Protecting Biodiversity: The Vital Role of Sharks and Insects

1. Chapter 4: 4-1 to 4-3 By: YsabelleBadiang Pd #4 AP Environmental Chapter 4: Biodiversity and Evolution

2. 4-1

3. Vocabulary • Biological Diversity (Biodiversity): the variety of the earth’s species, or varying life-forms, the genes they contain, the ecosystems in which they live, and the ecosystem processes of energy flow and nutrient cycling that sustain all life; four important components • Species Diversity: • Genetic Diversity: enables life on the earth to adapt to and survive dramatic environmental changes • Ecosystem Diversity: earth’s variety of deserts, grassland, forests, mountains, oceans, lakes, rivers, and wetlands

4. Vocabulary • Functional Diversity: variety of processes such as energy flow and matter cycling that occur within ecosystems as species interact with each other in food chains and food webs • Species: a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring; ex: Humans- Homo sapiens sapiens • Biomes: large regions such as forests, deserts, and grasslands with distinct climates and certain species adapted to them

5. Core Case Study Why Should We Protect Sharks? • 400 known species of sharks • Range from goldfish-sized dwarf dog shark to whale shark (18 meters=60 feet) • Whale shark, Basking shark, and Megamouth shark: plant-eating (phytoplankton) • 60-75 people worldwide injured and average six deaths per year (1998-2008) • “For every shark that injures or kills a person every year, people kill about 1.2 million sharks”- (79-97 million shark deaths per year) • Finning: sharks caught for their valuable fins and are thrown back, alive, into the water to drown or bleed to death

6. Core Case Study • 32% of world’s open-ocean shark species are threatened with extinction • Most endangered: Scalloped Hammerhead shark • Around for more than 400 mill. years • Keystone Species: play crucial role in helping to keep their ecosystems functioning • Medical Opportunities: possible cure to cancer and better immune systems • Almost never get cancer and wounds heal without infections

7. Science Focus Have You Thanked the Insects Today? • Sting us, bite us, spread disease, eat our food, invade plants • Lets flowering plants reproduce sexually through pollination • Insects eat other insects= pest control • We need insects more than they need us

8. Information • Earth’s biodiversity is a vital part of the natural capital that helps keep us alive and supports our economies • Tech: food, wood, fibers, energy (wood and biofuels), medicines • Air and water quality, fertile topsoil, decomposition and recycling waste, and control of species that we regard as pests • Champion of Biodiversity: Edward O. Wilson

9. Edward O. Wilson • Loved bugs as a kid • Specialized in ants • Widened scope to earth’s biodiversity • Theory of island biogeography • First to use “biodiversity” in a scientific paper

12. 4-2

13. Vocabulary • Fossils: mineralized or petrified replicas of skeletons, bones, teeth, shells, leaves, and seeds, or impressions of such items found in rocks • Biological Evolution (Evolution): process whereby earth’s life changes over time through changes in the genetic characteristics of populations • Theory of Evolution: all species descended from earlier, ancestral species; life comes from life • Natural Selection: individuals with certain traits are more likely to survive and reproduce under particular set of environmental conditions than are those w/out the traits • “Biological evolution through natural selection” • “Populations- not individuals-evolve by becoming genetically different.”

14. Vocabulary • Mutations: random changes in the DNA molecules of a gene in any cell that can be inherited by offspring • Adaptation (Adaptive Trait): any heritable trait that improves the ability of an individual organism to survive and to reproduce at a higher rate than other individuals in a population are able to do under prevailing environmental conditions • Differential Reproduction: enables individuals with the trait to produce more surviving offspring than other members of the population produce • Genetic Resistance: the ability of one or more organism in a population to tolerate a chemical designed to kill it

15. Vocabulary • Biological evolution by natural selection: “Genes mutate, individuals are selected, and populations evolve such that they are better adapted to survive and reproduce under existing environmental conditions.”

16. The fossils found so far represent probably only 1% of all species that have ever lived • Paleontology: trying to reconstruct the development of life with so little evidence; challenging scientific detective game • 1858: Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) independently proposed concept of natural selection as mechanism for biological evolution • Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859)

17. 3 Successful Adaptations of Humans: • Strong opposable thumbs • Ability to walk upright • Complex brains

18. 4-3

19. Information • Tectonic Plates: huge flows of molten rock w/in the earth’s interior break its surface into a series of gigantic solid plates • Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions • Tectonic Plates Drifting Effects: • Locations of continents and oceanic basins have greatly influenced the earth’s climate and this helped to determine where plants and animals can live • Movement of continents has allowed species to move, adapt to new environments, and form new species through natural selection

20. Science Focus Earth is Just right for Life to Thrive • Temperature range: supports life • Orbit size: moderate temperatures • Liquid water: necessary for life • Rotation speed: sun doesn’t overheat surface • Size: gravity keeps atmosphere