BIODIVERSITY

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BIODIVERSITY

• Genes, Species and Ecosystems

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• What is biodiversity?

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Biodiversity

• The variety of genes, species and ecosystems.
• Genetic Diversity
• Species Diversity
• Ecosystem Diversity

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Diversity

• Richness
• How many different types
• Richness and Evenness
• How many different types and spread of abundance
  of each type

STREAM ONE 97 Chironomus 1 Simulium 1 Tabanus 1
Annelida
STREAM TWO 25 Chironomus 25 Simulium 25
Tabanus 25 Annelida
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Genetic Diversity

• Variability in the genetic make-up of different
  individuals of the same species

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Importance of Genetic Diversity?
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Species Diversity

• Richness and evenness of species.

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Ecosystem Diversity

• Variety of types of ecosystems present on the
  planet

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World-Views and the Value of Biodiversity

• What are some reasons a utilitarian (someone with
  anthropocentric world-view) value biodiversity?

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Why would a utilitarian value biodiversity?

• Food
• genetic diversity for green revolution comes from
  wild strains
• new species that could be human food crops
• crops that could grow under high salt conditions
• crops that could grow under drought conditions
• crops that could produce more

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Why would a utilitarian value biodiversity?

• Drugs and Medicine
• rosy periwinkle in Madagascar childhood leukemia
  treatment
• pre-rosy periwinkle 100 fatality
• post-rosy periwinkle remission rate 99
• new anti-virals

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Drugs and Medicine A short check-list

• penicillin -- fungus -- antibiotic
• bacitracin, erythromycin, tetracycline --
  bacterium --antibiotic
• digitalis -- foxglove -- heart stimulant
• quinine -- chincona bark -- anti-malarial
• diosgenin -- Mexican yam -- birth-control drug
• cortisone -- Mexican yam -- anti-inflammatory
• cytarabine -- sponge -- leukemia treatment
• reserpine -- rauwolfia -- hypertension drug
• allantoin -- blowfly larva -- wound healer
• morphine -- poppy -- pain killer

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Why would a utilitarian value biodiversity?

• Ecosystem Benefits
• biological control of pests, pollination, food
  production
• decomposition, recycling, flood control, drought
  reduction, erosion control
• Aesthetic and Cultural Benefits
• Puffin breeding near Bar Harbor, ME --gt gt10,000
  puffin watchers on cruises in 3 months of 1997
• 5.8 Billion spent by bird watchers alone in US

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The Worth of Ecosystems

• Worldwide 16-54 trillion/yr
• Human produced wealth18 trillion/yr
• ? Johnstown Crk, OR
• 15 million over 100 yrs

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What are the threats to biodiversity?
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The threats...

• habitat loss
• exploitation
• hunting
• fishing
• fur trapping
• commercial products
• habitat degradation
• pollution
• exotic species
• predators and pest control
• genetic assimilation

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Outcome of these threats?

• Extinction

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Habitat Loss
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Megadiversity Areas

• high concentrations of endemic species (native to
  the area)
• Amazon Basin
• 20 of worlds vascular plant species
• Tropical Rainforests
• lt7 land area of world
• 50-75 of all the worlds species
• One tree in Panama 1200 species of beetles!

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Exploitation

• Especially of the large, the slow and the tasty

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Habitat Degradation Fragmentation
what might be some outcomes of this?

• Breaking habitats into smaller pieces, putting
  roads through habitats, dividing habitats

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Habitat Degradation Pollution
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Orca Orcinus orca

• Dart collection of tissue for PCB analysis on 47
  individuals
• PCB concentrations in Orca
• --transient males 251 ppm
• --southern pods (feed on salmon) 146 ppm
• Human concentration 1 ppm
• EPA scientist nightmares about 16 ppm in river

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PCBS in Orca Orcinus orca

• Immune system deficiencies
• Developmental problems
• Endocrine disrupter?
• Pods is Southern Puget Sound dying

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Habitat Degradation Exotic Species
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Mosquitoes, brown tree snake, melaleuca tree,
nursery rainbow trout, yellow jacket, pigs, rats,
dogs, goats, mongooses, ginger, nile perch,
opossum shrimp, zebra mussel, green clam,
chestnut blight, elm disease, med fly, gypsy
moths, cats, rabbits
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Biodiversity Conservation

• What organisms could YOU live without?

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Protecting Biodiversity

• Protect Habitat
• Parks, Preserves, Zoning Laws
• Protect Species
• US Endangered Species Act
• Hunting and Fishing Regulations
• CITES
• Preserve Genetic Information
• Zoos, Botanical Gardens

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Hunting and Fishing Laws

• usually species by species, location by location
• licenses often required to take a species,
  thereby controlling number taken
• regulations often limit take based on size and
  sex and time of year

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U.S. Endangered Species Act

• Congress in 1973 recognized value of species in
  ecosystem functions, sought to protect those
  functions by protecting species

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Definitions

• endangered species
• imminent danger of extinction
• threatened species
• significant decline in numbers and may be on
  verge in certain localities

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US ESA

• no takings of T E species
• no federal money spent on projects that could
  harm T E
• allows federal government to be sued if not
  abiding by ESA
• What do you think takings means here?

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US ESA (cont)

• US Fish and Wildlife Service
• lists T E species
• creates recovery plans for T E species
• minimum viable populations
• reviews projects for T E impact
• of the gt7000 projects reviewed 87-91 only 19
  have been stopped or blocked.
• Helps create Habitat Conservation Plans with
  private land owners

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Environmental Regulations and the US Constitution
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US Constitution

• No person shall be deprived of life, liberty,
  or property, without due process of law nor
  shall private property be taken for public use,
  without just compensation.
• Jargon a takings is the government taking over
  private property without paying for it.

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... nor shall private property be taken for
public use, without just compensation.

• Why in the Constitution?
• to permit the government to use private property
  for public use
• example, land needed for a public highway
  private land can be used but only upon payment of
  compensation
• Jargon called the right of eminent domain or
  condemnation.

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Are environmental regulations takings?

• Should landowners be compensated if they are
  limited in what they can do with their land?

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Takings Law

• Early experience from England and Colonial
  America ? simple regulations are NOT EQUAL TO a
  government takings."
• For example
• After a great fire in Boston in the late 17th
  Century, a series of laws was enacted directing
  the use of brick or stone in buildings. No
  dwelling house could be constructed otherwise
  upon threat of serious fine.
• A later act declared that any building that did
  not meet these standards was a nuisance subject
  to demolition.
• Owner not compensated, just forced to demolish.

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Takings Law

• Until the early 1900s, the "takings" clause was
  thought not to apply to regulatory actions of
  local governments.
• 1920s, the U.S. Supreme Court held that if zoning
  regulations went too far in restricting the use
  of property, they could amount to a taking.

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1920s Supreme Court Decisions

• L.A. banned brickmaking (soot, fumes, dust) from
  a residential neighborhood (brickmaker could no
  longer make bricks there).
• RULED NOT A TAKING
• public needs overruled private, harmful,
  inappropriate action
• Approved Zoning Ordinance in Cleveland,
• even though change to residential zoning meant a
  person lost the potential value of 75 of his
  land because he could not sell it for industrial
  use.
• RULED NOT A TAKING

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1920s Supreme Court Decisions

• Property was under contract to be sold as
  industrial use, town wanted to change to
  residential use. Owner was arguing that this was
  a takings.
• Based on particulars of the case, Court decided
  land had no practical use as residential,
• RULED IT WAS A TAKINGS because government desire
  was illogical from practical view of specifics of
  the area.

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The TEST Is it a Takings?

• 1. Is there an economic loss to owner because of
  regulation? What is level of economic loss?
  (total or partial)?
• 2. Does regulation provide a valid public
  concern? this can override economic loss
• 3. What is character of government action?
  Consistent? Fair? Equitable?

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Examples of things possible regulatory takings?

• Government prohibiting
• building in a wetland
• building a billboard on interstate highways
• junkyards
• trade in endangered species
• destruction of historic building
• Biogenetic experimentation
• Pesticide use
• Destruction of wildlife
• Air or water pollution

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Apply the Takings Test to

• Wetlands

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Current Wetland examples from Law is divided

• Some courts have come out mostly in favor of
  government regulation (as long as regulation was
  logical in serving public welfare) and ruled NOT
  A TAKINGS
• Other courts have come out mostly in favor of
  private wetland landowners and ruled regulation
  WAS A TAKINGS
• primarily when total economic loss was the
  condition.

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Rights and Duties

• Every RIGHT is balanced by a DUTY (a
  responsibility)
• Right to own property
• Whose duty defends that right?

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CITES

• Convention on International Trade in Endangered
  Species
• International agreement controlling TRADE in
  endangered species

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Environmental Management

• For Biodiversity Conservation

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Ecosystem Management

• Manage the system before restoration is needed.
• A Unified Approach, including
• economic goals
• ecological goals
• social goals

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Ecosystem Management

• Looks at Whole Region
• Pacific Northwest (rivers hydropower, salmon
  indigenous fishers, military-industrial complex)
• Attempts Sustainability of Whole
• economic systems
• ecosystems
• Combines SCIENCE and POLICY
• Compass Gyroscope

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Adaptive Management
Compass Pointing the Way

• That is the function of adaptive management

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• treating economic uses of nature as experiments.
• learn efficiently from what is happening
  (scientific knowledge).
• react in a timely manner.

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Gyroscope

• Gives Balance to Human Concerns by Collective
  Decision-Making between
• Stakeholders
• Public
• Keeps Ecosystem Management on a Steady Track

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Edmund Burke

• Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did
  nothing because he could only do a little.

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Wastewater Treatment

• Primary treatment
• let solids settle out
• sludge and primary treated water the results
• removes 50-75 of organic matter
• pathogens, dissolved organic matter remains
• Secondary treatment
• biological treatment of

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Wastewater Treatment
Secondary Treatment
Primary Treatment
Raw Sewage
BIOTREATMENT (Trickling Filter or Activated
Sludge)
Settling Tank
Sludge
Chlorination
To receiving water
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Wastewater Treatment (cont)
Secondary effluent with high nutrient content
(most common reason for tertiary treatment)
Tertiary Treatment
CHEMICAL TREATMENT sorption, precipitation revers
e osmosis, ion exchange, distillation
To Receiving Waters