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biology > Lecture 33 - Conservation Biology (part 1) > Flashcards

Lecture 33 - Conservation Biology (part 1) Flashcards

1
Q

Conservation biology

A

integrates ecology, physiology, molecular biology, genetics, and evolutionary biology to conserve biodiversity

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2
Q

What are the 3 ways we can classify biodiversity in?

A
  1. Genetic Diversity
  2. Species Diversity
  3. Ecosystem Biodiversity
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3
Q

Genetic diversity

A

comprises the genetic variation of individuals within populations as well as the genetic variation between populations

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4
Q

What is genetic diversity associated with?

A

adaptations to local conditions

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5
Q

Extinction may be a result of…

A

a loss of genetic variation

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6
Q

Genetic diversity is the source of what?

A

source of variations that enable populations to adapt to environmental changes

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7
Q

Species diversity is important in…

A

maintaining structure of communities & food webs

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8
Q

What does ecosystem diversity provide?

A

life-sustaining services such as nutrient cycling & waste decomposition

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9
Q

Species diversity

A

is the variety of species within an ecosystem or across the biosphere

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10
Q

What can species diversity use?

A

a variety of different indices and measure to describe species diversity

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11
Q

What does extinction cause?

A

species diversity to be reduced

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12
Q

Extirpation

A

Species extinction that happens AT a LOCAL scale

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13
Q

Global extinction

A

is the loss of a species from the ENTIRE biosphere

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14
Q

Mass extinction

A

is the loss of lots of species AT ONE TIME

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15
Q

What does The International Union For Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assess?

A

assesses the global conservation of species and maintains a Red List of species that are threatened to be lost

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16
Q

What is The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) & what do they provide?

A
  • A panel of Canadian scientists tasked with assessing the status of species in Canada
  • Provide recommendations to the federal government which species should receive protected status under SARA
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17
Q

What does the COSEWIC use?

A

uses quantitative criteria to assess a species’ status

• Declining abundance, limited distribution, small population sizes, etc

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18
Q

_____ of Canada’s mammals are considered endangered, threatened or of special concern

A

~1/3

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19
Q

Species At Risk Act (SARA) includes:

A
  • Extinct
  • Extirpated
  • Endangered species
  • Threatened species
  • Special Concern
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20
Q

Extinct

A

species are already globally gone

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21
Q

Extirpated

A

species are locally gone

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22
Q

Endangered species

A

are at risk of imminent extirpation or extinction

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23
Q

Threatened species

A

is likely to become endangered or extinct if NOTHING is done to reverse the trajectory

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24
Q

Special Concern

A

species may risk becoming threatened

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25
Q

Ecosystem diversity

A

is the variety of the biosphere’s ecosystems

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26
Q

What can alter ecosystems?

A

Human activity

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27
Q

IUCN has developed a criteria to assess…

A

ecosystems and have produced a Red List for ecosystems threatened by human activity

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28
Q

What is the IUCN criteria to assess ecosystems & Red List for ecosystems threatened by human activity?

A
  • Collapsed
  • Critically endangered
  • Endangered
  • Vulnerable
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29
Q

Collapsed example

A

equivalent to species extinction
• Ex. Aral Sea in central Asia due to water extraction for irrigation fragmenting the sea into separate, super salty lakes

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30
Q

Critically endangered example

A

Ex. Raised bog ecosystems in Germany, only occupy 2% of original distribution

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31
Q

Endangered example

A

Ex. Caribbean coral reefs due to loss of herbivores keeping algae away from corals

32
Q

What is the goal of ecosystem diversity?

A

is identify ecosystems that are at risk of losing biodiversity or ecological functions

33
Q

Why should we care about biodiversity?

A
  • Biodiversity makes us happy -> biophilia
  • Concern for future generations
  • Benefits of species and genetic diversity
  • Loss of species means loss of genes
34
Q

Biophilia

A

-> Biodiversity makes us happy
• Sense of connect to nature and all life
• Other species are entitled to life
• Ecosystem services -> ecosystems purify water and air, detoxify/decompose wastes, sustain life

35
Q

Ecosystem services

A

ecosystems purify water and air, detoxify/decompose wastes, sustain life

36
Q

Concern for future generations:

A

“We must consider our planet to be on loan from our children, rather than a gift from our ancestors” ~ G.H. Brundtland

37
Q

Benefits of species and genetic diversity:

A
  • Many threatened species can provide food, fibres, medicines, and other NATURAL RESOURCES
  • If we lose plant biodiversity surrounding agriculture lands, we can reduce the diversity of pollinators that could help with FOOD PRODUCTION
  • Many plant chemicals produced as anti herbivory/pathogen defense also have MEDICINAL USES
38
Q

Many threatened species can provide…

A
  • food
  • fibres
  • medicines, and other natural resources
39
Q

If we lose plant biodiversity surrounding agriculture lands, we can…

A

reduce the diversity of pollinators that could help with food production

40
Q

Many plant chemicals produced as anti-herbivory/pathogen defense also have…

A

medicinal uses
• Ex. Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) produce alkaloids with anti-cancer properties, successful in treating Hodgkin’s lymphoma and childhood leukemia

41
Q

Loss of species means loss of genes:

A

Taq polymerase (enzyme needed in PCR and creating gene libraries) is isolated from extremotolerant Thermus aquaticus, isolated from Yellowstone hot springs

42
Q

What are the threats to biodiversity?

A
  • Habitat loss
  • Fragmentation
  • Introduced Species
  • Overharvesting
43
Q

Habitat loss

A
  • Brought on by agriculture and urban development, industry (farming, forestry, mining, etc)
  • Global climate change is also changing ecosystem dynamics
  • When no alternative habitat is available for species, could lead to extinction
44
Q

Fragmentation

A

breaking up large areas of continuous habitat

45
Q

Habitat loss and fragmentation is huge…

A
  • ~98% of tropical dry forests in Central America and Mexico are gone
  • ~1% of Asian rainforests are destroyed each year

• ~97% or native prairie grasslands and 88% of mixed woodland ecosystems have been converted for human use in Canada
- Make up ~6% of Canada’s land, but contain over 50% of all species at risk

46
Q

Populations in fragmented habitats are more likely to…

A

go extinct

47
Q

Why are populations in fragmented habitats more likely to go extinct?

A
  • Population sizes are smaller

* Abiotic environment, food sources and predation risk has been ALTERED

48
Q

Aquatic systems are hugely affected by…

A

habitat loss

49
Q

How are aquatic systems hugely affected by habitat loss?

A
  • Declines in coral reefs (provide habitat for ~1/3 of marine fish species)
  • Freshwater habitat is lost due to dams, reservoirs, channel modifications (or diversions), or via inputs of rugs, chemicals, etc from human consumption and waste
50
Q

Introduced Species

A
  • Non-native or exotic species not normally found in that habitat
  • Free from predators, parasites, and pathogens that limit their population size, invasive species can grow exponentially in a new area
51
Q

Introduced species can be brought in via many means and cause…

A

huge disruptions
• Accidentally brought in by humans via boats, transport of fruits/veggies,
trains, etc

52
Q

Introduced species can…

A

• Can prey on native species or outcompete them
- Ex. Brown tree snake accidently brough to Vietnam by military which resulted in
the loss of 12 species of birds and 6 species of lizards from the native habitat

• Can damage aquatic ecosystems
- Sea lampreys in the Great Lakes brough in from constructed canals which
devastated trout populations
- Zebra mussels in Manitoba waterways displace native freshwater species and
also clog water intake structures

53
Q

Overharvesting

A

human harvesting of wild organisms at rates exceeding natural population rebound

54
Q

Overharvesting disproportionally affects…

A

species with restricted habitats (ie small islands), large organisms with slow reproductive rates (ie elephants and rhinos)

55
Q

Overharvesting devastated…

A

local fish populations (ie East Coast cod populations, which killed the Newfoundland fishing industry shows little improvement despite strict commercial fishing regulations)

56
Q

How do we conserve biodiversity at the species and population levels?

A
  • Small-population approach

* Declining population approach

57
Q

Small-population Approach

A
  • Small populations are vulnerable to genetic drift and inbreeding
  • Can cause populations to go down an extinction vortex
58
Q

Genetic drift

A

chance events that decrease genetic variation in a population

59
Q

Extinction vortex

A

Moving towards an smaller and smaller population until extinction is reached

60
Q

The Greater Prairie chicken case study:

A

• At the time of European colonisation of North America, the prairie
chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) inhabited tall-grass prairie from Alberta
to Texas
• Loss of prairie due to agriculture led to its extirpation from Canada and
habitat fragmentation in the US.
• Conservationists reintroduced prairie chickens from larger populations
back into Illinois populations and the populations rebounded back

61
Q

Minimum viable population (MVP)

A

is the population size that a species can maintain is population numbers
• Takes into many factors that an affect growth rate

62
Q

Effective population size

A

is the portion of the population that is able to breed (ie the breeding population)
Ne = 4NfNm/Nf + Nm

63
Q

What is a key component of MVP?

A

Effective population size

64
Q

Nf and Nm

A

are the number of females and males respectively

65
Q

Ne

A

is the effect population size

66
Q

If every individual breeds and we have equal females and males…

A

Ne = actual population size

67
Q

If we don’t have every male and female breeding…

A

Ne will go down compared to the actual population size

68
Q

What is the goal of conservation?

A

is to keep Ne higher than MVP

69
Q

Grizzly Bear case study:

A
  • Grizzle bear populations declined in Yellowstone after park dumps were closed
  • Dr. Shaffer used models using year-to-year birth and death rates to estimate MVP
  • Predicted that a population of 70-90 individuals had 95% chance to survive up to 100 years whereas a population of 100 individuals would have 95% chance for surviving 200 years
70
Q

Declining population approach

A

Focuses on threatened or endangered populations that are showing a downward trend, even if population is above MVP

71
Q

Small population approach emphasises…

A

population smallness, not necessarily decline

72
Q

Declining population approach emphasises…

A

environmental factors for decline, not necessarily small populations

73
Q

Steps for Intervention for the declining population approach (case-by-case basis):

A
  • Confirm using population data that the species was more widely abundant or distributed in the past
  • Study the natural history of the species and related species to determine its environmental needs
  • Develop hypotheses for all possible causes of decline, including human activities and natural events and list predictions for each hypothesis
  • Test the most likely hypothesis first (some may be correlated)
  • Apply results of diagnosis to manage threatened species and monitor recovery
74
Q

Most COSEWIC studies use this approach:

A
  • Rufa red knot (Calidris canutus rufus) populations declined over the past decade and is listed as endangered by COSEWIC
  • Red knots dying or failing to reproduce while nesting in Canadian arctic
  • Mortality rates increased on southern feeding grounds
  • Habitat loss
75
Q

Habitat loss example

A

Stopover habitat in Delaware was declining due to reduction in horseshow crab populations resulting in population decline

biology (25 decks)

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