Global Diversity

Human Threats to Diversity

Politics, Economics & Ecology

Over geologic time, the Earth and its biological

diversity are in a near-constant state of flux.

Abiotic conditions impose significant

pressures on the organisms that live within
given locations.
Impact the fitness of an individual.
Persistence of a population.
Structure and function of communities and
ecosystems.
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Movement of tectonic plates has created the

landscapes we see, and destroyed many
others.

The lithosphere consists of the hard crust,

along with the upper-most (solid) layer of the
mantle.

The asthenosphere is weaker and more fluid.

Surface solid lithosphere sits upon the slowly

flowing fluid asthenosphere.

Where the lithosphere breaks, we observe

faults. Currently, the lithosphere is arranged
into 15 major tectonic plates, though this
number has changed over time.

Fig 23.2 The earth is made up of several layers.

Extinction is the expected fate of new taxa.

Some estimates suggesting only 1% of the

species ever to occupy the earth are currently
extant.

Given that ecologists cannot agree on how many

species are currently extant, one should be a bit
skeptical of this claim of 1%.

It promotes the importance of time in structuring

natural systems.

The rate of extinction has varied greatly over

time.

There is agreement that there have been five

'mass' extinction events over the last 550
million years.

Each characterized by the loss of over 75% of

the species estimated prior to the event.

The causes of these events are diverse and

include:
periods of massive global warming or
cooling.
asteroid impacts.
sea level changes.
extensive volcanic activity.
changes in atmospheric composition.

Extinction events obviously have major

impacts on the biodiversity through the loss of
numerous genera and species.
However, they also impact biodiversity
through periods of rapid speciation following
the event.
Such changes would impose new
opportunities and challenges for the species
that remained, leading to further selection and
speciation.
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Fig 23.7 The

proportion of
known species to
have gone extinct
(white) or are
threatened (black)
in the last 500
years. Some
taxanomic groups
have not been fully
assessed (asteriks),
and thus these
estimates may be
inaccurate.
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Asa Gray: there exists substantial geographic

variation in the diversity of trees within the
forested regions of the temperate zone.

Study of fossil record found the ability of the

trees to colonize other regions of the world
was limited by several factors, including:
Geographic barriers such as oceans that separated
Asia from other continents.
Atmospheric cooling that required species to have
evolved freezing-tolerance to successfully migrate
through the northern route.
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2

Large-scale atmospheric and oceanic phenomena

influence ecological systems on global scale.

Southern Oscillation: oscillation in atmospheric

pressure that extends across the Pacific Ocean.

North Atlantic Oscillation and Northern Hemisphere

Annular Mode are oscillations in atmospheric pressure
that affect northern areas.

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British
mathematician
Walker (1924) first
to recognize
patterns in
barometric pressure
across Pacific
Ocean.
Termed pattern the
Southern
Oscillation.

Fig 23.10 The Southern Oscillation Index

shows the difference in barometric
pressures between Tahiti and Darwin,
Australia.
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Connection between Southern Oscillation and

patterns of ocean temperature during El Nios
described by Bjerknes (1966, 1969).
Gradient in sea surface temperature across central
Pacific Ocean produces circulation system that moves in
plane of equator.
During El Nio, air over warmer western Pacific rises,
sinks as it reaches eastern Pacific, then moves west
again, gathering moisture and rising as it warms again.

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Fig 23.11
Walker
circulation
, El Nio,
& La Nia.

Fig 23.12 Effects of the exceptionally strong El Nio of

1982 to 1983 on patterns of global precipitation.
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During El Nio
Sea surface in eastern tropical Pacific is much warmer than
average and barometric pressure is lower than average.
Sea surface in western Pacific cooler than average and
barometric pressure higher than average.

During La Nia
Sea surface temperature is lower than average and barometric
pressure higher than average in eastern tropical Pacific.
Reversed geographic pattern of warm & wet versus cool & dry.

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Most dramatic effects El Nio occur in marine

populations along west coast of South
America.
Typically, coastal waters in this region are relatively
cool.
Tongue of cool, nutrient-rich water extends
westward, brought to surface by upwelling.
During El Nio, warm surface water reaches west
coast of South America and stops upwelling.
Nutrient supply reduced, 1 productivity goes down
and supply of food to consumers becomes limiting,
leading to decline of fish and their predators.
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NAO: fluctuation in atmospheric pressure

between Iceland and the Azores, off the coast
of Portugal.
Positive phase: atmospheric pressures lower
towards Arctic, storms shift north.
Higher temps in North America and Europe, less
precipitation in Canadian Arctic, cool temps in
eastern Canada.

Negative phase: pattern reversed; cooler

temps and more precipitation in Canadian
Arctic.

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Fig 23.14 Large-scale impacts of the (a) positive, and (b) negative
phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation. Areas that will be wetter than
usual are indicated in blue, with drier areas in yellow.

Substantial variation in strength of NAO among

years:

Figure 23.15 Variation in the NAO over time. Zero represents the
standardized average NAO index, with values in red corresponding to the
positive phase and values in blue the negative phase.
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How does variation in NAO affect wildlife

populations?
Post and Stenseth (1999) explored this using
long-term records on plant phenology at sites in
Norway and data on ungulate populations from
sites in Europe, North America, and Scandinavia.
Plants flowered earlier in Norway following
positive NAO winters (which are warmer &
wetter).
4070% of variation in body size and fecundity of
ungulate populations explained by NAO.
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Human activities, mainly agriculture and

urbanization, have significantly altered onethird to one-half of the ice-free land surface of
the earth.
Marshes have been drained and filled to build
urban areas or airports.
Tropical forests have been cut and converted
to pasture.
The courses of rivers have been changed.

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Soule (1991) suggests that the economic status of

countries will strongly influence challenges to
biodiversity are likely to be strong or weak.

23.16 Human influences present different

challenges to biodiversity as a function of
ecological scale and economic status of a country.

How much of the planet's net primary

productivity (NPP) is used by humans?

Haberl et al. 2007 estimates that humans

appropriate nearly 24% of global NPP on land
(HANPP = Human appropriate net primary
productivity).
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Fig 23.17 A map showing the percentage of NPP that is used by people.
Negative values can occur through irrigation and other agricultural
activities.

Foley et al. (2005) summarized global impact of

land use by humans.
Humans use 1/3 to 1/2 of global productivity.
Dominant human uses are croplands and pastures
(cover ~40% of the earths surface).
Fertilizer use has increased 700% and irrigated 70% in
last 40 years.
711 million km2 of forest has been cleared in last 300
years.

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Fig 23.20 Changes in land use as societies develop

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Fig 23.21 Information on tropical deforestation from satellite

images: deforestation in Rondnia State, Brazil (light areas), in (a)
1975, (b) 1986, and (c) 1992.

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Figure 23.19 Deforestation in Amazonia between (a) 1978 and (b) 1988

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Skole and Tucker (1993)

Estimated:

that by 1978, 78,000 km2 deforested

annual rate of deforestation between 1978
and 1988 was ~15,000 km2
that by 1988 total area deforested was
230,000 km2

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2

As this landscape is one full of politics, it is not

surprising that the economics of ecological
decisions plays a central role.

Ecologists of today benefit from two things not

available to the early ecologists:
The hard work of our predecessors has resulted in a
broad set theories regarding how the natural world
functions.
For the last several decades, issues of great
environmental concern have been in the front pages of
newspapers and lead stories on news broadcasts
throughout the world.
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 Recovery programs for species that are threatened or

endangered are not cheap, and it is difficult to convince
the public of signing a 'blank check' for such efforts.
Needed are robust cost-estimates, and these can
emerge when ecologists, economists, and political
scientists work together.
Donal McCarthy: cost estimates for reducing the
extinction risk for 211 of the over 1100 globally
threatened bird species $0.88 billion per year over the
next 10 years.

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 Ecological services (i.e., nutrient cycling, water filtration,

biomass production) have economic value, and as
ecosystems deteriorate, their value also declines.
Thus, conservation costs can result in economic gains and
be seen as an investment in natural capital.
Daily et al. 2009: created a framework in which ecology and
economics can be more formally integrated into decision
making processes InVEST (Integrated valuation of
ecosystem services and tradeoffs).

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Critical to not only show costs and benefits to

conservation, but also to have the dollars spent
on conservation used as efficiently as possible.
Need to maximize the return on investment (ROI) on
conservation efforts.

Areas of priority for conservation critical data:

Biodiversity.
Risk and gain
Costs.

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Over different time scales, the earth and its

biological diversity are in a near-constant state
of flux.

Human activities have generated substantial

threats to biological diversity.

Ecological information can be integrated with

economic data to help meet conservation
goals in a political landscape.
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FINAL EXAM REVIEW LECTURE
Email kajiura@mcmaster.ca the topics that you
want reviewed BEFORE Friday November 4th
4:00pm.

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