Conservation of BIODIVERSITY

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Conservation of BIODIVERSITY

• Biodiversity can be assessed and conserved at
  several levels
• Molecular/Genetic (rare genes and alleles)
• Population
• Species
• Assemblage
• Ecosystem
• Global

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BIODIVERSITY

• Molecular/genetic is the level at which natural
  selection and evolution occurs
• Loss of genetic diversity impedes adaptability
• Loss of populations similarly handicaps a
  species chance of surviving uncertain
  circumstances in the future.

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Loss of Biodiversity

• Many reasons, often confounded
• Historic extinctions
• p/t extinction (250 mya)
• k/t extinction (65 mya)
• Holocene extinctions 10,000 years ago to present

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EXTINCTION

• Given evolutionary turnover, extinction is
  inevitable. Like death for the individual,
  nothing is more certain in the future of a
  species than its ultimate removal.
• P. Martin and R. G.Klein IN
• Quarternary Extinctions
• A Prehistoric Revolution 1984

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Current Extinctions

• Current biodiversity crisis
• Human mediated
• Correlated with Homo sapiens expanding range and
  density
• Ever-quickening rate of extinctions
• Has led to increase of 1000 10,000 above the
  rate of background extinctions

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Current Extinctions

• Current biodiversity crisis
• Before 1800
• Islands many unique island assemblages decimated
  
• Gigantic flightless birds
• Gigantic tortoises
• Dwarf elephants/hippos
• Continents severe extinctions among megafauna
• North american mammals
• South american marsupials

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Current Extinctions

• After 1800
• Extinctions on islands continue
• Birds, endemic mammals, reptiles
• Extinctions among smaller continental fauna
  increase in pace
• Habitat destruction/conversion
• Unregulated trade
• Bounties on undesirable species

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Conservation of Herpetofauna

• Amphibians and reptiles face many of the same
  threats that face other non-human organisms
• Habitat modification and destruction
• Introduction of exotic species
• Pollution
• Commercial exploitation
• Traditional and modern medicine
• Pets
• Research and teaching
• Traffic mortality
• Persecution

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Habitat modification and destruction

• The most significant problem
• Absolutely correlated with increasing human
  population size
• Extensive and worldwide all biomes, but tropical
  rainforests hit hardest
• At the current rate of deforestation, within 30
  years there will remain neither extensive
  tropical forests, nor their endemic amphibian and
  reptile fauna
• from Pough et al. 2001

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1) Habitat destruction

1. Deforestation of tropical forests
2. Destruction of coral reef ecosystems
3. Wetland alteration for development
4. Temperate regions altered for agriculture
5. Habitat fragmentation

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Habitat modification and destruction

• gt95 of central Californias marshes were drained
  and converted before 1900.
• Rana aurora draytonii (California red-legged
  frog), once Californias most common frog, all
  but disappeared
• Thamnophis gigas (giant garter snake), slowly
  declined, now almost extinct

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Habitat destruction
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Habitat modification and destruction

• In Florida, habitat conversion may have been
  responsible for a decline in Ambystoma cingulatum
  
• 200-300 per night between 1970-1972
• lt1 per night after habitat conversion in
  1990-1992
• Anniella pulchra declines correlated with
  introduced plant spp.

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Habitat modification and destruction

• Often works in tandem with weedy or introduced
  species
• In Arizona, alteration of hydrologic regime
  enables crayfish, game fish and bullfrogs to
  persist where they otherwise couldnt
• Argentine ants expanding range into U.S. deserts
  by utilizing lawns and other landscaping
  features. Decline in Phrynosoma coronatum and P.
  cornutum correlated with spread of fire ants

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Habitat Fragmentation
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Introduced species

• Declines (and extinctions) in many island species
  attributable to introduced exotics
• Dogs and cats Cyclura carinata in Caicos Islands
  
• Cats Brachylophus iguanas in the South Pacific
• Goats Crotalus unicolor on Aruba Island
• Sheep, goats, rats Sphenodon in New Zealand
• Introduced fish in Californias high elevation
  lakes Rana muscosa and Thamnophis spp.
• Fire ants impacting Texas horned lizard (P.
  cornutum) and Coast horned lizard (P. coronutum)
• Small Indian Mongoose 7 species of reptile and
  amphibian from Puerto Rico

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Introduced Species Herps

• Bullfrog western U.S, C. and S. America,
  England, France, Asia, many other places
• Boiga irregularis Guam
• Wiping out geckos and skinks (all birds, bats,
  many small mammals already gone)
• Introduced herp assemblages at ports-of-call

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Introduced Herps by State (Simberloff et al.
1996)
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Pollution

• Acid rain
• Ambystoma tigrinum in the Rocky Mountains
• Bufo calamita in Britain
• Selenium/agriculture runoff
• Thamnophis gigas in Californias Central Valley
• Pesticide wafting Rana and Bufo spp. in the
  Sierra Nevada

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Pollution

• Solid Waste marine turtles
• PCBs effect endocrine systems of aquatic frogs
  and turtles
• Acidic runoff from mines Rana tarahumarae in
  Arizona

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Pollution

• Biomagnification
• The increase in the concentration of
  bioaccumulated toxic chemicals in organisms
  higher on the food chain due to preferential
  storage of the toxic chemical in edible body
  parts
• There is abundant evidence that some carnivores
  at the ends of longer food chains (crocodiles,
  alligators, snakes) suffered serious declines in
  fecundity and hence in population size because of
  this phenomenon

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Anthropogenic eutrophication
Directly Impacts aquatic turtle, alligator, snake
populations

• Nutrients released, triggering chain of events

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Over-harvesting
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Commercial collecting Food

• Frogs U.S., Europe, SE Aisa, Africa
• Late 1800s extreme decline in availability of
  California red-legged frogs partially
  attributable to collecting pressure
• 1976- 2.5 million KG frog legs imported into U.S.
  
• Annual consumption in France 2.7-3.6 million KG
  frog legs

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Commercial collecting Food

• Declines in Iguana iguana and Ctenosaura similis
• Monitors, pythons, tortoises, sea turtles

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Commercial collecting SE Asian Turtle Crisis

• 12 million turtles sold per year in Chinas food
  markets
• Chinas and Vietnams turtle populations
  depleted now imported from all around the world,
  including the U.S.
• Many of Chinas turtles were only known from the
  food markets no natural history or distribution
  information available
• Many of those turtles have not been seen in
  markets for years

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Commercial collecting SE Asian Turtle Crisis

• Low reproductive rate combined with great
  importance placed on age of turtle has dire
  consequences for natural populations

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The bycatch problem
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Commercial exploitation for skins

• Civil war Thousands of American alligators
  killed for skins
• Legal importation of 304,189 pairs of Boa
  constrictor boots and 176,204 pairs of Python
  reticulatus into U.S in 1981 (all harvested from
  the wild)
• gt1 million crocodile skins per year from 1980 to
  1985
• gt12 million tegu skins during same period

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Commercial exploitation for skins

• Most species harvested for skins are long-lived
• Until recently all have been harvested from the
  wild
• Some progress being made to establish farms for
  commercially important species
• The vast majority of skins are still collected
  from wild animals

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Traditional and Modern Medicine

• Bufo alvarius and Phyllomedusa bicolor used in
  shamanistic rituals
• Snake venom used in antivenin and anticoagulant
  drugs
• Batrachotoxin used in research to probe for
  voltage-sensitive sodium channels
• Rattlesnake shaker muscle used in physiology
  studies

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Pets

• In Florida, 119,831 herps removed from the wild
  between 1990-1992
• 74,000 box turtles exported as pets between
  1992-1994
• Habitat destruction often accompanies collecting
  for pets
• Very little record kept regarding s of animals
  collected as pets from the wild

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Pet trade

• In the United States, the retail trade in live
  reptiles, amphibians, and related products is
  worth a minimum of two billion dollars annually
  -Joseph Franke MS and Teresa Telecky
• If you wish a reptile as pet make sure you are
  dealing with dealer that can be trusted. Find out
  where the animals come from

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Research

• For scientific collections usually very small
  impact
• For bio and medical training
• In early 1970s 15 million leopard frogs
  collected from the wild
• 1970-1971 10 tons of leopard frogs collected
  from one western state
• 250 lbs collected 4 years later

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Traffic Mortality Roadkill!
Increases mortality of individuals and also
decreases gene flow
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Matthew Aresco, a 4th year PhD student in the
Department of Biological Science at Florida State
University built a temporary fence to divert
turtles (and other wildlife, gt 41 species) away
from the road and into a culvert that joined the
two lakes. Over the past 2.5 years he has
monitored the temporary fence at least twice per
day and maintained it at his personal expense (at
least 2000 out-of-pocket). Species such as
frogs, snapping turtles, large softshell turtles,
alligators, and most mammals can climb over this
low fence. The fence only covers 2000' - 3000' of
the "killing zone".
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Permanent guidewall and culvert system recently
constructed at Paynes Prairie on US Highway 441
south of Gainesville, Florida. 
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Persecution
http//www.rattlesnakeroundup.com/index.html
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Rattlesnake Roundups

• Occur in several southeastern states
• Run by either non-profit Jaycees clubs or
  for-profit companies
• 5 Crotalus spp. are targets other harmless
  snakes taken incidentally
• Collecting methods often unethical

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Rattlesnake Roundups

• Snakes often stockpiled by collectors for long
  periods of time
• At roundup, measured, weighed, poked fun at,
  submitted to stresses and injuries
• Often skinned alive, in public

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Rattlesnake Roundups

• Justified as a way to educate the public
• Also, to collect venom for research/antivenin
  industry
• Claims that theres no effect, or a beneficial
  effect, on native populations
• However, effects of roundups on wild populations
  largely undocumented

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Rattlesnake roundups

• The only organized events in the U.S. in which
  profits are made off the unregulated harvest of a
  vertebrate group
• WHY?

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Declining Amphibians-History

• In 1989, at an international herp conference,
  workers expressed concern that their study
  organisms werent as common as they once were

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Declining Amphibians-

• Species extinctions and population declines
  around the world prior to 1990
• Subsequent studies have documented declines as
  they happen
• Few patterns emerged, other than that the most
  precipitous declines were among Anurans

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Declining Amphibians-

• Many of the same causes found for other
  biodiversity losses
• Habitat loss
• Pollution, acid rain
• Exotic species
• Collecting

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Amphibian DeclineWhats happening to all the
frogs?
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http//www.amphibiaweb.org/aw/declines/extinct.htm
ldeclines
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Evidence of a complex problem
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Two specimens of deformed frogs (Rana pipiens)
from Vermont with missing parts of their hind
limbs
Deformed Pacific Treefrog, Hyla regilla, from
Oregon, with supernumerary hind limbs
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Whats causing these Deformities/Declines?
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1) predation and/or cannibalism?
predation and/or cannibalism, whereby some
predator (even other tadpoles) may be nipping the
limbs off of  tadpoles 
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2) CHEMICAL POLLUTANTS?

• Retinoic Acid
• Main effects of RA on amphibian limbs-
• Methoprene?

• Atrazine

• Diazinon
• Suppresses cholinesterase (nervous system)

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Hayes found hermaphroditism in frogs at levels as
low as 0.1 ppb. Even with today's limits, levels
of 40 ppb atrazine have been measured in rain and
spring water in parts of the Midwest, while
atrazine in agricultural runoff can be present at
several parts per million.
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3) Parasites?
Ribeiroia cercariae

• http//www.jcu.edu.au/school/phtm/PHTM/frogs/ampdi
  s.htm
• Ribeiroia ondatrae (trematodes)

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Johnson et al. exposed tadpole Pacific tree frog
(Hyla regilla) to the cercaria of a trematode
parasite, Ribeiroia. They found that as the
number of parasites per tadpoles rises, the
percentage of abnormalities increases while
survival decreases.
http//news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/961.ht
ml
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Parasites cont.

• Spirometra erinacei (tapeworm)

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Pathogens?

• Chytrid Fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis)
• Mucor amphibiorum
• Infected frogs and toads have fungi disseminated
  through their internal organs and skin

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Infected frogs may

• have discoloured skin
• be sloughing, or peeling, on the outside layers
  of its skin. This can vary from obvious peeling
  of skin (particularly on the feet), to a
  roughness of the frog's skin that you can barely
  see
• sit out in the open, not protecting itself by
  hiding

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4) Climate Change?

• Increase in temperature seems to be impacting
  amphibian populations

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5) Habitat Loss
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7) Exotic species

• Bullfrog

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UV Radiation

• UVB Radiation?
• Blaustein vs Adams and Corn

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Laws and Regulations CITES

• Convention on International Trade in Endangered
  Species of Wild Fauna and Flora established by
  IUCN in 1973
• Regulates international trade in species of
  concern
• Mandates that international trade in endangered
  species is unlawful
• Nearly 600 species of amphibian and reptile are
  covered

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Laws and Regulations ESA

• Signed into law by Nixon in 1973
• Far-reaching law protects both domestic and
  foreign animals and plants
• Prohibits take of species of concern
• Mandates that FWS and NMFS monitor populations
  and develop a recovery strategy

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Laws and Regulations ESA listing process

• Anyone can petition to list a species
• Must provide sound scientific basis for listing
• FWS or NMFS reviews petition, may conduct
  additional research, must make findings according
  to predetermined time schedule
• Decision to list or not published in Federal
  Register, including basis for decision

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Laws and Regulations ESA recovery process

• FWS or NMFS drafts a Recovery Plan for the
  species in question
• Delineates tasks and criteria needed for the
  recovery of a species
• Solicits public and expert comment on draft
  Recovery Plan
• Revises draft, issues final recovery plan
• Includes dollar estimates needed for recovery
• Not a binding document
• Species is delisted or downlisted as criteria
  from Recovery Plan are met
• Critical habitat may be designated later

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ESA Herp Listing Status
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ESA Insular and Continental Amphibians and
Reptiles
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ESA Listed Amphibians by State
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ESA Listed Reptiles by State
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ESA Herps with Recovery Plans
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ESA Herps with Critical Habitat
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ESA U. S. Listings of Herps by Year
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ESA Listed Amphibians and Reptiles by Group
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of ESA Listed Species by Group
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Human Population Density ESA Listed Herps
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American alligatoran ESA success story

• American alligator was listed as threatened under
  precursuer to ESA in 1967.
• All subsequent take was illegal
• Captive breeding and farming ranches
  proliferated
• Eggs collected in wild, incubated, then released
  when hatched
• Alligator recovered, delisted in 1987
• Now subject of 60 million / year industry

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State laws and herps

• Usually protected by state game and fish agency
• Funding through sales of fishing and hunting
  licenses (P-R act and D-J act, respectively)
• Often need fishing or hunting license to collect
• Often may not collect for sale
• Bag limits, quotas imposed
• States may have ESA-type legislation

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What can I do?

• Adopt a conservation ethic
• Work directly in the area of conservation
• Help conduct research
• Assist with conservation organizations
• Become involved politically
• Educate yourself, family friends about the
  importance of herps in the ecosystem
• Educate yourself, family friends about the
  importance of having better green life choices
• Try to have a lifestyle that incorporates
  sustainable methods
• Support companies that work towards
  sustainability are supportive of the
  environment
• Elect officials that support environmental
  policies

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Conservation Groups

• Conservation International
• The Wildlife Society
• Society for Conservation Biology
• The Wilderness Society
• Center for Biological Diversity

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Conservation Journals

• Conservation Biology
• Biological Conservation
• Southwest Naturalist
• Journal of Wildlife Management, Wildlife Society
  Bulletin
• Chelonian Conservation and Biology

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When it comes to conservation and all the things
of your life keep in mind these words I am only
one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I
can do Something. I will not let what I cannot do
interfere with what I can do. Edward Everett
Hale