Lecture 8: Challenges to Biodiversity

• Conservation V.s. Management: What's the difference?

  Conservationists

  • Concerned with the ecosystem
  • Focuses more on ecosystem and species preservation

  Management

  • Concerned with sustaining the society dependent on the ecosystem
  • Focuses more on social preservation and yield preservation

  Both concerned with resource preservation

  Their activity and motivations change depending on where they are on the spectrum
• Pt. 1: What are the 4 major threats to species and how do conservationists and managers approach them?

  Habitat Loss

  • Causes
  • Water usage
  • Damming
  • Destructive fishing
  • Goal
  • (C) Restore form to how it was before
  • (M) Restore function of the original habitat

  Pollution

  • Causes
  • Point/Trasable Sourse
  • Sewage Pipe
  • Non-Point/untraceable source
  • Farm run-off
  • Event Based
  • Oil Spill
  • Goal
  • (C) Reduce/Remove the source
  • (M) Ameliorate/Minimize environmental impact
• Pt. 2: What are the 4 major threats to species and how do conservationists and managers approach them?

  Overfishing

  • Causes
  • Ineffective management
  • Not because managers are inept
  • Gear Usage
  • Some gear more destructive/more bi-catch
  • Goal
  • (C) Species sustainability
  • (M) Economic sustainability
  • Amount caught & value of fish stays the same

  Introduced Species

  • Causes
  • Escapees
  • Intentional Release
  • Pest control, commercial marketability
  • Ballast Water
  • Water in ballast tanks and cargo holds of ships
  • Goal
  • (C) Remove
  • (M) Manage if economically beneficial, remove if not
• What are notable features of habitat loss?

  Causes

  • Conflict with humans for freshwater esp with increasing demand
  • Drought & climate change
  • Water is a hard to manage resource
  • Straddling resource
  • Easier if between states but does happen between countries
  • Ex. Rio Grande managed by US and Mexico. Despite comechanisms between the two when demand is an issue, each focuses on what their country needs.
  • Dried Riverbeds
  • Seasonal, intermittent, permanent
  • Ex. Dry outside of wet season
  • More commonly small tributaries but can affect larger sections
  • Can cause extinction/extirpation in endemic fish

  
• What actions are being taken to reduce the causes of habitat loss?

  Controlling water usage

  • Laws
  • Water restrictions
  • Water Bans
  • Can be seasonal or year-round
  • Consumer based
  • Incentivize water efficiency
  • Rebates or Tax Insentives
  • Technical controls
  • Make things more efficient
  • Grassroots
  • Commercials
  • Informing the Public
  • Increasing understanding is the most effective method
• Damming-what is it and how are fish affected?

  Impoundments - Causes ponding

  Diversions - Diverts water with little ponding

  Longterm problem

  • Some in place because they're in use
  • Some in place bc it's too costly to remove

  Changes ecosystem upstream

  • Creates ponds and lakes
  • Reduces needed flow
  • Increases turbidity

  Changes ecosystem downstream

  • Makes dry riverbeds
  • Reduces input of freshwater

  Changes the basic functions of watershed

  • Can cause extirpation/extinction

  Major impediment to migratory species like salmon

  
• What actions are being taken to reduce the impact?

  Complete removal not realistic

  • Over 87000 in U.S.

  Minimize impacts

  • Facilitate migration through fish ladders
  • Allow unimpeded/less impeded stream flow around the dam

  Grass Roots Movements

  • Dam decommissioning
  • Locals pressure their government to remove unnecessary dams
• Information on Pollution and its effects?

  Pollutants are not just chemicals but can also include temperature, noise, and light

  • Change quality/function of environment

  Enters systems in many ways

  • Runnoff: Dissolved sediment associated
  • Point Source: Effluent
  • Easier to manage despite some compounds making it through processing
  • ex. Antibiotics are near impossible to remove
  • Acute Events: Oil spills, chemical spills
  • May leave contaminants long after clean-up
  • Other: Airborne, antifoulant, rain removing airborne pollutants

  
• What are the impacts of pollution?

  Acute Impacts

  • Mortality
  • Reproductive failure

  Chronic Impacts

  • Reduced reproductive potential
  • ex. Exon valley oil spill effected reproduction to the point populations could not get back to pre-spill levels
  • Endocrine disruption: Changes in gene regulation through hormonal control
  • Common from industrial chemicals/pharmaceuticals/synthetic + natural hormones
  • Enter water through agricultural runoff, animal use, treated sewafe, human use
  • Cause developmental problems like feminization
  • Bioaccumulation of toxins
  • Ecosystem change

  
• What is feminization and how does it effect fish?

  Feminization is a result of endocrine disruption through pollution and is when a fish that is genetically one sex begins showing traits of the opposite sex

  • Males that are feminized can neither make the same quality or quantity of sperm as a non-feminized male

  Can be very problematic for some taxa

  
• What are some effects of chronic pollution on an environment?

  Ecosystem change

  • Eutrophication
  • Aggressive phytoplankton take over and out-compete diatoms
  • Dinoflagellates out competing larger, more nutrient rich phytoplankton
  • This changes the food web and is a change hard to reset

  Can cause a changed stable state which results in the environment being nothing like before and near impossible to revert

  Can cause hypoxia and anoxia events or permanence

  
• What is an example of pollution resulting from environmental imbalance?

  Increased turbidity affecting macroflora

  Pike density is related to plant cover which is related to turbidity

  • Likely because Nutrient concentration is related to turbidity

  Bream population density is also related to Pike density

  • If there is enough Pike in an area to keep Bream populations in check the population remains stable
  • Imbalance can cause the ecosystem quality to drop as the bream increase the turbidity and decrease the number of plants
  • If this reaches a new stable equilibrium there may be no reverting it.

  
• What are some actions being done to reduce pollution?

  Reduce Run-Off

  • Regulate chemical use like pesticides and hormones
  • Regulate lane use

  Regulate point-source

  • Water quality regulations
  • Release regulations, area and amount

  Grass roots

  • Educate and appeal to the public

  Habitat restoration

  • ex. Chesapeak Bay
  • In 2015 the EPA and surrounding states made a plan to revitalize it in hopes of preventing the excess nitrogen from continually creating a dead zone

  
• What are some actions being done to reduce the impact of fishing on populations?

  Catch control

  • Controls how much fish are allowed to be removed

  Effort control

  • Total fishery effort
  • Individual Effort

  Technical Control

  • Interaction between gear, target, and habitat

  Grassroots

  • Eco-labeling
  • Do not eat lists
• Discuss Catch Control and its various methods

  • Output control
  • Aims to limit weight of catch
  • Limits mortality as more tonnage = more dead
  • Total Allowable Quota (TAC)
  • Limits total catch for stock of whole fishery
  • Fishery closed at limit
  • Causes overcompetitiveness due to increased competition
  • Inc bycatch & risky behavior
  • Commonly results in overfishing
  • Individual Quota (IQ)
  • More effective bc intrinsic value through sale
  • Each participant buys a portion which can be sold
  • May encourage conservation (more fish = more val) and high grading
  • Can be used together
  • TAC = sum of IQ

  
• What is high-grading and why is it a bad practice?

  High-grading is the practice of throwing back smaller fish in order to get more value from ones catch. This is an issue as some fish have a high mortality rate when thrown back and will die from the stress of being caught.
• What is effort control in conservation?

  "Imput Control" not effective by itself as there is no catch limit

  Includes...

  • Permits (paper kind)
  • May be long or short term
  • Limits participation
  • Does not limit competition
  • Individual Effort Quota
  • Limits time spent fishing
  • Must be used with permitting
  • May be ineffective if fishers change techniques to become more efficient
  • If the gear catches 6 weeks worth of fish in 2 weeks IEQ not effective
  • Gear/Vessel restrictions
  • Limits efficiency of fishery
  • Ex. Trawl nets can only be X wide and Y long
• What are technical controls?

  "Imput to output control"

  Size restrictions

  • Discard survivorship

  Gear restrictions

  • Mesh size on nets
  • Allows non target fishes to escape
  • Hook size/shape
  • Circle Hooks <3

  Sex Restrictions + Time/area closures

  • Redistributes fishing effort
  • May not limit mortality
  • Used with other controls

  
• How do fishing managers analyze data for the best method to manage fish stocks?

  Managers may wish to optimize...

  • Economic outcomes
  • Biological outcomes
  • Social Outcomes

  Contour plot

  • determined by the type of fishing
  • Helps with Technical control and Effort control

  
• Reducing capacity

  • Overfished stocks require a reduction in effort to increase their numbers
  • Boat decommissioning via boat buy-backs
  • Bans on new entrants
  • No new permits
  • Property rights making a waterway shared property via IQs

  Problems (Short Term)

  • Economic impacts from loss of fish on the market
  • Communities/individuals affected as they lose jobs

  Efficacy

  • Governmental measures to help fishers leaving the industry
  • Subsides (long term fishers may lack other skills)
  • Income support
  • Retraining

  Benefits

  • Increased efficiency
  • Wealthier fishers
  • Ecosystem/species recovery
• The importance of eco labeling and do not eat lists?

  Eco labeling

  • Raises consumer awareness
  • Leads to preferential purchases
  • Rewards sustainable behavior of stakeholders with more sales
  • Strategy only as good as the certification process
  • Some labelers may have economic bias
  • Price needs to be brought down for this method to be effective

  Do Not Eat list

  • Raises consumer awareness
  • Lead to preferential purchases
  • Dissuades purchase of non-sustainable products
  • Often by "impartial" third party
• Introduced Species?

  Reasons for introduction

  • Food
  • Recreation
  • Pest control
  • Ornamental release
  • To Help local species
  • Ex. Nile perch introduction to Lake Victoria to reduce pressure on native species. Caused extinction of over 200 endemic species

  Can also be from unintentional release

  • Ballast water
  • Escapee

  May out-compete native species

  May act as predators

  May hybridize and genetically out-compete native species

  • Notable in the United States

  
• What are some actions being done to reduce impact of introduced species?

  Regulation

  • Ban import
  • Ban possession

  Balast Water

  • On-Board Treatment

  Removal

  • Planned culls
  • Bounties
  • Reclamation
  • Killing all the fish in a habitat and reintroducing the native species
  • complicated process
  • All require cost benifit analysis

  Grass roots

  • Educate and appeal to the public
  • Important in widespread invasion
  • Users have better access than managers

  
• Compliance?

  Self-sufficient

  • Stakeholders police the area
  • State is uninvolved
  • Does not work for large-scale fisheries

  Comanagement

  • Stakeholders and state co-operate the fishery

  State-Run

  • Stakeholders comply (or not)
  • State polices the area

  Large scale policing requires many factors and meetings where policy is made

  • By the time the meetings finished often new data and more effective ideas are out

  The grey areas in between see either the state or stakeholders advising while the other party manages

  
• What are some examples of enforcement?

  Observers

  • Often result in more accurate reporting even if they are not on the boat at the time of catch

  Satellite tracking

  • Electronics distributed to fishermen and required for use

  Genetics testing

  • Testing the genetics of samples to ensure no illegal fish are there

  Ownership

  • Tends to work best on small scales
  • Stakeholders have more responsibility
  • Doesn't work for straddling stock because diff govs will manage waters differently
  • Ex. ITQ gives fishermen tangible shares in a common resource through a stock certificate

  
• What is habitat preservation?

  Seeks to protect essential fish habitat

  • Habitat needed for spawning, breeding, feeding, growth, or just critical for stock sustainability

  Marine Protected Areas

  • Designed to protect habitat for multiple species
  • Positives
  • Can increase biomass
  • Can increase size of individuals
  • “Spill-over” into non-MPA habitat can increase fisheries yield and catch size
  • Negatives
  • Placement is critical
  • Oft not placed right due to political convenience
  • Difficult to establish

  
• What is an example of an MPA that worked?

  St. Lucia

  • Network of 5 reserves
  • Covers 35% of reef area
  • Biomass of economically important families rapidly increased
  • Leads to increased fisheries yield
• What is a Seasonal Area Closure?

  Type of MPA designed to protect species in a critical period of their lives

  • ex. Spawning (groupers/snappers), Migration routes (pelagics), Juvenile settlement (shrimp)

  Requires detailed life-history data

  Allows fishing at other times

  Allows for alternative fisheries

  Offers gear relief and may encourage habitat recovery along with stock recovery

  
• What are some economic methods to deal with area closures?

  Ecotourism

  • Conservation of habitat/species
  • Opportunity for stakeholders to make money
  • Increases awareness via encouraging safe interaction with ocean species
  • No (little) impact

  Adventure Tourism

  • Opportunity for stakeholders
  • Increases awareness via encouraging interaction with ocean species
  • Some impact
  • ex. Shark feeding experiances train the animals to do something abnormal and could dissuade their fear of humans

  Tourism

  • Opportunity for stakeholders
  • High impact
  • No thought of the environment or the animals