APES Chapter 9 and 10

• Functional Extinction: population gets so small that they can no longer provide that function.
• Local Extinction: a species that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, but it still exists elsewhere.
• Planned Extinction: when a species is planned to become extinct through laboratory or experimental designs.
• Coextinction: when a species becomes extinct, the dependent plants and animals on it also become extinct through time.
• Biological Extinction: the dying out or extermination of a species; cannot be found on earth anymore.
• Background Extinction: the number of species that are expected to go extinct over a period of time.
• Mass Extinction: when species vanish much faster than they are replaced
• 8 characteristics of endangered species.

  ● Low reproductive rate

  ● Specialized niche

  ● Narrow distribution

  ● Feeds at high trophic level

  ● Rare

  ● Commercially valuable

  ● Require large territories

  ● Fixed migratory patterns

  ● K selected species are likely to become extinct
• Problems when estimating extinction rates?

  * Natural extinction of a species are a long

  process

  * difficult to document

  * identified only 2 million of the 7–10 million species on

  earth

  * we know little about ecological roles of most identified species
• Natural extinction rate: one species/year/million species
• 4 basic causes of habitat destruction:

  * Agriculture (culture)

  * mining (pickaxe)

  * pollution

  * storm damage
• Endemic species: species that live in a specific area
• Habitat island: Fragmented areas of habitat that are surrounded and separated by areas of destroyed or degraded habitat
• Habitat Fragmentation: When parts of a habitat are destroyed, leaving behind smaller unconnected areas.
• Environmental benefits of birds:

  Supports the economy

  Controls pests

  Indicator species
• CITES - treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of international trade
• CBD - Convention on Biological Diversity

  * makes government reduce rate of biodiversity loss

  * law lacks enforcement
• ESA - protects and recovers imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend
• 4 problems with invasive species:

  preying on native species

  outcompeting native species for food or other resources

  causing or carrying disease

  preventing native species from reproducing/killing their young
• Solutions to reduce the number of invasive species:

  Prevent their introduction in the first place

  Monitoring systems for detecting new infestations
• characteristics of an invasive species:

  fast growth

  rapid reproduction

  high seed

  tolerance of a wide range of environmental factors
• Characteristics of ecosystems vulnerable to invasive species:

  Absence of predators on invasive species

  low diversity of native species

  absence of fire

  human disturbance
• 2 consequences of killing a predator:

  1. Disease outbreaks can spread to domesticated animals
  2. Lack of population control
• Habitat conservation - seeks to conserve, protect, and restore habitats and prevent species extinction or fragmentation; A conservation plan is a document that lays out the steps for how an agricultural landowner will implement specific conservation practices on their land.
• How Zoos and Aquariums help with the preservation of endangered species

  Provides conservation education programs

  spreading awareness for wildlife protection

  maintaining managed breeding programs
• the Precautionary Principle

  If a product, an action, or a policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, protective action should be supported
• What problems could arise when we try to protect/sustain biodiversity

  Loss and degradation of habitat, climate change, pollution