Download 26-Islands

Third Exam – Thursday 5 December 2013
Covers 9 lectures, Last part of Chapter 15,
Chapters 16, 17, 18, 19, plus 10 readings
Technology
Soils
Energy
Money
Peak Oil
Land
Food
Water
Sewage
Plastics
Latitudinal gradients in species diversity
Tropical tree species diversity
Seeding rings
Nutrient mosaic
Circular networks
Disturbance (epiphyte loads)
Intermediate disturbance hypothesis
Connectance and number of species
Sea otters as keystone species, alternative stable states
Types of stability
Persistence
Constancy = variability
Inertia = resistance
Elasticity = resilience (Lyapunov stability)
Amplitude (domain of attraction)
Cyclic stability (neutral stability, limit cycles, strange attractors)
Trajectory stability (succession)
Traditional ecological wisdom: diversity begats stability
Robert May’s Jacobian matrices model systems
May’s challenge, real ecosystems cannot be emulated
using random number generators
Community Stability
Traditional Ecological Wisdom
Diversity begats stability (Charles Elton)
More complex ecosystems with more
species have more checks and balances
Traditional Ecological Wisdom:
Diversity begats Stability
MacArthur’s idea
Stability of an ecosystem should increase
with both the number of different trophic
links between species and with the
equitability of energy flow up various food
chains
Types of stability
Constancy = variability
Inertia = resistance
Elasticity = resilience (Lyapunov ‘Yapunov’ stability)
Amplitude (domain of attraction)
Cyclic stability (neutral stability, limit cycles, strange attractors)
Lorenz’s “Butterfly effect”
Trajectory stability (succession)
Traditional ecological wisdom: diversity begats stability
May’s challenge using random model systems
Real systems not constructed randomly
Island Biogeography and Conservation Biology
Islands as “Natural” Ecological Experiments
Krakatau, Indonesia
Species Area Curves
S = CAz
log S = log C + z log A
Estimated z Values for Various Terrestrial Plants
and Animals on Different Island Groups
__________________________________________________________________
Fauna or flora
Island Group
z
__________________________________________________________________
Carabid beetles
West Indies
0.34
Ponerine ants
Melanesia
0.30
Amphibians and reptiles
West Indies
0.301
Breeding land and freshwater birds
West Indies
0.237
Breeding land and freshwater birds
East Indies
0.280
Breeding land and freshwater birds
East-Central Pacific
0.303
Breeding land and freshwater birds
Islands of Gulf of Guinea 0.489
Land vertebrates
Islands of Lake Michigan 0.239
Land plants
Galápagos Islands
0.325
__________________________________________________________________
New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea
Alfred Russel Wallace
Mongoose
Quoll
Small
Monitors
Big Monitors
Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography
R. H. MacArthur
E. O. Wilson
Conservation Biology is a “crisis discipline”
Physiology—> Surgery; Political Science —> War
Conservation Biology bridges the gap between natural
sciences and social sciences. It is applied ethical biology.
Conservation Biology
Recognition and management
of endangered species
Design of nature reserves
Restoration ecology
Ecosystem conservation
Ecological economics
Environmental ethics
“Wildlife Management” is a sad joke —>
We humans cannot even manage our
own populations
By encouraging procreation and
mastery over nature, organized religion
is responsible for over-population and
habitat destruction. Organized religions
are also responsible for fanatic fringe
elements (creationists, terrorists).
Javan Rhino - population is less than 60 individuals.
Most of these rhinos are the Indonesian Javan Rhino subspecies.
The Vietnamese Javan Rhino subspecies consists of 5 individual
animals and may not recover. The Indian Javan Rhino is extinct.
Sumatran Rhino - population less than 275 individuals,
with poaching on the rise
Black Rhino - population 3,725. West African Rhino species declared
extinct in 2006. From 1980 until 2006, 14,000 were slaughtered by
poachers.
Indian Rhino - population approximately 2,400, a conservation success
story - but poaching is on the rise due to regional political instability
White Rhino: Northern White Rhino - on June 17, 2008 the last 4 individuals
were killed by poachers.
Southern White Rhino - 14,000 survive, due to conservation efforts
Sumatran Rhino - population less than 275 individuals, poaching on the rise
The decline in the number of Sumatran
rhinoceros is attributed primarily to
poaching for their horns, which are highly
valued in traditional Chinese medicine,
fetching as much as US$30,000 per kg
on the black market.
Carolina Parrakeets (above)
Ivory-billed woodpecker —>
Conservation Biology
Value of Biodiversity
Hot spots of diversity
SLOSS debate, Design of Nature Reserves
Minimum viable population size
Genetic bottleneck
Population viability analysis
Sensitivity analyses of Leslie matrices
“Extinction vortex”
Norman Myers
“40% of Earth’s
species could be
saved by protecting
1.4% of its surface”
Habitat loss, habitat fragmentation,
small population size,
genetic and demographic stochasticity,
toxic pollution and climatic changes