BIODIVERSITY

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BIODIVERSITY
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What is Biodiversity

• Genetic diversity the variety of different
  versions of the same genes within individual
  species.
• Species diversity the number of different kinds
  of organisms within individual communities or
  ecosystems.
• Ecological diversity assesses the richness and
  complexity of a community includes niches,
  trophic levels, ecological relationships, etc.

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Biodiversity Hot Spots

• The greatest concentration of different organisms
  tends to be in the tropics, especially in
  tropical rainforests, coral reefs, and tropical
  estuaries.
• Endemic Species species that exist only where
  they originated and nowhere else on earth
• There are roughly 25 hot spots that represent a
  high priority for conservation because they have
  both high biodiversity and a high risk of
  disruption by human activities.

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How Do We Benefit From Biodiversity?

• Even seemingly obscure and insignificant
  organisms can play irreplaceable roles in
  ecological systems and biological controls or be
  the source of food, genes, or drugs that someday
  may be indispensable.
• Ecological systems roles
• Soil formation
• Waste disposal
• Air and water purification
• Nutrient cycling
• Solar energy absorption
• Management of biogeochemical cycles

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What Threatens Biodiversity?

• Extinction we are in the midst of the greatest
  extinction since the end of the Permian period
  about 250 mya when 95 of all marine species and
  nearly half of all plant and animal families died
  out over a period of about 10,000 years. (This is
  a very short amount of time in the evolutionary
  scheme of things!)
• The extinction occurring right now is due mostly
  to Habitat destruction, followed by Invasive
  species, Pollution, overPopulation, and
  Overharvesting (HIPPO).

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HIPPO

• Habitat Destruction
• Clear cutting of forests for grazing animals
  (McDonaldsbad!!!)
• Conversion of grasslands to crop fields
• Construction, including houses, roads, public
  buildings, etc.
• Mining
• Dams
• Bottom Trawling Fishing heavy nets are dragged
  across the ocean floor, scooping up every living
  thing and crushing the bottom structure to
  lifeless rubble.
• When some small, scattered habitats are preserved
  in isolation, it is referred to as fragmentation.
  The preservation arises from good intentions,
  but actually serve the organisms very little
  because even small animals need vast expanses of
  land in order to survive.

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HIPPO

• Invasive Species
• These species thrive because they have no natural
  predators in their new environments no natural
  diseases in their new environments no limits on
  resources in their new environments.
• Invasive species are usually brought in by
  humans, although not always intentionally. Come
  in on boats, planes, trains, cars, on shoes,
  clothes, etc.
• Invasive species can include bacteria, fungi, and
  viruses.

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HIPPO

• Pollution
• Mercury
• Lead
• Atrazine (pesticide)
• PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls (a class of
  man-made compounds that were manufactured and
  used extensively in electrical equipment such as
  transformers and capacitors, paints, printing
  inks, paper, pesticides, hydraulic fluids,
  lubricants, synthetic rubber, plasticizers, floor
  tile, brake linings, adhesives, carbon copy
  paper, fluorescent light ballasts, and asphalt,
  to name a few)

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HIPPO

• overPopulation
• If our consumption patterns remain the same, with
  more people, we will need to harvest more timber,
  catch more fish, plow more land for agriculture,
  dig up more fossil fuels and minerals, build more
  houses, and use more water. All of these demand
  impact wild species, both plant and animal!

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HIPPO

• Overharvesting
• Overfishing
• Overhunting
• Poaching
• Keeping wild animals as pets

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Endangered Species Management Biodiversity
Protection

• U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 regulates
  harassing, harming, pursuing, hunting, shooting,
  trapping, killing, capturing, collecting,
  importing, exporting, possessing, selling,
  transporting, or shipping, either accidentally or
  on purpose, of ANY endangered species. This
  applies to live organisms, body parts, and
  products made from endangered species.
• Endangered those species in imminent danger of
  extinction.
• Threatened those that are likely to become
  endangered
• Vulnerable naturally rare or locally depleted,
  could become threatened or endangered.

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Recovery Plans

• The ESA sounds good in theory, but due to limited
  funds, politics, and the emotions of the human
  population, sometimes, not much is done for
  species on the brink.
• In the rare case that something is done, the Fish
  and Wildlife Service is the first one notified
  and they are required to prepare a recovery plan
  detailing how populations will be rebuilt to
  sustainable levels. (This usually takes
  yearsmore time than some species have left!)

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What If An Endangered Species Is On Your
Property?

• You are bound by law to protect it!
• However, the Fish and Wildlife Service has been
  negotiating agreements called habitat
  conservation plans with private landowners to
  allow them to harvest resources or build on part
  of their land as long as the species benefits
  overall.(Basically as long as they donate money
  to the cause, they are allowed to destroy the
  habitat or the animal itself!)

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ESA continued

• ESA officially expired in 1992, however, its
  still in effect because Congress cannot agree on
  how it should be updated.