LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY: CAUSES

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LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY CAUSES CONSEQUENCES
Arkive http//www.arkive.org/species Nature Serve
Explorer http//www.natureserve.org/explorer/
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Biodiversity

• What have we lost and what are we losing?
• To answer this issue we turn to the IUCN
  www.iucn.org

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IUCN International Union for the Conservation
of Nature and Natural Resources

• IUCN was founded in October 1948
• Today its the largest professional global
  conservation network 
• Has more than 1,000 professional staff in 62
  offices worldwide
• Brings together 113 governmental agencies, 850
  plus NGOs, and some 11,000 scientists and experts
  from 181 countries in a unique worldwide
  partnership
• Its mission is to influence, encourage, and
  assist societies to conserve the integrity and
  diversity of nature and to ensure resource use is
  equitable and ecologically sustainable
• IUCN runs thousands of field projects around the
  world to better manage natural environments
• IUCN supports governments, NGOs, international
  conventions, UN organizations, companies and
  communities to develop laws, policy and
  best-practice

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IUCN Red List of Threatened Specieshttp//www.iuc
n.org/about/work/programmes/species/red_list/

• Classifies species according to their extinction
  risk
• Searchable online database containing the global
  status and supporting information on about 45,000
  species
• Primary goal is to identify and document the
  species most in need of conservation attention
  and provide an index of the state of biodiversity

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Red List Categories

• Extinct or Extinct in the Wild
• Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable
  species threatened with global extinction
• Near Threatened species close to the threatened
  thresholds or would be threatened without ongoing
  conservation measures
• Least Concern species evaluated with a low risk
  of extinction
• Data Deficient no evaluation because of
  insufficient data

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IUCN Red Listhttp//dodosgone.blogspot.com/

• Contains 784 documented extinctions
• 60 extinctions in the wild since 1500 AD
• Over the past 20 years, 27 documented extinctions
  or extinctions in the wild
• Underestimates the true number of extinctions
• Rates of extinctions 100 to 1,000 times natural
  background extinction rates

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IUCN Red List

• Major analyses (i.e., global trends) of the red
  list are made approximately every 4 years
  called Global Species Assessments
• These were produced in 1996, 2000, and 2004, and
  2008 - http//www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/
  species/red_list/2008_red_list_summary_statistics/
  
• Also annual updates of information

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IUCN Red List 2008 Update

• 2008 assessment includes 44,838 species
• 869 (2) are extinct or extinct in the wild
• 16,928 (38) are threatened with extinction
• 3,246 critically endangered
• 4,770 endangered
• 8,912 vulnerable
• 5,570 have insufficient info to determine their
  status (data deficient)
• Underestimates the true number of extinctions
• Rates of extinctions 100 to 1,000 times natural
  background extinction rates

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Why are we losing biodiversity?Most Important
Fact Molding our Lives Today is that weve Gone
Around the Bend on a Series of J Curves

• INCREASING POPULATION
• INCREASING USE OF FINITE
• RESOURCES
• INCREASING POLLUTION

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HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH Time to
Attain Year Attained

• 1st Billion 2-5 Million Years About 1880
  
• 2nd Approx. 130 Years
  1930
• 3rd 30 Years
  1960
• 4th 15 Years
  1975
• 5th 12 Years
  1987
• 6th 12 Years
  1999
• 6.7 10 Years 2009

http//math.berkeley.edu/galen/popclk.html
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The fact that weve rounded the bend on these J
curves points out the primary cause of the decay
of organic diversity - the habitat destruction
that inevitably results from the expansion of
human populations and human activities
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The extent to which humanity has already wreaked
havoc can be shown by a study of human
appropriation of the products of photosynthesis

• Vitousek, P.M., P.R. Ehrlich, A.H. Ehrlich, and
  P.M. Matson. 1986. Human appropriation of the
  products of photosynthesis. BioScience 36368-373

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IUCN Data - Causes of Threat

• Habitat loss and degradation - most pervasive
  threat, impacting 86 of threatened mammals, 86
  of threatened birds, and 88 of threatened
  amphibians
• Overexploitation 33 of mammals and 30 of
  birds are affected by overexploitation and
  invasive species. Invasives are affecting 67 of
  threatened birds on islands
• Pollution 29 of amphibians are affected by
  pollution and 17 by disease

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Mammals Amphibians
Birds
Habitat Loss
Over-exploitation
Invasive Species
Human Disturbance
Pollution
Natural Disasters
Species Dynamics
Incidental Mortality
Disease
Persecution
0 40 80 0 40
80 0 40 80
Percentage Species Affected
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IUCN Data - Causes of Threat

• Threat processes in freshwater and marine systems
  poorly understood
• Freshwater species are most threatened by habitat
  loss, followed by pollution and invasive species
• Marine species are most threatened by
  over-exploitation incidental mortality as a
  result of fisheries is an increasing threat,
  affecting seabirds, marine mammals and other
  marine species.

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How did we get into this mess?Perhaps its due to
the fact that most people operate with a frontier
mentality based on three ideas

• That the world has an unlimited supply of
  resources for human use
• That humans are separate and apart from nature
• That nature is something to overcome

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These attitudes stem in part from

• Judeo-Christian teachings
• Biological Imperialism
• Thinking of ourselves as apart from nature
• Thinking that there is always more

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Human Impacts on the Earth

• Man in Nature Early Hunter Gatherers
• Man vs. Nature Shepard Farmer
• Man vs. Nature Industrial Man

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What is needed is a transformation from
industrial man to the earthmanship man idea

• That we accept the limits to mans control over
  nature
• That we see the entire world as an interconnected
  unit
• To protect ourselves we must protect nature

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We have a distorted view of Darwins Evolutionary
Theory survival of the fittest
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Loss of BiodiversitySome things I want to point
out

• Primary cause of the decay of organic diversity
  is not direct human overexploitation but habitat
  destruction
• Many of the less cuddly, less spectacular
  organisms are more important to our future than
  most publicized endangered species
• Most important reason for conserving diversity is
  the role that organisms play in providing free
  ecosystem services
• The loss of genetically distinct populations
  within species is as important a problem as the
  loss of entire species

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Why should we care if populations become extinct

• Underestimate the rate of loss of organic
  diversity
• May find the destruction of natural habitat
  morally objectionable
• Aesthetic value of a species diminishes as
  populations disappear
• Direct economic value is generally reduced

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Why should we care if populations become extinct

• Influences the probability of persistence of the
  entire species
• In an evolutionary sense this could result in the
  death of birth