Reason for wildlife conservation

Reason for wildlife conservation

1. Knowledge and understanding

   • Understanding human behaviour.
   • Interdependence of life, understanding survival.
   • Biomimetics, using adaptations in engineering.

2. Aesthetics and recreation

   • Aesthetically pleasing species more popular, conserved more although other species may need to be conserved to protect them.
   • Visitor attractions, ecotourism or memberships of conservation increase economy,

3. Morals and ethics

   • Right to life, wrong to kill unnecessarily. Other species (pandas) have a greater right than others (parasites.)
   • Some cultures rely on exploitation for food more than others, essential part of their diet, no alternative.

4. Economic

   • Medical
     • Physiological research, species used for research, squids with wide nerve cells studied for nerve function (heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's), armadillos studied for leprosy (only other mammal to catch leprosy), sea urchin embryos studied for drug teratology.
     • Medicine development, many plants produce biologically active chemicals (alkaloids) that kill pests, may have purposes in medicine. (Poppies for painkillers, Yew tree produces taxol for breast cancer.)
   • Unaware of benefits of domesticated species or potential lost. Unknown species become rarer, loss of possible benefits.

5. Food resources

   • Few species exploited for food, people destroy/damage natural ecosystems and remove communities for introduction of domesticated species.
   • New food species
     • Indigenous species are better adapted to the local climate, pests and soil conditions than introduced species so give better yields. Selective breeding to enhance desirable characteristics, eliminating undesirable ones.
     • Attempts to domesticate new species.
     • Perennial maize, grows every year, no need to buy new seeds reducing the need for ploughing and cultivation, reducing soil erosion and land degradation.
   • Wild varieties for breeding programmes
     • Few varieties grown and are genetically uniform. New characteristics found outside of highly bred commercial varieties. Varieties grown in the wild or in subsistence farming are more likely to hold desirable characteristics than in commercial varieties.
     • Gene pool problems
       • Total number of different genes in all individuals in a population.
       • Domesticated species are often inbred, produced from a small number of ancestors. Lack wide variety of characteristics, therefore unable to cope with changed conditions, greater risk of disadvantageous recessive genes.
       • Need for large gene pool means that is it not enough to protect a few representatives of each species but a wide range of genetically different species.
       • Specific conditions create unique gene pool due to adaptations. Each species would need to be protected not just in a few convenient areas.
       • Vavilov Centers
         • Areas where crop plants were first domesticated and where wild varieties and still found. Large numbers of plant species of economic importance with great genetic diversity.
         • Desirable characteristics found: disease-resistance, cold-resistance, drought-resistance, species for biological control (controlling pests.)
         • Many in areas suffering from environmental destruction/degradation.

6. Other material resources

   • Wood, insecticides, fibres, cosmetics, dyes, skins and oils.

7. Maintenance of conditions

   • Photoautotrophs remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere releasing oxygen. Too much carbon dioxide and the temperatures would be too high for life, oxygen needed for ozone to absorb harmful UV.
   • Plants increase humidity by returning water by transpiration and evaporation (interception.) Increased humidity increases rainfall downwind.
   • Dead organic matter provide nutrients for future plant growth but nutrients only released by detritivores and enzymes of decomposers, maintaining soil formation and the foliage and roots protects the soil reducing erosion.

8. Species Interdependance

   • Food supplies
     • Predators rely on prey for food, prey rely on predators as they remove sick and weak.
   • Pollination
     • Flowers pollinated by animals, more reliable than wind pollination. Animals deliberately seek out flowers for nectar, transferring pollen between flowers. Flowers evolve to attract particular insects, insects evolved to feed from particular plants.
   • Seed dispersal
     • Wind dispersal in haphazard, seeds aren't carried far, seeds must be small which reduces the amount of food energy carried in the seed and its ability to produce a seedling plant.
     • Animal dispersal is more reliable, bright colours and tastes attract animals when the seeds are ready. Seeds may be delivered in feces which act as a fertiliser, some seeds are stimulated to germinate by their passage through the gut.
   • Habitat provision
     • One species may provide a habitat for others, birds nesting in trees, insects under logs.