ESM EXAM 3

The Bunker approach to conservation.

An idea to integrate the idea of people and species conservation -Put hundreds of acres out there for when people go on vacation. -U.S approach to put a fence around it and protect it

Human and Natural Drivers of Climate Change

Carbon Dioxide, methane, Nitrous oxide (CO2, CH4 and N2O) concentrations have - far exceeded pre-industrial values - increase markedly since 1750 due to human activities - Relatively little variation before the industrial era --The understanding of anthropogenic warming and cooling influences on climate has improved, leading to very high confidence that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming

Nutrient cycles

Energy is linear in terms of biological pathogens -nutrients changes forms

Why is it that France, Italy and other european countries have a lower percent of U.S per capital emissions?

European counties use nuclear power and were built horsepower and made things walking distance because these cities were mostly built before there were cars. Unlike the U.S. where many people drive to the store.

Mass extinctions

Ex: marine organisms The extinction of a large number of species within a relatively short period of geological time, thought to be due to factors such as a catastrophic global event or widespread environmental change that occurs too rapidly for most species to adapt.

Negative consequence of the nitrogen cycle

Fertilizing crops with nitrogen but some of the nitrogen does not get absorbed and goes into the waterways robing them of air and the amount of algae increases.

Mainly decrease in rain over land in tropics and subtropics, but enhanced by increased atmospheric demand with warming

Global number and percentage of intense hurricanes is increasing

Biodiversity is natures insurance policy

If everyone works in a steel mill in the town and their is a downfall in steel the town is gone.

Who facilitates Conservation easements

Land trusts= non profit organization can do conservation planning by calling people can collaborate to help conserve. -North coast regional land trust (owns 30,000 acres) -mckinleyville land trust (owns 10 acres) area under conservation easement 1990- 1.9 million acres 2000- 23.9 million acres 2010- 43 million acres * land trusts are responsible for checking up on the property to make sure they owner does what they say will do.

voluntary conservation easement: Private property pays property taxes Public property does not

Owners can choose what the easement will be and no two easements are the same. "not one size fits all" even within ones own property the restrictions can change within the zone. -restrictions influence the value of their property

Food values of biodiversity

PLANTS : 3 species of plant that make up 50% of the food we eat today. ----Corn, wheat, rice about 30,000 spp. with edible parts 7,000 have been regularly used lots of plants in our diet are not native to the region we live in. ANIMALS: meat the humaity consumes is -Beef -chicken -pork -fish can get more from eating native animals then converting forest into farm land.

A "Paleoclimatic" perspective

Paleoclimate information supports the interpretation that the warmth of the last half century is unusual in at least the previous 1300 years. Paleoclimatology: is the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth.

Medicinal values of Biodiversity

Rosy Periwinkle: invasive species in Humboldt, grows in Madagascar has a couple of chemicals called vincristine and vinblastine that can cure certain types of cancer. -Aspirin= plant derived pain killer -Amarillo= help us find a cure for leprosy as this animal is the only other species that can contract it. -Leech: has an anticoagulant, which we harvested

Define: Biodiversity (MEMORIZE WORD FOR WORD)!!

The variety of the world's organisms, including their genetic diversity and the assembles they form. *not species richness the species, their genes and the relations with each other.

Distribution of Biodiversity

There are more species at the equator and less the farther away from the equator you go. Ex: Greenland = 56 bird species Colombia = 1,525 bird species

Some aspects of climate have not been observed to change:

Tornadoes Dust-storms Hail Lightning Antarctic sea ice

Limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of green house gases

WARMING of CLIMATE SYSTEM is UNEQUIVICAL

each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the earths surface than any preceding decade since 1850

Warming in the Arctic is double that for the globe from 19th to 21st century and from late 1960s to present.

Terry Erwin and species richness

Was an entomologist from panama sampling species richness in the tropical rainforest. spray an insecticide into trees and counted all the deceased insects which fell from the tree. He found the for each tree there were 400 unique beetle species. 2/3 of everything was a beetle his estimate that there were about 50 million species on earth blew up the estimate that many others had calculated.

Estimate total number of species

We don't know, because a lot of them are undiscovered. there are about 2 million species with scientific names

conservation easements:

a voluntary restriction minor or extreme to one's land. ex: the homeowner does not own everything on their property ie: the electricity or plumbing. When you buy a new house you don't get to choose the electricity or plumbing that comes with it. those rights were given up by the first property owner.

Stochastic events

are more likely to have a negative effect -random do not predict the identities of who will live on the island but how many species there are. get the fewest number of species in small close places Relating to or characterized by random, chance, or probability. Pertaining to a randomly determined sequence of observations, each being a sample of one element from a probability distribution.

it is possible that conservation easements can make private Property, public Property but not normally

conservation easements decrease the value of the land by giving up some private property right

Land trusts and conservation easements want to balance:

economic, ecological and cultural values

Degree day requirements

ectothermic organisms development rate is affected by external temperature some minimal critical temperature below which development does not happen

Functionally extinct

ex: the grizzly bear, no longer exist in California but still around globally don't have the same ecological impact as it did when there was many of them.

the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and CH4 in 2012

exceeds by far the natural range of the last 650,00 years

Human and Natural drivers of climate change

methane is more pollutant then carbon annual fossil CO2 emissions increased on average 64 CTC per year in 1990's

Methane is 20 times more powerful at trapping heat =

methane it the most powerful green house gas

Island biogeographic theory

purpose of this theory: to predict number of species with 2 simple variables 1) How far away is that island from a source 2) How big is the island, size, extinct -size: extinction rate -distance: colonization -applied to terrestrials

Ecosystem servies

services that provided by ecosystem at no expense to humanity

define: manage from the grave

still being able to influence the ranch by not allowing future generations to sub divide.

if you have land that can subdivide it is worth a lot of money! so why do people devalue the price of their land to put easements on it?

taxes: -inheritance tax: in 2018 if you inherit under 11 million dollars you can keep all that money. If it is over the government can tax you. Money can be in cash or in land. if a conservation easement is on a piece of land their is no inheritance tax. (bill and Melinda gates pro inheritance tax) -Land trust will pay money for someone to put easements on their property -if you donate an easement it is tax deductible Management: want to manage from the grave and prevent your children from doing what ever they want with the land. b/c once the easement is in place it is binding forever.

top down V.S bottom up solutions

top down= government can tax gas fro a carbon cut back fined bottom up = ride your bike to work

Paleoclimate

what climate was like 1300 years ago or more

What can we conclude from Terry Erwin's experiment

- Jeff and other think that there are about 8.7 million species on the planet. - Main point of all this: we are NOT close to identifying all the things that are on earth.

Projections of Future Changes in Climate

-Continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming and induce many changes in the global climate system during the 21st century that would very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century. Precipitation increases very likely in high latitudes Decreases likely in most subtropical land regions

Important things to know about global warming

-Global Warming is unequivocal (there is no doubt it will happen) -Human influence on the climate system is clear -limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

Direct observations of Global warming:

-Heat waves are increasing -Snow cover and Arctic sea ice are decreasing -Glaciers and frozen ground are receding -Global mean temperatures are rising faster with time -Land surface temperatures are rising faster than Sea Surface Temperature -Drought is increasing most places -Warm nights are increasing; cold nights decreasing

Projections of Future Changes in Climate CONT

-Snow cover is projected to contract -Widespread increases in thaw depth most permafrost regions -Sea ice is projected to shrink in both the Arctic and Antarctic -In some projections, Arctic late summer sea ice disappears almost entirely by the latter part of the 21st century -Very likely that hot extremes, heat waves, and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent -Global mean sea level will continue to rise during the 21st century

How do we influence the Nitrogen cycle?

-agriculure (fertilizers) -through what we have planted use nitrogen

The nitrogen Cycle

-w/o nitrogen life doesn't exist -the process by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition.

Why do you care about maintaining/ caring for Biodiversity * if it isn't broken don't break it!!

1) Keeps us from being bored 2) ecosystem services/ function ---What the nature does to help us for free **3)Medicinal --- At least 40% of drugs worldwide are organism derived 4) Land management 5) Helps maintain Stability (helps prevent disease) ---Insurance policy 6) Existence value -- Some sort of moral value on why you want it to exist **7) Direct use values: ---there is some pragmatic value ie: hunt, fish **8) Tastes great --- eating is a land use we use everyday. We interact with the environment via eating.

4 reasons conservation easements would be put on property

1) because of they don't inheritance tax 2) the first owner doesn't want anyone to mess with their property in the future 3)they want to protect the land / leave their legacy 4) to get tax reductions

Background rates of extinction

1spp-- every 5 years 1spp----every 1 year smaller population is likely to go extinct

Extinction "if you are reckless be responsible for that"

2 scales to look at extinction: functionally & mass

Extractive reserves

:Maintaining the forrest but commercializing the market value at the same time. we are not going to be able to replicate what the U.S. has done on a global scale