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8/12/2019 L2 Printable Version

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WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY?

BIODIVERSITY = BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

the variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial,marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of whichthey are a part

diversity of all organisms, species and populations; the genetic variation amongthese; and all their complex assemblages of communities and ecosystems


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Concepts of Biodiversity:

1. Means life or wilderness or other conservation values. Also has served on occasion as a catch- all for conservation itself.

2. functional and compositional perspectives. functional concern with ecosystem and evolutionary processes

compositional organisms as aggregated into populations, species,higher taxa, communities and other categories

3. As inevitably value-laden each having different values (ethics)

4. Corresponding to a dramatic transformation for biologists from a bits and pieces approach to a much more holistic approach.


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CONCEPTS of BIODIVERSITY:THREE LEVELS OF BIODIVERSITY

Genetic diversity: all the different genes contained in all individual plants,animals, fungi and microorganisms. It occurs within a speciesas well as between species.

Species diversity: all the differences within and between populations of species,as well as between different species

Ecosystem diversity: all the different habitats, biological communities andecological processes, as well as variation within individualecosystems


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Distribution of biodiversity

Biodiversity is not evenly distributed, rather it varies greatly across the globe as well aswithin regions. Among other factors, the diversity of all living things ( biota ) depends ontemperature, precipitation, altitude, soils , geography and the presence of other species.

Diversity consistently measures higher in the tropics and in other localized regions suchas the Cape Floristic Region and lower in polar regions generally. Rain forests that have

had wet climates for a long time, such as Yasuni National Park in Ecuador , haveparticularly high biodiversity.

Latitudinal gradients

Generally, there is an increase in biodiversity from the poles to the tropics . Thus localitiesat lower latitudes have more species than localities at higher latitudes. This is oftenreferred to as the latitudinal gradient in species diversity. Several ecological mechanismsmay contribute to the gradient, but the ultimate factor behind many of them is the greatermean temperature at the equator compared to that of the poles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biota_(ecology)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Floristic_Regionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_forestshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuni_National_Parkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitudeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitudeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuni_National_Parkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_forestshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Floristic_Regionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biota_(ecology)


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How many species are there?

1758 Carolus Linnaeus 13,000

1995 Hammond 1.7 million (estimated 13.6 million)

Viruses

Bacteria Fungi Protozoa

Algae Plants Arthro. OtherAnimals

Describedspecies

4,000 4,000 72,000 40,000 40,000 270,000 1,065,000 255,000

Estimated

speciesrichness

400,000 1 million 1.5million

200,000 400,000 320,000 8,900,000 900,000


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SPECIES COMPOSITION (Malaysia):

Up to date about 1.75 million species known to science

Malaysia: Flowering plants 15,000Mosses 1,000Mammal 286Birds 736Marine fish 4,000Freshwater fish 449Reptile 268Insects 150,000


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Species as equal unit- must try to save all species- more holistic- knowledge is lacking about all species

Alternatives to Unit-species- through a functional perspective focus to ecosystem processes- seen at every level of biological variation- shift from elements to processes


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A biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under threatfrom humans.

To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must containat least 0.5% or 1,500 species of vascular plants as endemics , and it has to have lostat least 70% of its primary vegetation.

Around the world, 25 areas qualify under this definition, with nine other possiblecandidates. These sites support nearly 60% of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptileand amphibian species , with a very high share of endemic species.

Biodiversity hotspot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiversityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vascular_planthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vascular_planthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiversity


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Hotspot conservation initiatives

Several international organizations are working in many ways to conserve biodiversity

hotspots.

1. Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a global program that providesfunding and technical assistance to nongovernmental organizations and participationto protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity including:biodiversity hotspots, high-biodiversity wilderness areas and important marineregions. CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents, with headquartersnear Washington, D.C

2.The World Wildlife Fund has derived a system called the Global 200 Ecoregions ,the aim of which is to select priority Ecoregions for conservation within each of 14terrestrial, 3 freshwater, and 4 marine habitat types. They are chosen for theirspecies richness, endemism, taxonomic uniqueness, unusual ecological orevolutionary phenomena, and global rarity. All biodiversity hotspots contain at leastone Global 200 Ecoregion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Ecosystem_Partnership_Fundhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wildlife_Fundhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_200http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_200http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wildlife_Fundhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Ecosystem_Partnership_Fund


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Hotspot conservation initiatives

3. Birdlife International has identified 218 Endemic Bird Areas (EBAs) each of whichhold two or more bird species found nowhere else. Birdlife International has identifiedmore than 11,000 Important Bird Areas all over the world.

4. Plantlife International coordinates several the world aiming to identify Important Plant Areas .

5. Alliance for Zero Extinction is an initiative of a large number of scientific organizationsand conservation groups who co-operate to focus on the most threatened endemicspecies of the world. They have identified 595 sites, including a large number ofBirdlife s Important Bird Areas.

6. The National Geographic Society has prepared a world map of the hotspots and ArcView shapefile and metadata for the Biodiversity Hotspots including details of theindividual endangered fauna in each hotspot, which is available from ConservationInternational.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdlife_Internationalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemic_Bird_Areashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantlife_Internationalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Important_Plant_Areashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Important_Plant_Areashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Zero_Extinctionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geographic_Societyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geographic_Societyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Zero_Extinctionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Important_Plant_Areashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Important_Plant_Areashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Important_Plant_Areashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Important_Plant_Areashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantlife_Internationalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemic_Bird_Areashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdlife_International


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Critiques of hotspots

The high profile of the biodiversity hotspots approach has resulted in considerablecriticism:

Do not adequately represent other forms of species richness (e.g. total species richnessor threatened species richness).

Do not adequately represent taxa other than vascular plants (e.g. vertebrates, or fungi).

Do not protect smaller scale richness hotspots.

Do not make allowances for changing land use patterns. Hotspots represent regionsthat have experienced considerable habitat loss, but this does not mean they areexperiencing ongoing habitat loss. On the other hand, regions that are relatively intact(e.g. the Amazon Basin ) have experienced relatively little land loss, but are currentlylosing habitat at tremendous rates.

Do not protect ecosystem services

Do not consider phylogenetic diversity .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_usehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Basinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylogenetic_diversityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylogenetic_diversityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Basinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_use


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What Is An Indicator Species?

are plants and animals that, by their presence, abundance, or chemical composition, demonstrate some distinctive aspect of the character orquality of the environment

Alternative definitions:

1.A species whose presence indicates the presence of a set of other speciesand whose absence indicates the lack of that entire set of species

- when there was a prey there was always a predator around it

2. A keystone species , which is a species whose addition to or loss from anecosystem leads to major changes in abundance or occurrence of at leastone other species

Pisaster ochracceus (carnivorous

starfish) in intertidal zones


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3. A species whose presence indicates human-created abiotic condition suchas air or water pollution

Hypogymnia physodes - air quality indicator

Tubiflex worm water pollution (freshwater)



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6. A species thought to be sensitive to and therefore to serve as early warningindicator of environmental changes such as global warming.

7. A management indicator species, which is a species that reflects the effects ofa disturbance regime or the efficacy of efforts to mitigate disturbance effects

Respond to environmental changes in forest



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FROM SPECIES VALUES TO BIODIVERSITY VALUES

Species Values- values of individual species

- commodity value and other direct use values (known values)

- species need to be preserved for reasons other than any known valueas resources for human use

- species have some intrinsic value in and for itself

- depend on a human-centered perspective

- preferences-based approaches to valuation can provide economic(dollar) estimates of value.

- good way to protect species is to place an economic value onthem

- triage based on species prioritization

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