apes 9-1

International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) or the World Conservation Union

a coalition of the world's leading conservation groups -publishes annual red lists that are the world standard for listing threatened species

extinction rate

a percentage or number of species that go extinct within a certain time like a year

biological extinction

a species is no longer found anywhere on earth -forever and an irreversible loss of natural capital

endangered species

a species that has so few individual survivors that the species could soon become extinct over all or most of its natural range (the area in which it is normally found)

threatened / vulnerable species

a species that is still abundant in its natural range, but, because of declining numbers, is likely to become endangered in the near future

1/1,000,000 = 0.000001 species per year = 0.0001%

calculate the extinction rate if there is 1 extinction per million species per year

-low reproductive rate (K-strategist) -specialized niche -narrow distribution -feeds at high trophic level -fixed migratory patterns -rare -commercially valuable -large territories

characteristics of species that are prone to ecological and biological extinction?

-passenger pigeons nested in large flocks, making it easy for them to be killed -key deer forage for cigarette butts on highways

examples of behavioral characteristics that make species prone to extinction?

5 -50-95% of species appear extinct

how many mass extinctions has the earth experienced

species-area relationship

how the number of species present increases with the size of an area -90% loss of habitat leads to extinction of half of species in that habitat

0.01% to 0.1% 10,000 times! 1% (of all species are going extinct each year)

if the current annual rate of species extinction is at least 100 to 1,000 times the background rate of 0.0001% which existed before humans, what is it? how many times the background rate is it expected to increase during this century?

background extinction

normal extinction of various species as a result of changes in local environmental conditions -there has always been a continuous, low level of this

local extinction

occurs when a species is no longer found in an area it once inhabited but is still found elsewhere in the world -usually involve losses of one or two populations of species

ecological extinction

occurs when so few members of a species are left that it can no longer play its ecological roles in the biological communities where it's found

increased

overall biodiversity (which is determined by balance between formation and extinction) has __________________ for several hundred million years except for mass extinctions.

1. species loss and biodiversity loss are likely to increase soon 2. current and projected extinction rates are much higher than the global average in parts of the world that are highly endangered centers of biodiversity (hotspots)- conservationists want to focus on these 3. we are eliminating, degrading, fragmenting, and simplifying many biologically diverse environments that serve as potential colonization sites for the emergence of new species (reducing rate of speciation)

reasons why are extinction rates of 0.01-1% are considered conservative estimates by many experts?

oh shoot

species are becoming extinct 100 to 1,000 times faster than they were before modern humans arrived on the earth (the background rate), and by the end of this century, the extinction rate is expected to be 10,000 times the background rate.

mass extinction

the extinction of many species in a relatively short period of geologic time

speciation crisis

we are limiting the long-term recovery of biodiversity by eliminating places where new species can evolve!

1. extinction of a species usually takes such a king time that it's not easy to document 2. we have identified only about 1.8 million of the world's estimated 4 to 100 millions species 3. scientists know little about the nature and ecological roles of most of the species that have been identified

what are 3 problems that conservation biologists have trying to catalog and estimate past and future extinction rates?

passenger pigeon great auk dodo golden toad aepyornis

what are some animal species that have become prematurely extinct largely due to human activity?

grizzly bear Utah prairie dog giant panda mountain gorilla kirkland's warbler swallowtail butterfly black-footed ferret florida panther knowlton cactus humpback chub whooping crane california condor florida manatee golden lion tamarin northern spotted owl hawksbill sea turtle african elephant Siberian tiger blue whale black rhinoceros

what are some species that are endangered or threatened with premature extinction largely because of human activities?

the earth's biodiversity lowered! this reduces ability of life to adapt to changing conditions)

what happened as humans spread over the glove and consumed larger quantities of resources and created larger ecological footprints?

global changes to environmental conditions -ex: major climate change or asteroid

what is believed to have caused past mass extinctions?

filling in wetlands or converting grasslands and forests to crop fields and urban areas -by destroying their habitat

what is most of the disturbance we cause to earth's land surface? how does this eliminate large numbers of species?

0.0001%

what is the estimated background extinction rate that existed before humans?