Chapter 57 Conservation

Question 1

What is biodiversity

Answer 1

• the number of different and distinct species in a habitat

- variety of living organisms on earth

Question 2

What are the benefits of biodiversity

Answer 2

• humans depend on them for food, building material, medicine,pain relievers, cancer treatments
• losing species can break down a community

Question 3

What are biodiversity hotspots? Examples?

Answer 3

• large amount of biodiversity, they are inaccessible so we don’t live there
• provide resources for organisms living there, home/shelter, food,mates

Ex: tropical rainforests and coral reefs, islands, deep oceans

Question 4

What is an endemic species?

Answer 4

• found only in one place

- ex: ring tail lemurs only live in Madagascar 🇲🇬

Question 5

What is an indicator species?

Answer 5

• sensitive to environmental change
• are monitored to see environmental health, a decline in these species meals something is wrong with the ecosystem
• ex: crayfish

Question 6

How do we negatively affect wildlife populations? Land pollution/trash

Answer 6

-trash goes into the seas, chemicals seep from buried trash that contaminated ground water, floating trash, animals become entangled in plastic

Question 7

What is wildlife exploitation? Wildlife trade in animal parts and live animals for illegal pets? Who are the big three, soon to be four?

Answer 7

• over harvesting species from the wild that causes a drastic decline in populations
• delicacies, medicines/cures, trinkets, trophies, exotic pets, fur
• big 4: elephants, rhinos, tigers, lions

Question 8

What are invasive species? What damage can they possibly cause?

Answer 8

• dispersed from their original home range by humans, they do well
• released pets, accidentally shipped to other areas, brought in as a solution but creates more problems
• numbers of the species in tease and natives get out competed and have no way to defend against them since they’ve never seen them before
• ex: Pythons in Florida

Question 9

How does urbanization affect wild population?

Answer 9

• we make animals lose their habitats
• fragmentation: separates populations into small isolated populations
• this messes up migration routes, cause inbreeding and reduces genetic variation

Question 10

What is the difference between background extinctions and mass extinctions?

Answer 10

• background: decline of reproductive fitness within a species due to changes in its environment. Not major events
• mass: death of 75% or more species in a geologically short period of time due to catastrophic events. Major events

Question 11

What factors increase the risk of extinction?

Answer 11

Geographic range, pop size, habitat tolerance

Question 12

What are the causes of our current mass extinction?

Answer 12

• caused by humans

- habitat degradation and loss: loss of tropical rainforests

Question 13

What is conservation biology?

Answer 13

-preservation of habitats and ecosystems, preservation of individual species

Question 14

How can economics be used for conservation?

Answer 14

-many oppose environmental protections
Ex: logging industry
-ecotourism is good, because people want to see animals so they are protected
Ex: Monteverde cloud festival in Costa roca
-eliminate profiting from poaching
-eliminate value in trinkets and remedies made from animals
-increase awareness and education in value of the environment and wildlife species

Question 15

Geographic range

Answer 15

• animals are restricted to small habitat ranges are more likely to go extinct
• small bodies of water
• confined to islands
• small patches of unconnected habitat in urban developed areas

Ex: Tasmanian devil- lost its habitat and is now confined to a small island of Tasmania, developed facial tumor due to low genetic diversity and most share the same genes/recognition proteins

Question 15

Local population size

Answer 15

• small population increased risk of extinction

- susceptible to environmental disturbances (fires,floods,blizzards), disease and predation , inbreeding

Question 16

Habitat tolerance

Answer 16

• describes the distance in which a species can survive
• narrow habitat ranges: limits survival
• too specialized and cannot adapt to changes esp habitat loss and degradation

Ex: passes far pigeon could not tolerate habitat loss because it needed to build nests in specific forests

Question 17

Landscape conservation

Answer 17

• preserving habitats and ecological processes
• national parks,wilderness areas, recreation areas
• Yellowstone and Yosemite

Question 18

Habitat restoration

Answer 18

• principles of ecology
• restore degraded habitats back to natural state
• reintroduction of native species
• clearing streams and lakes of trash
• planting trees

Question 19

Wildlife corridors

Answer 19

• areas that connect larger natural areas or patches
• connects fragmented populations allows them to maintain wildlife movement
• wildlife friendly underpasses
• drainage

Question 20

Buffer zones

Answer 20

• preserves designed with core areas
• very minutes human activity, wildlife only
• zone around core areas have limited human activity and support wildlife

Question 21

Endangered species act (ESA) 1973

Answer 21

• categorizes individual species based in level of threat
• threatened species: a species that is likely to become endangered in the near future
• endangered: a species that is likely to go extinct
• laws are put into effect to protect those listed
• 40 species discovered
• American alligator, bald eagle, peregrine falcon

Question 22

CITES

Answer 22

• worldwide
• enforces ban on illegal wildlife trade
• prison or steep fines

Question 23

Captive Breeding Programs

Answer 23

-zoos, wild animal Parks
-botanical gardens
Ex: 1980s California Cóndor
-brink of extinction
-poaching
-habitat loss
2009
-more than 100 birds released more than 150 birds still alive n captivity
-habitat must be preserved as well