Transcript Biodiversity

Bill Nye: Biodiversity
Eric Angat
Teacher
27min
Essential Question
Why do we need
to protect
biodiversity?
Answer the following Questions
1. What is biodiversity?
2. What are two parts of the environment?
3. Where do most living things live?
4. What does it mean by extinct?
5. How is the ecosystem similar to the game of sticks?
6. What is an ecosystem?
7. Give examples of non-living things ( ABIOTIC) in the
environment.
8. Give four examples of extinct species.
9. Where do the mosses and lichen thrive?
10. What are five things that you can do to promote
biodiversity? Think!
Without producers
or plants the food
chain will collapse.
Without insects, the
mouse and the owl
will all die or
become extinct.
Food Web
Without producers
or phytoplanktons
the food web will
collapse.
1. What is Biodiversity?
Watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErATB1aMiSU
1. Biodiversity means
different kinds of life.
Losing a lot of species in
the biodiversity can
cause the ecosystem to
collapse.
The two components of an Ecosystem
2. The two parts of
the environment are
the living parts or
biotic and non-living
parts or abiotic.
3. Biosphere: Most living
thing things live in an area
where there is enough
supply of water and other
resources. 2/3 of all the
species on Earth lives in
water.
4. Extinct means
that there is no
living member of
the species.
5. Just like the
game of sticks, the
components of the
ecosystem are
interconnected.
6. An ecosystem is defined by
the plants and animals that
have adapted for survival in a
particular environment.
Organisms in the ecosystem
are interdependent with
each other.
7. Wind, water, rocks,
soil, temperature, air
pressure are just some
of the non living
components ( abiotic) of
the environment.
8. Some
examples of
Extinct Species
The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus)
Oh, dodo. Poor dodo. The flightless bird, native to the
island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, was known to
mankind for less than 100 years ... but that's all it took
for us to eradicate the species.
It wasn't so much that humans killed the stubby,
rotund birds directly, but our decimation of their
habitat and food source did an awful lot to hasten
their demise.
And then there are the pigs, dogs and other predators
that we introduced to the isolated island, where they
ravaged the birds' nests and generally harassed them.
The last dodo died sometime in the late 17th century.
Since then, the bird (a relative of pigeons and doves)
has become a poster child for extinction and a
reminder of the havoc we can wreak as human beings
The Dinosaurs, all of them
They were gone long before the first human graced the
planet, yet they've still managed to capture the hearts
of school kids across the globe, thanks to the toys,
cartoons and museums full of skeletons extolling their
prior existence.
And wouldn't it be nice if the dinosaurs all lived together
like they do in the movies, playing, fighting and hunting?
Think more The Land Before Time and less Jurassic Park,
more plant-eaters and fewer Velociraptors. The reality is
that many of the more famous dinosaur species never
even crossed paths.
Stegosaurus lived way before Triceratops showed up;
Tyrannosaurus wasn't feasting on Apatosaurus (he had
been extinct for millions of years by that time); and they
were all gone by the time human beings came around.
But never mind that.
Passenger Pigeon
(Ectopistes migratorius)
How do you go from being the most common bird
species in North America to being nothing more
than a sad footnote in American history?
Well, it helps if you taste good.
While passenger pigeons were hunted as a crop
nuisance for years, it wasn't until pigeon meat got
popular that things took a turn for the worst. It
also sure didn't help that westward-bound settlers
were chopping down the birds' habitat at an
alarming pace.
Over less than 100 years, the species that once
blackened the sky as it roamed in flocks numbering
in the billions was suddenly in a lot of trouble.
The last passenger pigeon died in a Cincinnati zoo
in 1914. Her name was Martha
4: Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis)
At nearly 3 feet tall, the great auk was a large bird, indeed, but a
story involving one of the last living auks was perhaps more unusual
than its size.
The last known auk in Scotland was executed in 1840, after local
villagers thought that it was a witch. Really.
While the auk was unlikely actually a witch, the penguin-like species
was the last flightless bird in the Northern Hemisphere and once
inhabited islands off the coast of northern Europe and northeastern
North America.
Hunted as food and bait, the last auks were
observed in 1844 off the coast of Iceland.
The nesting pair were killed by fishermen,
who made sure not just to kill the birds
for their pricey meat, but also to crush their
lone remaining egg. Thanks, guys.
Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus)
The thylacine looked like something of a cross between a tiger (due
to its stripes) and a dog (in terms of its build). However, it was in
fact a carnivorous marsupial, complete with pouch.
Native to Australia, the thylacine was last seen on that mainland
over 2,000 years ago. The tiger was hunted to extinction by the
indigenous population, but had a safe haven of sorts in the island
of Tasmania ... or at least it did until Europeans showed up.
Their heavy-handed hunting, prompted in part by farmers'
protection of their livestock, brought the animal to minimalist
numbers by the early 20th century.
By then, efforts to protect it
were too late.
The last one was caught in
1933 and died three years
later in a zoo in Hobart,
Australia.
Large Rodents (Josephoartigasia mones)
If you've spent much time in a large city, you've probably
seen those large, inflatable rats that striking workers put
up while protesting. Ever wonder what it would be like if
that rat came to life?
The rodent that lived in South America between 2 and 4
million years ago was closer in relation to a guinea pig
than a rat; however, fossilized remains discovered in
1987 indicate that Josephoartigasia
monesi was 10 feet long and
likely weighed over 1,000 pounds.
Yikes. Good luck finding an
exterminator for that one.
The Saber-toothed Tiger
(Smilodon)
Though there were once many species of sabertoothed cats, the most famous is Smilodon.
He's the cat you see in picture books about prehistoric
times, the one that got trapped (and preserved) in the
La Brea tar pits while hunting mammoths. He's been
gone from the Earth for over 10,000 years now, but
those huge canine teeth, now believed to be used
primarily for (eek) ripping open prey, still inspire awe.
The cat itself was about the size of a modern-day lion
(if not a bit shorter), but far more robust. Since the
fierce predator once roamed freely in the grasslands
and forests of North and South America, we should
probably just be happy we're not living in the Ice Age
Baiji White Dolphin
The Baiji white dolphin is one of the most recent species to fall victim to human
civilization.
Native to the Yangtze River in China, the freshwater dolphin was nearly blind and
quite intelligent. A 2006 expedition searched the Yangtze for six weeks, but didn't
find any Baiji, marking an end to a species that had been a part of the river since
ancient times.
The aquatic mammal had fallen prey to hunters and fishermen, as fishing boats,
complete with their entangling gear, began to crowd the river in the 1950s and
'60s. A reported sighting in 2007 raised hopes, but most scientists argue that if a
few of the Baiji do still exist, their numbers are most likely so small as to make
them "functionally extinct," meaning they're beyond a comeback.
The Quagga
Once upon a time, the quagga was standard fare in European zoos. The caramel
brown zebra subspecies has been missing from the planet since the 19th
century, but that hasn't stopped some from trying to resurrect it.
Since 1987, the South Africa-based Quagga Project has been using selective
breeding among plains zebras to mimic the animal's unique markings -- most
notably, its distinctive striping pattern, which starts at the head but extends back
only as far as mid-body.
Native to South Africa, the original quagga was hunted to extinction for its meat
and hide. The last one died in an Amsterdam zoo in 1883.
Steller's Sea Cow
Land cows eat grass, but these "sea cows" once grazed on kelp in
the Bering Sea.
A relative of the smaller, much-beleaguered manatee, the gentle sea
cows were over 25 feet long and may have weighed as much as 10
tons.
By the time German naturalist Georg Steller found and described them in 1741,
their population was already threatened, perhaps due to hunting by indigenous
peoples.
Their extermination would quickly continue with the arrival of Alaska-bound
European fishermen and seal hunters. The sea cows were rapidly hunted for food,
skins (used to make boats) and oil (for lamps), and by 1768, less than 30 years
after Steller found them, the Steller's sea cow was extinct.
9. Algae, lichens, and mosses
grow profusely on trunks, limbs,
and twigs of many trees and
shrubs. The cool,
cloudy,
wet weather in western
Washington and Oregon is ideal
for these organisms.
http://www.sciencechannel.com/creatures/10extinct-species.htm