Conservation biology

Question 1

Conservation biology

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What are 3 ways we can classify biodiversity?

Answer 2

Genetic Diversity
Species Diversity
Ecosystem Biodiversity

Question 3

Genetic diversity

Answer 3

comprises the genetic variation of individuals within populations as well as the genetic variation between populations
Associated with adaptations to local conditions
Extinction may be a result of a loss of genetic variation

Question 4

Species diversity

Answer 4

is the variety of species within an ecosystem or across the biosphere
Can use a variety of different indices and measure to describe species diversity
Extinction causes species diversity to be reduced

Question 5

extirpation

Answer 5

Species extinction that happens at a local scale

Question 6

Global extinction

Answer 6

is the loss of a species from the entire biosphere

Question 7

mass extinction

Answer 7

is the loss of lots of species at one time

Question 8

Compare extirpation and extinction

Answer 8

Extinction refers to the process through which organisms or a group of organisms (normally a species) cease to exist. Extirpation is the local extinction of an organism or species, where it/they cease to exist in a particular area but continue to exist elsewhere

Question 9

Describe the roles of COSEWIC and the SARA.

Answer 9

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC)
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
uses quantitative criteria to assess a species’ status
Declining abundance,limited distribution, small population sizes, etc)

• Species At Risk Act (SARA)

Question 10

What are the different levels of SARA

Answer 10

Extinct species are already globally gone
Extirpated species are locally gone
Endangered species are at risk of imminent extirpation or extinction
Threatened species is likely to become endangered or extinct if nothing is done to reverse the trajectory
Special Concern species may risk becoming threatened

Question 11

What are the different levels of SARA

Answer 11

Extinct species are already globally gone

Extirpated species are locally gone

Endangered species are at risk of imminent extirpation or extinction

Threatened species is likely to become endangered or extinct if nothing is done to reverse the trajectory

Special Concern species may risk becoming threatened

Question 12

Ecosystem diversity

Answer 12

is the variety of the biosphere’s ecosystems

Question 13

What are the criteria to asses ecosystems?

Answer 13

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

• Critically endangered
• Ex. Raised bog ecosystems in Germany, only occupy 2% of original distribution
• Endangered
• Ex. Caribbean coral reefs due to loss of herbivores keeping algae away from corals

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

Question 14

Why should we care about biodiversity?

Answer 14

Biodiversity makes us happy -> biophilia
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
Concern for future generations

Question 15

What are the benefits of species and genetic diversity?

Answer 15

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

Loss of species means loss of genes
• Taq polymerase (enzyme needed in PCR and creating gene libraries) is isolated from extremotolerant Thermus aquaticus, isolated from Yellowstone hot springs

Question 16

What are the major threat to biodiversity?

Answer 16

Habitat loss
overharvesting
fragmentation
intro of invasive species

Question 17

Habitat loss

Answer 17

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

Question 18

fragmentation

Answer 18

breaking up large areas of continuous habitat
Populations are more likely to go extinct
Population sizes are smaller
Abiotic environment, food sources and predation risk has been altered

Question 19

Which ecosystem is greatly affected by habitat loss?

Answer 19

Aquatic systems are hugely affected by habitat loss
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

Question 20

Introduced Species

Answer 20

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
Can be brought in via many means and cause huge disruptions
Can damage aquatic ecosystems
Can prey on native species or outcompete them

Question 21

Overharvesting

Answer 21

(human harvesting of wild organisms at rates exceeding natural population rebound)

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

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

Question 22

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

Answer 22

Small-population approach

Declining population approach

Question 23

genetic drift

Answer 23

chance events that decrease genetic variation in a population

Question 24

extinction vortex

Answer 24

Moving towards an smaller and smaller population until extinction is reached

Question 25

Small-population Approach

Answer 25

Small populations are vulnerable to genetic drift (chance events that decrease genetic variation in a population) and inbreeding
Can cause populations to go down an extinction vortex

Question 26

The Greater Prairie chicken case study

Answer 26

At the time of European colonisation of North America, the praire 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

Question 27

Minimum viable population (MVP)

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Effective population size

Answer 28

is the portion of the population that is able to breed (ie the breeding population)
• A key component of MVP

Question 29

Describe how effective population size and minimum viable population are used in conservation.

Answer 29

Ne = 4NfNm Nf + Nm
Nf and Nm are the number of females and males respectively
Ne is the effect population size
If every individual breeds and we have equal females and males, Ne = actual population size
If we don’t have every male and female breeding, Ne will go down compared to the actual population size
Goal of conservation is to keep Ne higher than MVP

Question 30

Grizzly Bear case study

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Declining population approach

Answer 31

Focuses on threatened or endangered populations that are showing a downward trend, even if population is above MVP
Small population approach emphasizes population smallness, not necessarily decline
Declining population approach emphasizes environmental factors for decline, not necessarily small populations

Question 32

Steps for Intervention for the declining population approach

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Explain the extinction vortex

Answer 33

Inbreeding often reduces fitness because the offspring produced by close relatives are more likely to be homozygous for harmful recessive traits (see Concept 14.4). In small populations, genetic drift can lead to loss of the genetic variation that enables evolutionary responses to environmental change such as the appearance of new pathogen strains. Thus small population size causes inbreeding and genetic drift, which can reduce fitness and lead to a smaller population with even more inbreeding and drift—a downward spiral ending in extinction.

Question 34

Sustainable development

Answer 34

meets the economic needs of society today without limiting the availability of future generations to meet their needs

Question 35

Case study in Costa Rica

Answer 35

Successful conservation of biodiversity required inputs and cooperation at the national government, NGOs, and private citizen levels
Nature reserves are given tax benefits, especially to those established by individuals
Established and promotes ecotourism
10% of the GDP is from ecotourism
Locally, almost 100% of locals are employed in tourism
Only implemented after the country was socioeconomically stable
• Infant mortality rates decreased, life expectancy increased, immunizations, disease control, education goals

Question 36

What does Sustainable development mean?

Answer 36

Ecologists set conservation strategies by identifying which habitats/patches are most crucial that will also improve the lives quality of life for the local people
• A connection between life sciences with social sciences, economics, and humanities

Question 37

Edges

Answer 37

The boundaries of the ecosystem
Ex. Edges of forests, lake shorelines, cropland and urban housing tracts

Edges have their own properties that differ from surrounding ecosystems
• Ex soil surface at edges receive more sunlight than the forest beside but is cooler and wetter than the soil in the open areas also beside
• Organisms can thrive in edges because they get resources from both surrounding ecosystems
Ex. Ruffled grouse (Bonasa umbellus) needs forests for nesting coverage and winter food but openings for summer food

Question 38

movement corridors

Answer 38

In fragmented habitats
can exist that help organisms move between fragments
Can be narrow strip of land, trees, small clumps of habitat, ect that is similar enough to the habitat fragment

Question 39

Conservation efforts lately have been focusing on?

Answer 39

biodiversity within communities, ecosystems, and landscapes

Question 40

Biodiversity of a landscape

Answer 40

is related to landscape structure

Question 41

Fragmentation in relation to landscapes

Answer 41

Species adapted to ecosystem centers have more rapid decline than species along edges
Ex. Amazon rainforest with isolated forest fragments

Question 42

How are movement corridors beneficial and harmful?

Answer 42

• Allows for dispersal, reduces inbreeding, aid in migration
Can spread diseases among habitat fragments
Can allow predators to travel into new fragments

Question 43

i

Answer 43

Riparian (along water ways that undergo frequent and/or periodic flooding) act as corridors (coyotes come into the city via the frozen Red River and it’s riparian banks)
Riparian ecosystems are more than just corridors. They can also protect a huge diversity of species from wild fires, such as lichens on alder trees within montane streams in BC
We can create artificial corridors to help species cross roads that would otherwise have fragmented their habitat

Question 44

protected areas

Answer 44

preventing/reducing habitat loss as a means to preserve biodiversity
7% of the world’s land are in protected areas
10% of Canada’s land mass is in protected areas

Question 45

biodiversity hot spots

Answer 45

Relatively small area with numerous endemic species and/or a large number of threatened or endangered species
Ie Newfoundland is a biodiversity hot spot for many endemic and endangered lichens due to its unique climate and fog forests and has many protected areas and provincial/national parks (Gros Morne, Terra Nova, etc
Designating biodiversity hot spots generally leans towards those with vertebrates and plants, and less so on insects and other invertebrates

Question 46

Nature reserves

Answer 46

are protected “islands” of biodiversity within a “sea of disturbance”
Do we create fewer but larger reserves or smaller, more numerous ones
Larger reserves have smaller total perimeters (edges) than smaller ones and also are good for large, territorial animals

Question 47

Zoned reserves

Answer 47

accounts for land management practices
Extensive regions of undisturbed land surrounded by areas with controlled human activity for economic gains
Strict regulations prevent the area from overexploitation and often have buffer zones to prevent the undisturbed areas from being damaged by human activities

Question 48

Urban ecology

Answer 48

looks at protecting species within urban areas and works to understand how species and the urban environment interact

Question 49

Marine protected areas (MPA

Answer 49

Endeavour Hydrothermal vents off Vancouver Island
• Protects unique biota found in deep sea vents along spreading ocean floors
• Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound Glass Sponge Reefs MPA
• Protects 9000 year old reefs
• Often establish in areas with economic resources (fish, oil, etc

Question 50

How does critical research focus on urban streams?

Answer 50

Focus on water quality and flow
What species are found in them
Urban rivers tend to rise and fall more rapidly than streams in rural areas
• Concrete and other impervious materials, storm drains, etc force runoff into streams
Also have higher concentrations of nutrients and chemical pollutants
• Can plant native shrubs and plants to manage riverbanks, help establish invertebrate populations, and moderate stream flow and water quality

Question 51

What are some human impacts changing the earth?

Answer 51

Acid precipitation
 Nutrient enrichment and loss 	
Toxins in the environment
Greenhouse gases and climate change
• Pharmaceuticals also affect ecosystems

Question 52

Acid precipitation

Answer 52

is a large-scale global change in which precipitation (rain, snow, fog, etc) has a pH <5.2
Burning of wood and fossil fuels releases SO2 and NO2 which reacts with atmospheric water forming sulfuric and nitric acids
Can result in huge loss of species as the acid precipitation not only burns terrestrial species, but also acidifies lakes and rivers

Question 53

Nutrient enrichment and loss

Answer 53

Nutrients are lost when habitats are converted or destroyed (agriculture removes nutrients from soils, etc)
Nutrient enrichment happens when nutrients are added to a habitat that have either been lost or not previously found there
• Ex adding fertilisers to crops added Nitrogen to the soil, but can also enrich surrounding waterways
• When nutrients exceed critical load (the amount that plants can absorb without causing harm to the ecosystem) can cause immense problems
Leaching, runoff, ground water contamination, etc
Can lead to eutrophication, “dead zones” of phytoplankton kill

Question 54

critical load

Answer 54

(the amount that plants can absorb without causing harm to the ecosystem)

Question 55

Rachel Carson

Answer 55

wrote “SilentSpring”outlining the effect of DDT on the ecosystem and the decline of large birds of prey
The DDT interfered with their bodies ‘ability to deposit calcium into their eggs, resulting in population decline since the parents crushed their eggs during nesting

Question 56

Toxins in the environment

Answer 56

We release a bunch of stuff into our environment and a lot of it is not good
• Organisms can absorb/acquire these toxins into their bodies, which then bioaccumulate up the trophic levels

Question 57

Pharmaceuticals affect ecosystems

Answer 57

People who consume over the counter medicines and other drugs excrete a lot of it when they pee or flush them down the toilet		 
Sewage treatment cannot break down all of them so the chemicals end up in our waterways 					 
Sex steroids (estrogen, etc) can cause male fish to acquire female characteristics at super low doses, which can cause population declines if there are no breeding males

Question 58

Greenhouse gases and climate change

Answer 58

Atmospheric ozone (O3) is important for screening out harmful and excess UV radiation from the sun
Located17-25km in the stratosphere(upper atmosphere)
Accumulation of CFC’s(chlorofluorocarbons, widely used in hair sprays and refrigeration in the 1970s) react with ozone, reducing it down to O2
This thins the ozone layer, reducing its ability to protect life on Earth