the pyramids of giza. the hanging gardens of babylon

The Pyramids of Giza

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Statue of Zeus at Olympia

Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The Colossus of Rhodes

The Lighthouse At Alexandria

The Great Barrier Reef

What Do They Have In Common?

• All massive feats of construction/engineering

• All gone or in disrepair

In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but what we refuse to

destroy-John Sawhill 1999

BIODIVERSITY

General Definition: Sum total of the genetically based variety in the biosphere

Different Measures of Biodiversity

• Species – how many different species

• Ecosystem – how many different habitats and communities

• Genetic – sum total of all of the different forms of genetic information currently carried by living organisms

Diversity Exceeds Assessment

• Since Linnaeus’ Systaema Naturae was published in 1755, over 1.75 million species have been identified

• Old Estimate: 5-100 million may exist in the biosphere

NEW ESTIMATE OF SPECIES BIODIVERSITY

• NEW ESTIMATE: 8.7 million

• 86% of terrestrial and 91% of aquatic undiscovered

Life Can Live In The Most Extreme Habitats Found On Earth

Life Can Be Incredibly Diverse In A Small Area

• In Brazil, 425 different tree species live in 2 square acres

• In Peru, 43 different species of ant live on ONE tree

• In Illinois, one gram of dirt may have as many as 1,000 species of bacteria

Human reliance on high biodiversity is unmatched

Yet, 50% of Earth’s Different Species Are At Risk of Extinction

• Extinctions are occuring at a rate 10 to 10,000 times faster than before

• Evidence suggests we are entering the 6th major extinction

Extinction Is Natural?

Extinction & Biodiversity

• Of the estimated 5 billion various species that have ever evolved, only 1% of them remain today

• The extinction of some species spurs the speciation and development of new lifeforms

What Does It Mean To Be Extinct?

All Gone…

“Lazarus Species”

• Species once thought to be extinct that have reappeared after long periods of time

• Ex: Coelacanth, Black Java chicken

“Elvis Species”

• A species that actually is extinct but appears to still exist due to “imitators”

• Ex: Komodo Dragon

Neodarwinism & Extinction

• A species is extinct when all of the alleles in its gene pool have a frequency of 0.

• Under this definition, few species ever truly become extinct!

Habitat Fragmentation

• The Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity is forced to live on 2% of its surface area

• Of 196,938,800 square miles of Earth, only 13, 785, 716 are rainforest

• Yet half of the terrestrial species on Earth live in tropical rainforests

These Areas Are Known As Biodiversity “Hot Spots”

The Measure of A Society

• “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”

– M.K. Gandhi

New Zealand & The Brown Kiwi

What is man without the beasts?If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit.For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man.All things are connected.

-Chief Seattle

The “Part” of the “Whole”

14 Natural Divisions of Illinois

Prairie

Agriculture

Deciduous Forests

Illinois, Mississippi & DesPlaines Watersheds

Unglaciated Moraine

Lake Michigan Dunes

Cypress Swamps

Ozark Uplift

Urban Environments

Illinois’ Biodiversity Is Changing

Today 0.01% Remains

21,702 sq miles forests and wetlands in 1800’s

5,646 square miles remain

Where Did It All Go?

MONOCULTURE

Why is Illinois Monoculture an ecological risk?

Lower Autotroph Diversity Means Less Consumer Diversity

More risk from invasive species

More Effort To Maintain Artificial Stability Of Monoculture

History Tells Us That Monocultures and Low Biodiversity Are Recipes For Disaster

Biodiversity Analysis (part 1)

• For table 1, sum all of the species in column 2 to determine the total biodiversity of Earth.

• Divide each individual # of species by this total to determine what % of the Earth’s total biodiversity is represented by each taxa (classification)

Part 2

• To determine the biodiversity statistics for Illinois, sum the second column from table 2. This represents the total Illinois biodiversity

• Divide the estimated # of species by the total # of species. This should tell you what % of Illinois biodiversity belongs to each taxa

Part 3: How much does Illinois contribute to global biodiversity?• To answer this question, take the

estimated # of species in IL for a given classification and divide by the estimated # of species (global).

• This value will suggest what % of the total # of species for a given taxa/classification can be found in Illinois.