Conservation

Question 1

What is the best way to conserve any living species?

Answer 1

• To keep it in its natural habitat
• Maintaining the natural habitat means that all the ‘life support systems’ are provide
• We need to protect whole ecosystems threatened by development

Question 2

What human activities can be limited in areas set aside where wildlife and the environment have some form of protection?

Answer 2

Building, grazing farm animals, hunting and other activities that might adversely affect plants and animals

Question 3

What are national parks?

Answer 3

• Areas of land controlled by the government of a country and protected by legislation where agriculture, building, mining and other industrial activities are strictly controlled
• They can act as conservation areas where populations of wild animals are maintained
• They have restrictions on human activities

Question 4

How can tourism benefit the environment?

Answer 4

• Tourism brings in money to pay for the maintenance of the parks and helps to inform people about conservation
• This raises awareness and can elicit support from the public
• Tourism works best if local people are involved e.g. by allowing them to use some areas of the park for herding their animals or growing crops, employing them as wardens or rangers, or using some of the money raised from tourism to improve local health/education facilities

Question 5

How are the Galapagos islands an example of conservation?

Answer 5

1) authorities have restricted access to the uninhabited islands and limited access to other areas which are sensitive to human interference
2) a marine reserve has been set up to protect the environment from destructive activities of fishing
3) alien animal species are being removed and invasive plants are being dug up and destroyed
4) there are captive breeding and reintroduction programmes, notably for giant tortoises

Question 6

How do marine parks protect the environment and give an example of one

Answer 6

Marine parks conserve fragile environments and areas at risk of overfishing, dredging and pollution
e.g. the establishment of marine parks around the coast of NZ has increased biodiversity and led to an increase in fish catches

Question 7

Give an example of conservation areas dedicated by international bodies

Answer 7

• Ramsar sites are wetlands designated under an international treaty, considered important for conserving wildlife
• This gives protection against threats e.g. building development and extraction of minerals
• Wetland habitats e.g. estuaries, salt marshes and mangrove forests are ecosystems with high biodiversity

Question 8

Why does the standard of management of parks and reserves vary throughout the world?

Answer 8

Some countries have the resources and national will to provide excellent protection and careful management but others do not

Question 9

What are the 4 roles of zoos?

Answer 9

1) provide protection for endangered and vulnerable species
2) carry out captive breeding programmes, often with the long-term aim of reintroducing animals to their natural habitat
3) provide enjoyment and interest for visitors who can see and study animals that they would otherwise not be able to see
4) carry out research, especially to gain a better understanding of breeding habits, habitat requirements and ways to increase genetic diversity in captive breeding

Question 10

What is the problem with breeding animals from small populations and why?

Answer 10

Inbreeding bc this decreases genetic diversity

Question 11

What is a major aim in the conservation of many endangered species?

Answer 11

Maintaining the genetic diversity e.g. with the cheetah

Question 12

What is the major goal of captive breeding?

Answer 12

To reintroduce animals to their natural habitat (can be very difficult as many factors that affect success)

Question 13

What are the difficulties in captive breeding?

Answer 13

1) some animals refuse to breed in captivity
2) often, it is not possible to create suitable habitats for animals ∴ they cannot be returned to the wild
3) sometimes, even if a habitat exists, it is very difficult for the animals to adapt to living in it after being cared for in a zoo
4) some captive-bred animals do not have the skills to survive in their natural habitat as they might not know how to avoid predators, find food or rear their own young

Question 14

What is an example of success of captive breeding?

Answer 14

Herds of breeding oryx have been established in reserves in North Africa

Question 15

What is an example of difficultly of captive breeding?

Answer 15

The giant panda

Question 16

What is assisted reproduction the solution to?

Answer 16

The problem of inbreeding and transport of large mammals, which is difficult and expensive and breeding did not always happen

Question 17

What is the cheaper option to assisted reproduction?

Answer 17

• Collect semen and keep it frozen in a sperm banks

Question 18

How is semen collected and stored?

Answer 18

1) samples are collected from males, checked for sperm activity and then diluted with a medium containing buffer solution and albumen
2) they are then stored in thin tubes at -196 degrees

Question 19

What does artificial insemination (AI) solve the problem of?

Answer 19

The problem of males and females who do not show any courtship behaviour and will not mate

Question 20

How does AI work?

Answer 20

1) a straw (thin tube of sperm) is placed into warm water so that the sperm become active
2) they are then put into a catheter, which is inserted into the vagina, through the cervix and into the uterus - this may happen when the female is naturally ‘on heat’ or following hormone treatment so she ovulates at the time of artificial insemination
3) the hormone treatment can stimulate the female to ‘superovulate’ to produce a large number of follicles

Question 21

What happens following AI?

Answer 21

• The resulting embryos may be ‘flushed out’ of the uterus and transferred to other females (can be a different, not endangered species) that have had hormonal treatment to prepare them for pregnancy = embryo transfer
• This process protects the endangered animal from the risks of pregnancy and means that she can be a source of many offspring

Question 22

What is the female receiving the embryo called?

Answer 22

The surrogate mother

Question 23

How do you carry out IVF?

Answer 23

1) oocytes (eggs) are collected by inserting a needle into the ovaries and withdrawing some mature follicles and kept in a culture medium for a short time
2) the oocytes are mixed with sperm and the resulting zygotes divide to form embryos, which are cultured for several days and then placed into the mother or other females of the same/different species

Question 24

How can eggs be stored?

Answer 24

They can be fertilised in vitro and then frozen until such time as a surrogate mother becomes available

Question 25

Why are eggs difficult to freeze?

Answer 25

Because they are more likely to be damaged by the freezing/thawing process

Question 26

What is a frozen zoo?

Answer 26

• A place that holds genetic resources in the form of sperm, eggs and embryos from many endangered and vulnerable species until they might be needed
• Frozen zoos can hold much more genetic diversity than a normal zoo and the material can be kept for very long periods of time

Question 27

What is the problem if conservation is too successful?

Answer 27

The organism saved from extinction has increased in numbers beyond the capacity of the ecosystem to sustain such numbers

Question 28

Describe 3 ways of preventing overpopulation

Answer 28

1) culling - often used to reduce numbers but it is a controversial practice, especially when used to control the number of elephants
2) transferring animals to places where there are small populations (not easy over large distances and expensive)
3) vasectomy (birth control) - sedating male wild mammals and cutting their sperm ducts
4) chemical contraceptives

Question 29

Describe chemical contraceptives in animals

Answer 29

• Not the same as steroid hormones women may use
• A vaccine is used which targets the region surrounding the layer of glycoproteins around the egg (zone pellucida)
• When the vaccine is injected into a female animal, it stimulates an immune response that produces antibodies against these glycoproteins
• These antibodies attach to the glycoproteins around the female’s own eggs ∴ blocking sperm from fertilising the egg
• 90% success rate in mammals

Question 30

What happens in botanic gardens?

Answer 30

Seeds or cuttings are collected from species in the wild and then used to build up a population of plants from which, one day, some plants may be reintroduced to their natural habitats

Question 31

Describe the technique of tissue culture and cloning?

Answer 31

1) take small samples of cells and grow them on agar in sterile conditions
2) the cells divide by mitosis to give a mass of cells that can be cloned by subdividing them
3) when the cells are transferred to a medium containing an appropriate mixture of plant hormones, they grow stems and roots and can then be transferred to grow in soil

Question 32

What is tissue culture and cloning used for?

Answer 32

To produce large numbers of plants from few original specimens

Question 33

What is a problem with slow-growing plants?

Answer 33

It takes a long time to reintroduce a plant species and ensure its survival

Question 34

What are the 5 roles of botanic gardens?

Answer 34

1) protect endangered plants species increasingly threatened in the wild by environmental degradation and climate change
2) research methods of reproduction and growth so that species cultivated in botanic gardens can be grown in appropriate conditions and be propagated
3) research conservation methods so plants can be introduced to new habitats if the original habitat has been destroyed
4) reintroduce species to habitats where they have become very rare or extinct
5) educate the public in the many roles of plants in ecosystems and their economic values

Question 35

What two things to botanic gardens do?

Answer 35

1) cultivate plants

2) store seeds in seed banks

Question 36

Describe seed banks e.g. the Millennium seed bank at Kew

Answer 36

• The point of it is that even if the plants become extinct in the wild, there will still be seeds from which they can be grown
• If possible, seeds of the same species are collected from different sites, so that the stored samples contain a good proportion of the total gene pool for that species

Question 37

Why do national and international organisations collect and store seeds?

Answer 37

So that genetic diversity in crop plants is not lost

Question 38

Why might seeds be lost?

Answer 38

From a natural disaster, mismanagement, loss of funding, accidents or failure of equipment

Question 39

What happens if seeds are lost from a seed bank?

Answer 39

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault always has duplicate samples available

Question 40

Why do seed banks carry out germination tests every 5 years?

Answer 40

• Because the only way to find out whether or not stored seeds are still viable is to try and germinate them
• If less than 85% of the seeds germinate successfully, they are planted and fresh seeds are collected

Question 41

What are alien/invasive species?

Answer 41

Species that have moved from one ecosystem to another where they were previously unknown

Question 42

What has caused alien species?

Answer 42

1) people are responsible for the movement of species about the globe by trading animals and plants or unknowingly carrying them on ships
2) some species have been introduced as biological control agents to control pests
3) animals introduced for sport or escapees

Question 43

How is the small Indian mongoose an invasive species?

Answer 43

• It was introduced in Jamaica in 1872 and proved so successful at controlling rats in cane fields that it was introduced elsewhere
• Unfortunately , it then became a predator of other animals

Question 44

How is the cane toad an invasive species?

Answer 44

• It was introduced in Australia in 1935 to control an insect pest of sugar cane
• It has become a pest itself as it breeds rapidly and has spread all over the country
• It has few predators in Australia, mainly because it produces a powerful toxin that kills most animals that eat it ∴ it endangers animals that try and eat it
• They also compete with other amphibian species for food and eat the chicks of the rainbow bee-eater

Question 45

What has the rabbit been responsible for in Australia?

Answer 45

More loss of biodiversity than any other factor

Question 46

What is the effect of invasive species on their new environments?

Answer 46

1) they are successful predators with few controls and may also compete effectively with native organisms that occupy the same niche, pushing them to extinction
2) they may introduce diseases that spread to similar organisms that have never been exposed to the pathogen
3) some invasive plants grow so successfully that they cover huge areas of land or water e.g. water hyacinth spreads rapidly, blocking sunlight from reaching native aquatic plants and reduces the [O2] of the water ∴ killing fish and also provides a habitat for mosquito larvae ∴ need to control for the sake of human health

Question 47

What is CITES and what is its role?

Answer 47

• It is an agreement signed in 1973 by 145 countries to control the trade in endangered species and any products from them e.g. furs, skin, ivory
• It controls trade in endangered species and products from them, either by regulating it with permits or banning it completely
• It considers the evidence presented to it about endangered and vulnerable species and assigns them to one of three Appendices - 1 to 3, most endangered (all trade banned) to not endangered (trade is regulated and permits needed)

Question 48

What is the WWF?

Answer 48

The largest NGO specialising in conservation - mission statement: “to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature

Question 49

What does the WWF do?

Answer 49

Funds conservation projects, publicises environmental issues and campaigns to save ecosystems from degradation and species from extinction
e.g. recent campaign: to stop prospecting for oil in the Viruga National Park in DRC, Africa as it is one of the last refuges of the mountain gorilla in the wild

Question 50

How has mangrove been used to restore degraded habitats and why?

Answer 50

Mangrove forests are being replanted in the Sunderbans delta region in India and Bangladesh

1) mangrove forests have been cut down for coastal development
2) but mangrove forests are extremely rich ecosystems that provide valuable protection to coastlines from storms
3) they provide important ‘ecosystem services’ - they reduce the coastal erosion by reducing the effects of strong waves during storms, act as a barrier to rising sea levels by trapping sediment and are important nurseries to young fish
4) ∴ planting mangrove forests will offer some protection against the effects of rising sea levels in this area of high diversity

Question 51

What is being done in Haiti to restore degraded habitats?

Answer 51

• After centuries of soil erosion, deforestation and land degradation, roughly 70% of Haiti’s land is no longer suitable for agriculture and there is a severe shortage of firewood
• ∴ efforts are being made in Haiti to restore some of the forest and many NGOs are working with community groups in tree planting projects in a ‘reserve mission’

Question 52

Describe the Eden project

Answer 52

• The Eden project is a reclamation project in a disused clay mine in Cornwall, dedicated to educating people in plant biodiversity and the need for conservation
• Beneath domes are communities of plants from different parts of the world
• Visitors learn about the major roles that plants play in our economy and the extent to which we depend on them

Question 53

What is the problem with CITES

Answer 53

• There is a concern that a CITES listing does not always benefit a species because if trade in a species or its products becomes illegal, then the price that can be obtained for those products rises, making it worthwhile for people to break the law
• Particular problems arise when it is announced in advance that a species will go on the list because in the months between the announcement and introduction o f the new law, trade in that species tends to increase

Question 54

What doe CITES stand for?

Answer 54

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna

Question 55

What does WWF stand for?

Answer 55

Word Wide Fund for Nature

Question 56

What is an example of an invasive plant species?

Answer 56

Japanese knotweed - it has a very vigorous root system and growth is so strong that it can force its way through concrete, damaging buildings, roads and walls
- it also outcompetes native species by reducing the space where they can grow

Question 57

Why is there little danger of most seeds being damaged during freezing?

Answer 57

• Many plants produce orthodox seeds that remain viable for at least 15 years if carefully dehydrated until they contain only 5% water and then stored at -15 to -20 degrees
• With this small water content there is little danger that cells in the seed will be damaged by ice crystals during freezing and thawing

Question 58

What seeds are not easy to store?

Answer 58

Recalcitrant seeds that cannot be dried and frozen e.g. rubber, coconut palm, coffee and cocoa (seeds of economically important tropical seeds

Question 59

How do you keep the genetic diversity of species with recalcitrant seeds?

Answer 59

• Collect seeds and grow success generations of plants
• OR keep them as tissue culture
• e.g. cocoa is banked as trees
• e.g. coconut palm - the seed (coconut) is very large and the embryo is also too large to freeze successfully ∴ collectors remove embryos from the seeds, culture them in sterile tubes and eventually plant them

Question 60

What is there the possibility of when plants are grown from samples of stored seed?

Answer 60

Altering the genetic diversity that was originally stored

Question 61

Why is there a risk of altering the genetic diversity of small samples of seeds of rare plants?

Answer 61

• Small samples of seeds from rare plants present a particular problem, as even smaller samples of the original are taken to test for viability or to grow into plants to increase the number of seeds in store
• Such samples are ∴ unlikely to contain all the genetic diversity of the original sample
• The only solution to this problem is to put as large and diverse a sample as possible into store in the first place

Question 62

How is the Burmese python an invasive species?

Answer 62

• It invaded Everglades National Park, probably because pet owners could no longer look after them and just let them go into the wild
• The pythons feed on a wide variety of mammals and birds ∴ compete with native predators - this makes it difficult to conserve endangered species in the national park
• Humans are the python’s only predator, but efforts to remove them have failed and it looks as if trying to stop the population increasing too much is the only option available

Question 63

How is the red lion fish an invasive species?

Answer 63

• It invaded waters of the Caribbean from aquaria in the US
• It has spread throughout the Caribbean, eating its way through many local species on coral reefs
• It has no natural predator in its new environment
• In Belize: divers are encouraged to spear them
• In Jamaica: the government believes that if people develop a taste for them, fishermen will catch more of them, decreasing their population