material that may be useful
69
Q

founder event

A

few individuals arrive in new area and establish new pop. that is inevitably small to start

70
Q

genetic bottleneck

A
  • when pop. collapses, genetic diversity of original pop. decreases b/c only sample of original gene pool retained
  • causes loss of (rare) alleles and redution in variety of genetically determined characteristics
71
Q

random genetic drift

A

random change in gene frequrencies that is likely to occur in small pops. b/c each generation only retains portion of gene pool sample may not be representative

72
Q

effective pop. size

A

individuals in a theoretically ideal population that would have same magnitude of random genetic drift as actual pop.

73
Q

cultural transmission

A

information moves among individuals and generations through learning

Food and Forest (2 decks)

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