Biodiversity Part II

1

• Biodiversity Part II
• The last word in ignorance is the person who
  says of an animal or plant What good is it?
• - Aldo Leopold

Sustaining Biodiversity The Ecosystem Approach
2
Biodiversity in the news

• The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway opens
  today
• "It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological
  diversity for future generations. - Prime
  Minister Jens Stoltenberg
• The facility will house seed samples of food
  plants from absolutely the entire world
• Other countries can deposit seeds without charge
  and reserve the right to withdraw them upon need
• Cost 9.1 million to build, 600 miles from North
  Pole, 425 ft inside a frozen mountain

3
Anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity

• Habitat Change, Loss, and Degradation
• Agriculture use for human population
  fragmentation
• River fragmentation (60 of worlds rivers)
• Climate Change see previous two lectures
• Invasive species
• Intentional, accidental, partially lead to
  homogenization
• Over exploitation
• Marine fisheries whats the problem here
• Pollution/Nutrient Loading
• Nitrogen/phosphorus

Information taken from the Millennium Assessment
of Biodiversity - http//www.millenniumassessment.
org/documents/document.273.aspx.pdf
4
Loss of biodiversity

• Primary Causes
• Population growth, irresponsible resource
  consumption, lack of environmental
  accountability, poverty
• Secondary Causes
• Habitat loss, degradation, fragmentation,
  invasive species
• Climate change, resource abuse, predator pest
  control, pollution
• Greatest eliminator of species
• Deforestation of tropical forests
• Degradation of coral reefs, wetlands and water
  resources

5
Biodiversity worldwide

• Take home message We have depleted and
  degraded Earths biodiversity and these threats
  are expected to increaseChinas Biodiversity

6
Biodiversity land use

• How is land used globally?
• 30 of the planets land is forest/woodland
• 26 rangeland and pasture
• 11 cropland
• 33 desert, tundra, rock, ice
• Land use factoids
• 12 protected on paper parks, wildlife
  refuges, nature reserves/preserves
• 95 of land is reserved for human use

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Land degradation 1980-2000

• In the case of forest cover change, the studies
  refer to the period 19802000 and are based on
  national statistics, remote sensing, and to a
  limited degree expert opinion.

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
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How have ecosystems changed

• Altered the structure of the systems AND their
  processes and functioning as well
• Ecosystem processes, including water, nitrogen,
  carbon, and phosphorus cycling experienced
  tremendous change
• The ability of ecosystems to provide services is
  derived directly from the operation of natural
  biogeochemical cycles that in some cases have
  been significantly modified
• Ecosystems and biomes most significantly altered
  include marine and freshwater ecosystems,
  temperate broadleaf forests, temperate
  grasslands, Mediterranean forests, and tropical
  dry forests

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
9
Ecological concepts

• Ecological concepts
• Ecosystem
• Ecological niche
• Habitat
• Generalists, specialist
• Keystone species
• Foundation species
• Indicator species
• Species richness- number of different species in
  a community
• Population same species in an area
• Community population of all species in an area

http//www.maths.lancs.ac.uk/rowlings/Otters/otte
rs.html
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Ecological concepts

• Abundance how many
• Variation different types
• Old-growth forest
• Species interactions
• Interspecific competition
• Resource partitioning (temporal, spatial,
  morphological)
• Predator-prey relationship
• Parasitism
• Commensalism

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Ecological concepts

• Ecological succession gradual change in species
  composition of a given area
• All communities change their structure and
  composition in response to changing environmental
  conditions
• Primary succession gradual establishment of
  biotic communities on essentially lifeless
  ground
• Retreating glacier, severe soil erosion, cooled
  lava, abandoned road, parking lot
• Slow, first soil must be developed
• Secondary succession
• Clear cut forest, burned forests, flooded areas
• Soil, sediment is present, moves quicker

12
Ecological concepts

• What are ecosystem services?
• Ecological services that are essential for human
  well-being
• Ecosystem services
• Support services
• Provisioning services
• Regulating services
• Cultural services
• Biodiversity strengthens and facilitates
  Ecosystem Services
• Encourages effective and efficient operation of
  ecosystem services

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
13
Worlds ecological systems

• Marine
• Coastal
• Island
• Urban
• Dryland
• Polar
• Forest
• Cultivated
• Inland waters
• Mountain

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Worlds ecological systems

• 10 categories of land and marine systems
• Marine system
• Marine systems are the worlds oceans, greater
  than 50 m deep
• Coastal system
• Coral reefs, intertidal zones, estuaries, coastal
  aquaculture, and seagrass communities
• Nearly half of the worlds major cities (having
  more than 500,000 people) are located within 50
  kilometers of the coast
• Island system
• Lands (continental and oceanic) isolated by
  surrounding water
• Especially sensitive to disturbances
• Majority of extinction have occurred on island
  systems

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
15
Worlds ecological systems

• Marine, Coastal, Island

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
16
Worlds ecological systems

• Urban system
• Built environment with high human density - The
  worlds urban population went from 200 million in
  1900 to 2.9 billion in 2000
• Cities with 1 million increased from 17 in 1900
  to 388 in 2000
• Dryland system
• Lands where plant production is limited by water
  availability
• Mainly use for livestock grazing and cultivation
• Covers about 41 of land, inhabited by over 2
  billion people
• 10-20 of all dryland is degraded
• Polar system
• High-latitude systems frozen for most of the year
• Much warmer, permafrost sea ice reduction
• Tundra constitutes the largest wetland in the
  world

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
17
Worlds ecological systems

• Urban, Dryland, Polar

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
18
Worlds ecological systems

• Forest system
• Reduced by 50 over the past three centuries
• Completely disappeared in 25 countries and 29
  countries have experienced a 90 loss
• 4.6 billion people depend for all or some of
  their supplies from forest systems

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
19
Worlds ecological systems

• Forest

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
20
Worlds ecological systems

• Cultivated systems
• Dominated by domestic species crops, livestock,
  aquaculture
• Covers about 30 of total land area
• Major areas of cropland expansion (last two
  decades) were located in Southeast Asia, parts of
  South Asia, the Great Lakes region of eastern
  Africa, the Amazon Basin, and the U.S. Great
  Plains

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
21
Worlds ecological systems

• Cultivated

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
22
Worlds ecological systems

• Inland water systems
• Biodiversity is worse here than any other
  ecosystem
• Rivers, lakes, floodplains, reservoirs, wetlands,
  and inland saline systems
• Declines in both the area of wetlands and the
  water quality, fragmentation, pollution and
  invasive species
• 50 of inland water area has been lost globally
• Mountain systems
• 20 or 1.2 billion people live in mountains or
  their edges
• Nearly all, 90 are in developing economies

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
23
Worlds ecological systems

• Inland water, mountain

Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
24
Biogeographical regions biomes
Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
25
Biomes species richness
Information taken from Millennium Assessment -
http//www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/docu
ment.356.aspx.pdf
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Tropical deforestation

• Large areas of ecologically and economically
  important tropical forests are being cleared and
  degraded at a fast rate.

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Tropical deforestation

• At least half of the worlds terrestrial plant
  and animal species live in tropical rain forests
• Large areas of tropical forest are burned to make
  way for cattle ranches and crops

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Tropical deforestation

• Natures Pharmacy - About 2,100 of the 3,000
  plants identified by the National Cancer
  Institute as sources of cancer-fighting chemicals
  come from tropical forests.

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Causes of tropical deforestation

• Tropical deforestation results from a number of
  interconnected primary and secondary causes

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Protecting marine biodiversity

• Difficult to monitor the impacts on such a large
  CPR
• Viewed as an inexhaustible resource
• Poor protection
• lt 0.3 of the worlds oceans are protected from
  human activity
• In the U.S. weve only fully protected about 50
  square miles
• What can we do?
• Protect endangered species
• Protected sanctuaries (Marine protected areas
  MPA)
• Marine reserves, zoning
• Integrated coastal management to protect habitat
  (wetlands)
• Manage fisheries

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Nature reserves

• Ecologists call for protecting more land to help
  sustain biodiversity, but powerful economic and
  political interests oppose doing this
• Only 12 of earths land area is protected
• And only 5 is strictly protected from harmful
  human activities
• Protect 20 - Conservation biologists call for
  full protection of at least 20 of earths land
  area representing multiple examples of all biomes

32
Nature reserves

• Set aside wilderness in a large enough area to
  prevent or minimize harm from human activities
  (what is large enough?)
• Global hotspots - we can prevent or slow down
  losses of biodiversity by concentrating efforts
  on protecting global hot spots where significant
  biodiversity is under immediate threat
• Local community involvement - conservation
  biologists are helping people in communities find
  ways to sustain local biodiversity while
  providing local economic income

33
Nature reserves

• A model biosphere reserve that contains a
  protected inner core surrounded by two buffer
  zones that people can use for multiple use.

34
Nature reserves

• Connect large and medium-sized reserves with
  corridors and provide buffer zones to help
  protect biodiversity
• Megareserves - Costa Rica has consolidated its
  parks and reserves into 8 megareserves designed
  to sustain 80 if its biodiversity
• Once 99 of Costa Rica wasforested, now about
  35

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Nature reserves
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Ecosystem mitigation

• Restoration
• Original state - trying to return to a condition
  as similar as possible to original state
• Rehabilitation
• Return to ecologically functionality
• Replacement
• Replace a degraded ecosystem with another type of
  ecosystem
• Creating artificial ecosystems
• For flood reduction and sewage treatment

37
Ecological restoration

• Five basic science-based principles for
  ecological restoration
• Identify cause (pollution, farming, overgrazing,
  mining)
• Stop abuse by eliminating factor
• Remove toxic soil, pollutants, replace non-native
  species
• Reintroduce species if necessary (native,
  foundation, keystone)
• Protect area form further degradation
• Use adaptive management to monitor efforts,
  assess successes, and modify strategies

38
Solutions for preserving biodiversity

• Eight priorities for protecting biodiversity
• Take immediate action to preserve worlds
  biological hot spots.
• Keep intact remaining old growth
• Complete mapping of worlds biodiversity for
  inventory and decision making
• Determine worlds marine hot spots
• Concentrate on protecting and restoring lake and
  river systems (most threatened ecosystems)

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Solutions for preserving biodiversity

• Ensure that the full range of the Earths
  ecosystems are included in global conservation
  strategy
• Make conservation profitable
• Initiate ecological restoration products to heal
  some of the damage done and increase share of
  earths land and water allotted to the rest of
  nature

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Biodiversity - complicated issues

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vL3QgCLyxvn4

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Managing natural capital

• Forests provide a number of ecological and
  economic services that researchers have attempted
  to estimate their total monetary value

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Managing natural capital

• Human activities have reduced the earths forest
  cover by as much as half
• Losses are concentrated in developing countries
• Almost half the people in the developing world
  face a shortage of fuelwood and charcoal
• In Haiti, 98 of country is deforested
• 40 in next 20 years will be logged or converted

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Managing natural capital

• Combating deforestation
• We can use forests more sustainably by
  emphasizing
• Include economic value of ecological services in
  forest decisions
• Harvesting trees no faster than they are
  replenished
• Protecting old-growth, vulnerable areas
• Certify and purchase sustainably harvested timber

44
Managing U.S. Forests

• U.S. forests cover more area than in 1920.
• Since the 1960s, an increasing area of old
  growth and diverse second-growth forests have
  been clear-cut.
• Often replace with tree farms
• Decreases biodiversity
• Disrupts ecosystem processes

45
Managing U.S. Forests

• In 2003, U.S. Congress passed the Healthy Forest
  Restoration Act
• Allows timber companies to cut medium and large
  trees in 71 of the national forests
• In return, must clear away smaller, more
  fire-prone trees and underbrush
• Some forest scientists believe this could
  increase severe fires by removing fire resistant
  trees and leaving highly flammable slash

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Controversy over Logging in U.S. National Forests

• There has been an ongoing debate over whether
  U.S. national forests should be primarily for
• Timber
• Ecological services
• Recreation
• Mix of these uses