Week 2

    Cards (221)

    • What is conservation biology considered to be?
      A recent discipline
    • What are the benefits of conserving biological diversity?
      Considered in economic and ethical terms
    • What are the fundamental needs in conservation biology?
      • Monitor how biodiversity is changing
      • Develop strategies to retain/improve biodiversity
      • Monitor success of those strategies
    • What do conservationist scientists tend to monitor?
      Species, communities, habitats, biomes, ecosystems
    • Why are species considered building blocks in biodiversity?
      If we lose species, community diversity declines
    • What are some practical monitoring methods used by different specialists?
      • Ornithologist: daytime visual/aural surveys
      • Herpetologist: daytime/nocturnal surveys
      • Entomologist: pitfall/sweep net surveys
      • Mammologist: nocturnal spotlight/camera trap surveys
    • What is metabarcoding used for in biodiversity monitoring?
      To study communities often within one taxon
    • What do eDNA approaches help with in biodiversity monitoring?
      They provide ways to study communities
    • What three things need to be quantified for effective conservation monitoring?
      Geographic range, population distribution, changes over time
    • What are remote sensing techniques used for?
      To monitor biodiversity from a distance
    • What data is needed for a complete assessment in conservation monitoring?
      • Data for all species
      • Data for all habitats
      • Across the globe
    • How many mammal species did Macdonald recognize in 2009?
      5,106 mammal species
    • What challenges are associated with conservation monitoring?
      Wide range of statistical and practical challenges
    • What has genetic analysis resulted in regarding mammal species?
      Divisions and amalgamations of species
    • What does the "Lazarus effect" refer to?
      Species thought extinct but rediscovered
    • What is an example of a species split into new species?
      Pipistrelle now has two phonic species
    • What is the time frame of the Holocene epoch?
      11,700 BP to now
    • How many years were amphibians missing on average according to the literature review?
      53 years
    • What is the time frame of the Anthropocene epoch?
      1952 AD to now
    • What is the IUCN's minimum time period before declaring a species extinct?
      50 years
    • Why is there a focus on the Anthropocene?
      It marks significant human-driven changes
    • Why is it important to attempt to look for a species before declaring it extinct?
      To avoid accidental rediscovery of species
    • How many great extinctions have occurred before the Anthropocene?
      Five
    • What was the first great extinction event?
      Ordovician-Silurian extinction
    • What new mammal species were discovered in Tanzania?
      Kipunji and grey-faced sengi
    • When did the Permian-Triassic extinction occur?
      252 million years ago
    • What is the approximate time of the Late Triassic extinctions?
      208 million years ago
    • What did Mora et al. (2011) estimate about undiscovered species?
      Approximately 8.7 million species exist
    • How many new mammal species have been described on average each decade since 1750?
      238 new species
    • When did the Cretaceous extinction happen?
      66 million years ago
    • What did Mora et al. (2011) suggest about undiscovered species across different taxa?
      • Huge number in Animalia, Fungi
      • Moderate number in Chromista, Plantae, Protozoa
      • Few in Archaea, Bacteria
    • What is conservation science?
      The study of protecting biodiversity
    • What challenges exist in getting reliable data for conservation?
      World size, species size, funding issues
    • When did Homo sapiens evolve?
      Approximately 300,000 years ago
    • What was a major activity of early hominins?
      Foraging and hunting
    • What was the cost of the badger surveys conducted in England and Wales?
      Approx. £700,000
    • What did early humans rely on for survival?
      Natural resources and ecological cues
    • What were the results of the badger surveys in terms of social groups and badger numbers?
      • Estimated 71,600 social groups
      • Estimated 484,000 badgers in England and Wales
    • What was the estimated number of badgers in the previous study?
      484,000 badgers
    • When did the first wave of hominins leave Africa?
      Approximately 1-1.5 million years ago
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