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Environmental Science: Toward a Sustainable Future Richard T. Wright

Environmental Science: Toward a Sustainable Future Richard T. Wright. Chapter 10. Wild Species and Biodiversity PPT by Clark E. Adams. Wild Species and Biodiversity. The value of wild species Saving wild species Biodiversity and its decline Protecting Biodiversity.

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Environmental Science: Toward a Sustainable Future Richard T. Wright

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  1. Environmental Science: Toward a Sustainable FutureRichard T. Wright Chapter 10 Wild Species and Biodiversity PPT by Clark E. Adams

  2. Wild Species and Biodiversity • The value of wild species • Saving wild species • Biodiversity and its decline • Protecting Biodiversity

  3. Appreciating the Worth of Diversity • The worth ($) of plant and animal diversity in terms of goods and services • Factors that contribute to a reduction in plant and animal diversity • Understanding the “costs” of losing plant and animal diversity • Programs to protect biodiversity

  4. Puffin Project: Seabird Restoration Project of the Audubon Society

  5. The Value of Wild Species • Biological wealth • Two kinds of value • Sources for agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, and animal husbandry • Sources for medicine • Recreational, aesthetic, and scientific value • Value for their own sake

  6. Biological Wealth = $38 Trillion/Year • Gas, climate, and water regulation • Water supply • Erosion control • Soil formation • Pollination

  7. Biological Wealth = $38 Trillion/Year • Biological control • Food production • Recreation • Raw materials • Nutrient cycling • Waste treatment

  8. Two Kinds of Value • Instrumental: beneficial to humans • Sources for agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, and animal husbandry • Recreational, aesthetic, and scientific value • Sources of medicine • Intrinsic: value for its own sake

  9. Source for Agriculture: Wild or Cultivated? • Highly adaptable to changing environments • Have numerous traits for resistance • Lack genetic vigor

  10. Source for Agriculture: Wild or Cultivated? • High degree of genetic diversity • Represents the genetic bank • Need highly controlled environmental conditions

  11. Sources for Medicine: Vincristine

  12. Sources of Medicine: Table 10-1 • Vincristine from rosy periwinkle cures leukemia. • Capoten from the venom of the Brazilian viper controls high blood pressure. • Taxol from the bark of the pacific yew used to treat ovarian, breast, and small-cell cancers.

  13. Recreational, Aesthetic, and Scientific Value • Ecotourism: largest foreign exchange-generating enterprise in many developing countries • $104 billion spent on wildlife-related recreation • $31 billion spent to observe, feed, or photograph wildlife

  14. Recreational, Aesthetic, and Scientific Value

  15. Value for Their Own Sake • Spiritual: giving divine recognition to selected species • Religious: association between wild things and a creator • Cultural: animal rights, American Indians

  16. Saving Wild Species • Game animals in the United States • Acts protecting endangered species

  17. Past Wildlife Management Problems • Restoring the numbers of many game animals, e.g., deer, elk, turkey • Passing laws to control the collection and commercial exploitation of wildlife • Poaching and overhunting

  18. Contemporary Wildlife Management Problems • Road-killed animals • Population explosion of urban wildlife • Lack of natural predators • Wildlife as vectors for certain diseases • Pet predation by coyotes • Changed societal attitudes towards animals

  19. Acts Protecting Endangered Species • Lacey Act: forbids interstate commerce of illegally killed wildlife • Endangered Species Act (ESA): protects endangered and threatened species (Table 10-4) • Total endangered U.S. species = 987 (388 animals, 599 plants) • Threatened U.S. species = 276 (129 animals, 147 plants)

  20. Strengths or Weaknesses of Endangered Species Act? • The need for official recognition • Control over commercial exploitation of endangered species • Government controls on development in critical habitats • Recovery programs • Habitat conservation plan (HCP)

  21. Case Histories • Peregrine falcon • Whooping crane • Spotted owl • Klamath river and coho salmon

  22. Biodiversity and Its Decline • The decline in biodiversity • Reasons for the decline • Consequences of losing biodiversity

  23. The Status of U.S. Species

  24. Causes of Animal Extinctions

  25. Reasons for Biodiversity Decline • Habitat alterations • Conversions • Fragmentation • Simplification • Human population growth • Pollution (Fig. 10-14)

  26. Reasons for Biodiversity Decline • Introduction of exotic species, e.g., brown tree snake in Guam • Overuse: combination of greed, ignorance, and desperation

  27. Habitat Alterations Photo by C. E. Adams

  28. Human Population Growth and Species Extinctions

  29. Pollution: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill • March 24, 1989 • 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound Oil slick

  30. Exotic Species: Brazilian Pepper Bush

  31. Overuse • Harvest of 50 million songbirds for food

  32. Overuse • Trafficking in wildlife and products derived from wild species – $10 billion/year • 90% decline in rhinos • 1.6 tons of tiger bones = 340 tigers • Parrot smuggling: 40 of 330 species face extinction

  33. Consequences of Losing Biodiversity: The Plane Analogy • The whole plane is an ecosystem. • There are many different parts (species) in the jet plane ecosystem. • How does removal of one or more species affect ecosystem structure or function?

  34. Protecting Biodiversity • International developments • Stewardship concerns

  35. International Steps to Protect Biodiversity • “Red List of Threatened Species” • 11,167 species of plants and animals • Convention on trade in endangered species (CITES) • Focuses on trade in wildlife and wildlife parts • Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD)

  36. International Steps to Protect Biodiversity • Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) • Stepping up war on invasive species • Access to genetic resources • Stem tide of deforestations • Formulating a strategic plan through 2010

  37. International Steps to Protect Biodiversity • Convention on biological diversity • Focuses on conserving biological diversity worldwide • Does not yet have the support of the United States

  38. Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund • Sponsors: World Bank, Conservation International, and the Global Environment Facility • Fund = $150 million for developing countries • Protect biodiversity “hotspots”

  39. Biodiversity Hotspots 60% of the biodiversity is located on just 1.4% of the Earth’s land surface.

  40. Stewardship Concerns • Managing and protecting something you DO NOT own. Involves: • Wisdom • Values

  41. The Wisdom of Stewardship • Reforming policies that lead to declines in biodiversity • Addressing the needs of people whose livelihood is derived from exploiting wild species

  42. The Wisdom of Stewardship • Practicing conservation at the landscape level • Promoting more research on biodiversity

  43. The Values of Stewardship • Manage or mine the resource? • Human perceptions of their relationships to the natural world • Deep ecology: we are part of the Earth and not separate from it • Religious faiths

  44. End of Chapter 10

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