Conservation

• conservation is the protection and management of species and habitats (ecosystems) in a sustainable way
• sustainable means that enough resourced are taken to meet the needs of people today without reducing the ability of people in the future to meet their own needs
• conservation is a dynamic process as conservation methods need to be adapted to the constant changes (caused naturally and by humans) that occur within ecosystems
• conflicts in conservation:

  • not everyone agrees with every conservation measure
  • there is often conflict between human need and conservation
  • careful management is needed to find a balance between the 2 and maintain the sustainability of natural resources
• e.g.:

  • the Maasai Mara is a national reserve in Kenya - large area of grassland (Savannah) with lots of wildlife
  • the Maasai people traditionally earn a living by raising livestock such as cattle - can bring them into conflict with conservationists - e.g. overgrazing livestock can destroy grassland for wildlife
  • conservation trusts are working with the Maasai people to help them make money from their land through conservation and ecotourism projects, as well as farming and to farm in a sustainable way - economic needs of the Maasai are met while allowing the area and its wildlife to be conserved
• 1. management of succession:

  human activities can interrupt the process of succession

  conservation frequently involves preventing succession in order to preserve an ecosystem in its current stage of succession:

  e.g. large areas of moorland in Scotland that provide habitats for many species of plants ad animals

  if the moorland was left to natural processes, succession would lead to a climax community of spruce forest

  this would mean the loss of the moorland and some of the plants and animals that currently live there

  preventing succession keeps the moorland ecosystem intact
• there are a couple of ways to manage succession to conserve the moorland ecosystem:

  • animals are allowed to graze on the land - similar to mowing - the animals eat the growing points of the shrubs and trees, which stops them from establishing themselves and helps keep vegetation low
  • managed fires are lit - after the fires, secondary succession will occur on the moorland - the plant species that grow back first (pioneer species) are the species being conserved e.g. heather - larger plant species will take longer to grow back and will be removed again the next time the moor's burnt
• seed banks:

  • a seed bank is a store of seeds from lots of different plant species
  • act as a back up for the conservation of plant species in the wild e.g. if a plant species becomes extinct or is lost from a particular habitat, stored seeds can be used to reintroduce the species
  • a good way of conserving plant species - large no.s of species can be conserved in a fairly small space - most seeds small
• • seeds can be stored anywhere in the world and for long periods of time - as long as cool and dry
  • seeds have to be regularly tested - see if still viable (can be drown into a plant) - expensive/ time-consuming
• captive breeding:

  • programmes involve breeding animals in controlled environments
  • species that are endangered or already extinct in the wild can be bred in captivity to help increase their numbers
  • however - some problems e.g. animals like pandas can have problems breeding outside natural habitat, ca be hard to recreate in a zoo
• • animals bred in captivity can be reintroduced to the wild - increases their no. in the wild - can help conserve their no. or bring them back from the brink of extinction
  • reintroducing animals to the wild can cause problems though - e.g. reintroduced animals could bring new diseases to habitats, harming other species living there
• fishing quotas:

  • limits to the amount of certain fish species that fishermen are allowed to catch
  • help to conserve fish species by reducing the no. that are caught and killed - aim to prevent a situation where fish populations reach such low levels that they are threatened with extinction
• • however, fishing quotas can be unpopular with fishermen - limit their potential income
  • can also be problems with 'discards' - ships catching more fish than they are allowed to then throwing them back (often dead already) so don't exceed their quota
  • wasteful and doesn't contribute to the conservation of fish populations
  • in areas where there are fishing vessels from more than one country - international cooperation is needed for quotas to be fully effective
• protected areas:

  • like national parks and nature reserves, protect habitats and the species in them by restricting urban development and farming
  • habitats in protected areas can be managed to conserve them
  • e.g. some woodlands are managed by coppicing - cutting down trees in a way that lets them grow back, so they don't need to be replanted - helps to conserve the woodland, but allows some wood to be harvested
• • protected areas also have problems:
  • e.g. national parks are also used as tourist destinations (many are funded by revenue from tourists)
  • this means there is conflict between the need to conserve the habitats and the need to allow people to visit and use them
• an ecosystem is all the organisms living in a community, plus all the abiotic conditions in the area in which they live
• the method used to manage succession always depends on the environment e.g. clearing winter scrub (grasses and low shrubs) that would otherwise build up and dry out the land is useful to prevent wetland from becoming woodland
• there are lots of ways of managing succession to aid conservation, some of which involve altering the abiotic conditions e.g. ditches and sluices can be used to control the water content of the soil
• fishing is a good example of an area where there is a conflict between human needs (our need for food and the need of fishermen to earn a living) and conservation needs. to protect the fish populations for the furture, we need to find ways to making fishing sustainable
• Evidence and data questions:

  • step 1: describe the data
  • step 2: draw conclusions
  • step 3: evaluate the method
• a niche is the role of a species within its habitat
• describe the data e.g.:

  • first 5 years, percentage cover of native bluebells fell from 50% to around 25%. after the Spanish species was removed, it increased from around 25% to around 45% in 10 years
  • the control experiment shows a fairly steady drop in the native bluebell percentage cover from 60% to 20% over the 15 years
• step 2: draw conclusions:

  • the removal of Spanish bluebells resulted in an increase in the percentage cover of native bluebells over a 10 year period
  • this suggests that the recent decrease in native British bluebells is due to competition with the Spanish bluebells
• step 3: evaluate the method:

  • the effects of some other variables (e.g. changing weather) were removed by the control experiment, where the percentage cover of native bluebells continued to fall throughout the 15 year study - makes the test more valid
  • the study area and sample size were quite large, giving more accurate data
  • random sampling removed bias - the data's more likely to be an accurate estimate of the whole area
• • the evidence from one study alone wouldn't usually be enough to conclude that there is a link between decreasing percentage cover of native bluebells and the presence of Spanish bluebells - similar studies would be carried out to investigate the link
• • if these studies came to the same conclusion, the conclusion would become increasingly accepted. sometimes studies come up with conflicting evidence though - evidence that leads to a different conclusion than other studies
• when you get conflicting data - chances are something in the methodology has caused the conflict:

  • e.g. no control in one experiment - could be due to another factor
  • study area and sample size too small - less accurate results