Biodiversity

1
Biodiversity
2
Biodiversity

• Variety of living things, number of kinds
• Ecological diversity
• different habitats, niches, species interactions
• Species diversity
• different kinds of organisms, relationships among
  species
• Genetic diversity
• different genes combinations of genes

3
Benefits of Biodiversity

• Ecosystem functions
• Ecosystem services
• Cleaning water, habitat breeding areas for
  wildlife
• Aesthetic and cultural benefits

4
Benefits of Biodiversity

• New food sources
• Grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish

5
Benefits of Biodiversity

• Medicines
• Plants
• Jellyfish sea anemones
• Nudibranchs

6
Biodiversity

• How much biodiversity
• 1.72.0 million species
• Estimates to 100 million

7
Biodiversity

• Where is the biodiversity
• Everywhere
• Every continent and habitat has unique life forms
• Concentrated in the tropics
• Panama gt 500 species of breeding birds
• Arctic 50-100 species
• Dense concentrations

8
Threats to Biodiversity

• Extinction and population reductions
• Hunting and overharvesting
• Tiger
• Dodo
• Whales
• Sharks
• Habitat loss

9
Threats to Biodiversity

• Extinction and population reductions
• Pollution
• Climate change
• Invasive species

10
Protecting Biodiversity

• How can we protect biodiversity
• Stop overharvesting
• Sustainable yield
• Hunting fishing laws (every state ?)
• in developing nations ?
• Refuges, parks, preserves
• Endangered Species Act

11
Protecting Biodiversity

• Refuges, parks, preserves
• How big should refuges be?
• Where should they be?
• McArthur Wilson Theory of Island Biogeography
• colonization rate
• extinction rate (local)
• predicts number of species

12
Protecting Biodiversity

• Effect of island size

• Effect of island distance

13
Protecting Biodiversity

• McArthur Wilson Theory of Island Biogeography
• colonization rate
• extinction rate (local)
• predicts number of species

14
Protecting Biodiversity

• Island Biogeography
• Island size predicts number of species

15
Protecting Biodiversity

• Island Biogeography
• Everyplace is an island
• Habitat fragmentation
• Smaller fragments hold fewer species

16
Protecting Biodiversity

• How can we protect biodiversity
• Endangered Species Act (1973)
• Listing of endangered and threatened species
• Restricts development of habitats
• Captive breeding programs
• Release of captive bred stocks to enhance or
  recover wild populations.

• http//www.fws.gov/endangered/

17
Protecting Biodiversity

• Biodiversity hotspots
• Protection of habitat