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LEC 145 - Biodiversity ad Conservation - Coggle Diagram

- - - - glaciation - species with high dispersal ability repopulate north
      - competition between species
      - a. climactic variability - greater at high latitudes
  - - - 2a. productivity hypothesis - availability of resources dictates number co-existing species in given area
      - BUT... diversity often decline when add resources to community...
        aquatic - algal blooms (eutroph), plant communities - N fertilisation reduce diversity
      - 2b. ambient energy hypothesis - availability of high temperature and water dictates number co-existing species in given area
        
        physiological response of organism to temperature:
        low temp = reduce population growth, lower survival
        low water availability = reduce plant growth and animal survival
- - - - heterogeneity - more diverse habitats have more niches e.g. vertical structure in forests
        
        Problems with niche-heterogeneity idea:
        
        Mainly zoological (plants have same basic needs, i.e. water, nutrients, and CO2).
        
        Resources and conditions are not partitioned into discrete packages or niches.
        
        Doesn’t account for most diversity.
      - Niche concept - specialisation enables more species to coexist in a given area
      - Central paradigm of island biogeography:
        
        Discrete, quantifiable, numerous, bounded communities.
        
        Natural laboratories – simplify complexities of natural world.
        
        capture species that readily disperse and colonise
        
        regulators
        
        species-area relationship (influences extinction) see pp for examples
        
        isolation (influences immigration). forces of immigration greater on near islands (speciation more important on remote islands)
    - - Diversity-productivity relationship - little evidence that communities reach equilibrium - only constant in ecology is change
        fluctuating environment --> constrain competitive dominants (prevent exclusion)
        
        Species richness is unimodally related to productivity:
        
        peak diversity at intermediate productivity (maximum resources).
        
        declining diversity due to competitive exclusion
      - disturbance
        
        Intermediate disturbance hypothesis:
        
        Low disturbance – competitive exclusion
        
        Intermediate disturbance – max diversity due prevention competitive exclusion
        
        High disturbance - low diversity as few species survive
- - - - beta diversity = the change in species composition btw places (the opp to Jaccard similarity index)
- - - - Early successional species – colonisers “r-selected”
      - Small, fast growing
      - Produce many, small seeds (dispersal)
      - Often no dormancy requirement (germinate if conditions favourable)
      - Often N fixers (lichens, cyanobacteria, dryas)
      - Allocate more energy to reproduction than biomass
      - (b) Late successional species – competitors “K- selected”
      - Large, slow growing (Trees)
      - Dormancy
      - Large seeds, animal dispersal (few)
      - Competitive (canopy species)
      - Allocate more energy to biomass than reproduction
- - - - Natural communities are finely-tuned systems, where each species has an ecological value to the other species that are part of that ecosystem.
        Species diversity increases an ecosystem's stability and resilience, in particular its ability to adapt and respond to changing environmental conditions
    - - Ecological uniqueness is a criterion recently proposed to single out sites that have a distinct species composition, and that thereby have a high contribution to beta diversity
        Unique sites have a complementary species composition by definition, protecting them may help prevent biotic homogenization
  - - - take priority over others
      - become extinct if we failed
      - in conflict with indigenous people
- - - - example: millennium seed bank partnership:
        
        Kew Botanic Gardens, London
        
        Store seeds of all UK’s native plant species (2009)
        
        Store seed of 25% of the world’s plants (2020)
        
        Priority-setting: focus on species vulnerable to climate change (e.g. alpine, island, dryland), arid locations, endemic species, economically-important, endangered
      - Mexico's tomato agrobiodiversity
        
        Effort to document traditional tomato varieties, in search of those that are high-nutrition and climate resilient
        
        Ensure they are protected in farmers’ fields (in-situ) and in botanic gardens (ex-situ)
        
        Agobiodiversity: is a sub-set of biodiversity that results from both natural selection processes and selection by farmers over millennia
    - - example: Martin Mere
        
        “WWT has been saving wetland species ever since the Severn Wildfowl Trust was established in 1946. Our international projects focus on globally Critically Endangered species including the rarest bird in the world - the Madagascar Pochard - and those which can act as flagships for wetland conservation along international flyways, such as Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Baer’s Pochard.”
        
        150,000 animals overall
        
        190 species recorded on site
        
        International projects: Myanmar, Cambodia, Madagascar.
        
        Migratory bird species: Plover, Ruff, Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis, Bar-tailed Godwit, Wilson's Phalarope
    - - IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered, possibly Extinct in the Wild
        
        1987: 19 known captive in zoos, 1 wild (Brazil)
        
        Early 2000’s: Two large private collections purchased by conservation groups
        
        2015: 110 captive birds and plans for breeding and reintroduction
    - - Native to SE Asia
      - IUCN Red List:
      - Critically endangered
      - Extinct in the wild across most of its range, except in Cambodia
      - 1 million in captivity for leather industry
      - In 2010, 799 farms in Thailand alone
      - Hybridisation
      - Artificial selection
    - - IUCN Red List: Critically endangered, probably extinct in the wild
      - 1950: 4,000 individuals, not sighted in >25 years
      - 1986: 40 pure-bred tigers in 17 Chinese zoos, none wild-bread Save
      - 2002: Save China’s Tigers South African begin work to rewild tigers
      - Breeding (11 cubs) and training “wild” skills in South Africa
      - Release sites preliminarily identified
      - Many questions about its viability
    - - Insurance against extinction
      - Reservoirs for reintroduction
      - Stock for breeding new varieties
      - Research (animal behaviour)
      - Education
      - Fundraising for in situ conservation
      - Recreation
    - - reintroduction of short-haired bumblebee:
        
        1950: Bombus subterraneus widespread across south of England
        
        1988: Last recording in UK at Dungeness
        
        2000: Declared extinct in UK
        
        2009: Individuals translocated from Sweden to Dungeness and Romney Marsh in Kent and East Sussex
        
        2019: Established overwintering population maintained with restoration and protection of grassland habitat.
    - - 140 million annual visitors to European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA)
      - Over 100,000 school visitors to London Zoo Education talks
      - Information panels
      - Outreach activities
    - - Sampling of wild genetic diversity
      - Maintenance of healthy genetic stock
      - Ability to survive in the wild (for reintroduction)
      - Ethical standards
    - - Loss of hunting ability
      - Predator blindness
      - Locomotion deficits
      - Loss of natural social behaviour
      - Imprinting
      - Stereotypic behaviour
      - the urban rescue ranch:
        
        Based in Waco, Texas
        
        Surprising number of non-native ex-farm animals.
        
        Rescue and rehabilitate injured wild animals.
        
        Retraining social behaviour and hunting.
        
        Non-releasable animals trained as wildlife ambassadors.
  - - - Many zoo species are not threatened
      - Many threatened species overlooked
      - Non-charismatic species
      - Species with demanding husbandry
- - - - Most of them are habitat specialist.
        
        Habitat specialists
        Climate improve but there is not habitat available, so the species is not able to respond to climate change.
- - - - Detect elusive species:
      - low density species
      - Nocturnal
      - Shy
      - Remote or inhospitable sites
      - Mark-recapture studies
      - e.g. camera trapping Sri Lankan leopards
  - - - Camera trapping
      - Field measurements (e.g., DBH, species identification)
      - Remote sensing (e.g., conventional aircraft, satellite, UAV photos, etc.)
    - - Time series
      - Spatial statistics
      - Indices (e.g., heterogeneity, connectivity, diversity)
      - Comparisons
  - - - Is Biodiversity “too broad and vague a concept to be applied to real-world…problems”?
        
        Number of genes, species, ecosystems
        
        But also processes: interspecific interactions, natural disturbances, nutrient cycles
        
        How can we monitor what we can’t define?
        
        We need practical ways to obtain comparable, quantifiable and meaningful metrics over space and time.
  - - - Ornamental plants illegal traded from Myanmar to Thailand
        
        Cannot access northern Myanmar
        
        Limited infrastructure and dense forest
        
        Widely distributed species
      - Local Ecological Knowledge of plant traders on the Thai-Myanmar border:
        
        Species lists
        
        Changes in availability over time
        
        Price data (=rarity and demand)
      - Limitations
        
        Traders don’t have full information
        
        Misinformation possible