2. Bio = Bio diversity What does “ Bio ” mean? Life
3. Bio diversity D i v e r s i t y = V a r i e t y What does “ Diversity ” mean?
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12. Plants begin invading land Evolution and expansion of life First fossil record of animals Plants invade the land Age of reptiles Age of mammals Insects and amphibians invade the land Modern humans (Homo sapiens) appear about 2 seconds before midnight Recorded human history begins 1/4 second before midnight Origin of life (3.6–3.8 billion years ago) noon midnight
67. Fragmentation most easily observed in forest habitat is caused by human activities. Anywhere that humans transformations cut up continuous habitat.
81. Aesthetic value Ethical value Social value Productive value Consumptive value Biodiversity Value
82. Values of biodiversity Values of biodiversity Ecological values Economic values Cultural values
83.
84. Biodiversity Value : Ecological values All living creatures are supported by the interactions among organisms and ecosystems. Loss of biodiversity makes ecosystems less stable, more vulnerable to extreme events, and weakens its natural cycles.
114. “ Harmony with the land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left. The land is one organism. Its part compete with each other and co-operate with each other. To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent thinking” – Aldo Leopold
Richness = number of species present Evenness = relative abundance Composition = particular species present Interactions = non-additive affects
Here’s another way to look at earth – a bit more conceptual, but I’ll walk through it. Understanding how to make human endeavor more sustainable ecologically – most important question. Human activities Global change s - affecting biodiversity – richness, or # of species, abundances (not just are they there or not, but how many individuals?), composition – which types of species (e.g., grasses, or trees? Alligators or snakes?), and interactions (how do they influence each other – who is eating whom? Who is helping whom?). All this is changing and trying to deal with the causes of these changes is the realm of conservation. Looking at species as responding to changes in the environment, wrought by man. But the biota isn’t just a passive pile of flesh and cellulose getting batted about by the winds of change. In reality, the biota drive ecosystems. All that plant growth is what generates the energy other organisms use to grow, all those bacteria and fungi decomposing detritus – they are the ones responsible for breaking down old organic compounds and freeing up the nutrients so plants can keep growing, they are the ones responsible for building up rich soils, all those animals eating plants and other animals, they are the ones that grow big enough that we find it worth our time to kill and eat them to sustain ourselves. In that sense, biodiversity affects ecosystem processes – and ecosystem goods and services, things that benefit mankind. Some obvious – food, fuel, building materials, medicinals = goods. Relatively easy to assign a dollar value to them. Some water purification, natural flood control, pollination of crops, regulation of climate – we’re just beginning to understand. Processes that haven’t typically been accounted for in cost-benefit analyses during conversion of land from natural ecosystems. MVP vs. MFP: Conservation biologists, and even federal legislation like the endangered species act, typically talk in terms of minimum viable populations of a species – that is, what’s the smallest population size that is likely to persist for some set amount of time, say 100 years. To understand this other part of the equation, however, we need a very different perspective. We need to think in terms of minimum FUNCTIONAL populations of species: How many individuals are necessary to support a population large enough to fulfill an important ecosystem service? If a species was once very abundant and provided important ecosystem services, it doesn’t have to be globally extinct to cause major disruption to human activities. Just ask the people who used to fish for cod on the east coast. The big question is if and how the changes in biodiversity resulting from human actions will come back and bite us in the butt. Can we keep our species and eat them (and their habitats) too? To my mind, this question of sustainability is probably the most critical one of our time. Part of the reason I got into science was the feeling that people’s activities were just a small part of what is going on in the world – that to understand how the world is REALLY working, we need to understand processes that set the context for the human endeavor – the chemical, biological, and physical forces that shape the way the earth works. The type of global change most influencing a given region or ecosystem type will determine , these scenarios could be equally important as the linked traits in determining ecosystem properties. Understanding how communities will change in response to stressors and how altered communities will influence ecosystem goods and services depends on looking at biodiversity as a dynamic variable.