Transcript Slide 1

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Threats to the Biodiversity of the Amazon
By: Katie Julian, Tara Gallagher, and Jessica Darga
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The Amazon is a canary in a coal mine for the Earth Dan Nepstadt, Ecologist (October 2005)
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Hypothesis:
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We believe that anthropogenic impacts will
pose a greater threat to biodiversity in the
amazon than natural impacts.
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www.des.ucdavis.edu
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Natural Impacts
• Environmental changes that impact the
health, habitat, variance, and vitality of the
species who dwell in the rainforest.
Anthropogenic Impacts
• Impacts caused by human activities that
directly or indirectly effect the health,
habitat, variance, and vitality of the
species who dwell in the rainforest.
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What We Wish to Learn:
• What is the current stance of biodiversity in the
rainforest?
• Why is species diversity important to conserve within the
rainforest?
• What are the threats to biodiversity in the Amazon
basin?
• Which of these threats, human or natural, poses a
greater threat to biodiversity?
• What will happen if these threats are not curbed?
• What can we do to mitigate these threats? Can we
change our path of destruction?
Why is it important to know whether
natural or anthropogenic impacts
are more influential?
• Influences plan of action
• Mitigation efforts
• These are not isolated trends, the planet
as a whole is also affected
• We share the earth and what effects
animal and plant biodiversity also effects
mankind
Why should we conserve the rainforest?
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Medicinal values
Cultural identity and aesthetic value
Biodiversity decreases the spread of disease
Large carbon uptake through photosynthesis
Maintains natural cycles
- Nitrogen cycle
- Water cycle
• Biological productivity
• Aids in regulating climate
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.biosphere-expeditions.org/images/peru/gallery-landscape1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.biosphereexpeditions.org/expeditions/peru%2B.htm&h=223&w=350&sz=16&tbnid=rI41AYXQGlwFAM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=116&hl=en&start=23&prev=/images%
3Fq%3Dbiodiversity%2Bin%2Bamazon%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN
Current State of the Amazon
• Covers 500 million ha, about 40% of Brazil
• Hot spot: currently experiencing the highest rate of forest
degradation in the world
• Home to many Endemic/ Endangered species
• Extreme interconnectivity of biodiversity leads to domino
effects
• 8.3% of Amazonian Rainforest ecosystems are under
enforced protection
• “An estimated 20,000 square miles of the Amazon rainforest
is destroyed every year (about the size of West Virginia). At
this rate, the Amazon would be completely gone in 50 years.”
• Loss of undiscovered medicinal plants and species
• Drastic increase in deforestation since 1992
• “Brazil's deforestation rate has increased 36% in the period
of 1991-94 in the light of increased logging, subsistence
activities, and agricultural projects."
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Amazonian Biodiversity
• 30,000 endemic plant species
found no where else!
• 173 Mammals
• 69 Primates
• 260 Birds
• 216 Reptiles
• 364 Amphibians
• One tree in the Amazon harbors
as many species of ants as the
entire British Isles
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1255000/images/_1256231_lion1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/sci/tech/1256231.stm&h=197&w
=300&sz=15&tbnid=qS1KOVLZOa2LYM:&tbnh=72&tbnw=111&hl=en&start=6&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dprimate%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
Natural Threats
Natural threats have effected the Amazon
Rainforests for all of its existence but studies
show they are far less damaging then human
impacts on the region. In fact, natural “threats” to
the rainforest can actually be beneficial to the
growth of biodiversity.
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Fire
Drought
Tropical Storms
Evolution and Natural Extinction
Milankovitch cycles
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0802.htm
Fire and Drought
• Fires rid the Rainforest of its weaker vegetation on the
ground level, discounting the canopy species.
• They can be initiated by lightning
And are partly instigated through droughts
• Drought is brought on by a reduction of humidity and
rainfall in the rainforest
• Increase in disease
• El Niño- unusual sunny summers, wet alternating
seasons
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0802.htm
Tropical Storms
• El Niño
• Tree fall can damage surrounding trees
causing gaps in the forest canopy
• Unusually damaging storms
• Lightening provides the energy needed
to form nitrates needed in the nitrogen
cycle
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Evolution and Natural Extinction
• Natural Selection
• Survival of the fittest
• Biology plays larger
role then external
factors- variable
rates
• Evolutionary
process
-climate change
-predation
-competition
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Farside_Natural_Selection_at_work.gif
&imgrefurl=htp://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Natural_Selection_at_Work.html&h=437&w=330&sz=31&tbnid
=c2GMTOfg77X0eM:&tbnh=123&tbnw=92&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnatural%2Bselection
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Milankovitch Cycles
• Eccentricity
occurs ever 400 and 100 ka
• Obliquity
occurs ever 41 ka
• Precession
occurs every 23 ka
• Glaciers and ice ages
• CLIMATE CHANGE
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://deschutes.gso.uri.edu/~rutherfo/milankovitch.gif&imgrefurl=http://deschutes.gs
o.uri.edu/~rutherfo/milankovitch.html&h=711&w=553&sz=11&tbnid=17vS85lR63t0YM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=107&hl=en&
start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMilankovitch%2Bcycles%2B%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
Anthropogenic Threats:
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Deforestation
Fragmentation
Bush meat trade
Exotic pet trade
Poaching
Non-native species
Pollution
CO2 emissions
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Anthropogenic Impacts Have an
accelerated rate of change due to:
• Population growth
• Industrialization
– fossil fuel emissions
– pollution
• Urbanization
Population Growth
Exacerbates Anthropogenic Threats
Conclusions
• Natural threats to biodiversity are slower and
more gradual than anthropogenic threats,
allowing biodiversity to adapt or evolve
• Anthropogenic threats occur at an accelerated
rate; biodiversity cannot adjust quickly enough to
persevere this rate of change
• Natural threats are cyclical and balancing over
long periods of time while anthropogenic threats
are exponential and immediately disruptive
Predictions
• If the destruction of the Amazon continues at its
current rate, then most of its biodiversity will be
lost forever in 40-50 years.
• Locally and globally the population is not yet
stable. With continued population growth and
modernization will come an increase in
consumptive use.
• Thirty-three percent of the remaining tropical
rainforest are found in the Amazon basin in
Brazil, if this area is depleted, the earth will lose
an enormous portion of its total biodiversity.
Possible Solutions
The preservation of biodiversity is not just a job for governments.
International and non-governmental organizations, the private sector
and each and every individual have a role to play in changing
entrenched outlooks and ending destructive patterns of behavior
Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General 2003 International Day of Biological Diversity
• Maintaining the Sustainable Use doctrine
• Draft legislation to protect these areas and find
ways to better enforce these restrictions
• Individuals can boycott “fluff” products that aid in
the destruction of the Amazon
such as mahogany and teak woods
• Individuals can also support companies and
organizations that promote sustainable use of
the Amazon’s vast resources, such as
Greenpeace, Ecotrust and the Amazon Alliance
RESPONSIBILTY
“ I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.
And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs-he was very upset as he shouted and puffed--
What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?”
- The Lorax by Dr. Suess
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ANY QUESTIONS?
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Works Cited
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