Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity: Managing and Protecting Ecosystems

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Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity Managing
and Protecting Ecosystems

• Chapter 10

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Core Case Study Reintroducing Gray Wolves to
Yellowstone

• 18501900 decline of wolves due to human
  activity
• (shooting, trapping and poisoning to make safe
  for grazing livestock)
• U.S. Endangered Species Act 1973
• 1987- proposal to reintroduce gray wolf to
  Yellowstone to help control the increase in herds
  of grazers, coyotes
• 19951996 relocation of gray wolves to
  Yellowstone Park from Canada
• 2008 Gray wolf no longer protected

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Ch. 10 Key Concepts

• Human impact on earths biodiversity

• Types and uses of US public lands

• Forests and forest management

• Implications of deforestation

• Management of parks

• Establishment and management of nature preserves

• Importance of ecological restoration

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Human Impacts on Terrestrial Biodiversity
Factors that tend to increase or decrease
biodiversity
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Natural Capital Degradation
Human Population Size and resource use
Human Activities Agriculture, industry,
economic production and consumption, recreation
Direct Effects
Degradation and destruction of natural
ecosystems Alteration of natural chemical cycles
and energy flows
Changes in number and distribution of
species Pollution of air, water, and soil
Major connections between human activities and
earths biodiversity.
Indirect Effects
Climate change
Loss of biodiversity
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EUROPE
NORTH AMERICA
ASIA
30N
Tropic of Cancer
Atlantic Ocean
AFRICA
Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
150
90
60E
0
30W
90
120
150
0
SOUTH AMERICA
Indian Ocean
Tropic of Capricorn
AUSTRALIA
30S
Antarctic Circle
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ANTARCTICA
Critical and endangered
Threatened
Stable or intact
Projected Status of Biodiversity 19982018
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Why should we care???Importance of Biodiversity

• Intrinsic value (Existence value)- because they
  exist, regardless of their use to us!
• Instrumental value- because of their usefulness
  to us
• Aesthetic value- appreciation of the beauty
• Bequest value- appreciation of protection for
  future generations

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The Species Approach
The Ecosystem Approach
Goal
Goal
Protect populations of species in their
natural habitats
Protect species from premature extinction
Protecting Biodiversity
Strategies
Strategy

• Identify endangered species
• Protect their critical habitats

Preserve sufficient areas of habitats in
different biomes and aquatic systems
Tactics
Tactics

• Protect habitat areas through private purchase or
  government action
• Eliminate or reduce populations of alien species
  from protected areas
• Manage protected areas to sustain native species
• Restore degraded ecosystems

• Legally protect endangered species
• Manage habitat
• Propagate endangered species in captivity
• Reintroduce species into suitable habitats

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Conservation Biology

• Multidisciplinary science orig. in 1970s
• Emergency response to slow down the rate of human
  degradation on earths biodiversity.
• Identify hot spots- most endangered and species
  rich ecosystems worldwide.
• Rapid Assessment Teams
• Based on Leopolds ethics idea that something
  is right when it tends to maintain the earths
  life-support system for us and wrong when it does
  not.
• Bioinformatics applied area of science that
  involves managing, analyzing and communicating
  biological information. (Uses technology such as
  computer databases of DNA, high resol. Images of
  all known species, etc)

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Public Lands in the US

• 35 of the land in the US is managed by the
  federal govt. and available for public use (73
  in Alaska!)

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Public Lands in the US

• Multiple-use lands National Forests National
  Resource Lands (managed by BLM) - used for
  logging, mining, oil and gas extraction,
  livestock grazing hunting, fishing, recreation,
  farming conservation watersheds, soil and
  wildlife resources
• Moderately-restricted use lands National
  Wildlife Refuges (managed by USFWS)- protect
  habitats and breeding grounds for waterfowl and
  large game for hunters some protect endangered
  species allow hunting, trapping fishing, oil
  gas development, mining, grazing, military
  activities, farming, logging
• Restricted-use lands National Park System
  (managed by Natl. Parks service)- includes natl.
  recreation areas, monuments, memorials,
  historical sites, trails, rivers, shorelines
  only camping, hiking, sport fishing and boating
  National Wilderness Preservation System -most
  restricted public lands mostly open for hiking
  and sport fishing, camping

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Types of US Public Lands
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Managing US Public Land An ongoing controversy

• Protecting biodiversity and ecological function-
  argument over if this should be the primary goal
  of public lands
• No subsidies or tax breaks for use of resources
  from public lands- user-pays approach
• Public should get fair compensation for any
  resources extracted from public lands
• Users held responsible for actions and any envtl.
  damage caused

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Managing and Sustaining Forests

• TYPES OF FORESTS (based on age structure)
• Old-growth (frontier or primary) forests- uncut
  or not disturbed in several hundred years lots
  of biodiversity (36 of worlds forests)
• Second-growth forests- secondary succession after
  being cleared from human activities or natural
  disasters (60 of worlds forests)
• Tree farms/plantation- uniformly aged trees that
  are harvested by clear-cutting when commercially
  valuable replanted and cycles again (4 of
  worlds forests)
• May supply most of the industrial wood in the
  future

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Natural Capital An Old-Growth Forest and an
Old-Growth Tropical Forest
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Managing and Sustaining Forests

• Ecological Importance
• Support food webs, energy flow, and nutrient
  cycling
• Protect soils from erosion
• Absorb / release water
• Influence local and regional climate
• Numerous habitats and niches
• Air purification and store atmospheric carbon

• Economic Importance
• Fuel wood
• Lumber
• Paper
• Livestock grazing
• Mineral extraction
• Recreation
• Employment

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Estimated Annual Global Economic Values of
Ecological Services Provided by Forests
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Forest Management

• Even-aged management- trees maintained and grown
  to always stand around the same age and size
  (industrial forestry) tree plantation with a
  desirable species that can be harvested within
  6-10 years
• Uneven-aged management- trees of various
  ages/sizes protects diversity long-term
  sustainable production of timber allows multiple
  use for timber, recreation, watershed and
  wildlife protection

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How trees are managed and harvested
Fig. 11-8 p. 201
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Fig. 10-3b, p. 216
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How are trees harvested?

• Major tree harvesting methods
• Selective cutting- remove intermediate-mature
  aged trees singly or in small groups
• High-grading - remove only largest and best
  trees of desirable species many tropical forests
• Shelterwood cutting removes all mature trees in
  2-3 cuttings over a period of time
• Seed-tree cutting- cut all trees but leave behind
  a few evenly distributed seed producing trees to
  regenerate
• Clear-cutting- removes all trees in an area in a
  single cut
• Strip cutting- clear cutting in smaller strips of
  land more sustainable than clear-cutting

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• Shelterwood cutting

• Seed-Tree cutting picture in textbook

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Clear-Cut Logging in Washington State, U.S.
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Haiti Dominican Republic Border
DR
Haiti
Haiti
DR
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Roads Lead to Forest Degradation

• Increased erosion and runoff
• Habitat fragmentation
• Pathways for exotic species
• Accessibility to humans

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Deforestation is a Major Threat to Forest
Ecosystems

• Increased erosion
• Decrease soil fertility
• Sediment runoff into waterways
• Accelerates flooding
• Regional climate change from extensive clearing
• Releases CO2 into atmosphere from burning and
  tree decay
• Habitat fragmentation
• Loss of biodiversity
• Invasion by
• Nonnative pests
• Disease
• Wildlife species

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Solution Sustainable Forestry
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Forest Resources and Management in the US

• Fire, Insects, and Climate Change Can Threaten
  Forest Ecosystems
• Introduction of foreign diseases and insects
• Accidental
• Deliberate
• Global warming
• Rising temperatures
• Trees more susceptible to diseases and pests
• Drier forests more fires
• More greenhouse gases

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Insect and Pathogen Threats to U.S. Forests

• Sudden oak death
• White pine blister rust
• Pine shoot beetle
• Beech bark disease
• Hemlock woolly adelgid

See Fig. 11-14 p. 207
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Fire, Insects, and Climate Change Can Threaten
Forest Ecosystems

• Surface fires
• Usually burn leaf litter and undergrowth
• May provide food in the form of vegetation that
  sprouts after fire
• Crown fires
• Extremely hot burns whole trees
• Kill wildlife
• Increase soil erosion

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Surface and Crown fires
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Solutions How can we reduce damage due to fires?

• Smokey the Bear educational campaign
• Prescribed fires intentionally set to prevent
  underbrush growth
• Allow fires on public lands to burn
• Protect structures in fire-prone areas
• Thin forests in fire-prone areas introduction
  of goats
• Healthy Forests Initiative (2003- U.S.)
• Pros - timber companies can cut down trees for 10
  yrs in natl. forests in return for clearing
  fire-prone trees and underbrush
• Cons- removes a lot of fire-resistant large
  trees leaves behind highly flammable smaller
  trees loss of habitats

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Logging in U.S. National Forests

• Advantages
• Provides local jobs
• Helps meet countrys timber needs
• Cut areas grow back
• Keeps lumbar and paper prices down
• Promotes economic growth in nearby communities

• Disadvantages
• Provides only 3 of timber
• Increases environmental damage
• Hinders recreation income that can provide more
  local jobs and income than logging jobs.

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We Can Reduce the Demand for Harvested Trees

• Improve the efficiency of wood use
• Use recycled paper products
• Make tree-free paper
• Use agricultural residues left overs from
  wheat, rice, sugar
• Kenaf- a woody annual plant that grows quickly
  insect proof nitrogen fixer
• Hemp

Kenaf
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What Are the Major Threats to Forest Ecosystems?

• Concept 1 Forest ecosystems provide ecological
  services far greater in value than the value of
  raw materials obtained from forests.
• Concept 2 Unsustainable cutting and burning of
  forests, along with diseases and insects, are the
  chief threats to forest ecosystems.
• Concept 3 Tropical deforestation is a
  potentially catastrophic problem because of the
  vital ecological services at risk, the high rate
  of tropical deforestation, and its growing
  contribution to global warming.

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CH. 10 notes continued

• Sections 6-10

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Julia Butterfly Hill

• Known as an environmental heroine for bringing
  attention to clear-cutting of ancient redwood
  trees in California.
• Lived in the canopy of a redwood tree, on a small
  platform for over 2 years as an act of protest
  and to protect the destruction of the trees.
• Julia lost her battle in saving the entire
  forest, however, did manage to save the tree she
  lived in, Luna, and a 60-meter buffer zone
  around it.

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How Serious Is Tropical Deforestation and How Can
It Be Reduced?

• Concept We can reduce tropical deforestation by
  protecting large forest areas, teaching settlers
  about sustainable agriculture and forestry, using
  government subsidies that encourage sustainable
  forest use, reducing poverty, and slowing
  population growth.

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Deforestation

• Tropical forests- Especially in Central and
  South Americas, Indonesia, and Africa Brazil
  contains 40 of the worlds remaining tropical
  rain forest
• Boreal Forests- Especially in Alaska, Canada,
  Scandinavia, and Russia
• Role of deforestation in species extinction-
  most endangered species, plant for medicinal
  purposes.

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Natural Capital Degradation Extreme Tropical
Deforestation in Thailand
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Satellite Images of Amazon Deforestation between
1975 and 2001
Deforestation of Rondonia, Brazil from 1975-2001
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Species Diversity
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NATURAL CAPITAL DEGRADATION
Major Causes of the Destruction and Degradation
of Tropical Forests
Basic Causes
Secondary Causes
Not valuing ecological services
Roads
Cattle ranching
Fires
Logging
Crop and timber exports
Settler farming
Tree plantations
Government policies
Cash crops
Poverty
Population growth
Cattle ranching
Tree plantations
Logging
Cash crops
Settler farming
Fires
Roads
Fig. 10-15, p. 225
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Natural Capital Degradation Large Areas of
Brazils Amazon Basin Are Burned
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Natural Capital Degradation Harmful
Environmental Effects of Deforestation
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How to Protect Tropical Forests

• Teach settlers to practice small-scale
  sustainable agriculture
• Harvest renewable resources from the forests
• Debt-for-nature swaps- protect forest reserves in
  return for foreign aid or debt relief
• Conservation concessions/easements money for
  conservation efforts
• Gentler logging methods- cutting vines prior to
  cutting large trees

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Individuals Matter Wangari Maathai and Kenyas
Green Belt Movement

• Established backyard small tree nursery
• Organized poor women
• Women paid for each surviving seedling planted
• Breaks cycle of poverty
• Reduces environmental degradation
• People walk less distance to get fuelwood
• Sparked projects in 30 African countries

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How Should We Manage and Sustain National Parks?

• Concept Sustaining biodiversity will require
  protecting much more of the earths remaining
  undisturbed land area, starting with the most
  endangered biodiversity hot spots.

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National Parks

• gt1,100 national parks in 120 countries
• Only 1 of parks in developing countries are
  protected (lack of funding/education)
• Local people invade parks to survive

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Problems Protecting National Parks

• Illegal logging
• Illegal mining
• Wildlife poaching
• Most parks too small to protect large animals
• Invasion of nonnative species

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Stresses on U.S. Public Parks

• Biggest problem is popularity
• Noise
• Congestion
• Pollution
• Damage or destruction to vegetation and wildlife
• Damage from nonnative species
• Threatened islands of biodiversity
• Repairs needed to trails and buildings

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Natural Capital Degradation Off-road Vehicles
Fig. 8-18, p. 165
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Solutions for Protection

• Requires action bottom-up political pressure
• Nature Conservancy worlds largest private
  system of reserves
• Buffer zones around protected areas
• Locals to manage reserves and buffer zones

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Designing and Connecting Nature Reserves

• Large versus small reserves
• The buffer zone concept
• United Nations 529 biosphere reserves in 105
  countries
• Habitat corridors between isolated reserves
• Advantages
• Disadvantages
• Example Alligator Alley

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Model Biosphere Reserve
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Case Study Costa Rica

• Superpower of biodiversity
• 19631983 cleared much of the forest
• 19862006 forests grew from 26 to 51
• Goal to reduce net carbon dioxide emissions to
  zero by 2021
• Now has conserved 25 of its land, 8 megareserves
• Government eliminated deforestation subsidies ()
• Paid landowners to maintain and restore tree
  coverage
• Goal to make sustainable forestry profitable
• 2/3 of the billion dollar tourism income comes
  from eco-tourism! (Interesting that Costa Rica
  was involved in shark finning industry??!)

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Costa Ricas Megareserve Network
Fig. 8-21, p. 167
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Case Study Controversy over Wilderness
Protection in the U.S.

• Wilderness legally set aside land to protect
  consisting of areas of undeveloped land affected
  primarily by the force of nature, where man is a
  visitor and does not remain. Minimum size
  gt4,000 km2
• Preserves natural capital
• Centers for evolution
• 1964 Wilderness Act
• Legally defined wilderness and est. restrictions
• Protects 106 million acres of federal land
• Roadless Rule (2001)- 1/3 of national forests are
  off limits to roads, logging, development of any
  kind protects 400,000 sq. miles
• Pressure from oil, gas, mining, and logging

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Protecting Global Biodiversity Hotspots

• 17 megadiversity countries in tropics and
  subtropics
• Two-thirds of biodiversity
• Developing countries economically poor and
  biodiversity rich
• Protect biodiversity hotspots

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34 Global Hotspots
Fig. 8-22, p. 169
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Biodiversity Hotspots in the U.S.
Fig. 8-23, p. 169
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Ecological Restoration - process of repairing
damage done to an ecosystem by humans

• How we can help speed up the process
• Restoration- return the ecosystem to its most
  natural state possible
• Rehabilitation- turn a degraded ecosystem back to
  a functional or useful form, without trying to
  get it back to its natural state (replanting
  trees that have been clear-cut to avoid erosion)
• Remediation- cleaning up chemical contaminants
  from a site
• Replacement- replacing a degraded ecosystem with
  a new one (Tree farm to replace a degraded
  forest)
• Creating artificial ecosystems (man-made
  wetlands)

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Science-based Principles for Restoration

• Identify cause of degradation
• Stop abuse by reducing factors
• Reintroduce species if necessary
• Protect area from further degradation

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Case Study Ecological Restoration of Tropical
Dry Forest in Costa Rica

• One of worlds largest ecological restoration
  projects
• Restore a degraded tropical dry forest in
  Guanacaste NP and reconnect it to adjacent rain
  forests
• Involve 40,000 people in the surrounding area
  biocultural restoration
• Ecotourism

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Will Restoration Encourage Further Degradation?

• About 5 of the earths land is preserved from
  the effects of human activities
• Preventing ecosystem damage is cheaper than
  restoration
• Some worry environmental restoration suggests any
  harm can be undone
• Scientists disagree
• Restoration badly needed
• Altered restored site better than no restoration

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Protecting Ecosystem Services Is Also an Urgent
Priority

• U.N. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005
• Identify key ecosystem services
• Human activities degrade or overuse 62 of the
  earths natural services
• Identify highly stressed life raft ecosystems
  (well being of humans are affected as ecosystem
  fails) ie. Sub-Saharan Africa

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What Can You Do?