Wild Species and Biodiversity

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Wild Species and Biodiversity

• Chapter 10
• A.P. Environmental Science

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Introduction

• Puffins are little seabirds that live in cold
  coastal waters on both sides of the North
  American continent.
• Before the 1900s, they were hunted for their
  eggs, meat, and feathers
• Populations of puffins decreased in Maine.
• Project Puffin- plan to take some puffins from
  Newfoundland to Maine.
• Trained birds to adapt to the new territory
• Called social attraction
• This included painted decoys, tapes of puffin
  noises and bogus eggs.
• The island now has a colony of 52 pairs

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10.1 The Value of Wild Species

• Ecosystem capital- sum of all goods provided by
  ecosystems.
• The integrity of the ecosystem must be maintained
• We must maintain resilience and biodiversity
• In order for ecosystem capital to remain
  valuable, natural systems must be sustained
• Done by not abusing resources
• Different values must be reconciled.

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Biological Wealth

• About 1.75 million species of plants, animals,
  and microbes have been classified.
• There are about 13 million species that have not
  yet been discovered
• All species together make up a biota and are
  responsible for the structure and maintenance of
  all ecosystems
• Represent biological wealth-ecosystem capital
• Humans have always exploited wild species for
  food and materials
• Forests, savannas and plains became fields and
  pastures
• At least 500 plant and animal species have become
  extinct in the U.S. alone

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Two Kinds of Value

• Instrumental value a species has instrumental
  value if its existence or use benefits some other
  entity
• Anthropocentric- beneficial to human needs
• Intrinsic value- species have intrinsic value
  when it has value for its own sake.

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continued

• The value of natural species can be categorized
  as
• Value as sources for agriculture, forestry,
  aquaculture, and animal husbandry
• Value as sources for medicines
• Recreational value
• Intrinsic value

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Sources for agriculture, forestry, and animal
husbandry

• In nature, both plants and animals are
  continuously subjected to the rigors of natural
  selection.
• Only the fittest survive
• Wild populations have resistance to parasites and
  tolerance to adverse conditions.
• They exhibit vigor.
• Populations grown under the conditions of
  agriculture lose traits.
• They are selected for production, not resilience.
  If a plant is not drought tolerant, it is
  irrigated.
• This population is known as a cultivar
• Minimum genetic variation
• Produce high yields
• Cannot adapt to other conditions

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continued

• To maintain vigor in cultivars and to adapt them
  to various climatic conditions, plant breeders
  comb wild populations of related species for the
  desired traits.
• Example corn crop in the 1970s was saved from
  blight by genes from a wild strain of maize.

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continued

• If natural biota is lost, improving and
  developing new food plants will greatly reduce.
• Wheat, maize, and rice fulfill about 50 of
  global food demands.
• Growth can be affected by environment
• Wild genes can be used to help enhance
  development in arid regions
• Some pests come from natural biota and should not
  be depleted.
• Control them using natural enemies
• Natural biota are referred to as a genetic bank
• Deposit species and withdraw them

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Sources for Medicine

• Plant species are used for medicine
• People of Madagascar use the rosy periwinkle
• In the 1960s, scientists extracted two chemicals
  from this flower vincristine and vinblastine
• Used to treat leukemia and Hodgkins disease

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continued

• More drugs
• Capoten- taken from a Brazilian pit viper (snake)
• Controls high blood pressure
• Taxol- taken from the bark of the English yew
  tree
• Treats ovarian, breast, and small cell cancers

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Ethnobotany

• The study of relationships between plants and
  people
• 3,000 plants have been identified as having
  anticancer properties
• Drug companies finance field studies to find
  more. There may be promising drugs being tested
  now but announcement will wait until approval by
  FDA.

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Recreation, Aesthetic, and Scientific Value

• Recreational and aesthetic values constitute a
  very important source of support for maintaining
  wild species.
• Ecotourism- tourists visit a place in order to
  observe wild species or unique ecological sites

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Value for their own sake

• Some people believe that the most important
  strategy for preserving all wild species is to
  emphasize the intrinsic value of species
• There is much debate about the right for humans
  to terminate a species
• Some say one living thing is no better than
  another living thing.
• All religions have different viewpoints
• Jewish and Christian- all wild things deserve
  moral consideration and care
• Islamic- environment is the creation of Allah and
  must be protected
• Native American religions- wildlife and humans
  should interact like members of a large family

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10.2 Saving Wild Species

• Game animals are animals that are hunted
• Some are hunted to extinction
• Some have been provided with complete protection
  by the government
• Wild turkey
• After WWII state and federal programs stressed
  the need to protect turkey habitats
• The birds have made a great comeback, now in 49
  states.
• Special protection areas are funded by hunting
  fees

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Positive aspects of hunting

• Many hunters belong to organizations dedicated to
  the game they are hunting
• Raise funds that are used for the restoration and
  maintenance of natural ecosystems
• Some animals cause major damage
• Deer and kangaroos
• Kangaroos are culled each year for use as pet
  food and for their leather.

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• PETA actively campaign to end hunting and
  trapping.
• Some traps are especially cruel
• Some animals have adapted to urban and suburban
  environments.
• Squirrels
• Backyard birds
• Rabbits
• Some predators

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Problems

• The following are serious problems that have
  emerged from an increase in certain animal
  populations
• The number of animals killed on roadways now far
  exceeds the number killed by hunters
• Many nuisance animals are thriving in urbanized
  areas
• Some animals reach high population densities
  because they lack predators.
• People in suburban areas have been attacked by
  cougars, bears, alligators, and other wild life.
• Coyote populations are increasing
• Parks and lawns have become home to flocks of
  geese

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Wildlife services?

• In 1998, the agency of the U.S. Department of
  Agriculture changed its name from Animal Damage
  Control to Wildlife Services
• Responds to requests from livestock owners,
  farmers, homeowners, and others concerned with
  economic damage, human health, and safety to
  remove nuisance animals

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Acts protecting endangered species

• Florida and Texas were the first states to pass
  laws protecting plumed birds.
• Lacey Act
• Forbids interstate commerce in illegally killed
  wildlife
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services can bring federal
  charges against anyone who violates this law

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Endangered Species Act

• Passed in 1973
• Protects endangered and threatened species
• Endangered- brink of extinction
• Threatened- populations fall drastically, but not
  near extinction

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continued

• There are three crucial elements in the process
  of designating a species as endangered or
  threatened
• Listing- species is listed by the appropriate
  agency or by petition
• Critical Habitat- agency must designate the
  habitat areas where the species is found
• Recovery Plans- plan to help the species survive
  and thrive

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Impact on species

• Some people believe that the act does not go far
  enough
• Others oppose
• 13 species have been removed from the list
  because they recovered (American Peregrine
  Falcon)
• 7 have become extinct

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Fly Away Home

• People have made efforts to help the whooping
  cranes migrate from Wisconsin to Florida
• This includes, using eggs from captive breeding
  flocks and teaching birds its migratory path
  following an ultralight.

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The Spotted Owl

• This species lives in old growth forests in the
  Pacific Northwest
• Its population was down to between 4 and 6 K
• The original plan called for 7.4 million acres to
  be set aside and logging prohibited in stands of
  trees older than 80 years.

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Controversy

• The Klamath River provides irrigated water for
  250,000 acres of farmland.
• In 2001, because of an extended drought, the
  government allocated almost all the water to
  prevent the extinction of salmon.
• Upset many farmers
• Problem is still not resolved

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10.3 Biodiversity and its decline

• No one knows how much biodiversity there is
• 1.75 million species that have been described
• Many more exist
• Groups rich in species are the flowering plants
  and insects
• Estimates in the number of species on Earth today
  are based on recent work in the tropical rain
  forests
• Costa Rica makes up 5 of biota

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The Decline in Biodiversity

• At least 500 species native to the U.S. are known
  to have become extinct
• The species populations are a more important
  element of biodiversity than just the species
  existence.
• It is the populations that contribute to
  biological wealth
• Populations of birds in North America are
  dramatically declining

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Global Outlook

• At least 726 animal species and 90 plant species
  have become extinct since1500.
• Most extinctions occur on oceanic islands
• 24 of mammal and 12 of bird species are
  globally threatened.
• Biodiversity is richest in tropical forests
• 300 species of trees in a single ha plot
• 10,000 species of insects on a single tree in
  Peru
• 43 species of ants on a single tree in Peru

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Reasons for the Decline

• One of the greatest sources of loss is the
  physical alteration of habitats through the
  processes of conversion, fragmentation, and
  simplification.
• Responsible for 36 of extinctions

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Conversions

• Natural areas are converted to farms, housing
  subdivisions, shopping malls, marinas, and
  industrial centers.
• Any loss of natural habitat can result in only
  one thing a proportional reduction in all
  populations that require the habitat.

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Fragmentation

• Natural landscapes generally have large patches
  of habitat
• Human-dominated areas have small patches-
  fragmented
• Plowed fields
• House lots
• highway
• Can cause populations to fall below their
  critical number
• Kirtlands warbler

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Simplification and Intrusion

• Human use of habitats often simplifies them
• Channelized streams
• Tree farming
• Intrusion of habitats also causes a decline in
  biodiversity
• Television towers
• Attract birds
• Kills 5-50 million a year

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The Population Connection

• Loss of biodiversity can be attributed to the
  expansion of the human population over the globe.
• Loss is greatest in the developing world
• Africa and Asia have lost almost 2/3 of their
  natural habitat

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Pollution

• Can directly kill many plants and animals
• Ex) The dead zone of the Mississippi River
• Oil spills, acid deposition, human wastes, and
  pesticides also affect biodiversity
• Increase in temperature
• Melting of polar icecaps
• Decrease in polar bear population
• These problems can be traced to the
  industrialized world.

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• What is the Dead Zone?
• Every summer in the Gulf of Mexico an area,
  sometimes as large as Massachusetts, becomes void
  of life due to severely depleted levels of oxygen
  in the Gulf's water, a state known as hypoxia.
  This condition kills every oxygen-dependent sea
  creature within its 8,500 square mile zone. The
  Dead Zone varies in size, but it has been growing
  steadily since 1993.

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• The Dead Zone is caused by excess nitrogen and
  phosphorous that is washed into the Gulf from the
  Mississippi River. These nutrients ignite huge
  algae and phytoplankton blooms. As the blooms
  die, they drop to the ocean floor and decompose,
  using up the oxygen of the deeper water.

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• The stratification of the water that occurs
  during the summer in the Gulf prevents the
  deepest water from becoming reoxygenated. As a
  direct result, oxygen levels fall below 2 parts
  per million, a level that most marine life cannot
  survive, including all commercial fish, crab and
  shrimp species. The Dead Zone is now one of the
  largest hypoxic zones of water in the world.

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• Frog deformities, caused by the larval stage of
  a flatworm that invades the tadpoles
• This rapid rise in the incidence of deformities
  due to habitats that have been altered by human
  use.
• High N pollution
• Leads to large snail populations
• Which are intermediate hosts of the flatworm

Parasites A tiny trematode appears to cause a
significant amount of the leg deformities in
amphibians, as it works through a complex
ecological cycle that at various times includes
aquatic snails, amphibians and birds. The
parasite can form a cyst in frogs and disrupt
normal limb development.
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Exotic Species

• Exotic species is a species introduced into an
  area different from its original habitat.
• Can become invasive and can eliminate native
  species by predation and competition
• Examples of exotic species include kudzu, autumn
  olive, multiflora rose, Brazilian pepper and
  oriental bittersweet
• Annual cost of invasive species in the U.S. is
  137 billion

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Aquaculture

• One-third of all seafood consumed worldwide is
  produced by aquaculture
• The farming of shellfish, seaweed, and fish
• Most are not native to the farming locations
• Parasites and pathogens have been introduced
  together with the aquaculture species.
• Escape from farming locations
• Become invasive

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Overuse

• Removing species faster than they can reproduce
  will lead to ultimate extinction
• Overuse is responsible for 23 of extinction
• One form of overuse is the trafficking of
  wildlife
• Much of this trade is illegal
• 12 billion a year is made by this
• It flourishes because some people are willing to
  pay large amounts of money for the luxuries
  provided by the species

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eBay sting

• Recently an agent purchased an African leopard
  skin and a frozen stillborn tiger cub for 1,500
  on eBay
• Poor management is another cause of the loss of
  biodiversity
• Without policies, forests and woodlands are
  overcut and animals are overhunted

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Consequences of Losing Biodiversity

• It is possible to lose keystone species
• Species whose role is absolutely vital to the
  survival of many other species in an ecosystem
• Can be a predator that keeps herbivore
  populations under control
• It is also possible to introduce species that can
  become new dominants in ecosystems
• Can produce undesirable results

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10.4 Protecting Biodiversity

• Serious efforts are being made to preserve
  biodiversity around the world, especially in the
  tropics
• World Conservation Union (IUCN) maintains a Red
  List of Threatened Species
• Similar to the endangered species list
• Uses a set of criteria to evaluate the risk of
  extinction to thousands of species throughout the
  world
• There are currently 11,167 species on it

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C.I.T.E.S.

• Established in the early 1970s
• It is an international agreement that focuses on
  trade in wildlife and wildlife parts.
• Covers 30,000 species
• The best-known act of CITES was to ban the
  international trade in ivory in 1990 in order to
  stop the rapid decline of the African elephant

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Convention on Biological Diversity

• CBD became one of the pillars of the 1992 Earth
  Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
• The Biodiversity Treaty was ratified in December
  1993
• Its is a convention that sets goals for
  participating countries to sustain biodiversity

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Basic guidelines for the Biodiversity Treaty

• A concern for the intrinsic value of biodiversity
• Its significance for human welfare
• The sovereignty of a nation over its biodiversity
• The nations obligations to protect and conserve
  biodiversity

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Stewardship Concerns

• Four policies that focus on improving
  biodiversity
• Reform policies that lead to declines in
  biodiversity
• Address the need of people who live adjacent to
  or in high-biodiversity areas or whose livelihood
  is derived from exploiting wild species
• Practice conservation
• Promote more research on biodiversity

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• END