Transcript Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology

Ch. 55 - Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology
Cameron Clay, Betty Huang and Scott Lindquist
What is this?!?
• Conservation Biology is the combination of several
sciences brought together in order to conserve biodiversity
as efficiently as possible.
• Restoration ecology utilizes many different sciences and
ecological principles in order to bring destroyed and
damaged ecosystems back to their natural state.
Biodiversity
Consists of three levels:
1. Genetic diversity: diversity of a
population's genetic pool, and
also comparing this to other
populations' relative diversity
2. Species diversity: number of
species in a certain ecosystem
3. Ecosystem diversity: diversity
of ecosystems across a large
region, i.e. all of California
Species Diversity
• Endangered Species: a species that is in danger of
extinction in all or most of its current range, i.e. Polar
Bears, California Sea Otter, California Condor
• Threatened Species: A species that looks like it will be
endangered soon, i.e. African Elephant, Red Panda
Four Major Threats to Biodiversity
1. Habitat Destruction: Cutting down trees, mining out
mountains, polluting rivers
2. Introduced Species: introducing foreign species, i.e. plants
and animals, that do not naturally occur in that
environment: In Encinitas: Eucalyptus, Wild Radish, wild
fennel
3. Overexploitation: Harvesting plants and animals to an
extreme that threatens their very existence: American Bison
in the past, Bluefin Tuna right now
4. Disruption of Interaction Networks: destroying one
organism can disrupt the livelihoods of organisms around
them: keystone species like Sea Otters, "flying foxes"
(pollinators in Pacific Islands)
Invasive Species
All three of these invasive species damage the Southern
California environment by stealing water and nutrients from
native species
Some invasive species of Southern California:
Wild Fennel
Eucalyptus Tree
Wild Radish
Activity: Effect of human-induced pollution on
a food chain
• There will be 17 grasshoppers, 8 mice, and 4 hawks.
• Grasshoppers have 15 seconds to hunt for food
(Starbursts). They will eat the food (in actuality, just place in
paper bag, which is equivalent to a stomach)
• Then, shrew will hunt the grasshoppers for . (two finger tag)
• Then, hawks hunt the shrews. (two finger tag w/ hawk noise)
• Tagged animals must sit down and give their hunter their
stomachs (They have been eaten)
• At the end of the game, animals that are still alive
regurgitate all their foods for scientists to analyze.
Population Size
• Small Population Approach: Study of effects of how small groups go
extinct and how to stop this (smallness effect on extinction)
• Extinction Vortex: Exponential Decay of small populations
• Minimal viable population: Smallest population that can sustain a
specie
• Population viability analysis: Filters
out number of individuals unable to
breed within a population, which
helps calculate MVP and PVA.
Ne = 4(Nf x Nm)
Nf + Nm
o Nf = number of females that can
successfully breed
o Nm = number of males that can
successfully breed
o Ne = effective population size
Declining Population
• Declining - Population Approach: focused on defending
animals with a population with a declining population, not
considering its population size. (focuses on decline factors)
• To help: Assess the species' environmental factors,
hypothesize causes for decline, test hypothesis, apply
solution to organism. (Conflicts with modern society)
• Guam Rail: surveys of appearance of Brown Tree Snake vs.
the population of Guam Rail: now must remove invasive
species to save the Rail
Landscape and Regional Conservation
Landscape ecology is the understanding how different arrays
of ecosystems are arranged in a geographic region.
Conservation biologists must understand patterns that have
and will occur in these ecosystems to preserve biodiversity.
• natural edges
o rivers, wetlands, lakes, forests
• unnatural edges
o deforestation *in amazon, roads.
Global Hotspots of Life
• We live in a biodiversity hot spot!- a place that scientists
have decided is an extremely high priority for protection,
due to its high concentration of endemic species (We live in
what's called the "California Floristic Province")
• These and other areas of high biodiversity should be
protected with zoned reserves
• legal boundary vs. biotic boundary
• Costa Rica: a global leader in zoned conservation
Restoration Ecology
• restoration of degraded ecosystems to their natural state.
• most degradation is from farming and mining, also chemical
and oil spills.
Bioremediation is the utilization of living organisms to detoxify
polluted ecosystems.
o prokaryotes, fungi, plants adapted to soils with metallic
contents.
Biological Aumentation also uses living organisms to restore
ecosystem to their natural state. In contrast, the organisms are
meant to add materials to an ecosystem.
Living with Nature, man
• sustainable development seeks to weave human society with
nature, by creating houses, utilizing intelligent agriculture
• Often human interests conflict with nature- sustainable
development seeks to erase these boundaries, i.e. "green"
houses, less destructive agriculture
• Does not seek to cause fights between
• nature and humanity; rather, it seeks to
• improve human livelihood by improving
• nature and biodiversity
Conclusion
• Biophilia - humans are inclined to love the natural world
• If you don't love nature, you lack morals
• Conservation is an uphill battle - but possibly the most
inspiring and important one moving into the 21st
century
• Small steps in everyone's lives, and large steps on a
global scale must be taken to save our planet
• Biology allows us to understand nature- understanding
nature inspires us to admire nature- if we truly admire
nature, we must save it