3. A brief history of biodiversity Flashcards
Name one characteristic of losers (species that go extinct) and one of winners (species that are left alive)?
Losers: specialists, big in size, have a low reproduction rate, are long lived.
Winners: desired by people, generalists, high reproduction rate, short lived.
What is MSA?
Mean Species Abundance is an indicator that measures the change in species abundance.
Why is MSA better than species richness as an indicator?
Species richness is misleading because it includes exotic species, and MSA takes out the exotic species.
What is the Red List?
The Red List is another indicator which shows how skewed the change is between (near) extinct and non-extinct species.
What are the 6 transformations of landscapes?
- Original
- Hunting & gathering (large animals lost)
- Extensive agriculture (habitat loss)
- Intensive agriculture (intensification)
- Protected areas (present)
- Nature strikes back (future)
Where is the biggest loss in MSA, and why in this area?
The biggest loss will be in species-rich ecosystems such as tropical forests, temperate forests, and grassland. This is because these systems are suited for agriculture.
What are the four main drivers of biodiversity loss?
- Agriculture
- Climate change
- Forestry
- Infrastructure and urban built up
What is the relation between biodiversity loss and the ability to meet food demand?
Biodiversity loss leads to an increased risk of failure to meet food demand
What are the consequences of a 10% loss of biodiversity?
10% loss of biodiversity is equivalent of losing 1,5x the USA from 100% pristine to 0% pristine.
Name two trends in biodiversity for the Netherlands
- Has a high biodiversity footprint
- NL consumes 3.5x terrestrial area of NL
- It is more efficient to reduce the footprint outside of NL than restoring
- IPBES reports 1 on 8 species faces extinction
Name three of the seven recommended by the PBL to reverse the negative global trends.
- Increase agri-productivity
- Reduce food waste
- Increase wood productivity and efficiency
- Limit climate change to 2C by stopping with biofuels
- Reforestation
- Increase protected areas
- Change diets (less meat)
Why was the reduction only -5% rather than the expected 10% in lost MSA? Name two reasons.
- Secondary effects (as food production went down, there was more demand for land)
- Multiplicative effects (redundant effects) (every measure taken has lower impact because of other measures already taken)
- Trade-offs (protecting carbon rich forests are swapped with grasslands by users)
Explain how land degradation is related to biodiversity loss
Deforestation leads to water run-off, removing carbon, minerals, and soil protection.
Without trees, there is no rain.
Extreme temperatures will rise, there is reduced carbon uptake, less nutrient cycling, and less biodiversity.
It can result in desertification and droughts.
What mistake is often made in papers when it comes to uncontrolled climate change?
In papers there is often an assumption of linear systems, which gives the impression that, for example, an overshoot of CO2 can be reversed the same way back. However, systems are not linear.
Give one example of a tipping for all three different temperature scenarios.
1°C - 3°C
* Greenland ice sheet
* Arctic summer sea-ice
* Coral reefs
* Alpine glaciers
* West Antarctic Ice Sheet
3°C - 5°C
* Boreal forest
* Jet stream
* El Niño Southern Oscillation
* Thermohaline circulation
* Amazon rainforest
* Sahel
* Indian summer monsoon
> 5°C
* Arctic winter sea-ice
* Permafrost
* East Antarctic Sea Ice
