Ch 1: Conservation Biology

Cards (26)

  • SLOSS means single large or several small
  • 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