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Conservation Biology
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Conservation Biology
Introduction
Why Care about Species Extinctions?
Estimating Current Rates of Extinction
Preserving Biodiversity
Habitat Restoration and Species Recovery
Healing Biotas: Conservation Medicine
Setting Limits: The Legacy of Samuel Plimsoll
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Introduction
The problem of human-caused extinction of
species led to the development of the discipline of
conservation biology: the scientific study of how
to preserve the diversity of life.
Conservation biology draws on population
genetics, evolution, biogeography, wildlife
management, economics, and sociology.
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Preserving Biodiversity
The human activities that threaten species include
habitat destruction, introduction of invasive
species, overexploitation, disease, alteration of
disturbance patterns, and climate change.
Conservation biologists determine how these
activities are affecting species and devise
strategies to preserve endangered or threatened
species.
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Preserving Biodiversity
Habitat loss is the most important cause of
endangerment of species in the U.S., especially
species that live in fresh waters.
As habitats are destroyed, the remaining patches
become fragmented (smaller and more isolated).
Small patches cannot maintain populations that
require larger areas and can support only small
numbers of species that can survive in them.
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Preserving Biodiversity
The fraction of a habitat patch that is influenced
by adjacent habitat conditions (edge effects)
increases rapidly as patch size decreases.
Close to the edges of a forest patch, for example,
the environment differs from that inside the forest,
so species from surrounding habitats colonize the
edges to compete with or prey upon those inside.
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Preserving Biodiversity
Usually it is not known which organisms lived in
an area before their habitats became fragmented.
A major research project in Manaus, Brazil, was
undertaken to examine the effects of habitat
fragmentation.
Landowners agreed to preserve forest patches of
certain sizes and configurations.
Biologists examined species diversity before and
after logging around the patches.
Species began to disappear from the isolated
patches soon after the surrounding forest was cut.
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Preserving Biodiversity
Species that become extinct in small patches are
unlikely to be reestablished, but corridors between
patches can allow individuals to disperse and
species to persist.
In Brazil, within 79 years of having abandoned
the logged patches, birds reestablished
themselves in the young forest that grew up.
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Preserving Biodiversity
People have moved organisms between
continents deliberately and accidentally.
A species that has evolved in a community and
become accustomed to the natural predators or
competitors may be driven to extinction by newly
introduced predators or competitors.
A major human-caused environmental change is
the introduction of non-native species that then
become invasive in the their new environments.
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Preserving Biodiversity
Hundreds of species of plants have been
introduced as ornamentals. An example is purple
loosestrife.
Almost half of the medium-sized marsupials in
Australia have become extinct due to the
introduction of predators (cats and foxes) and
competitors (rabbits) to the continent.
Proliferation of introduced pathogens, such as the
fungus that causes Dutch elm disease, has
caused much destruction to North American
forests.
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Preserving Biodiversity
The best way to reduce the damage caused by
invasive species is to prevent their establishment
in the first place.
The shipping industry spreads invasive species in
ballast water, which is pumped into ships at one
port and discharged at another. Deoxygenating
ballast water before it is pumped out would control
the problem of invasive aquatic species.
Australia and New Zealand require a weed risk
assessment for the importation of plants.
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Preserving Biodiversity
The U.S. horticultural industry has crafted a
voluntary code of conduct stating that the invasive
potential of a plant should be assessed prior to its
introduction and marketing.
A decision tree can be used to determine whether
a species is likely to become invasive.
A plant species is more likely to become invasive
if it has short generation time, small seeds, a
large range, and no evolutionary relationship to
plants in the new area.
Conservation biologists have developed a
decision tree to determine whether exotic species
can safely be introduced into North America.
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Preserving Biodiversity
Until recently, humans caused most extinctions
primarily by overhunting.
The passenger pigeon, one of the most abundant
species of bird in North America in the 1800s,
became extinct by 1914 due to hunting.
Elephants and rhinoceroses are threatened with
extinction because poachers kill them for their
tusks and horns.
The houseplant and pet trades currently threaten
many species of orchids, parrots, and reptiles.
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Preserving Biodiversity
Programs have been developed to help us use
species in a way that does not threaten their
survival.
Certification programs: Organizations such as
the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the
Marine Stewardship Council determine whether
commercial operations harvest and market their
products in ways that meet their criteria.
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Preserving Biodiversity
The Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES), an international
organization, determines and prohibits trade in
endangered species or their products (e.g., whale
meat, rhinoceros horn, many parrots and orchids).
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Preserving Biodiversity
Many species depend on particular patterns of
disturbance to persist.
Humans often try to control such disturbances,
but conservation biologists try to determine where
disturbances should be reestablished.
For example, annual growth rings on ponderosa
pines show that low-intensity fires were once
common in New Mexico.
Because of sheep grazing and fire suppression,
buildup of dead branches and needles has
resulted in intense, tree-consuming fires.
Today ground fires are deliberately started to
imitate historic patterns.
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Preserving Biodiversity
Atmospheric scientists predict that average
temperatures in North America will increase 2
5C by the end of the century.
Species will need to shift their ranges as much as
500800 km. Some habitats, such as alpine
tundra, may disappear.
Knowledge of how organisms responded to past
climate changes, such as postglacial warming,
can help us predict the effects of the current
warming.
Organisms such as birds, which have good
dispersal abilities, can shift their ranges rapidly.
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Preserving Biodiversity
Other species shift ranges much more slowly.
In North America, some species of coniferous
trees expanded northward as glaciers retreated.
Earthworms disperse very slowly. Introduced
earthworms from Europe are able to survive in
places north of the current distribution of native
earthworms.
Slow dispersal, not lack of suitable habitat, has
kept native earthworms from moving northward.
Figure 57.7 Some Species Shift Their Ranges in Response to Climate Change (Part 1)
Figure 57.7 Some Species Shift Their Ranges in Response to Climate Change (Part 2)
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Preserving Biodiversity
If Earth warms as predicted, climatic zones wont
just shift. New climates will develop and some
existing climates will disappear.
New climates are likely to develop at low
elevations in the tropics. A warming of even 2C
would result in climates that are warmer than any
that exist today.
In 1988, the highest sea surface temperatures
ever recorded caused corals to undergo
bleaching and increased their mortality
worldwide.
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