Chapter 20- Preserving Biodiversity

Question 1

Biodiversity and three levels it is measured

Answer 1

The variety of life is crucial.
Measured at three levels:
-Genetic diverisity: amount of varition that exists within a species
-Species diversity: number of species that occupy the biosphere
-Ecosystem diversity: variety of ecosystems on Earth

Question 2

Three levels of animals who are at risk of extinction

Answer 2

Extinction: last of individual of species have died
Endangered Species: high risk of extinction in near future
Vulnerable Species: can become entinct in distant future

Question 3

Conservation biologists

Answer 3

Study how to perserve biodiversity; study why species disappear and make strategies to perserve them

Question 4

What human activities are destroying biodiversity?

Answer 4

-Prairies and temperature grasslands gone because of agriculture
-Deforestation killing forest biomes, resouces and potential medicines that are needed to be derived from ancestor plants
-Aquatic biomes gone because of damming and alternations to rivers paths. Coastlines and estauries (where river meets sea) are gone because of urbanization, housing, tourism, dredging, mining, and argriculture.

Question 5

Pollution

Answer 5

A chemical, physical, or biological change in the environmental that harms living things. It degrades the quaility of air, water, and land, also killing biodiversity. Chemicals that arise from plastic are human-made *persistent organic pollutants * : carbon-containing molecules that don’t degrade, or degrade very slowly

Question 6

Ozone layer

Answer 6

Chemicals that destroy ozone are harmful. Ozone at smog level is harmful, but ozone at upper atmophere is beneficial. It blocks harmful ultraviolent (UV) radiation from the sun. The ozone layer is thinning, and the main culprit breaking it down is human-made chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases.

Question 7

Global climate change

Answer 7

Greenhouse effect is an increase in surface temperature caused by heat trapping gases in Earth’s atmosphere. They prevent heat from being released into the atmosphere. This will cause some areas to get colder, and others warmer. Global climate change is past and future changes in Earth’s weather patterns. Main greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO2). FUN FACT: Too much CO2 in oceans can make it acidic.

Question 8

Invasive species

Answer 8

An introduced species that begins breeding in new location far from original location. And the species harms the environment, human health, or the economy.

Question 9

Overexploitation

Answer 9

harvesting the members of a species faster than they can reproduce (ex. for exotic pets)

Question 10

What are some solutions to conserve biodiversity?

Answer 10

Slow human population growth, set aside parks/refugees/natural areas, reverse habitat destruction (restoration projects), help species bypass degraded habitats (ex.fish ladders over dams), bioremediation (use plants and microbes to clean up polluted soils), protect individual members of species (through predator control programs, protective laws, captive breeding programs, changing economic incentives to orient towards endangered species, biotechnology for disease resistence genes or cloning)