Conservation

• humans are the main cause of species decline
• humans causes habitat loss, invasive species, climate change
• rapid population expansion intrudes on habitats
• overexploitation leads to reduction in food systems
• introduced species outcompete native species
• ways of conservation

  direct values, indirect values, option values, nonsense values
• direct values


  direct goals like fish and produce
• indirect values


  services
• option values


  possible future use like medicines
• nonuse values


  intrinsic, no economic human gains, but good for nature itself
• anthropocentric approach


  biodiversity has a value only as a means to human end
• anthropocentric approaches includes foods, pollination, ecotourism
• anthropocentric approach is utilitarian
• ecocentric 


  biodiversity if valuable simply because it exists, independent to its uses for humans
• products from conservation must be equitable in sharing the benefits
• bioprospecting


  equitable sharing agreements when using native knowledge and land to gain profit
• vulnerable


  10% of probability of extinction within 100 generations
• endangered


  20% probability of extinction within 20 years or 10 generations
• critically endangered


  within 5 years or 2 generations the risk of extinction is 50% or greater
• most undescribed species will be extinct before they have been discovered
• small geographical range means that local populations are smaller and specialised
• small populations 


  preservation of genetic diversity provides longterm evolutionary potential in a changing environment
• inbreeding depression reduces fertility
• relationship between richness and ecosystems process

  A) high ecological redundancy

  B) each species contributes to the ecosystem

  C) system collapse

  
• conservation in practice


  using species management plans
• using available data may not be the best conservation approach due to extrapolation
• data sets are rare and they require long-term commitment to monitoring
• subjective expert assessment 


  basis for IUCN, used to highlight areas of conservation
• simulation modeling 


  using models using different data sets
• ex situ conservation


  zoos and captive breeding to help conserve an endangered species
• captive breeding needs to be combined with habitat protection and reintroduction
• mpa's should help maintain an equilibrium of extinctions and colonisations