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Environmental Sciences: Towards a Sustainable Future Chapter 11

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Factors that contribute to a reduction in plant and animal diversity. ... 90% decline in rhinos. 1.6 tons of tiger bones = 340 tigers ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Environmental Sciences: Towards a Sustainable Future Chapter 11


1
Environmental Sciences Towards a Sustainable
Future Chapter 11
  • Wild Species Biodiversity and Protection

2
Appreciating the Worth of Diversity
  • The worth () of plant and animal diversity in
    terms of goods and services.
  • Factors that contribute to a reduction in plant
    and animal diversity.
  • Understanding the costs of losing plant and
    animal diversity.
  • Programs to protect biodiversity.

3
Ecosystem Goods, Services, and Functions 33
Trillion/year
  • Gas, climate, and water regulation
  • Water supply
  • Erosion control
  • Soil formation
  • Pollination

4
Ecosystem Goods, Services, and Functions 33
Trillion/year
  • Biological control
  • Food production
  • Recreation
  • Raw materials
  • Nutrient cycling
  • Waste treatment

5
The Value of Wild Species
  • Instrumental
  • Sources for agriculture, forestry, aquaculture
    and animal husbandry
  • Recreational, aesthetic and scientific value
  • Sources of medicine
  • Intrinsic

6
Wild or Cultivated?
  • Highly adaptable to changing environments
  • Have numerous traits for resistance
  • Lack genetic vigor

7
Wild or Cultivated?
  • High degree of genetic diversity
  • Represents the genetic bank
  • Need highly controlled environmental conditions

8
Sources of Medicine Table 11-1
  • Vincristine from rosey periwinkle cures leukemia.
  • Capoten from the venom of the Brazilian viper
    controls high blood pressure.
  • Taxol from the bark of the pacific yew used to
    treat ovarian, breast and small-cell cancers.

9
Recreational, Aesthetic, and Scientific Value
  • Ecotourism largest foreign exchange-generating
    enterprise in many developing countries
  • 104 billion spent on wildlife-related recreation
  • 31 billion spent to observe, feed, or photograph
    wildlife

10
Past Wildlife Management Problems
  • Restoring the numbers of many game animals, e.g.,
    deer, elk, turkey.
  • Passing laws to control the collection and
    commercial exploitation of wildlife.
  • Poaching and over-hunting.

11
Contemporary Wildlife Management Problems
  • Road-killed animals
  • Population explosion of urban wildlife
  • Lack of natural predators
  • Wildlife as vectors for certain diseases
  • Pet predation by coyotes
  • Changed societal attitudes towards animals

12
Saving Wild Species
http//www.fws.gov
13
Strengths or Weaknesses of Endangered Species Act?
  • The need for official recognition
  • Control over commercial exploitation of
    endangered species
  • Government controls on development in critical
    habitats
  • Recovery programs
  • Habitat conservation plan (HCP)

14
Causes of Animal Extinctions
15
Reasons for Biodiversity Decline
  • Habitat alterations
  • Conversions
  • Fragmentation
  • Simplification
  • Human population growth

16
Reasons for Biodiversity Decline
  • Exotic introductions
  • Pollution
  • Overuse

17
Habitat Alterations
18
Human Population Growth
19
Pollution Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
  • March 24, 1989
  • 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into
    Prince William Sound

Oil slick
20
Exotic Species
Brown tree snake
21
Overuse
  • Harvest of 50 million song birds for food
  • Trafficking in wildlife and products derived from
    wild species - 10 billion/year
  • 90 decline in rhinos
  • 1.6 tons of tiger bones 340 tigers
  • Parrot smuggling 40 of 330 species face
    extinction

22
Consequences of Losing Biodiversity The Plane
Analogy
  • The whole plane is an ecosystem.
  • There are many different parts (species) in the
    jet plane ecosystem.
  • How does removal of one or more species affect
    ecosystem structure or function?

23
International Steps to Protect Biodiversity
  • Convention on trade in endangered species (CITES)
  • Focuses on trade in wildlife and wildlife parts

24
International Steps to Protect Biodiversity
  • Convention on biological diversity
  • Focuses on conserving biological diversity
    worldwide
  • Does not yet have the support of the United
    States
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