Flashcards
Principles of conservation
Cards in this deck (65)
- 1What is a crisis discipline?to prevent the worst from occurring - such as extinction, loss of biodiversity, and ways of life.
this may mean that what results is not the best, but at least stopped the worst.
e.g. medicine, politics.
(death) (law and rights) - 2what is conservation?the preservation of the natural world.
allowing people and nature to thrive together. - 3what is the current species count?2.8-2.7 million
- 4what is normative conservation?Providing a "should" statement to give a course of action
- 5what is objective conservation?a mix of analytical and descriptive views.
social and non social side
Both human needs (livelehoods, economy, tradition) and biological components (as climate change, reproduction, populations, migration).
behaviour, needs, change, trade-off's.
BIOLOGY and SOCIAL SCIENCE - 6what are the 2 key paradigm's?habitat loss + fragmentation
small and declining populations - 7what is negative density dependence?where the birth rate increases when there is a high adult mortality rate.
Example:
fruit flies - 8what population decrease does not cause negative density dependence?habitat destruction
not all reductions in
population reduce density
E.g. habitat loss reduces
carrying capacity, not density - 9what is an allee effect?(positive density dependence) - Population growth rate increases with increasing density
stochasticity, genetics, decline in individual fitness, - 10what is intra-specific competitionindividuals of a species
- 11what is inter-specific competition?between species
- 12in which theory is density dependence important?the harvesting theory
- 13what does this show?negative density dependence of blowflies - the more adults there are the more the birth
- 14what examples of low density dependence can you think of?blow flies
plants - rainforest species crowding out light. - 15what examples can you think of for high density dependence?Lapwing - to effectively chase off predators in large flocks
African wild dogs - 16what is con-specific?an individual of the same species
- 17give an example of positive density dependent specieskakapo
takahe
african wild dog
Lapwing
Emperor penguins - 18what is an inbreeding depression?reduced biological fitness, eventually leading to the production of malformed young and infertility.
- 19what is genetic drift?A change in the frequency of a gene (usually a decrease) in a population, it may have become isolated, fragmented, random, etc.
decrease over time in genetic diversity - 20what is stochasticity?changes in the environment, random events (volcanic eruptions, etc.)
Worst for small populations - 21what is beneficial about negative density dependence?increased genetic fitness at low densities
stabilise populations - 22what is an extinction vortices and what is it used for/caused by?models used to examine extinctions and their causes.
- 23what is the island biogeography theory and why is this so?that the more area of the island there is the more species there will be.
> Island area = >species number
< island area = < species number
because there is more variable habitat, more niches, more space - so more resources, etc. - 24what is the most biodiverse taxa?Insects! We need them!
- 25what is biodiversity?The variation in forms of life, their structure, in taxa, habitats, etc. - the wonder of life! Everything is different!
- 26what does biodiversity do?-Helps us to monitor ecosystem health
-provides variation in life
-more resources for humans
-helps ecosystems to function
-monitor climate change - 27what is this?a species area curve
It shows the relationship between the area of land and the number of species within it
- 28—Species first found
Last lost
There is a lag between the species found and extinction - this is because it is difficult to declare a species extinct until evidence found none left.
- 29what does SAR stand for? what does EAR stand for?Species-area relationship
Endemics-area relationship - 30what is a hotspot?A hot spot is a small area of high biodiversity used to conserve a high number of species, but not habitat type.
- 31—A hot spot
- 32what is complementarity?when they use hotspot reserves in two complementary areas, such as a portion of the rainforest in the Amazon with 15,000 species, and another small portion in Africa with another 14,000 species - increasing the amount of biodiversity "protected"
- 33what are the 2 criteria required for hotspot designation?it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (> 0.5 percent of the world’s total) as endemics,
and it has to have lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat.
- - 34how many endemic plants are contained in the 2% of land covered by hotspots?45.9%
- 35what are the downsides of using hotspots?1. ignores the relative cost of conserving and just uses land area- so not necessarily efficient.
2. a vast number of other species not included in hotspot zones will decrease.
3. climate change may force the species isolated in the hotspot zone to extinction anyway. - 36what approach does the WWF use for conservation?representational - i.e. all the habitat types should be represented.
"the preservation of distinct ecosystems and ecological processes" - 37why is there so much divide between what areas to conserve?due to the rainforests of the world containg half of the worlds species - the highest areas of biodiversity. whereas the other 50% of species are spread over a much larger range.
- 38what are the 8 biogeographic regions of the world? 1. palearctic 2. nearctic 3. oceanic 4. neotropical 5. antarctic 6. indo-malay 7. afrotropical 8. australasian
- 39how many biomes are there?14
- 40what is an ecoregion? why not conserve using ecoregions?an ecoregion is an area of a land containing specific ecosystems and with:
"geographically distinct species, habitats, and environmental conditions." - 41what do ecoregions have?- contain fewer species (per unit area)
- cover greater surface area
- contain greater diversity of habitats
- touch on most countries - 42this is the current state of biodiversity declines
- 43what is the current percentage of countries now forming national biodiversity strategies and action plans?87%
- 44what are the advantages of hot spots?conserving a much higher number of species
cheaper than covering several areas over a much larger range
get more species for money, in effect - 45what proportion of species are vertebrates?1%
- 46how many current species are due to be extinct20%
- 47what is the bonarelli event?Mass extinction in the ocean due to oxygen starvation for 1/2 mil years
27% of marine invertebrates extinct.
50 mya - 48how much mega fauna went extinct due to humans?74 - 86%
elephant bird - madagascar
giant marsupials - australia
moa - new zealand - 49why do islands have increased extinction rates?- no defence to invasives, humans
- lower populations
- endemics, only found there
- not very adaptable
- no immunity to diseases brought in
- centres of trade
- rescue effect - 50how many years have the majority of extinctions occurred in?last 150 years
- 51why are current mass extinctions noteable?- human caused
- few million years long recovery wait
- not clear will rebound this time
- humans using resources needed for new species to evolve - 52provide some examples of endemics?most birds of paradise
matschie's tree kangaroo
kagu - new caledonia
komodo dragon
maritius kestrel
bermuda peterel
galapagos tortoise - 53how many hotspots currently identified?25
- 54how is current population growth relating to density?the growth in many places is very high, but the density in these areas is extremely low.
- 55what are some of the major causes of extinction?Overexploitation
Habitat loss
Introduced species
Disruption of ecosystem interactions
Pollution
Loss of genetic variation
Catastrophic disturbances - 56what is affecting global frog populations?Chytrid Fungus
(also pollution, habitat loss)
CRYPTIC SPECIES
-kalima butterfly - 57—the worst trends are the mangrove, freshwater and marine env. = most ignored currently
tropical forest - highest diversity
- 58why are there estimation difficulties for forest cover?technological advances
incorrect methods
inconsistent methods
patchy records - 59what is going to happen to global population?it is estimated to double by 2100
= 14 billion - 60why is there argument for deforestation statements and population in rural areas?rural population levels currently set to peak to soon.
- wright and muller-landau
- 61what is the term for the barrier which invasive species have to overcome/ measure of invasive species into area/non native country?propagule pressure
- 62what are opportunity costs?what could have been there if land not used for conservation
- 63what is negative externality?sav s
- 64REDDReducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
- 65—
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- Flashcards on Principles of conservation, created by ameliabmargrave on 21/10/2015.
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