biodiversity the variety of living things three kinds –genetic diversity –species diversity...
Post on 21-Dec-2015
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Biodiversity
•The variety of living things
•Three Kinds–Genetic Diversity–Species Diversity–Ecological Diversity
Linnaean Classification
Kingdom Animalia• Phylum Cordata
– Class Mammalia• Order Primates
–Family Hominidae»Genus Homo
Species Homo sapiens
Communities and Niches
• Community: The populations of all species in a habitat associate with one another directly or indirectly as a community
– Habitat: the place where something lives
• The Niche: Sum total of all activities and relationships in which individuals of a species engage as they secure and use the resources required to survive and reproduce.
Species Interactions
• Commensalism: Neither affected
• Mutualism: the benefit flows both ways
• Competition: both competing
• Predation: one consumes another
• Parasitism: Benefits one hurts the other.
Benefits of Biodiversity
• Food– As many as 80,000 edible plants
• Drugs and Medicine– $75-150 Billion/year
• Ecological Benefits– Soil formation, waste disposal, air and water
purification, solar absorption and food– Controls disease
Aesthetic and Cultural Benefits
Extinction
• Extinction: elimination of a species– Normal rate = 1/decade– Currently = 100,000/decade
• Extirpation = Ecological Extinction
• Between 1/3 to 2/3 of all species could be extinct by the middle of the 21st century
Threats to Biodiversity
• Habitat Alteration: #1 Cause– Fragmentation: Habitat into smaller patches
• Invasive Species
• Pollution
• Commercial Products and live specimens
• Overexploitation– Hunting, capturing,
Fragmentation
National Parks
Protecting Biodiversity
• Hunting and Fishing Laws
• Endangered Species Act (ESA)– Endangered=imminent danger of extinction– Threatened=likely to become endangered
• Reintroductions
• Recovery Plans