Conservation Biology Exam 1 (Tiebout)

Why is it difficult to say how many species there are on Earth?

1. Because of the sheer number of species, it would take hundreds of years of effort to completely find and describe all of them 2. Because each human has a limit to how many species they can memorize / be able to correctly identify 3. Many species are incredibly cryptic, rare, or occur in only a tiny geographic range 4. Even large animals can be hard to find if they occur in low density in complex habitats 5. Many species occupy remote areas

How does the conservation biology discipline differ from earlier conservation efforts?

1. Former efforts targeted only species with direct economical value to humans 2. Former efforts maximized extraction of resources 3. Conservation biology is concerned with all species and habitats

You can preserve biodiversity unless you know what two things?

1. How many species exist 2. Where in the world they are located

Describe the two differing "camps" of conservationists

1. The "resource extractors" are interested in conservation because of the economical value of certain species 2. The "biodiversity conservers" are interested in the conservation of all species, regardless of economic or aesthetic value

What were the earliest groups/resources dedicated to conservation biology?

1. The First International Conference on Conservation Biology (1978) 2. The Society for Conservation Biology (1985) 3. The journal Conservation Biology (May 1987)

List the 5 ethical principles of conservation biology

1. The diversity of species ad ecosystems should be preserved 2. The untimely extinction of populations and species should be prevented 3. Ecological complexity should be maintained 4. Evolution should continue 5. Biodiversity has intrinsic value

Give an example of the endangered phenomenon

1. The migrations of wildebeest are endangered because they depend upon the availability of proper habitat along the entire migratory pathway 2. The migrations of monarch butterflies (for the same reason as above)

To accomplish the goal of preserving biodiversity, which 4 related fields of knowledge must be expanded?

1. The origins and maintenance of natural biodiversity 2. The ethical values of biodiversity 3. How human activities impact biodiversity 4. Biological (and other) methods to preserve, maintain, and restore biodiversity

List the five basic hypotheses that Primack proposes

1. The tropics have greater productivity (net photosynthesis) 2. Large geographical size of tropics promotes speciation and reduces extinction 3. The tropics have had historically more stable climate, hence are "older" than temperate regions 4. The tropics have more favorable conditions (aka a benign climate)

Examination of hypotheses (of why there are so many species in the tropics) illustrates what two important points?

1. The types of factors and processes that must be preserved if we want to maintain our current global biodiversity 2. How complex the issue of biodiversity really is, and how difficult it can be to determine how Earth is able to support its tremendous biological legacy

List the nine attributes the discipline of conservation biology shares with resource extraction disciplines

1. They are goal oriented 2. They are multidisciplinary 3. They implement basic and applied science 4. They are both inexact sciences 5. They are both currently transitioning from reactive to proactive science 6. They both operate in an ecological and evolutionary time scale 7. They both must always remain vigilant 8. They both have ethical values 9. They are each a part of conservation process

What are the three goals of conservation biology?

1. To document the full range of biodiversity on Earth 2. To investigate human impact on species, genetic variation, and ecosystems 3. To develop practical approaches to prevent the extinction of species, maintain genetic diversity within species, and protect and restore biological communities and their associated ecosystem functions

What is threatening the Eastern population of monarch butterflies?

1. Vulnerable phenomenon because there are only 11-14 known overwintering sites 2. Logging of the montane forests used by the butterflies 3. Expansion of villages up-slope towards monarchs 4. New pests that are harming the montane forests

How do we know that most of today's extinctions are human-caused? (two reasons)

1. We examined extinction rates before human occupancy of different areas to current extinction rates 2. We examined current endangered species on a case-by-case basis

What do we need to know to better protect these species, and why is this information hard to obtain?

1. how many individuals are left 2. their habitat requirements 3. their most serious threats Obtaining this information requires funding

What two conditions does a benign climate like that in the tropics foster?

1. narrow niches 2. complex interspecific interactions, which produces more species

What do we need in order to better protect our species? (3)

1. we need better programs to deal with conservation 2. we need more competently trained professionals 3. we need concerned elected officials

Extinction rates are how much higher in tropical rain forests than normal rates?

10,000x

Which major extinction event are we currently in?

6th

Do certain cells in the F-N diagram carry more weight than others?

???Noss article

Gopher tortoises make burrows that are used by up to 350 different other species. What is this an example of?

A keystone species making a keystone resource/structure.

What is a keystone resource?

A resource that is vital for the survival of one or more species. If this resource becomes limited, the species will suffer. (example: macaws rely on clay cliffs for their salt intake) (example: some bats need very specific caves for hibernation)

What is a vulnerable species?

A species that is at greater risk of extinction than most. Comes in different categories (threatened, rare, endangered, endemic, etc)

What is an endemic species?

A species that is only found in one area.

What is a keystone species?

A species that is responsible for the existence of multiple species. (example: flying foxes that pollinate trees and disperse seeds)

What is the endangered phenomenon?

A spectacular aspect of the life history of an animal or plat species involving a large number of individuals that is threatened with impoverishment or demise; the species per se need not be in peril, rather, the phenomenon it exhibits is at stake

How is the quantitative method of collection applied? (aka what do the scientists actually do)

A standardized set of collection methods is used for all taxa. Scientists obtain representative samples from predetermined habitats. These samples are obtained for both LT and HT.

What is a parataxonomist?`

A taxonomist trained to ID spciens to a limited level (e.g. family, but not species), or to ID "morpho species" until the pro taxonomists get the time to make the final species identifications

What is environmentalism?

A widespread movement characterized by political and educational activism with the goal of protecting the natural environment from destruction and pollution

What does anthropogenic mean, and why is it relevant to this topic?

Anthropogenic means "caused by humans". This is relevant to this topic because over 99% of current extinctions are anthropogenic.

What is the conservation implication of the hypothesis that the tropics have greater productivity?

Areas where human disturbance is reducing rainfall may suffer reduced productivity and hence a loss in biodiversity

What was the biggest challenge of the ALAS project and why?

Assembling the team of 18 taxonomists and parataxonomists to identify the thousands of arthropod species. There are very few taxonomists trained to name new species, and so the process of finding and naming species is slow.

What is the difference between basic and applied science?

Basic science aims to gain new knowledge; applied science aims to answer a specific question

Why is diversity self-amplifying?

Because each species is itself a resource for other species

Define multidisciplinary

Combining or involving several academic disciplines or professional specializations in an approach to a topic or problem

Why is conservation biology only one part of the process of conservation?

Conservation biology expands scientific understanding and therefore improves the chances of conservation efforts to be successful. However, that is not all that is needed for effort to be successful. The implementation of conservation biologists' recommendations requires other professionals such as lawyers, politicians, land managers, local businesses and residents, etc.

Why is it important to distinguish between endangered phenomena and endangered species?

Government legislation will only act if the species is in danger, not their habitats

Give an example of a negative impact on the "functional" component of biodiversity at the "community" level

Humans accidentally introduced cats onto the Galapagos islands, and they are devastating lizards who previously had no predators and were therefore tame. Now, the lizard populations are more wary than the populations that existed before the introduction of the cats. Even though no species went extinct, a functional component (tameness) was lost.

Describe the potential problems of the Survey technique of the ATLAS method

If you can't get all of the species, you can't use the data to estimate the total number of species because the collecting wasn't done using proper statistical sampling

When was the discipline of conservation biology first formally established?

In 1978 during the First International Conference on Conservation Biology

What is a veil line?

In the graph of the log of the normal distribution of species, it represents the part of the distribution that has been uncovered (aka, we have found the species to the right of the line, but not to the left)

What kind of people are the majority of harmful activities caused by?

Innocent people just trying to meet their needs

Describe the Survey technique of the ALAS project

It is a systematist's approach to "finding them all". It is only feasible with the smaller taxonomic groups. They focus only on finding new species, and do not bother with how many individuals are in each species or in how many / what ways they differ from each other. It combines the Survey technique with the Quantitative technique

Define biodiversity

It is short for biological diversity. There is no set definition for it, but generally it refers to the number of different species in an area.

What is the Franklin-Noss model of biodiversity, and how does it define biodiversity?

It is the most comprehensive characterization or conceptual framework of biodiversity. It is comprised of the components of composition, structure, and function operating across all levels of biological diversity.

Why is the Endangered Species Bulletin missing some endangered species?

It isn't feasible to save every species due to time and money, so they choose which species to focus on

What is the conservation implication of the hypothesis that the large geographical size of tropics promotes speciation and reduces extinction?

It may highlight two important features of designing nature reserves 1. Large size 2. Being connected to other large areas

What is the Endangered Species Bulletin and who publishes it?

It provides an update on our species that are being considered to be saved, and designates which are endangered and which are threatened, in addition to a brief update on other countrie's economical species. The Fish and Wildlife Service publishes it

What are the conservation implications of the large species pool hypothesis?

It suggests that once species richness falls below the "self-amplifying" level, it may begin to drop precipitously, which would create a domino effect of triggering extinctions

What critical data does the Survey technique of the ATLAS method focus on finding?

Its goal is to find at least one specimen of every species present in the area. It is NOT concerned with quantifying the number of individuals per species

What critical data does the Quantitative technique of the ATLAS method focus on finding?

Its goal is to find how many individuals there are for each species encountered

What is happening in other countries that don't have our level of endangered species protection?

Many species are going extinct before we can even identify them

What did John Muir mean when he stated that nature has intrinsic value?

Nature has value in and of itself, apart from its value to humanity

Does adding more species increase biodiversity? Why?

No. Any departure from the native, undisturbed biodiversity is considered a negative impact. Species added unnaturally often become invasive and harm the native species.

What problem is there with the "log normal distribution" method of quantifying species?

Often the assumptions can not be met

What questions can we find the answers to in order to possibly gain knowledge on how human activities impact biodiversity?

Q: What is it about human existence that is pushing so many species towards extinction? Q: Is there an evil conspiracy to destroy biodiversity?

What two questions can we find the answers to in order to possibly gain knowledge on methods to preserve, maintain, and restore biodiversity?

Q: What methods and technologies can conservation biologists offer society to slow the trend toward mass extinction? Q: How will society use scientific information to shape its policies?

What questions can we find the answers to in order to possibly gain knowledge on the origins and maintenance of biodiversity?

Q: Why are there so many species? Q: How can so many species coexist at one time?

What questions can we find the answers to in order to possibly gain knowledge on the values of biodiversity?

Q: Why should we care about species extinction? Q: How dos natural biodiversity benefit humans? Q: Does biodiversity have other values besides benefiting humans? Q: Are some species more important than others?

What is the difference between reactive and proactive science, and which describes conservation biology?

Reactive science is science in response to something that has already occurred, whereas proactive science aims to prevent or cause something in the future. Conservation biology is mostly reactive because there are so many crises we can barely even react to them, however it is more efficient to be proactive and so attempts are being made to hopefully shift to proactive conservation.

What can we conclude after knowing that most extinction today is caused by humans?

Species cannot be saved unless we intentionally modify the human activities that are placing them at risk, and thus, human must change their behavior

Define species richness. How is it different from biodiversity?

Species richness is the biological usage of the concept of diversity (diversity = number of different kinds of things in an area) ??????

What types of organisms do we have a fairy good database on?

Terrestrial and freshwater invertebrates, butterflies, terrestrial and fresh water vascular plants, and marine coral reef communities

What does John Muir's preservation ethic concede?

That natural areas have spiritual values that are generally superior to the tangible material gain obtained by their exploitation

What is the ALAS methods?

The Arthropods of La Selva project focuses on discovering and naming insects and other arthropods. It combines two techniques: Survey and Quantitative

What has the US done to protect species?

The Endangered Species Act

What are the conservation implications of the hypothesis that the tropics are diverse because they are old?

The disruption of the climate could reduce biodiversity. The loss of tropical biodiversity may take a very long time to replace vs new speciation events once stable conditions return

Describe the emphasis of the Survey technique of the ATLAS method

The emphasis is on improving methods of collecting and identifying. The collector uses prior experiences, intuition, guess-work, etc. to figure out where to find as many different species as possible in the particular group

Describe the emphasis of the Quantitative technique of the ATLAS method

The emphasis is on the design of rigorous sampling methods and the application of statistical techniques

Name the two levels that the total number of species in a particular area of interest are estimated at.

The higher taxon (HT) and the lower taxon (LT)

Why isn't the F-N model not yet widely implemented as a methodology for quantifying biodiversity?

The information needed to completely characterize all 12 cells is lacking for most ecosystems. Though conceptually robust, it is still difficult to use the F-N model in most real-world situations.

Define stochastic

The outcome is randomly determined from a probability distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely.

What two methods can be used for estimating the total number of species?

The statistical method of logging the normal distribution curve, and the statistical method of the species accumulation curve.

What is the difference between the Survey technique and the Quantitative technique of assessing species?

The survey technique aims to find as many species as possible, whereas the quantitative technique aims to count how many individuals there are per species encountered

What is the species pool hypothesis (of why the tropics are so diverse)?

The tropics have a larger species pool to draw from compared to temperate and other regions (for example, temperate zones in the north and south are cut off from each other)

What is the different between higher taxon and lower taxon?

These are both categories that taxa are placed in when quantifying them. Taxa with a great many of species, and therefore are sampled using Q technique, are considered Higher Taxon. Taxa with not many species, and therefore sampled using both Q and S, are considered Lower Taxon. LT is a subset of HT.

What are species diversity indices?

They are a combination of species richness and equitability (aka evenness)

What are systematists?

They are taxonomists who classify species in a non-systematic way, meaning their efforts are not regular/repeated

How do conservation biologists "win" the battle to protect a given species from extinction?

They can't, because any protective measures they put in place can be undone by future decisions/actions

Why are standard species diversity indices inadequate?

They don't take into account the species attributes that distinguish living from nonliving systems. They also don't distinguish between native and non-native species, nor do they differentiate between species that belong in an "intact" ecosystem vs weedy or invasive natives. They do not help provide a management target, either.

What kinds of attributes of biodiversity do conservation biologists tend to focus on?

Those that are most at risk and those that are most important for maintaining biodiversity in a large region.

What does it mean to be an inexact science, and why is conservation one?

To be an inexact science is to be based on things other than hard known facts. It often relies on uncertain predictions or educated guesses. Conservation is an inexact science in the sense that ecosystems are so complex and stochastic that predictive abilities are limited. Even with detailed, long-term studies on ecological systems, much uncertainty will always remain.

What is the goal of the quantitative method "species accumulation curve"?

To plot enough points to get close enough to the asymptote that you can fill in the rest of it

Why was the discipline of conservation biology created?

To stem the accelerating wave of species extinctions

Describe how conservation biology and resource extraction both operate in an ecological and evolutionary time scale

Traditional resource extraction methods are typically managed for the next cycle of extraction (for example, loggers cut a certain amount of trees while keeping in mind when the ones they replanted will be the right size for logging). Conservation biology aims to maintain normal ecosystem processes. Thus, decisions for both must be forecast over many generations and many years into the future.

What type of habitat do most extinctions occur in today?

Tropical rainforest

Give an example of a negative impact on the "compositional" component biodiversity at the "regional landscape" level

US temperate grassland biome has been almost entirely replaced be monoculture agriculture.

How is the survey method of collection applied? (aka what do the scientists actually do)

Use every possible technique to get 'em all. It is tailored for each lower taxon and in most cases different methods will be used for each family.

How do we quantify biodiversity by the F-N or any other comprehensive definition? (aka how do we compare the biodiversity between two sites using the F-N definition?)

Using the Shannon Index, we could calculate a single index for each site and compare them. However, the F-N definition can't be used to quantitatively measure biodiversity.

When is it appropriate to use the "log normal distribution curve" model of estimating

When most species have an intermediate number of individuals, or if only a few species have either very many or very few individuals.

Has the Endangered Species Act been successful?

Yes, so far only about 1% of the of the listed species have gone extinct

What problem is there with the "species accumulation curve" method of quantifying species?

You might not have enough points to generate curve unambiguously. There can be an art to curve fitting (aka you have to know how to select the proper curve). Many different curves can be generated by a computer.