Benefits of single large: less expensive, make public happier, won't need several roads, no edge effect
Benefits of several small: allow organisms to rehome, easier for trees to regrow
Edge effect: edge habitat is different=less equal habitat, easier to prey upon edges, less resources on outside edges
What is DDT?
An insecticide
Who has DDT?
Everyone, in fat cells
Where is DDT?
No longer used in the US (1970) but made and exported to different contries
Atrazine: most popular herbicide in the U.S., in midwest waters, causes leopard frogs to become hermaphrodites at 0.1 per billion
Neonicotinoids: pesticide that caused a loss of bees/butterflies, lack of insects/birds, all corn/soybean seed is pretreated with it.
33% of all amphibian species are threatened with extinction
Medical importance of amphibians: anticancer properties on amphibian skin, compound in poison dart frog (epibatidine) has potential to be 200x more potent than morphine without addiction, effects of alkaloids on neurological and muscular disorders
Ecological importance of amphibians: key role in environment because they eat a wide variety of food and can be eaten by a wide variety
Endemic species: found only in a particular region
Hotspot: area with lots of endemic species
Example of a hotspot: California Tiger Salamander and Grizzly bear endemic to CA
Most important to human's ecosystem function is money
Resistance: resist to change immediately after an event
Resilience: ability to bounce back
Resilience: ability to bounce back
Causes for biodiversity loss: 1. Habitat destruction 2. Direct Exploitation 3. Introduced Species 4. Disease
More diverse system = more stable ecosystem
Coral bleaching: ocean acidification and warming which makes the reefs more susceptible to disease
Climate change is caused by an increase in carbon in the air making it more acidic
Keystone species are "more important" because they are an organism that helps define an entire ecosystem
Frog declines are due to chytrid fungus and has now spread to Madagascar
Costa rica has seen a 75% decline in amphibian and reptile declines. This is a direct link to loss of trees and leaf litter