GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY

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GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY

• C. Pringle, 25 August
  2009
• Introduction
• A. The extent magnitude of current
  extinction event
• B. Why is biodiversity important?
• II. Historical perspective on current levels
  of
• biodiversity and contemporary losses
• Contemporary patterns in biodiversity
• IV. Critical regional losses
• A. Hot spots of biodiversity
• B. Pros and cons of managing hot-spots
• Biodiversity losses in our own backyard USA
• VI. Case Study Madagascar, global biodiversity
  hot spot

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• The worst thing that can happen during the
  next few decades is not energy depletion,
  economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or
  conquest by a totalitarian government. As
  terrible as these catastrophes would be for us,
  they can be repaired within a few generations.
  The ongoing process that will take millions of
  years to correct is the loss of genetic and
  species diversity by the destruction of natural
  habitats. This is the folly that our descendants
  are least likely to forgive us.
• 
  . E. O. Wilson

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• Having to squeeze the last drop of utility out of
  the land has the same desperate finality as
  having to chop up the furniture to keep warm.
• ..Aldo
  Leopold 1949

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Biodiversity losses dontjust refer to species
lossesgenes speciespopulationscommunitieseco
systems
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• Why should human societies be concerned about the
  loss of species?
• Wont technology will be able to replace the
  goods and services that species and ecosystems
  provide us with?

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Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
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II. Historical perspective on biodiversity
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III. Contemporary patterns in
biodiversity
-climate, geography -degree of isolation
(temporally and spatially) -latitudinal gradients
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What is endemism? Native species found in only a
single geographic area and no-where else
Numbers of endemic species in the US
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IV. Critical Regional Losses A. Hot spots
of Biodiversity B. Pros and cons of
managing hot-spots
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Hot spots of biodiversity - 18 geographic
locations
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Pros and cons of managing biodiversity hot-spots

• PROS
• -extinction rates reduced to low levels by
  establishing a network of protected hot spots
  and contiguous forests.
• -conservation of hot spots and simultaneous
  development of systems of sustainable food and
  timber
• production to meet human demands.
• CONS
• -hot spots are often in poor developing areas of
  the world top-down international pressures
  imposed on
• developing countries.

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V. Biodiversity losses in the US
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Devils Hole Pupfish - Cyprinodon diabolis
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VI. Case Study Madagascar - a global
hot spot of biodiversity
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