Download INTRODUCTION Definition and meaning, guiding principles

Outline of Hypnea (1999) Course
INTRODUCTION Definition and meaning, guiding principles, economics/
politics/education, World conservation strategies.
THE ISSUES Human expectations, human pressures, exploitation (habitats & species),
interdependence, extinction.
BIODIVERSITY AND RARITY
Within and between geographical habitats; taxonomic status; species packing and
turnover, endemism - islands, relicts, anthropogenic effects.
FITNESS AND VIABILITY Maintenance of small isolated populations, deterministic
and stochastic extinctions.
COMMUNITY PROCESSES
Limited membership; mutually co-dependant assemblages; biocontrol; expert systems.
SENSITIVE HABITATS
Tropics, mountain areas, wetlands, social values and issues, conservation, development
and greed; understanding of traditional practices.
MANAGEMENT
Management practices. Use of fire in management. Adaptive management. IEM
process.
BIOGEOGRAPHY, PATCHES & FRAGMENTATION
Surface area to volume; edge threats and benefits; guidelines for reserve selection and
management, immigration and extinction rates.
PROTECTED AREAS AND CONSERVATION PRACTICES
Conservation = maintenance of biological processes, harnessed for sustainable (?)
utilization by people.
RESTORATION
Flexibility essential, restoration, reclamation and regeneration of ecosystems (e.g.
desertification); damaged ecosytems and their use/misuse.
ECOTOURISM
Putting value on natural resources. Potential of ecotourism.
GREEN POLITICS
Putting environmental sustainability on the political agenda and incorporating
environmental expertise into national and international policy.
PRACTICAL THEME- MAPPING AND MANAGING RESOURCES
Understanding maps and GIS. Introduction to remote sensing and field collection of
spatial data.
APPLICATION AND COURSE PROJECT
Planning, developing and managing the False Bay Coastal Park and to present results as
a web page.
Introduction
Conservation biology is a mission orientated discipline comprising both pure and applied
science (conservation defined)
The breadth of conservation biology is as broad as biology itself. Traditionally it focuses
the knowledge and tools of all biological disciplines - from molecular biology to
population biology into one issue.
Conservation biology’s integrative nature makes it one of the most challenging fields,
limited by the capacity of its mangers. It is neither a pure nor an applied field but its
effectiveness is based on its originality and like other field its scientific rigour.
People have been responsible for extinctions for thousands of years such as the large
mammal fauna of the Americas, which followed human colonization from Asia about 11
000 years ago. Aristotle in the Greek period commented on the widespread destruction
of the Baltic forests. At the same time the forests of southern Asia were being felled to
meet the burgeoning ship industry that was vital for the developing trade markets (the
arid lands of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran are the result of massive exploitation of fragile
woodlands). Even Italy and Greece were formerly far more heavily wooded than they are
today.
People have sought to protect wildlife for > 2000 years. For example the local chief
Sakhile in Transkei decreed that local forests around Dwesa were royal and forbade
hunting in them. Formalized philosophies of conservation biology developed into two
branches during the 19th century with preservationists wanting pure wilderness based on
a spiritual appreciation for nature and the conservationists advocating a resource-based
approach to the management of natural resources. It was the publication of Aldo
Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac” in 1949 that a third philosophy within conservation
biology was borne, that of Ecological Land Ethic. This philosophy articulated that
complicated and integrated systems of integrated processes and components existed in
fashion similar to a “fine Swiss watch”. Leopold saw ecosystems existing within
equilibriums, a view subsequently replaced by non-equilibrium views. Even today the
science of conservation is still developing since it has been marred by past academic
prejudice, which has left its development as a discipline to wildlife managers, foresters
and field biologists. Fortunately biology student and biological courses today are not
asking whether they should be conservationist in the approach but rather how you can
adopt this approach.
Three guiding principles for Conservation Biology have emerged
Principle 1: Evolutionary Change. This is based on the population geneticist Theodosius
Dobzhansky who stated, “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of
evolution”. Evolution is the most plausible explanation for the immense pattern of
biology diversity that exist on the planet and consequently the genetic composition of
organisms is continuously changing whether due to factors of isolation existing within
small and or isolated populations, immigrations from other populations or natural
selection itself. Consequently the goal of this principle is to allow populations to change
in response to environmental changes through adaptations.
Principle 2: Dynamic Ecology. Views the ecological world as dynamic and largely
functioning through non-equilibrium principles. It specifically rejects the equilibrium
viewpoint, which defines stable end points such as climax communities and other
concepts such as the “balance of nature”. This view sees the regulation of ecological
structure as not being maintained through internally generated processes (e.g. ecological
pyramids and the transfer of energy through food chains) but through external processes,
in the form of natural processes such as fires, floods, droughts, storms, earth moving,
outbreaks of disease and or parasites as the overriding factors. We know that nonequilibrium processes maintain almost all ecosystems e.g. fire in fynbos. Consequently
ecosystems consist of patches and mosaics of habitats that not internally uniform with
clearly defined species assemblages, and that internal composition change in response to
disturbances. Nevertheless this non-equilibrium viewpoint does not suggest that species
interactions are ephemeral or totally unpredictable and that integral to communities are
clusters of species that have strong interactions that are legacies of long periods of coexistence. The critical focus of this principle is the integration of non-equilibrium
processes within a hierarchy of species interactions and recognizes that ecosystems are
open with fluxes of species, materials and energy.
Principle 3: The Human Presence. Humans are participants within both natural and
perturbed ecosystems and presence within ecosystems needs to be recognized and
accounted for. Conservation efforts cannot wall off nature to safe guard it from humans
since ecosystems must be seen are open systems and nature reserves inevitable exist
within a surrounding landscape that is intensively utilized by humans. This principle
explicitly integrates humans into conservation practice. For example indigenous local
knowledge can be integrated into the formulation of conservation practice, local residents
can be employed within the management and education functions of nature reserves.
Ultimately reserves need to be “user friendly” to gain and maintain public support. Native
human cultures forms historical components to the landscape and must be explicitly
recognized as a form of diversity in the same way that biodiversity is. Many traditional
societies have developed sustainable models of existence that can serve as models for
modern sustainable development.
Economics as a discipline are strictly speaking external influences within the field of
Conservation Biology. However, certain principles of economic theory are required when
acquiring and managing funds for scientific research and acquisition of land for
conservation practices. Increasingly nature conservation can be seen as a form of land
use and its value for generating capital through tourism is compared to other economic
activities. As human society’s become increasingly capitalistic in their structures so do
their need to put value of natural resources. The development of environmental audits
using species and habitats as the foci is still in its infancy. Defining the value for a global
society of a Panda or Blue Whale will be debated well into the next millennium.
Nevertheless growing leisure and tourism industries will put increasing value to living
resources exiting in their natural habitats and will become integral to the economies of
many third world nations!
It is naïve that Conservation Biology should be apolitical despite the fact that it should be
for all people. Inevitably the only realistic paths to sustainable conservation are through
the provision of a reasonable standard of living for all people. This will require greater
equity between the “haves” and “have-nots” and is only achievable through political
systems that encourage some people to accept lower standards of living so that others
may escape the effects of desperate poverty. Conservation also needs the support of party
politicians at local, regional and national level, which inevitably requires that
conservation biologists will need to invest time to lobbying and education. The
relationships between unequal access to resources, unsustainable of development
generally, and the loss of biodiversity in particular were major themes of the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June
1992. Since they have more to lose people and politicians from the developed northern
industrialized nations have had difficulty in participating in this discourse, and even
greater difficulty participating in the design of global institutions to address the roles of
inequality in environmental degradation.
Education is the means by which conservation is transferred from economic theory into
social practice. For conservation to work people must want it rather than have it imposed
upon them. To want and believe in conservation principles means to understand and
appreciate the inter-relatedness of humans and their societies with their biological and
natural environments. The University of the Western Cape must be almost unique
among Southern African higher education institutions in that conservation is explicitly
recognized within its mission statement and is one of only two campuses that have
officially recognized Nature Reserves (University of Port Elizabeth being the other).
UWC is also fortunate in having an Environmental Education and Resource Unit, which
undertakes many outreach programmes for local communities.
People’s realization of their roles in determining their future on earth prompted the
development in the 1980’s of the World Conservation Strategy.
The surface of the earth is undergoing many human-imposed changes that match the
upheavals of Pleistocene glaciations. Evolution is measured on a geological time scale of
millions of years, however today changes such a as increasing temperatures and a
doubling of CO2 levels in the atmosphere are occurring within decades.
Human expectations are a decent standard of living, which includes, food, shelter and
water, space, education and a freedom of choice.
Human pressure is a global problem arising from population growth. By 2110 + 10.5 X
10-9 people will exist which is double that of the present world population. Of these 9.1
X 10-9 will be living in the developing nations of the world which are the most
impoverished and where the most amount of damage to the natural environment will
occur and where there is greatest biodiversity. For example Kenya will increase from 17
million in 1980 to 109 million in 2095 and Columbia increasing from 27 million to 60
million in the same period. Many countries that a few years were self-sufficient in food
now have to import food (e.g. Namibia).
Hungry and dissatisfied people do not always make the best use of their living space.
They tend to make extensive rather than intensive use of the land and techniques that
could improve the situation are generally unavailable or beyond local budgets (e.g.
inorganic fertilizers, high yield seeds and mechanized methods. Wastefulness is not the
preserve of the poor and wealthy first-world society is even more wasteful especially
with respect to energy utilization and their industries have had greater impacts on
upsetting global atmospheric patterns. In many developing countries large tracts of land
are cleared to provide exports to these wealthy countries. The Brazilian forest has been
converted to cattle ranching to provide beef for the North American fast food industry.
Fisheries industries of developing countries have collapsed due to local exploitation of
the resources for export to the wealthy nations.
Over exploitation and utilization leads to threats of habitat destruction and species
extinction. Tropical forests have 50% of the world-estimated biodiversity. Yet we know
little of the structure and functioning of such systems. It was only in 1972 that the
Tasaday tribe in the Philippines was discovered only 24 kms from the outside world, yet
these people had been isolated since Neolithic times. The loss of tropical forest is serious
with estimates of 700 kms2 being seriously short of the loss that occurred from fires
during 1997/1998 in southeast Asia. Other ecosystems under threats are wetlands
(considered to be the most threatened in South Africa), coastal areas, arid and semi-arid
rangelands, the latter being particularly vulnerable ecosystems since they are event
driven.
Conservation History and Ethics:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55437/ethtext.htm
The inaugural issue of Conservation Ecology:- http://www.consecol.org/vol1/iss1/art1
Introduction to Conservation Biology and Biogeography:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/lectures/1/index.htm
Human Population Growth:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55437/popngrow.htm
Conservation Biology – The Major Issues
Essentially human pressures on the biosphere are causing “ problems” - changes, some of
which we understand and many of which we don’t and still others will remain
unperceived and/or immeasurable.
Both human expectations and pressures have been discussed with the inefficient
utilization of resources that threaten habitat with destruction and species with extinction.
Interdependence of organism is one of the critical issues if trophic cascades are to be
avoided. Since the biosphere is comprised of a web of biologically linked process all of
which are dependant on one another and link the biotic with the abiotic systems. See the
section on species interactions which include competition, commensalisms, predation,
parasitism, mutualism and herbivory. Mutualism is an obligate interaction the absence of
which causes depression and even extinction of either or more usually both partners in
the association. Common examples are lichens (algae and fungi) and symbiotic nitrogen
fixing bacteria and fungi, which live in association with the rooting systems of vascular
plants. In this example N2 is converted to NH3 undertaken by prokaryotic organisms in
association with eukaryotic organisms, the prokaryotic organisms benefit with the supply
of sugars and the eukaryotic organisms with the supply of sugars(e.g. Rhizobium in the
Fabaceae family).pollination (sunbirds and ericas or bees and fruit orchids) and seed
dispersal processes (ants and the elaisomes of certain fynbos plants). Herbivory is where
animals consume plants and was historically considered to be examples of negative
interactions but today are seen as beneficial since they even out competition between
species and reduce the potential of one or a few species becoming dominant. Herbivory
has alternatively been considered to include two systems which include Saprophages
which include detritovores which are consumers of dead plant parts and biophages which
are consumes of living organic material. Within the category biophages includes
predators, which consume plants, animals and their propagules as entire entities, parasites
with in effect are micro-predators whose combined effect can kill their host and browsers
and grazers who are consumers of vegetative parts of plants. Plants often show responses
to herbivory such as secondary compounds, spines, schlerophyllous leaves or silicates in
grasses.
Extinction is the failure of a species as a population to maintain itself through
reproduction. Extinction occurs when the last individual has died/or when the remaining
individuals are incapable of producing viable and fertile offspring. The concept of
extinction is important, but more important is to focus on the process. Extinctions are
part of ongoing biological processes and factors that contribute to extinction are
Biotic factors:
Competition
Predation
Parasitism
Disease
Isolation
Habitat change:
Geological changes
Climate
Catastrophes (e.g. dinosaurs)
Man induced activities (e.g. quaternary extinctions and current extinctions)
Glossary
Biodiversity Glossary of Terms:- http://www.wri.org/wri/biodiv/gbs-glos.html
Out of Date
Biodiversity and Rarity
OBJECTIVES
To understand the importance of biodiversity for ecological management and to identify
where there are areas of high biodiversity both globally and nationally. To discuss what
the state of the art for biodiversity research in southern Africa. Evaluate the concept of
keystone species and discuss the process of extinction. Discuss how you can measure
biodiversity and define alpha, beta and gamma diversity. Discuss why tropical areas are
so diverse Understand why there are limits to species distributions.
VIEWPOINT
Diversity and rarity are synonyms for virtually everything in ecology. In effect if
ecologist can explain and predict the patterns of diversity and rarity in communities it
means that they have understood and quantified the distribution and abundance patterns
of the community’s component species, a situation that rarely if ever occurs!
The concepts of diversity and rarity are consequently fundamental to much of
conservation decision making and consequently when biologists working on different
taxa and using different approaches have convergent results it is impressive. Rarity is
divided into three components namely
1.
Within habitat
2. Between habitat
3. Geographic
One of the major sources of complexity in the analysis of rarity is the sample or scale of
the problem (the smaller the sample the more rare the species is one case). Endemism is
a scale dependent concept. Discuss political endemism (rare in one political state but
common in another political state. The concept of endemism at the global scale is
meaningless since every species is endemic to the planet earth. One other approach to
rarity is the taxonomic one, one taxa in a genus, family or order is a useful index for
describing uniqueness. Rarity has been measured at one trophic level but ideally it
should be measured at the community level and across trophic levels. Need to develop
techniques to identify patterns and relate biological specialization with abundance. The
robustness of such techniques is tested by their ability to be predictive. The other
problem with rarity is that it’s a sampling intensity concept. The more that you sample
an area the greater the amount of realized biodiversity and the greater the chance of
report an endemic or rare species. For this reason we need to develop techniques that
provide equitable probability or reporting rarity or endemism. Using remote-sensing
techniques and various landscape indices is one avenue of research. Another approach is
to set up rule-based decision analysis or expert systems. This uses prior or known
information on which to develop rules from which the system is applied to new cases.
For example one rule might be that generalist species are more widespread and common
and therefore are not useful for defining conservation areas. From this line of research
are the iterative techniques
ONE SOLUTION TO RARITY IS TO EXAMINE IT FROM GEOGRAPHICAL
EXTENSIVENESS, POPULATION SIZE AND HABITAT SPECIFICITY
See Website, could not copy tables
READING MATERIAL
Preston, G.R. & Siegfried, W.R. 1995. The protection of biological diversity in South
Africa: profiles and perceptions of professional practitioners in nature conservation
agencies and natural history museums. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 25:
49-56.
Primack, R.B. (1993) What is biological diversity? In Essentials of Conservation
Biology. Sinauer Associates Inc. Sunderland. pp 2-16.
Primack, R.B. (1993) Where is biological diversity found? In Essentials of Conservation
Biology. Sinauer Associates Inc. Sunderland. pp 17-26.
Cowling, R.M. & Hilton-Taylor (1994) Patterns of plant diversity and endemism in
southern Africa: an overview. In Botanical Diversity in Southern Africa (ed Huntley,
B.J.) Strelitzia 1: 31-52.
The Diversity of Life:- http://www.wri.org/wri/biodiv/b01-gbs.html
Biological Diversity: What it is and Why it is Important:http://www.wri.org/wri/biodiv/biodiv.html
How Many Species Are There? http://www.wri.org/wri/biodiv/b02-gbs.html
Relative number of described species by major taxa:- http://www.wri.org/wri/biodiv/f01key.html
Biodiversity-Rich Ecoregions in Africa Need Protection:http://grid2.cr.usgs.gov/publications/biodiversity/biodiversity.html
Global Biodiversity Hotspots:- http://www.conservation.org/web/fieldact/hotspots/
Global Biodiversity: Patterns and Processes:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/lectures/5-6-7/biodiver.htm
Biodiversity Patterns – Rarity:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55437/lectures/diveraddeendum.htm
Biosphere Reserves:http://www.conservation.org/science/cptc/capbuild/unesco/res_tbl.htm
Biodiversity Information Network:- http://www.bdt.org.br/
Biodiversity Series: A Series of Papers from the Biodiversity Unit, DEST:http://www.erin.gov.au/life/general_info/biodivser.html
The Biodiversity and Biological Collections:- http://muse.bio.cornell.edu/
General Biodiversity Resources:-http://muse.bio.cornell.edu/cgibin/hl?general&&museum&&earth
National Biodiversity Profiles:- http://www.wcmc.org.uk/nbp/
Convention on Biological Diversity Rio "Earth Summit" (1992):http://www.unep.ch/bio/conv-e.html
WWF recently took the first ever photos of Vietnamese Javan rhinos in the wild:http://www.worldwildlife.org/rhinos/index.htm
Arid Lands: Conserving Biodiversity:http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/aln37/toc37.html
REPORT BACK
Using the National Biodiversity Profiles:- Each student must select a country and discuss
its National Biodiversity
Fitness & Viability
OBJECTIVES
To understand how the concept of fitness defined as the contribution of an individuals
genotype to the next generation is important to conservation a population of individuals
within a defined area. To understand that viability is important in the context of both
long term maintenance of populations, and the ability to adapt to changing environmental
conditions. To know the importance of metapopulations (defined as a network of semiisolated populations with some level of regular or intermittent migration and gene flow
among them, in which individual populations may go extinct, but can be recolonized
from other populations) in terms of overall conservation of biodiversity. To be able to
define and review the concept of minimum viable population (the smallest isolated
population that has a specified chance of remaining extant for a specified period of time
in the face of foreseeable, demographic, genetic and environmental stochasticies).
VIEWPOINT
The process of evolution forms the basis of both the fitness of a species or population and
its viability in an environment that is continually changing.
Notes on evolutionary theory can be found here:- http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faqintro-to-biology.html
The fundamental question here is how is fitness maintained? One proposition is that
populations have demographic and genetic thresholds below which non-adaptive, random
forces prevail over adaptive, deterministic forces. For example gentic drift can
overwhelm natural selection in small populations. Similarly small populations can
suddenly succumb to the effects of demographic stochasticity, even when all the
individuals are quite robust. Thus small populations are at a high risk of extinction. This
process s possible more intensive in animals but many fynbos species are naturally rare.
A perennial problem that occurs is the genetic relatedness of potential mates. That
evolution is a continue phenomena can no more aptly be illustrated than by the concept of
ring speciation. In Northern Europe gull populations can breed with adjacent
populations, but not with populations that occur further away. See the following
examples:There are several ring species, but the most famous example is the herring gull:http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~lindsay/creation/ring_species.html
Ring species (Rassenkreis, a group of races) are individual species which have a number
of subspecies or races occurring in a circular or ring-shaped pattern:http://www.tulane.edu/~guill/rassenkreis_module.html
What happens when populations are wiped out through landscape changes and processes
of fragmentation? Do current population have the ability to interbreed with their closest
population assuming they can get there, which is not always the case! Fitness may
depend strongly on genetic interchange, but again this is a species related concept.
A basic understanding of genetics is vital to the long term understanding and
management, unfortunately most wild life managers can not choose the species that exist
in their sanctuary, reserve or park. Thus the choice of protection restoration becomes a
difficult yet vital issue. Consequently research needs to yield flexible plans. Generally
wildlife management is still depends mainly on a few large and or conspicuous indicators
species such elephants in bushveld and proteas in fynbos. Such decisions have their pros
and cons. Ultimately management cannot be separated from the ruling paradigms e.g.
fynbos management and health is depended and indicated by the presence of a protea
overstorey.
Minimum viable populations are an important concept that implies minimum thresholds
for populations of organism beyond which the population become inviable. Early work
has examined the expected lifetime, birth and death rates. More recently the focus has
been on genetic aspects which emphasis the size, structure and viability of the population.
Population vulnerability analyses (PVA) have been used to establish a minimum viable
population that will reduce the risk of extinction to an acceptable level. It should be
realized that these are estimates and are relatively difficult to quantify. Some extinctions
are deterministic i.e. they result from some inexorable change (deforestation and
glaciation) others are stochastic and result from “normal or “random” changes or simple
environmental perturbations (usually these changes reduce population size rather than
cause extinctions.
Population viability studies are divided into three fields, namely the Population
phenotype, the environment and the population structure and fitness and these three
factors all interact with each other. Specific components within each field are
summarized below
Could not copy table.
READING MATERIAL
Meffe, G.K. & Carroll, 1997. Genetics: Conservation of Diversity within Species. In:
Principles of Conservation Biology, Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.
Species Concepts and Species in Conservation:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/concepts.htm
Speciation Patterns:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/lectures/910/speciatn.htm
Classical Species Radiations:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55437/lectures/9-10/speciatn.htm
Conservation Genetics:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55437/lectures/genetic.htm
Population Demography, Modeling and Viability Analysis:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/demotxt.htm
Conservation Biology Case Studies:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/casespec.htm
Case Studies in Endangered Species:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/lectures/wolf.htm
The Florida Panther:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55437/lectures/panther.htm
Population Viability Analysis:- http://www.cnr.colostate.edu/~gwhite/pva/index.htm
Linking GIS with Models of Ecological Risk Assessment for Endangered Species:http://www.sbg.ac.at/geo/idrisi/GIS_Environmental_Modeling/sf_papers/akcakaya_resit/
akcakaya.html
Self assessment: Describe the concept of Minimum Viable Population and why it is
important for Conservation Biology.
Community Processes
OBJECTIVES
To define what a community is from an ecological perspective and understand how
species have evolved into mutually co-dependant assemblages. Recognize that some
systems such as animal pollination of flowering plants are more tightly co-evolved that
other systems such as seed dispersal by vertebrate animals. Discuss how species specific
interactions such as a parasitism can be usefully exploited for the control of invasive alien
plants. Understand how a species interacts with both its environment and with other
species and such interactions influences its ability to invade a new ecosystem and how
such information can be organized into decision-support software (e.g. an expert system).
VIEWPOINT
Conservation is often focused on the single species and many action groups in
conservation circles rally around a particular group of species under threat (e.g. the Rhino
and Elephant Foundation, the International Crane Foundation). Even relatively small and
inconspicuous animals can also be targeted for considerable conservation efforts the most
notable South African example being the Brenton Blue butterfly, Orachrysops niobe of
the Knysna area. Legislation often deals with only a single species such as The
Endangered Species Act of America. Even International Agreements often put emphasis
on identify species at risk such as CITES a United Nations Environment Programme
UNEP. Genetic conservation and preservation in Zoological Gardens, Aquariums and
Arboretums also focus on the species as the unit of conservation. It should be recognized
that species must ultimately survive within a functioning environment that consists of
communities and ecosystems and that they them selves will interact with other
individuals of the same species, other species and the abiotic environment. Consequently
conservation biology also needs to examine species interactions and the ecosytem context
in which they occur. We will see later on that this does not devalue the use of Single
Species in either legislation or in promoting public awareness and support for
conservation initiatives. The reality is that most people identify better with the loss of a
species rather than the loss of a population or erosion of genetic diversity. The concept
of species is not as clear cut as ecologists would like you to believe. Ask a conservation
biologist, a politician, a social scientist, an economist or molecular biologist what the
value of a species to society is and you will get different responses. The value of species
will reflect its relationship to that particular part of society. For example a Bushbuck
population to a farmer who uses their farm for recreational hunting it may represent the
potential to attract paying guests to the farm, to the local communities it will provide food
for the stomach, to a politician it could be used to solicit support in the forthcoming
election. In each case not only will the financial value of the population will be different,
but the loss of the resource from the local environment will be felt in different ways. For
the local community it could mean the loss of a source of food, for a developer it could
mean that the forest has less ecological and value and it might be easier to get permission
to develop the land for residential purposes and then adding insult to injury will market
the development with a name that eludes to the past occurrence of the animal (Bushbuck
Villas?).
If we are to examine the ecological aspects of the species concept you can still come up
with different types and values of species. Meffe & Carroll 1997 have identified species
belonging to the following categories:Keystone Species: a species who's impact on its community or ecosystem is significant,
much more significant than its numbers or biomass would suggest. The loss of a
keystone species would significant change the overall species composition and the
structure of the community.
Indicator Species: a species that could be used to gauge the condition of a particular
habitat, community or ecosystem. Often used to describe the characteristic of habitat,
community or ecosystem e.g. Mopaneveld.
Umbrella Species: a species that requires large blocks of natural vegetation and if it were
to become locally extinct you would question the habitat is ecologically viable. Many
top carnivores or birds of prey could be seen as umbrella species.
Flagship Species: a species that engenders in people and societies strong and positive
attachment and risk of it loss protective reaction (why do you think that World Widelife
Fund uses the Panda as its logo, despite the fact that few people will ever see one in its
natural environment?)
Vulnerable Species: a species that has the real risk of becoming extinct either through
living in restrictive habitat, surviving as a small population (genuinely and naturally rare)
or that its population has become impacted upon through direct or indirect human
activities (hunting pressure and development are respective examples)
Economically Important Species: a species that has a significant economic value to
society. The value of the species can be both positive e.g. seals and walruses for Inuit
communities or negative e.g. outbreaks of locust or quela plagues in Africa.
In each of the above cases the concept of the species contains a hidden diversity in the
form of local adaptation and genetic information and puts the species in the context of a
larger problem of habitat or ecosystem management. A species-driven approach to
conservation can only address part of the biodiversity crisis that faces the earth and
therefore a more approach needs to be reviewed.
Although in the first section of this course you learnt that Biodiversity has a definition
that extends from the genetic to the ecosystem scale, the ultimate loss of biodiversity,
nevertheless, has to be ameliorated by focusing at the community and ecosystem scale.
Unfortunately we often know consideration details on biological aspects of individual
species, but our knowledge of species interactions within communities and coexistence of
communities within ecosystems is less well developed.
READING MATERIAL
Roughgarden, J. & Diamond, J. 1986 Overview: The role of species interactions in
Community Ecology. In: Community Ecology (eds Diamond, J & Case, T.J.). Harper
and Row Publishers.
Wheelwright, N.T. & Orians, G.H. 1982. Seed dispersal by animals: contrasts with
pollen dispersal, problems of terminology and constraints on coevolution. The American
Naturalist 119: 402-413.
Herrera, C.M. 1985. Determinants of plant-animal coevolution: the case of mutualistic
dispersal of seeds by vertebrates. Oikos 44: 132-141.
Diamond, J. & Case, T.J. 1986 Overview: Introductions, Extinctions, Exterminations and
Invasions. In: Community Ecology (eds Diamond, J & Case, T.J.). Harper and Row
Publishers.
Nesar, S. & Kluge, R.L. 1986 The importance of seed-attacking agents in the biological
control of invasive alien plants. In: the ecology and management of biological invasions
in southern Africa (eds Macdonald, Kruger & Ferrar). The University of Oxford Press,
Cape Town.
Tucker, K.C. 1994 An expert system for screening potentially invasive alien plants in
South Africa. MSc thesis Conservation Biology, FitzPatrick Institute of African
Ornithology.
Strengthening The Use Of Science In Achieving The Goals Of The Endangered Species
Act: An Assessment By The Ecological Society Of America:http://esa.sdsc.edu/esarpt.htm
Questions to consider:
(1) Discuss the evolutionary and ecological constraints, which limit the opportunities for
the establishment of mutualistic dispersal of angiosperms seeds by vertebrates.
(2) Terrestrial vascular plants are considered to be "the group of alien species posing the
greatest threat to indigenous biodiversity" ( Preston & Siegfried 1995, S. Afr. J. Wildl.
Res. 25: 49-56). Discuss how this problem can be ameliorated through the introduction
of seed-eating control agents and also discuss how an Expert System could be developed
to screen plants species for their invasiveness in Mediterranean Type Ecosystems
(MTEs).
(3) "The impact of an introduced species on the recipient community varies enormously
from case to case. Much of this variation can be explained by the community's 'naivete',
that is, the extent of its prior experience with functionally similar species". Discuss this
statement giving clear examples involving predation, herbivory, parasitism and disease.
Also discuss why island ecosystems are more susceptible to such perturbations.
Sensitive Habitats
OBJECTIVES
To debate the use of the term "sensitive habitats". To global analyze the world and its
ecosystems and identified what type of ecosystems are more sensitive. To understand
how human society has profoundly affected particularly habitats. To identify which
habitats are most likely to be threatened and/or become future sensitive sites.
VIEWPOINT
The real problem is deciding what constitutes a SENSITIVE HABITAT. Given the array
of threats the answers can remain somewhat arbitrary, since we do not (and will never
have) full information nor agreement on conservation objectives. Worldwide there are a
great variety of habitats and three of the most important terrestrial habitats include:-
Tropical Rain Forests
Mediterranean Shrublands
Wetlands which include marine dominated Estuaries, Marshes and Mangroves and
Freshwater-dominated systems (e.g. Tundra,
In this section we start our examination of the boundaries between Ecology and Social
Sciences, since most sensitive habitats are the products of human activities which
threaten the sustainability of them. Although a hotly debated subject, most ecologist will
agree that there are too many people on the planet and that human numbers are expanding
too fast. There is not a major South African city that is not battling with the delivery of
environmental services due to the influx of inhabitants. Even rural areas of South Africa
such as Transkei show the scars of excessive population numbers and large parts of the
Karoo have been degraded through overstocking with livestock. Many fishing industries
around the world have collapsed through excessive exploitation.
One of the problems that face the world are the effects of concentrating people into
favourable areas, which are usually located along the coast and along estuaries, where
there is adequate water and the soils are richest through alluvial deposits. In terms of
productivity estuaries and salt marshes can exceed tropical rainforests. Based on these
demographic trends we find that coastal environments, limestone areas, rivers and high
rainfall areas have tended to be the most threatened. It is no consequence that South
Africa's most threatened habitat, Westcoast Renosterveld, it is due to fact that this habitat
occurs on the richest soils (shales), and was found to be ideal for the cultivation of wheat.
Although such generalizations are useful, it is not always the case as some ecosystems
are more fragile than others. As a consequence we find that on a biome basis the
Succulent Karoo occurring in the winter-rainfall regions of South Africa is the most
threatened of the biomes, despite the area being comparatively lowly populated. Arid
ecosystems are often the most fragile due to the low overall productivity. The gravel
plains of Namibia are rich in a diverse range of lichens, which are easily destroy by the
single tracks of a four-wheel drive vehicle and can take more than a decade to recover.
Similarly much of the Artic and Antarctic floras are easily damaged and slow to recover.
Societies desire to see and experience more and more exotic locations for holidays is
putting more and more unique and historically isolated habitats into direct threat with
human activities. Tours to the coastal waters of Antartica, the tropical rainforests of the
Amazon basin or the immense fossil diversity of the Gobi desert in Mongalia are now
noy unusual, but from a biodiversity perspective are threatening. As a consequence of
these we will find that number and threats to sensitive habitats can only increase.
There is a growing appreciation of the disastrous social and environmental results of the
many huge development projects. A case in point is the Aswan Dam which are had the
intended advantages of allowing more of Egypt to become developed, to provide half of
Egypts electricity, to allow greater amounts of land to become arable through irrigation
and to allow Egypt to be more self-sufficient reduce with respect to food production. The
ecological costs are the widespread increase in Bilharzia, since the habitat is more
favourable for the intermediate snail host species, a delta at the mouth of the Nile that is
increasing in size by 20 - 30 metres each year and is causing land further up the river to
become less fertile, and reduction in the fish populations of the Mediterranean sea
(estuaries are particularly important nursery areas for marine fishes). Consequently
rather than improving social conditions of Egypt it could well impact negatively on the
entire Mediterranean basin. Decline in Mediterranean fish stocks together with a high
demands for fish has resulted in Spain have one of the largest fishing industries (possibly
even the largest) which operates from the coasts off other countries far from Spain, the
most notable being South Africa and Canada.
Excessive extraction of water for agriculture to feed increasing population have caused
immense ecological disasters, one of the best know being the Aral Sea. The Aral sea
was once the fifth largest inland body of water but has now shrunk to half its original
surface area; its water level have dropped sixteen meters and the volume has been
reduced by 75%. Fish species diversity has been reduced from 20 species to only two.
In the 1960’s, more than 160 tons of fish were caught each day and processed. The
canning factory at Muynak were fish were processed now lies 70 km inland from the
shoreline. The receding sea has exposed large areas of toxic salts and dust. It is
estimated that over 75 million tons of these have spread across Central Asia and has
caused immense suffering for more than a million inhabitants of this region (both
economic with collapse of the the fishery industry and health due to the toxic salts and
dust).
The Aral Sea Summary:- http://drylands.nasm.edu:1995/aral.html
The Aral Sea Area Desertification Change-Detection Study:http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/facilities/carre/carre_study.html
Aral Sea: a health disaster revealed:http://www.oneworld.org/textver/patp/people_aralsea.html
A photographic gallery of this diasaster can be found at the following site:http://www.msf.org/aralsea/gallery.htm
Environmental disasters such as these necessitates an integrated approach to planning
agricultural development. The excessive use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides
partly contributed the suffering of the people living around the Aral sea, and we need to
minimize their use. We also need to plan for open space within our Metropolitan areas.
For many years Durban has had a Metropolitan Open Space System which includes the
Ingweni Trail. Cape Town has within its centre the Cape Peninsula Mountain Chain that
has recently been proclaimed a National Park.
The Cape Peninsula National Park:- http://www.capepeninsula.co.za/
We know that the lowlands of the Cape vegetation are the most threatened yet we
continue to build and develop the Cape Flats. Very little of the natural vegetation of the
Cape Flats exists, and what does exist are small parcels of land such as that occurring in
the Middle of race courses (Kenilworth and Milnerton), on this campus (Cape Flats
Nature Reserve), areas under Eskom Power lines. There are very few areas of the Cape
Flats that have had an intended conservation purpose (Edith Stevens Nature Reserve),
although some were an intended open space e.g. Rondebosch Common. The Cape Flats
being of relatively recent geological origin are characterized by deep calcereous sands.
Where the sands are older, the soil is more acid, and where they are of more recent
marine origin they tend to be alkaline. Although generally they are well drained there are
areas that under underlain by laterites (iron oxides known colloquially as koffieklip) and
are poorly drained. These subtle edaphic factors have contributed to a unique and diverse
flora (relatively high alpha and beta diversity) that is markedly different to the
"relatively" well conserved flora of Table Mountain. As a consequence of this we can
generally define areas such as the Cape Flats as "sensitive areas". This is made more so,
when one appreciates that most of the winter rainfall that occurs in the Cape Flats collects
in underground aquifers. Water extraction from aquifers does occur on the West Coast
north of Cape Town, and their viability for supplementing the water supplies for Cape
Town have been investigated. The aquifers that underlay the Cape Flat could not be
used, due to contamination (fertilizers etc), but the hydrology has been seriously changed.
Large scale, industrial and residential developments together with communications
networks (roads, railway lines etc) have change the pattern of soil permeability. Instead
of water filtering directly into the ground it runs off hard surfaces (e.g. roofs and roads)
and is collected via storm water channels. As a consequence of increased runoff a
canalized river system has largely replaced a serious of wetlands (in the lowest and least
well drained areas) connected by relatively poorly defined but mobile river systems on
the Cape Flats. Contrary to engineering predictions this has not resulted in reduction in
the risk of floods. There is now a project that is underway that examines how to restore
some of the functional aspects of this wetland system (e.g. the Lotus River Project) and to
determine which parts of the system can be de-canalized. A series of detention and
retention ponds are being engineered into the management of this system. Research into
and understanding of the dynamics of this system could help in decision-making,
however in the case of the Lotus River an original plan to develop the small holdings that
characterize part of the catchment area into low cost housing was implemented due to
social issues. In this case the small holdings are important sources of labour and supply a
significant contribution of fresh produce to Cape Town markets, and the loss of these
could contribute to increased cost of fresh produce and unemployment. This is fortunate
since it will maintain reasonable areas for water permeability that rather to manage more
runoff which directly enters the sea via a canalized river system.
There are large scale plans to re-flood large parts of the Florida swamp ecosystem. This
original wetland system was drained for development of agriculture, now with the
process of restitution land management reverts to the indigenous people who are keen to
re-establish their former existence and the ecosystem on which it is based.
It should be recognized that traditional practices and values are often rich in conservation
policy, little of which is documented and generally only recently been appreciated for its
value. For example Polyynesian and Micronesian communities are dependant from a
narrow reef and a lagoon fringe. Such an area could easily be over-exploited. These
islands had a culture that incorporate aspects of resource management which includes
size restiction, closed seasons, closed areas and taboos on exploiting spawning
aggregations. Marine management has most of these types of regulation in place, and
they are generally based empirical data rather than dynamic modeling (although a
conference held in Cape Town last year discussed how you could determine the impact of
harvesting and predicting outcomes of different harvesting strategies). The breaking
downing of original cultures and the spread of westernized life-style has generally eroded
traditional systems of resource regulation and contributed to these system to be less
sustainable rather than more sustainable.
We need to document traditional practices of resource management and develop them
into modern regulatory frameworks. One of the problems is that even rural communities
have learnt to realize the importance, if not the true financial value of their traditional
knowledge. Knowledge of traditional use of plants for medicinal purposes has big
economic implications if they lead to the development of a wonder drug by a large
multinational pharmaceutical company. How much financial recognition should be given
to the local community under these circumstances? How can we prevent a new form of
exploitation taking place?
While there are many rare and sensitive habitats, the value of which is critical to the
conservation of biodiversity, but the greed and seeking of short-term monetary gains of
modern society are placing ever more habitats into the the categories of sensitive and
threatened. Poorly implemented legislation and infrastructure further contributes to the
problem, the most notable example are the contamination of the Siberian Tundra through
poorly managed petroleum extraction. Many of the world's worst cases of habitat
damage have come about through restrictive reporting (censorship) and we cannot underestimate the principles of a free press and corporate and government accountability.
READING MATERIAL
Rather than supplying a reading list students will search the library for articles that
examine a case study of a sensitive environment. In class we will make a list of sensitive
environments and these will be researched by individual students under the following
headings:
Why do you consider it to be sensitive?
What are the pressures/threats to these areas?
What management options can be used to maintain the ecological integrity of the system
or plans to restore them?
GENERAL
Habitats and Biomes:- http://library.advanced.org/11922/habitats/habitats.htm
RAINFORESTS
The Rainforest Data Base:http://www.gn.apc.org/LivingEarth/RainforestDB/Ecology/1.1/
The Rainforest Action Network:- http://www.ran.org/ran/intro.html
World Rainforest Reports:- http://www.ran.org/ran/intro.html
World Rainforest Movement:- http://www.wrm.org.uy/english/aboutwrm.htm
What are Tropical rainforests? http://www.si.edu/sites/educate/troprain/whatare.htm
WETLANDS
Classification of Wetlands and Deep Water Habitats of the United States:http://www.nwi.fws.gov/classman.html
Wetland Ecosystems:- http://www.csr.utexas.edu/trcp/wetland.html
Wetlands, Bogs, ponds, marshes, and meadows:http://splash.metrokc.gov/wlr/pi/wetlands.htm
The wonders of wetlands:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/wildlifearticles/keepingtrack/1998/wetlands.html
MARINE
Coral Reefs and Mangroves:http://www.wcmc.org.uk/marine/data/coral_mangrove/index.html
DESERTS
Desertification Information Network:- http://www.wcmc.org.uk/dynamic/desert/
Arid Lands News Letter:- http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/ALNHome.html
Arid Lands - Desertification in Africa and Mediterranean:http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/aln40/aln40toc.html
Desertification - a threat to the Sahel:- http://www.edenfoundation.org/project/desertif.html
United Nations Convention to combat desertification:- http://www.unccd.ch/left.htm
Select a sensitive habitat and discuss why you think that it constitutes such a status. Do
an Internet search to find information about the habitat of your choice. Please post you
assignment on the Chat Room by 18 August. Marks will be given to originality of the
habitat selected.
Management
OBJECTIVES
To understand the basic of Disturbance Ecology. Review the trend of total protection to
ecosystem management through to adaptive management. To understand that to optimize
the management of natural resources requires the management of people. Working with
people rather than against people is the only way to achieve such an objective. Discuss
how legislation can and cannot help conservation biology. Describe the objectives and
approaches to environmental impact assessment (EIA). Discuss how organisms can be
used as indicators of environmental quality.
VIEWPOINT
Disturbance Ecology Lecture
Prof. Sue J. Milton, Nature Conservation Department, University of Stellenbosch. email:
[email protected]
DEFINITION:- A disturbance is any event that
Removes organisms, disrupts ecosystem processes;
Changes resources, substrate availability or conditions in the physical environment;
Opens a gap for colonization, changing population or community structure
Some examples of disturbance
Physical disturbance include fire, hurricanes, floods, droughts and mud -slides. These
change resources (light, oxygen and nutrient availability), conditions and ecosystem
processes (decomposition rates, mineralization, erosion, productivity) on a large spatial
and temporal scale.
Biotic disturbances include the effects of herbivorous mammals, diseases, nests of social
insects, burrows and diggings of various animals. These change availability of resources
(light and nutrients), conditions (temperature, wind speed) and interactions (competition)
on a small and patchy spatial or temporal scale.
Anthropogenic disturbances including ploughing, vegetation clearing, draining of
marshes, chemical pollution, deforestation, changes in atmospheric gases, alien species
introductions frequently alter the frequency, extent and severity of natural disturbances.
Some of these effects are at a population scale, causing extinctions of plant or animal
species, some change community composition, but others such as an elevation of carbon
dioxide levels, have global impacts that lead to climatic changes that affect all species
and the functioning of all ecosystems.
The Disturbance Regime is the spatial, temporal and qualitative nature of a disturbance.
A natural disturbance regime (such as fynbos fire cycle) can be described in terms of
the:Spatial extent (in hectares or square kilometers or percentage of a landscape),
Spatial distribution (whether a homogenous block burn or a patch burn)
Temporal characteristics including:the frequency of its occurrence (e.g. once in 20 years)
the predictability in frequency (regularly every 20 years, or intervals of 5 to 50 years)
its duration (fire may last 2-5 days)
the seasonality of its occurrence (usually at the end of summer when the veld is dry)
Severity or intensity
Temperature (very hot rapid fire or cool slow fire: paradoxically a cooler but slow fire
can do more damage since the temperatures are for longer periods and impact deeper into
the soil)
Depth (how deeply a disturbance penetrates soil or water)
Proportion of a population affected (all killed, some survive in refuges, few killed)
Toxicity (how many of the original species survive).
Patch Dynamics: This concept deals with the way in which disturbed patches change
over time (patch succession) as well as with the way that disturbed patches interact with
one another and with the surrounding undisturbed areas. Organisms that colonize patches
generally come from the surrounding communities or are brought in by water, wind or by
animal vectors. The rate at which a patch recovers after disturbance, depends partly on
the nature of the disturbance, and partly on the source and relative abundance of
colonizers. The presence of patches of various sizes, ages and qualities in a landscape
increases habitat diversity from the perspective of animals and people.
Hypotheses about disturbance effects: A hypothesis is an unproven theory, or a
provisional explanation for an observation. In other words it is a guess based on the best
information available. The value of having a hypothesis is that it gives one the basis for
devising ways of scientifically testing its validity, by trying to disprove it.
The intermediate hypothesis states that species richness peaks at some intermediate
quantity, frequency or intensity of disturbance. This is based on the observation that
species richness in a landscape is undisturbed, or completely disturbed (ploughed from
horizon to horizon). It has been observed that fynbos burned at intervals of about 20
years is more species rich than fynbos burned at intervals of 5 or 40 years. This
implication is that completely protected vegetation is not always the most species rich or
has the highest species diversity index.
Image not copied.
The upper figure illustrates changes in species richness and diversity over time after a
disturbance during successional development of vegetation on a patch. Competition
eventually starts to exclude some species and diversity decreases with time after a
disturbance.
The lower figure illustrates the effects of disturbance at various frequencies. When a
patch is disturbed very frequently few species can colonize it. When it is rarely
disturbed, a few competitive species exclude all others. The most diverse patches are
disturbed at intermediate frequencies.
This pattern within a patch can be explained by colonization rates and competition during
succession. Following a disturbance, species richness in a gap increases as new species
arrive to colonize the gap. Two processes reduce species richness, explaining the humpshaped curve:Another disturbance that removes all the plants again, favouring the rapid colonizers.
Frequently disturbed sites are thus species poor.
Competition, in a stable environment (with no disturbances), enables a strong
competitive exclusion principle). In situations where occasional natural disturbances has
led to the evolution of a disturbance specialist species, complete protection will cause a
reduction in species richness, because competitive climax species will exclude others.
Image not copied
This figure illustrates how competitive exclusion reduces species richness in a stable
environment but can facilitate co-existence in a somewhat disturbed environment. The
triangles indicate a disturbance that reduces populations of the more competitive species.
An explanation for peak diversity at intermediate disturbance levels at the landscape level
is that a plant community can contain many different gaps disturbed at different
frequencies and in different ways. When disturbance in the landscape is patchy then gaps
will be at different stages of colonization. Competitive plants cannot colonize as rapidly
as pioneers, so competitive exclusion never occurs.
The rate at which species colonize a disturbed patch will depend on the mobility of the
species (or their seeds), on their abundance in the surrounding landscape, and on the
distance the colonising propagules have to cross to reach all parts of the disturbed sites
and the attractiveness of the disturbed habitats for the seed disperser (e.g. bird perches,
shelter for rodents etc). The rate at which plant species become established in a new site
will depend on the conditions resources and mutualists (e.g. rhizobial bacteria,
mycorrhiza) in the patch. The disturbed patch is very homogenous, unattractive to
animals and unsuitable for seedling establishment, the rate of species additions to the
plant community will be very slow. It may take decades for specie richness on such a
patch to recover from the disturbance.
Synergism
Synergisms are positive feedbacks. Two disturbances that act synergistically have
greater effect than either disturbance acting alone. There are many examples of
disturbances that reinforce the effect of one another. Here are three examples
Fire:- this removes grass, shrub leaves, but the plants can recover rapidly unless they are
also grazed. Re-growing shoots are protein rich and attract herbivorous insects and
mammals, so that small burned patches are often grazed immediately after a burn,
depleting plant carbohydrate reserves and retarding plant recovery. The synergistic
effects of fire followed immediately by grazing can kill some plants or reducing their
fecundity.
Harvesting:- the removal of tree bark or branches by harvesting can facilitate the
susceptibility of the plant to fungal or viral infection that might later kill it and this create
a gap in the forest that will make the surrounding trees susceptible to sunburn and wind
throw.
Overgrazing:- of a rangeland might facilitate the invasion of an alien grass. With the
introduction of this alien grass fires might become more frequent than the indigenous
vegetation was adapted to and ultimately the entire fire regime will change as will the
population structure of the rangeland.
Disturbance and Life History
The following attributes in life histories enable plants (and some animals) to survive in or
colonise areas that are frequently disturbed:short life cycle (from seed to flower)
allocation of most resources to reproduction
long-lived soil-stored seed banks
long-distance dispersal mechanisms
polymorphic seeds so that some are dispersed in time and some in space
disturbance-cued germination
adult plasticity, meaning that a plant can be big or small, slow or fast growing depending
on the available resources in a patch
vegetative propagation (this adaptation is selected under the pressure of mammalian
herbivores, shifting dune systems or floods.
Disturbance and ecosystem function
When plants are killed, the nutrients are bound up in their leaves, stems and roots and
consumed by detritivores (such as termites, mites or earthworms) and eventually are
returned to the soil in the form of minerals (phosphate, potassium, calcium and nitrogen)
in their faces. It is at this time of nutrient release that disturbed ecosystems are
particularly vulnerable to change. Depending on the amount of rain, degree of a slope,
soil acidity, number of surviving plants and germinating seedlings, the mineralized
nutrient may either be leached and drained from the soil, or they will be taken up by
surviving plants and new seedlings.
The number of plants surviving will depend on the intensity of the disturbance, and the
number of seedlings will depend on the soil seed bank and the immigration of seeds from
outside the site. The more rapidly vegetation establishes again, the less the nutrient loss.
The composition of the recovering vegetation will depend on surviving plants, seed set
by surviving plants and seed in the soil, as well as on the immigrating seed. Clearly the
composition of the recovering vegetation is sensitive to management inputs at this time
when there is little or no competition to influence seedling establishment.
An understanding of the effects on nutrient release, re-organization into microbes,
exploitation by pioneer plant and eventual incorporation into perennial plants is critical
for ecosystem management. For example, it has been shown that fewer nutrients are lost
from small patches of clear-felled forest than large patches. This is because the roots of
neighbouring plants rapidly use up the mineralized nutrient released in a small disturbed
patch. However, when a large block of trees is clear-felled or burned, there are few
surviving plants to take up the released nutrients. Moreover, the root free soil may
remain wetter so that nutrients leach out in solution into the rivers. The most soluble
salts are sodium, potassium and magnesium, so these are lost first. In arid environments
these move to the soil surface as water evaporates and are deposited as salt crust, making
conditions unsuitable for seedling germination.
Disturbance and Population dynamics
Disturbances influence populations by reducing the present population of the rate of
losses or additions to the population.
Population decreases: Individuals can be killed by such disturbances as fire, ploughing,
disease, cutting, resource changes, ploughing. If not directly killed by the disturbance,
their life expectancy might be shortened if their sensitivity to stresses, such as drought
and herbivory is increased. Fecundity of plants can be reduced by such persistent
disturbances as grazing, flooding, drought or soil contamination with salt or poison. This
means that they produce fewer seeds per year which eventually reduces their population
size. Seed and seedling survival might be also be reduced by herbivory and flower
picking.
Population increases
Recruitment in many plant species is limited either by inter-specific or intra-specific
competition that reduces the availability of resources below the threshold needed for
seedling survival. Dormant seeds prevent losses through seedling mortality by
germinating only when some cue indicates that a disturbance has killed adult plants and
released resources that seedling can use. Dormancy-breaking cues include exposure to
white or red light, to heat, to fluctuating temperatures, or to certain chemicals released by
dung or burning vegetation.
In many long-lived plant species, as well in weeds that maintain dormant seedbanks,
disturbance of established vegetation by fire, grazing or felling, is followed by a large
recruitment event. Many fynbos and forest species show this behaviour and the size class
analysis might indicate discrete cohorts that recruited after different disturbances.
Disturbances and cascades
A disturbance that kills or reduces a species population may result in cascading species
losses in other plants or animal species. A classic example is the large-scale felling of
oak trees in England during 1800’s (Napoleonic wars) that facilitated the rapid increase
of alien rabbit populations. Rabbit grazing maintained the vegetation an open condition
by browsing oak seedlings. Myxomatosis introduced in 1965, decimated the rabbits and
their population remained low for about 15 years, so that oak seedlings colonized the
grasslands with the subsequent loss of many meadow flowers. Another example is the
introduction of rindepest to the Serengeti in Kenya in 1890. This killed many African
herbivores including wildebeest and giraffe, and drove people and their cattle out of
affected areas. Ungrazed grasslands were invaded by thickets from 1920-1940.
Inoculations of cattle against rindepest in the 1950s enabled people to move back into the
areas, compressing the elephant populations. Crowded elephants destroyed the thickets
and the woodlands returned the are to grassland, but now, following escalation of
elephant poaching in the park, bush encroachment is again occurring. Such oscillations
between grassland and bush has had many unrecorded impacts on birds, insects and small
mammals as well as on human history.
We have seen that disturbances vary greatly in their nature and effects, and can influence
individuals, populations, communities and ecosystem function. Many human activities
disturb natural communities, with the planning of all developments should include an
assesssment of environemtal impacts and the potential of the activity cause species losses
or to reduce ecosystem services to humanity
© Sue J. Milton 1997
READING MATERIAL
The twelve-point plan for water conservation brochure
The Lotus River Project. Integrated Catchment Management. Abbott Grobicki
Consulting, Cape Town.
Karr, J. R. 1997. Measuring Biological Integrity. In: Principles of Conservation
Biology; Meffe, G.K., Carroll, C.R. & contributors (eds), Sinauer Associates,
Sunderland, Massachusetts, pp 483-485.
CSIR Environmental Services (1993). Environmental Impact Assessment, Eastern
Shores of Lake St Lucia (Kingsa/Trojan Lease Area) Summary Report.
ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT
What is Ecosystem Management? http://www.snre.umich.edu/ecomgt/concept.html
Understanding Ecosystem Management:http://www.blm.gov/education/ecosystem/intro.html
Ecosystem Management Tools and Techniques:- http://www.cnie.org/nle/biodv-5.html#2
Landscape and Ecosystem Management-Ecological Processes and Human Impacts
(abstracts of projects):- http://www.pwrc.nbs.gov/lmlnd3.htm
Ecosystem Management in the National Park Service:http://everglades.fiu.edu/library/npsecomgmt.html
Ecosystem Management in Canada's National Parks:http://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/natress/ENV_CON/ECO_MAN/ECO_MANE.HTM
How is ecological management of forests done on the ground?
http://forest.gov.yk.ca/ecomgmt.html?
Community-Based Approaches to Ecosystem Management - A definition:http://www.amfor.org/programs/fpccba.html
WATER MANAGEMENT
The Blue Revolution, payback time for South Africa's water:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/wildlifearticles/keepingtrack/1998/revolution.html
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Arid Lands - Conflict Resolution and Transboundary Water Resources:http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/aln44/aln44toc.html
Read about Adaptive Management. A good paper to start with is:
http://www.consecol.org/Journal/vol1/iss2/art1/ After reading about this concept you
could try to apply this methodology to a local river system that you are familiar with?
What are the major limitations of using such a methodology? Have a look at the
responses to the above article at
http://www.consecol.org/Journal/vol1/iss2/art1/responses/
Try out the Expert System to predict Reedbuck distributions click here to start!
Biogeography, Patches and Fragmentation
VIEWPOINT
Why has so such research been done on islands and then extrapolated to Nature Reserves.
Why Study Islands?
There a large number of islands scattered around the world. Since islands are smaller
they contain less habitat and it is easier to sample and to determine species/area
relationships and ultimately to model their biology. This makes islands suitable as
natural experiments.
Problem of Access
Oceans are the most efficient barrier to the dispersal of land animals except for those that
can fly. Some flying animals (including larger birds and bats) are capable of reaching the
most distant and isolated islands unaided by their own powers of flight, especially if they
are like water/sea birds and can alight on the water surface to rest. Smaller birds, bats
and especially flying insects may reach islands by being carried passively on high winds.
All of these animals may, in their turn, carry the eggs, animals that live in association
with the traveling animal as well as the fruits, seeds and spores of plants (either in their
guts or on the feathers, fur or scales). In contrast most land animals cannot survive in
seawater for long enough to cross oceans and colonize distant islands. Their colonization
may, however, be facilitated by being "on board" large masses of drifting debris. Such
debris can create a natural raft which can be washed up on distant islands. Documented
natural rafts which usually result after heavy storms can reach 13 m in size and may be
composed of up to 15 trees each 6 to 12 m tall. These floating "island refuges" do carry
small animals and plant species (seeds, spores and vegetative parts) that are not adapted
to oceanic dispersal. The colonization in thios manner is rare but since ther has been
some 65 million years in the Cenozoic for successful colonization to happen. It is
potentially easier for plants to adapt to long distance dispersal since they can colonize and
establish populations through seeds and spores.
Species/Area Concept
Small islands generally have fewer species than large islands if other considerations such
as degree of isolation are held constant. Species number is consequently a product of
island size.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ISLAND ARE AND THE DIVERSITY OF BIRD
GENERA AND NON ENDEMIC FLOWERING PLANT GENERA IN SOME
PACIFIC ISLANDS.
Table not copied
As islands increase in size so does their ability to support plant and animal genera
PUT FIGURE IN
A ten fold increase in area corresponds to an approximate doubling of the number of
species supported.
The number of species maintained on an island depends on the rate of colonization and
the rate of local extinction that occurs on the island. A new island that has no colonists
will initially have a high rate of colonization because there are many opportunities and
there is little competition between the different colonizing species. As more recruits
arrive on the island, competition for the resources and between species will increase.
This inevitably leads to both a decrease in the rate of successful colonization and an
increase in the rate of extinction. As the rate of colonization decreases so the rate of
extinction increases. A balance is said to occur between the decreasing rates of
colonization and the increasing rates of extinction. The balance represents the number of
species that can be supported on that particular island (see figure below). Using these
rates of colonization and extinction we are able to predict the potential number of species
supported on an island of a particular size.
PUT FIGURE IN
WHAT EVIDENCE DO WE HAVE FOR SPECIES/AREA RELATIONSHIPS
NATURAL EXPERIMENTS
READING MATERIAL
Noss, R.F. & Csuti, B. 1997. Habitat Fragmentation. In: Principles of Conservation
Biology; Meffe, G.K. & Carroll (Eds) Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.
APPLICATION OF BIOGEOGRAPHY THEORY
The Theory of Island Biogeography:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/lectures/11/island_a.htm
The Basic Model of Island Biogeography:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/islandb.htm
Destruction of Biodiversity on Island ecosystems:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/lectures/bio/destroy.htm
Biogeographic Design of Natural Reserves:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/reserv1.htm
Biodiversity Destruction:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55437/biodestr.htm
FRAGMENTATION
Fragmentation and its Effects:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55437/frag1.htm
Protected Areas and Conservation Practices
OBJECTIVES
To understand the importance of conserving natural areas and the implications for
management. Discuss why having national parks is important to South Africa and to
recognize the international obligations that exist (IUCN). To evaluate techniques for
prioritizing areas for conservation. Discuss why and how you can conserve areas outside
national parks. Understand the biosphere reserve concept and its implications. Discuss
the need for conflict resolution and how people can be included within environmental
management practices.
Students should reflect on the following statement:National Parks "have not drawn us into a more thoughtful relationship with our habitat,
They have not taught us that land is to be used frugally and with good sense. They have
encouraged us to believe that conservation is merely a system of trading environmental
write-offs against large protected areas. They more than failed, in fact they have become
a symptom of the problem " (Van Tighem 1986).
VIEWPOINT
There is an absolutely huge amount of information about managing protected areas.
Despite all of the elegant approaches (e.g. the iterative reserve selection) I really wonder
if we can get to conserve all our known biodiversity. The economics and social pressures
that come to play in a developing country such as ours must inevitably place some of our
unique biodiversity at risk. As a consequence of this I would like to reflect on what is
our last resort - test tubes and ex-situ conservation! Such techniques could also be
considered as an insurance policy. We have seen the devastating effects that disease can
have on a population such as the African Buffalo We have already seen how disease can
cause extinction of a large African antelope species (Swainsons Hartebeest became
extinct through the outbreak of rinderpest). The real task is to link ex-situ with in-situ
conservation efforts and hopeful should lay the foundations of serving future generations.
The most significant challenge in this field is to identify the most deserving species in a
world were extinction is ever increasing reality.
Believe it or not one-twelve of all bird species and one -sixth of mammal species have
been bred in captivity. For some animals and plants the only immediate hope of survival
is in captivity. The ultimate aim of any captive breeding programme is to release
individuals back into their natural environment. Captive-bred stocks can fulfill the
following functions:As substitutes for wild populations in basic research into population biology and
sociobiology.
As substitutes for wild populations in the development of care and management
techniques.
As demographic and genetic reservoirs from which infusions of "new blood" may be
obtained or found new populations.
As last reservoirs for species which have no immediate opportunity for surviving in their
natural environment.
A good example is the American Bison
As last reservoirs for species which have no immediate opportunity for survival in their
natural habitats.
READING MATERIAL
Primack, R.B. (1993) Managing protected areas In Essentials of Conservation Biology
(Chapter 15), Sinauer Associated Inc. Sunderland.
ICUN (1994) Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories. ICUN
Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas with assistance of the World
Conservation Monitoring Centre. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Lucas, P.H.C. 1992. Protected Landscapes. Management of protected landscapes.
ICUN protected Areas Programme, Gland. Chapman & Hall, London.
Primack, R.B. (1993) Outside Protected areas. In Essentials of Conservation Biology
(Chapter 16), Sinauer Associated Inc. Sunderland.
Rebelo, A.G. (1994) Iterative selection procedures: centres of endemism and optical
placement of reserves. Strelitzia 1:231-257.
McKenzie, B. & Rebelo, A.G. (1997) Core flora conservation areas on the Cape Flats
FCC report 97/1
Lewis, C. 1996. Managing conflicts in protected areas. IUCN, Gland, pp 1-20.
PROTECTED AREAS
WORLD COMMISSION ON PROTECTED AREAS (WCPA):http://www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/
The IUCN Programme on Protected Areas (PPA):http://www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/ppa.html
Prototype Nationally Designated Protected Areas Database:http://www.wcmc.org.uk/protected_areas/data/nat.htm
A List of World Heritage Sites:http://www.wcmc.org.uk/protected_areas/data/wh/index.html
WWF Report on protected areas at risk (Climatic Change):http://www.panda.org/climate/parks/dr_intro.htm
MARINE AREAS
A Global Representative System of Marine Protected Areas:http://www.environment.gov.au/library/pubs/mpa/regions.html
A Global Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (pdf format: file name
marine_pa)
DATA BASES
Searchable Data Base: Tree Conservation Information Service:http://www.wcmc.org.uk/cgi-bin/SaCGI.cgi/trees.exe
Searchable Data Base: Threatened Animals of the World:http://www.wcmc.org.uk/species/animals/animal_redlist.html
Searchable Data Base: 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants:http://www.wcmc.org.uk/species/plants/plants-by-taxon.htm#search
Searchable Data Base: Integrated Species Information:http://www.wcmc.org.uk/species/data/species.html
List of Species Under Threat:- http://www.wcmc.org.uk/species/data/species_sheets/
A clickable Map of World Heritage Sites:- http://ims.wcmc.org.uk/wh/wh.html
DESIGNING NATURE RESERVES
How To Design An Ecological Reserve System:http://www.middlebury.edu/%7Etrombula/Reserves.html
Designing Nature Reserves: past, present and future:http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf06/craighead/toc.html
CASE STUDIES
Natural Community Conservation Planning -the State of California's pilot program:http://www.ceres.ca.gov/cra/NCCP/intro.htm
An Ecosystem Approach To Species Protection:http://www.ceres.ca.gov/CRA/wheeler_ecosystem_approach.html
Research Needs for Conserving California's Rare Plants:http://www.mobot.org/CPC/resrch_2.html
Vietnam in the recent passed has reached a crossroads in its efforts to conserve
biodiversity:- http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf06/sterling/bf06c4.html
A Real 'Win-Win' Situation - The community and conservation are both winners in an
historic agreement:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/wildlifearticles/africanwildlife/1998/julaugust_editorial.ht
ml
The Makuleke land claim signing ceremony - Harmonising social justice and
conservation:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/wildlifearticles/africanwildlife/1998/julaugust_makuleke.
html
Review of the Management Policy of the Kruger National Park:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/document_elephant_review.html
The Kruger National Park - A Heritage for all South Africans:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/article_kruger_start.html
Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources Empowering
CAMPFIRE:- http://campfire-zimbabwe.org/
The lesson from Mahenye: Rural poverty, democracy and wildlife conservation:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/document_campfire1.html
Share and share alike? Equity in CAMPFIRE:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/document_campfire2.html
Lacking confidence? A gender-sensitive analysis of CAMPFIRE in Masoka village:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/document_campfire3.html
The legacy of dualism in decision-making within CAMPFIRE:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/document_campfire4.html
Two views from CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe's Hurungwe District: Training & motivation.
Who benefits & who doesn't:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/document_campfire5.html
Was Mrs Mutendi only joking? Access to timber in Zimbabwe's communal areas:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/document_campfire6.html
Political ecologies of scale: The multi-tiered co-management of Zimbabwean wildlife
resources:- http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/document_campfire7.html
From liability to asset: Wildlife in the Omay Communal Land of Zimbabwe:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/bushcraft/articles/document_campfire8.html
Arid Lands Conservation - Borders:http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/aln39/aln39toc.html
SOUTH AFRICAN PARKS
South African National Parks:- http://www.parks-sa.co.za/
South African National Parks Clickable Map:- http://www.parks-sa.co.za/map.htm
South African National Parks: Addo Elephant:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/addo/default.htm
South African National Parks: Agulhas:- http://www.parks-sa.co.za/agulhas/Default.htm
South African National Parks:Augrabies:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/augrabies/default.htm
South African National Parks: Bontebok:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/bontebok/default.htm
South African National Parks: Golden Gate Highlands:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/goldengate/default.htm
South African National Parks: Kalahari Gemsbok:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/kalahari/default.htm
South African National Parks: Karoo:- http://www.parks-sa.co.za/karoo/default.htm
South African National Parks: Kruger:- http://www.parks-sa.co.za/knp/default.htm
South African National Parks: Marakele:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/marakele/default.htm
South African National Parks: Mountain Zebra:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/mountainzebra/default.htm
South African National Parks: Namaqua:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/namakwa/Default.htm
South African National Parks: Richtersveld:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/rictersveld/default.htm
South African National Parks: Cape Peninsula:- http://www.capepeninsula.co.za
South African National Parks:-Tsitsikamma:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/tsitsikamma/default.htm
South African National Parks:-Vaalbos:- http://www.parks-sa.co.za/vaalbos/default.htm
South African National Parks:-West Coast National Park:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/westcoast/default.htm
South African National Parks:-Wilderness National Park:- http://www.parkssa.co.za/wilderness/default.htm
WORLD PARKS
Australia's National Parks:- http://www.atn.com.au/parks/parks.htm
Austria's National Parks:- http://www.tourist-net.co.at/natps_1e.htm
Belize National Park:- http://www.belizenet.com/guide/pa/pahp.html
Canada's National Park:- http://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/np/np_e.htm
Guatemala's National Parks:- http://www.tradepoint.org.gt/inguin/enareaspro07.html
India's National Parks:- http://www.gorp.com/gorp/location/asia/india/np_intro.htm
Italy's National Parks:- http://www.parks.it/
Korea's National Parks:- http://www.npa.or.kr/
Mexico's National Parks:http://www.gorp.com/gorp/location/latamer/Mexico/pks_intr.htm
Spain's National Parks:- http://www.spaintour.com/parks.htm
Natural Parks of Andalusia (SPAIN Mountain and Wetlands):http://www.andalucia.org/ing/natural/natural.htm
Uganda National Parks:- http://www.kilimanjaro.com/uganda/parkug.htm
United Kingdom's National Parks:- http://www.open.gov.uk/rp/rphome.htm
USA National Parks:- http://www.gorp.com/gorp/resource/us_national_park/main.htm
Vietnam's National Parks:http://www.wcmc.org.uk/infoserv/countryp/vietnam/app7.html
THREATS TO PROTECTED AREAS
Doñana National Park:- http://www.unesco.org/whc/sites/685.htm
Ecosystems of the Doñana National Park:http://www.enveng.ufl.edu/wetlands/donana.html
Disaster in Donana: WWF Wants Responsibilities Established:http://www.panda.org/news/press/news_194.htm
Spain congratulated itself this week on saving the Doñana National Park, one of Europe's
most important wetlands, from a flood of toxic sludge:http://www.newscientist.com/ns/980502/nsludge.html
Ranchos of Doñana National Park integrated living in a marshland ecosystem:http://www.andalucia.org/ing/rutas/rarpop2.htm
Russia - Lake Baikal
Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and is home to thousands of freshwater species.
Read about this lake's ecological problems and view maps.
CONSERVATION AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES
FRLHT Home PageFOUNDATION FOR REVITALIZATION OF LOCAL HEALTH
TRADITIONS. "SAVING INDIA'S MEDICAL HERITAGE" IN SITU Conservation
Medicinal Plants
EX-SITU CONSERVATION (AQUARIUMS)
South Africa - Two Oceans Aquarium
Aquarium offers a chance to learn about the underwater ecosystems and inhabitants.
Details some of the featured activities.
Canada - Aquarium du Quebec
Get location, visiting hours, and admissions information. Includes links to other
aquariums around the world.
Canada - Vancouver Aquarium
Some nice pictures and details of the latest exhibits which include the north Pacific,
Arctic Canada and the Amazon.
England - Maryport Aquaria
Read an introduction, location, admissions, and membership information. Also read about
the educational possibilities offered at the aquarium.
Ireland - Dingle Oceanworld
Learn about the aquarium located in County Kerry which focuses on native marine
animals and a touch tank.
Italy - Genoa Aquarium
Learn about Europe's largest aquarium displaying over 2000 marine animals from every
part of the earth.
Japan - Chitose Salmon Aquarium
Learn about the northern Japanese aquarium specializing in native salmon and other fresh
water fish.
Japan - Enoshima Aquarium
Read about the marine animals on exhibit and learn about the dolphin breeding program.
Includes a link to the official Japanese language site.
Japan - Joetsu Municipal Aquarium
Get general info, opening hours, and directions for the Joetsu aquarium.
Japan - Public Aquariums In Japan
Aquariums are shown on regional maps. Visit the homepages of those with a direct link.
Japan - Toba Aquarium
Get an introduction, a weekly animal report, and details on the keepers. Includes a gallery
of animals.
Japan - Tokyo Sea Life Park
Take a tour and read the park guide book. Requires QuickTime plug-ins.
Japan - Yokohama Hakkeijima
Get general info, opening hours, and admissions fees for the aquarium with Japan's first
"aqua escalator".
Kenya - Marine Parks
Features brief descriptions of the country's marine parks, including locations, special
features, and access details.
Monaco - Oceanographic Aquarium
Features a collection of marine fauna and specimens of sea creatures. Learn about sea
laboratories.
New Zealand - Underwater World
Offers details about Antarctica and its wildlife, and reviews attractions such as traveling
through the deep-water walkway and observing fish.
Scotland- Deep Sea World
Features details of ocean habitat, and explores caves, sandy flats, and kelp forests.
Choose a fish name to view its picture.
Sweden - Tropicarium
Features a collection of tropical species, including snakes, sharks, salamanders,
crocodiles, and parrots. Learn about selected tours.
AK - Alaska SeaLife Center
Read about the aquarium slumber party program, review the seal and otter research
projects, or visit the gift shop. Located in Seward.
AL - Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Tour the lab's exhibits on the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay, find hours and admission
rates, and read about the university course offerings.
CA - Birch Aquarium at Scripps
See what is inside this aquarium in La Jolla, California. With a review of the museum's
history, and opening hours.
CA - Cabrillo High School Aquarium
Check the Aquarium Cam, tour the exhibits, and go whale watching to learn about 9
different kinds of whales. Located in San Pedro.
CA - Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
Tour the exhibits, check the event calendar, make reservations for a tidepool walk, or
submit the membership form. Located in San Pedro.
CA - Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific
Take a tour of the aquarium, featuring species from the three regions of the Pacific, join
the mailing list, and pick up a virtual press kit.
CA - Long Marine Lab
Read about the educational programs, tidepool exhibit, and aquarium, check admission
rates, and find a map. Located in Santa Cruz.
CA - Marine Mammal Care Center
Read about the center's wildlife rescue programs and find contact information. Located in
San Pedro at Fort MacArthur.
CA - Marine World Africa USA
Sea creatures and African wildlife are featured at this park in Vallejo, California. Find out
the opening hours, train services and directions.
CA - Monterey Bay Aquarium
Take a cyber-tour of Monterey Bay and its creatures, see the educational resources
available, and find visitor information.
CA - Roundhouse Lab and Aquarium
Manhattan Beach facility describes the educational programs and tropical fish exhibits.
Send email to request a summer camp brochure.
CA - Steinhart Aquarium
Describes the attractions and exhibits and reviews the aquarium's history. Located in San
Francisco at the California Academy of Sciences.
CO - Ocean Journey
Visit the sea otter cove and Colorado River exhibits, review the newsletter, and fill out
the membership information. Located in Denver.
CT - Mystic Aquarium
Explore the penguin, sea lion, and dolphin exhibits, check the event calendar, learn about
beluga whales, or complete a membership application.
FL - Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Adopt a dolphin or sea turtle, review the educational and animal rescue programs, and
learn about marine mammal biology and behavior.
FL - Florida Aquarium
Feel free to tap on the glass when you take a virtual tour of this facility in Tampa Bay,
Florida.
FL - Gulfarium
Located in Ft. Walton Beach. Lists the animal shows and describes the marine mammal
rescue and educational programs.
FL - Key West Aquarium
Unofficial page profiles the aquarium's exhibits and attractions, offers contact
information, and lists admission rates.
FL - Marine Mammal Center
Read about the center's rehabilitation projects and find a map of the sea turtle, manatee,
and dolphin exhibits.
FL - Miami Seaquarium
View the photos and slide shows of exhibits featuring dolphins, sharks, manatees, sea
lions, and alligators. Also check for Internet discounts.
FL - Mote Marine Aquarium
Explore the Sarasota aquarium's fish and marine mammal exhibits, read about the dolphin
rescue project, or submit the information request form.
HI - Maui Ocean Center
Outlines the park's whale and tidepool exhibits, and provides contact information and
admission rates. Located at Ma'alaea Harbor Village.
HI - Sea Life Park Hawaii
Hawaiian Attractions Assoc. describes the park's exhibits and educational programs and
provides contact information. Located in Waimanalo.
HI - Waikiki Aquarium
Third oldest aquarium in the US gives an insight into the current captive breeding
projects, live exhibits and educational programs.
IL - Shedd Aquarium
Read about the Chicago aquarium's research trips and review the event calendar. Also
offers fact sheets on whales, otters, and coral animals.
EX-SITU CONSERVATION (ZOOS)
South Africa - World of Birds
Wildlife sanctuary in Cape Town, the second largest bird sanctuary in the world, covers
conservational, educational, and tourism projects.
South Africa - Zoological Gardens
Known as Pretoria Zoo, the gardens feature mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and insects.
Includes a collection of rare and endangered species.
Australia - Adelaide Zoo
Learn about the history and animals at Australia's second oldest zoo.
Australia - Butterfly Sanctuary
General information on this sanctuary and breeding programs situated in Kuranda,
Queensland, Australia. With photos.
Australia - Currumbin Sanctuary
Read about this wildlife sanctuary located on the Gold Coast of Australia that is home to
hundreds of native birds and animals.
Australia - Gorillas at Taronga Zoo
See photos and learn about the gorillas at the zoo located in Sydney.
Australia - Healesville Zoo
Read the about the largest collection of Australian wildlife in this sanctuary established in
1934.
Australia - OceanWorld Manly
Explore this marine park and get visitor information. Read about featured attractions,
special services, and educational possibilities.
Australia - Rainforest Habitat
Get a profile, opening hours, and admissions information for this wildlife sanctuary
located in Port Douglas, an hour north of Cairns.
Australia - Taronga Zoo
Examine the admissions rates, educational possibilities, and links about all the animals on
display.
Australia - Tasmania
Read all about the animal and wildlife parks of Tasmania. Includes Bonorong and the
Fairy Penguin Colonies.
Australia - Underwater World Perth
Get general information and view the animal gallery and the park's features and displays.
Australia - Victoria, Three Zoos
Get info for the Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary, and the Open Range Zoo at
Werribee, the three main zoos in the state of Victoria.
Belize - Belize Zoo
Billed as "The Best Little Zoo In The World", it provides general and educational
program info, details on donations and the zoo's newsletter.
Belize - The Belize Zoo
Tour the zoo, and read about the Tropical Education Center, as well as entrance and
membership fees.
Bermuda - Aquarium, Museum & Zoo
Get visitor info, view the exhibit guide, and read about the biodiversity and turtle projects
on the official site.
Brazil - Bauru Zoo
Read about the zoo, animals, projects and environmental educational programs, in
Portuguese. Includes new photos of animals.
Canada - African Lion Safari
Learn about this private family owned park established 1969 that houses 1000 animals of
over 100 species.
Canada - Assiniboine Park Zoo
In Winnipeg, the emphasis is on hardy creatures, tolerant of the harsh Canadian winter.
Visit the Zoo Classroom for educational programs.
Canada - Calgary Zoo
Learn about the zoo, conservation programs, special events, and employment and
volunteering opportunities.
Canada - Jungle Cat World Zoo
Visit the savannah sanctuary overlooking Lake Ontario, home to Siberian tigers and
lions.
Canada - Magnetic Hill Zoo
Examine the animals, the calendar and winter openings, and the education center at this
New Brunswick zoo.
Canada - Oaklawn Farm Zoo
Read about this animal farm in Nova Scotia whose primary purpose is to create a safe
environment for animals to live and breed.
Canada - Papanack Park Zoo
Read about the animals, events, sponsor, and the latest news from the home of the white
lion cubs.
Canada - Parc Safari
Read about the animals, activities, and the park shop and restaurant in English and
French.
Canada - Puck's Farm
Read about Puck's Farm, reopened again for the March break after the winter.
Canada - Shubenacadie Wildlife Park
Learn about the park and the 45 different wildlife exhibits at the park located 40 minutes
from Halifax.
Canada - Toronto Zoo
Learn about zoo features and exhibits, view a site map and zoo info including prices,
hours, and directions.
Canada - Vancouver Aquarium
Get visitor, membership, and volunteer info for the Marine Science Centre in British
Columbia.
Canada - Zoo Sauvage St. Felicien
Visit the zoo, get general information, and read about services and the winter zoo in
English and French.
China - Hong Kong Zoo
Read about the education center, reptile house, and children's playground, of the Hong
Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens.
China - Shanghai Zooogical Park
Get general, wildlife, and visitor information for this zoo located China's largest city.
Read back issues of the zoo's own magazine.
Czech Republic - Pilzen Zoo
Read about animals and opening hours of the Zoological and Botanical Garden in Pilzen
in Czech and English. Includes a video clip.
Denmark - Givskud Zoo
Get news, visitor, animal, research, and educational information for the zoo located in
Give, Denmark. In Danish, English, and German.
Denmark - Knuthenborg Zoo
Read about the history, animals, and events for the whole family, in Danish, English, and
German.
Denmark - Odense Zoo
View zoo info, current news, and the feeding hours in Danish and English. Get details on
becoming a sponsor.
England - Bristol Zoo Gardens
Run by West of England Zoological society, the gardens focus on breeding endangered
species. View animal photos, and become a member.
England - Chester Zoo
Claims to be the country's largest zoo. Details featured animals, facilities, and individual
and group tours.
England - Colchester Zoo
Presents Colchester Zoo in Essex. Learn about the zoo's animals and facilities, and find
admission prices and visit planning tips.
England - Howletts & Port Lympne
Read about the sister parks of Howletts and Port Lympe that display snow leopards, Atlas
lions, and Przewalski horses among other exhibits.
England - Marwell Zoological Park
Get the latest zoo news, read an introduction by the director, and view pictures.
England - Paignton Zoo
View general and educational info, entry prices, and news. Read about the numerous
special events at the zoo.
England - Paradise Wildlife Park
See what is happening at the park with pictures and separate links for the animals at
display.
England - Thrigby Hall Wildlife
Read about the birds, reptiles, primates, and cats on display. Learn about the prices and
the Thrigby Conservation Fund.
Estonia - Tallinn Zoo
Learn about the history, animals, and programs. Includes the zoo's annual report and
animal photos.
France - Provence Animal Parks, Zoo
Research the particulars on opening hours, exhibits, and admissions for all animal parks
and zoos in the Provence province of France.
Germany - Hannover Zoo
View visitor info, zoo highlights, and facts and photos on all the animals on display in
German and English.
Germany - Zoo Augsburg
Read about opening hours, prices, attractions, and the Amur Leopard program in English
and German.
Germany - Zoologischer Garten Koln
Read the history, current news, and view a kids section on the Cologne zoo.
Japan - Asa Zoological Park
Check admission and parking fees, operating hours, and get directions on a map for the
park located in Hiroshima.
Japan - Central Park
Get the latest information for this zoological and amusement park in Himeji.
Japan - Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium
Learn about the exhibits, museaum shop, guided tours, and admissions fees at the Osaka
aquarium.
Kenya - Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
Comprised of wetlands, indigenous forest, and grassland, this preserve specializes in
black rhino conservation.
Lithuania - Kaunas Zoo
Read about the Baltic zoo and its animals, view a map, and explore extensive zoo and
animal links.
MI - Saginaw
Learn about the current features and exhibits of this children's zoo. Get group rates and
daily hours.
Malaysia - Elephant Tracking
Features Malaysia elephant tracking project's details. Meet the team, and view an
interactive map of the area.
Malaysia - Melaka Zoo
Dedicated to researching wildlife, protecting endangered species, and educating the
public about wild animals. Features mammals and reptiles.
Malaysia - National Zoo
View the national zoo's comprehensive site and read about the history, the animals and
the educational center. Get visitor information.
Malaysia - Rainforest of Sarawak
Introduces the flora and fauna of the rainforest in Giam. Learn about the area's weather
and inhabitants, and view photos.
Malaysia - Zoo Negara
Malaysia's national zoo details animals and their habitats, and current and past projects.
Learn about the zoo's history.
Mexico - Guadalajara Zoo
Features a collection of more than 2000 species, including birds, animals, and reptiles. In
English and Spanish.
Nepal - Family Trek
Features a chronicle of trips to Nepal, including a visit to Royal Chitwan Wildlife
Preserve. View photos.
Netherlands, The - St. Maarten Zoo
Zoo on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten features location details, admission prices,
and business hours.
New Zealand - Mount Bruce Center
National Wild life Center preserves New Zealand's threatened and endangered wildlife.
Read the newsletter, and review educational programs.
Poland - History Zoo, The
Aims to protect endangered species, and experiments with cross-breeding. In Polish,
English, and German.
Russia - Leningrad Zoo
Learn about the past present, and future of the zoo, and meet some inhabitants. In Russian
and English.
Russia - Russian Conservation News
Introduces Russia's wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. Learn more about the region
and its inhabitants.
Scotland - Edinburgh Zoo
Located on 80 acres of parkland, this zoo includes a colony of penguins that can be
viewed from suspension bridges and underwater panels.
Scotland - Edinburgh Zoo
Home of the largest animal collection in Scotland, the zoo is open every day of the year.
Check admission prices, and find the event schedule.
Singapore - Singapore Zoo
Located on the shores of Seletar Reservoir, the zoo offers family days, incentive events,
and vacation packages. Learn about animal adoption.
Spain - Madrid Zoo & Aquarium
Features zoo, dolphinarium, and aquarium details. Offers the zoo's history and contact
information in Spanish.
Sri Lanka - Animal Park
Features representatives of 75 species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects.
Find location information.
Sweden - Parken Zoo
Features the garden park, the water park, the amusement park, and the animal park with
species such as cougars, red pandas, and tigers.
Thailand - Crocodile Farm & Zoo
Located 10 km from Bangkok, the worlds largest crocodile zoo preserves endangered
species and supplies crocodile skins to world market.
Vietnam - Zoological Museum
Part of National University of Hanoi, the museum features large mammals, bird, fish, and
EX-SITU CONSERVATION (WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES)
Belize - Baboon Sanctuary
Read about the sanctuary established in 1985 to protect one of the few Central American
black howler monkey populations.
Belize - Cockscomb Basin
Get the details on the wildlife sanctuary in Belize that has the highest number of jaguars
in the world.
Belize - Crooked Tree Sanctuary
Find out about this wildlife sanctuary that focuses on protecting Belize's waterbird
populations including various ducks, egret, and stork.
Costa Rica - Nosara Reserve
Read about the Lagarta Lodge at this privately held biological reserve that is home to
many birds, mammals, reptiles.
Denmark - Rungstedlund Sanctuary
Read about the bird sanctuary and garden that was established through the efforts of
Karen Blixen, famous Danish author of "Out of Africa."
India - Wildlife Sanctuaries
Features a comprehensive collection of links to the country's national parks, wildlife
sanctuaries, and nature preserves.
Indonesia - Besar & Bawah
Read about the Malayan tapir, Rufous-Bellied eagle, and Scarlet-Breasted flowerpecker a
this wildlife reserve.
Indonesia - Giam-Siak Kecil
Get a list of the various bird and mammal species at this 100,000 hectare wildlife reserve.
Indonesia - Karang Gading Langkat
Read about the wildlife reserve that contains regenerated mangrove forests and many
species of bird.
Indonesia - Kelompok
Find general and visitor information for the reserve that is covered by mangrove forests
and contains many bird species.
Indonesia - Kerumutan
Get a list of the animals in this wildlife reserve. They include Sumatran tigers and
elephants, Malayan sun bears, and large Flying fox.
Indonesia - Padang Sugihan
Get general and visitor infor for the flatlands reserve that is the habitat over 230
Sumatran elephants.
Indonesia - Pulau Berkeh
Learn about the bird reserve in the Riau province that is home to the Lesser Whistling
duck, Spot Billed pelican, and Lesser adjutant.
Indonesia - Pulau Burung
Find out the details about the 200 hectare nature reserve that protects sea turtles and
birds, including the Black Baza and the Milky Stork.
Indonesia - Pulau Laut
Read about the island reserve established for the preservation of sea turtles and sea birds.
Indonesia - Pulau Simeulue
Read about the wildlife reserve located on the island that has a distinctive fauna and flora
due to its relative isolation.
Indonesia - Sembilang
Learn about this wildlife reserve considered very significant in the Indo-Malayan region
because it is the habitat of 35 endangered species.
Ireland - Nature Reserves
Read about the four national nature reserves located in various counties on the Republic
of Ireland.
Kenya - Game Preserves
Provides descriptions of Kenya's game preserves, and includes location and accessibility
details.
EX-SITU CONSERVATION (PLANT SANCTUARIES)
Using the Prototype Nationally Designated Protected Areas Database
http://www.wcmc.org.uk/protected_areas/data/nat.htm review the protection status of a
country/region of your choice and summarize the information extracted and review how
that country/region is performing with respect to global conservation. In addition discuss
what are the risks to these protected areas through climatic change by reviewing
information at the WWF site:- http://www.panda.org/climate/parks/dr_intro.htm
Restoration
VIEWPOINT
The Cape Flora is threatened by both development and alien plants and as a consequence
I have always seen myself as being a little bit of the a purist with respect to wanting to
clear alien vegetation. This opinion got changed when a public open space close to
where I lived and known to be a good site for bird watching (particularly rich in Night
Herons) suddenly got descended upon with chain saws to remove all the alien vegetation.
The area in question was an island in the middle of Zandvlei and was created when they
excavated the canals of a marina. Its ecological value was not in the few strandveld
plants that had colonized it but in the large number of birds that used the alien trees to
roost in. I then realized what it was like to be just another member of the public and see
decisions taken such as these without being consulted.
I was asked by the local
community to express my views on the situation and to reflect on how one could restore
or more accurately reconstruct local vegetation in the area. The authorities in question
had no management plans and basically expected the local residents to pick up the
management process after they had removed the 10 ha of alien trees in an extremely wind
exposed environment. I then realized that we have become a bit xenophobic with respect
alien plants and to reconsider my viewpoint. Below was my letter on the issues published
in the People's Post 14 July 1999.
Putting Perspective on the Clearance of the Alien plants on Park Island, Marina Da Gama
The clearing of the alien vegetation and the plans for the establishment of indigenous
vegetation on this public open space has provoked something of a controversy with many
residents of Marina Da Gama. Central to the controversy is that the alien clearance was
not discussed with the public. There are further concerns that removal of the alien
vegetation would expose large patches of sand in an extremely windy environment,
which would impact on the numerous bird species (most notably herons, egrets and
cormorants) that use the alien trees as roosting sites.
I believe the ultimate goal of removing the alien vegetation to be a commendable one and
that Park Island, being a relatively large open space extending more than 20 ha in area
could be restored to natural vegetation and used as an environmental education facility
among the local schools. There is very little natural vegetation left on the Cape Flats and
the opportunity for restoring this area should not be missed. My problem with this alien
clearance programme has been the way it is being implemented. The management of any
natural area requires a clearly defined long-term plan. In this case such a plan has not
been made public, if indeed such a document exists. It should be borne in mind that the
cutting down and poisoning of the alien plants is only the first step in the eradication of
alien plants from an area. Most alien plants and especially alien acacias have long-lived
seeds, which accumulate in the soil, and if the germinating seedlings are not regularly
weeded you can end up with a worse problem than you started off with. This follow up
of seedling removal needs to be maintained for at least twenty years, and I hope that the
local authority has long term plans and resources committed to undertaking this. Without
such commitments the whole exercise would be a waste of money and resources which
could have better been deployed elsewhere. The other issue is that the one acacia
species, the Port Jackson Willow is dying out naturally through the planned introduction
of a fungus from Australia. My third year students investigated the effects that this
fungus has on the Port Jackson Willows growing on Park Island and found that more than
95% of these plants were infected and that it had already killed at least a quarter of the
population. Their investigation concluded that only the very young plants were
uninfected but as they grow older they too would become infected. Given such
mortalities it is probably not necessary to mechanical clear the Port Jackson Willow as
they pose no long-term threats and could even be beneficial in the short-term by
providing protection from the wind for establishing indigenous species and for
provisionally maintaining roosting and nesting sites for birds.
Much of the justification for clearing aliens is the belief that alien plants utilize far
greater quantities of water than do our indigenous species. This is particularly critical
within our catchment areas where if we remove the alien vegetation we should get
improved runoff of water into our dams and reduce the necessity and expense of building
more dams. It could also be argued that the western Cape is increasingly relying on
tourism for economic development and that the Cape is famous for the beauty of its wild
flowers and that removing alien vegetation and re-establishing indigenous vegetation
could bring benefits to this industry. The benefits of clearing alien vegetation are further
enhanced when you employ local communities to tender for and undertake the alien
clearing. In order to achieve this there are training schemes given to local communities
to develop entrepreneurial skills so that they can manage their own business and prepare
tender documents. In the case of Park Island few of these benefits are apparent since it is
not in a catchment area and the alien vegetation is not robbing the area of fresh water
resources. The contractor is not sourced from within the local community but is utilizing
local labour.
We should respect the intentions of local authorities who wish to clear areas of alien
vegetation, however these local authorities should develop suitable long-term
management plans in consultation with experts and by involving local communities in the
decision making processes. It is also important for local authorities to appreciate that
management of natural areas should be judged from the perspective of how much area
you keep uninfected with alien species rather that how much alien vegetation you clear.
Using this rationale it would be better to concentrate resources on removing alien plants
from lightly infested areas so as to maintain areas as alien free as possible rather than
removing dense stands of alien vegetation. There are certain circumstances where it is
desirable to invest significant resources into clearing dense stands. Examples are the
eradication of aliens from river courses to improve water abstraction or clearing adjacent
to protected areas to prevent the spread into them.
In this particular issue I would have recommended removal of the alien acacia species for
which a biological control agent has not been introduced, which in this case is the
Rooikrantz. The removal of the Rooikrantz should employ a local contractor and
members of the local community who could also benefit by using or selling the
Rooikrantz as fire wood. Local schools as part of an environmental awareness
programme could adopt various areas of the island and have competitions to determine
which is the best class/school at keeping their plot alien free and having the greatest
success with planting indigenous species. The University of the Western Cape through
the Environmental Education and Resources Unit manages one of the few nature reserves
that conserves the natural flora of the Cape Flats and uses local schools in just such a
way. By not removing all of the alien vegetation at once you would still allow sufficient
vegetation cover to maintain many of the existing birds on the island and it would have
been easier to establish natural vegetation. In this way a transition from alien infested to
indigenous vegetation could have been undertaken without the controversies that
presently beset Park Island.
READING MATERIAL
MacMahon, J.A. 1997. Ecological Restoration. In: Principles of Conservation Biology;
Meffe, G.K. & Carroll Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.
GENERAL
The Role Of Ecological Restoration In Biodiversity Conservation:http://www.evergreen.ca/restorationandbiodiversity.html
Ecological Restoration:- http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55437/res.htm
CASE STUDIES - SOUTH AFRICA
Mondi rehabilitates wetland:http://www.wildnetafrica.co.za/wildlifearticles/africanwildlife/1998/julaugust_mondi.htm
l
CASE STUDIES - EVERGLADES
History of the Everglades National Park:http://www.eng.fiu.edu/evrglads/introenp/history.htm
Everglades National Park: An Introduction to the Ecosystem:http://www.nps.gov/ever/eco/ever101.htm
Everglades National Park: Habitats:- http://www.nps.gov/ever/eco/habitats.htm
Everglades National Park: Wading Birds:- http://www.nps.gov/ever/eco/wading.htm
Everglades National Park: Endangered Species:http://www.nps.gov/ever/eco/danger.htm
Everglades National Park: Species profiles:- http://www.nps.gov/ever/eco/profiles.htm
Everglades National Park: Fire Management:- http://www.nps.gov/ever/fire/index.htm
Hydrology of the Everglades:- http://www.eng.fiu.edu/evrglads/engineer/hydrolog.htm
The Everglades Homepage:- http://everglades.ycg.org/
A Comprehensive Plan For The Restoration Of The Everglades -U.S. Department Of The
Interior:- http://everglades.fiu.edu/taskforce/comprehensive.html
Everglades on its way back: A Restoration Progress:http://everglades.fiu.edu/taskforce/progress/index.html
Restoring the Everglades is one of the largest construction projects in Florida's history:http://www.fishkind.com/eraspot.html
Everglades National Park: Restoration of an Ecosystem:http://www.nps.gov/ever/current/feature2.htm
Restoration of the everglades: A Class report (map):- http://esa.sdsc.edu/esarpt.htm
Ecotourism
OBJECTIVES
Discuss what ecotourism really is and the potential for this industry in the Western Cape
using the Overberg as a case example.
VIEWPOINT
READING MATERIAL
Mustard, P. & Cowling, R.M. 1996. Ecotourism in the Western Cape, early days yet, but
the potential is there. Veld & Flora
Scot, A. 1996. The Overberg explorer experience. Veld & Flora
Cooper, C., Fletcher, J., Gilbert, D., Wanhill, S. 1993. Tourism, Principles & Practises,
Longman, pp. 102-107.
GENERAL REFERENCES ON ECOTOURISM
Ecological and Conservation Economics:http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/users/h/hughm/public/55-437/ecolecon.htm
Can Ecotourism save the Rain Forests?
http://www.ran.org/ran/info_center/ecotourism.html
Ecotourism in Drylands:- http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/aln43/aln43toc.html
ECOTOURISM - WHALES
Whale watching - Hermanus:- http://www.hermanus.co.za/whales/
Whale Watching Web includes oceanographic research, bioacoustics, myths, and virtual
whale watching:- http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/whale/
Arcadia Whale Watcher:- http://www.acadia.net/w95014/
Bar Harbor Whale Watch - Maine USA:http://www.acadia.net/guest/humpback/public_html/index.html
California Whale Watching:http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/whale/usa/californ/californ.html
Cape Ann Whale Watching plus the Whale Conservation Institute:http://wizard.pn.com/capeann/whales.html
Exmouth Diving Centre Western Australian:- http://wizard.pn.com/capeann/whales.html
Hawaii Whale Watching:- http://www.maui.net/~barefoot/whale.html
Iceberg Alley, Newfoundland whale watching off the Canadian Coast:http://www.gorp.com/amazadv/Iceberg.htm
Orca Enterprises - Alaska:- http://www.alaskawhalewatching.com
Shetland Cetacean Group - Scotland:- http://www.zetnet.co.uk/sigs/cetacean/
Whale Chronicles Information on whale behavior, whale research and whale watching:http://www.design.net.au/wave/whale.htm
Whale Watching - Australia including the Oceania Project and Australian Oceanographic
Data Centre:- http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/whale/australia/australi.html
Whale Watching Around Seattle USA:http://www.whalewatching.com/fleet/welcome.html
Whales - Hervey Bay, Australia:- http://www.clearlight.com/~kid/whales/hbwhb.html
Whales of Australia:- http://www.upstarts.net.au/site/ideas/whales/whales.html
Whalesafari off the coast of northern Norway:- http://www.whalesafari.no/
ECOTOURISM: SOME EXAMPLES OF OPERATIONS (WITH BRIEF
DESCRIPTION)
Virtual Galßpagos:- http://www.terraquest.com/galapagos/intro.html
Relive the field experiences of this team to gain an insight into the islands' ecology and
find out how to join the next expedition.
Ecovolunteer:- http://www.ecovolunteer.org/
A "travel agent" for volunteers who want to work on environmental projects around the
world. Search by location, species, or the type of project.
Adventure Travel Society:- http://www.sni.net/ats/
From African safaris to jungle trekking in South America, this society promotes
environmentally friendly adventure travel worldwide.
Adventure in Nicaragua:- http://www.nica-info.com/
Explore the Bosawas rainforest in Nicaragua with CEPAD a nonprofit conservation
organization. Includes prices,scedules and itineraries.
African Alternatives:- http://www.africa.com/~venture/
Info and bookings for nature travel in Southern Africa. With packages to game parks,
water adventures and ranger training.
Alaskan Sailing Safaris:- http://alaskan.com/promos/akwildsail.html
Offers eco tours of the wilderness region by yacht and kayak. With small groups for low
impact and energy-efficient travel.
Australian Eco Adventures:- http://www.ozeco.com.au/
Specialists in ecotours around Australia. Find tour details, prices and dates, and book
online. With links to related sites.
Bicycle Africa Tours:- http://www.ibike.org/bikeafrica
Cyclists of all ages learn about the culture, sociology, and environment of Africa on these
tours. Has client reviews and registration materials.
Borneo Adventure Tours:- http://www.asianadventure.com/main.html
Washington-based tour company offering adventure tours to Malaysian states of Sabah
and Sarawak - itineraries, photos and booking information.
British Columbia Fisherman's Unique Tours:- http://www.bcfish.com
Book these trips, and take in the scenery of Canada's West Coast on a fishing vessel.
Provides contact data, FAQs, and package descriptions.
Bum Bum Tours:- http://jvm.com/bumbum/
Adventure tour company which offers a variety of trips through Venenzuela including
paragliding, climbing, and horse riding. Site offers full details of each tour.
Cancun Today - Parks, Sites & Tours:- http://www.cancuntoday.com/park.html
Explore the caverns, sinkholes, nature reserves, and archaeological sites of Mexico's
Yucatan Peninsula. With maps and contact information.
Casa Maya Eco Resort, Belize:- http://www.awrem.com/casamaya/
Scour caves, trudge through jungles, or ride river rapids in Central America on these
environmental adventures. Contains package data and maps.
Coates Wildlife Tours:- http://coates.iinet.net.au/4day.htm
Explore the diverse natural history, flora, fauna, and Aboriginal culture of Australia with
this almost 20 year old ecotourism organization.
Costa Rica Serendipity Adventures:- http://serendipityadventures.com/naturalist.htm
Travel company offers trips that include such activities as hot air ballooning and tree
climbing. Read sample itineraries, and check schedules.
Costa Rica Trailriders:- http://www.phoenix.net/~trailriders/
Explore Cabinas Jinettes de Osa by horseback, or find out about ecotourism in Corcovado
NP. With rates, reservations and transport info.
Dtour:- http://www.dtour.com/
Service using travel agents to arrange educational day-trips to nonprofit environmental
and social projects around the world.
EarthWise Journeys:- http://www.teleport.com/~earthwyz/
Portland-based agency promoting socially responsible travel. With suggested eco-tours,
destination overviews, workshops, and volunteer programs.
Earthwise Journeys for Women:- http://www.teleport.com/~earthwyz/women.htm
Creates supportive environments for women. With newsletter and itineraries for tours to
Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
Eco Travels in Latin America:- http://www.txinfinet.com/mader/
Language lessons and tours will help you learn about ecotourism and environmental
issues in Latin America, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Ecotourism - About.com:- http://ecotourism.about.com/
Resources for outdoor adventure travelers. Follow links to news articles, tour companies,
popular holiday sites, and environmental information.
Ecotourism for Vacations in Canada:- http://www.ecotourism.bc.ca
Plan Canadian getaways with these resources that provide facts and recreational activity
details for each region. Links to travel companies.
Ecotours in Western Samoa:- http://www.magna.com.au/~hideaway/apw_eco.html
Tour Robert Louis Stevenson's home or take an eco-friendly safari and discover the
archeology, wildlife and culture of Western Samoa.
Ecotravel Vacations & Holidays:- http://JourneyQuest.Com/ecotravel.html
Directory for outdoor getaways has contact info and links of regional companies. Plus
planning resources and a directory searchable by theme.
Global Outposts:- http://www.earthfound.com/tours.html
Go! provides tours of local cultures and natural resources promoting conservation and
responsible tourism. Check out worldwide destinations.
Go Green Adventures:- http://www.gogreentours.com/
British Columbian company designs trips that combine outdoor recreation with
environmental education. Supplies summaries about each package.
Inward Bound:- http://www.inwardbound.com/
Leads tours to "areas of the world renowned for their spiritual and healing powers."
Destinations include Peru, the Sinai, and Africa.
Kiwi Wildlife Tours
Browse available tour destinations and activities offered by this professional guide
service of New Zealand. Offers photos and package prices.
KiwiPac
Get contact information and check out the itineraries of botanical, walking, and wildlife
tours offered in Australia and New Zealand.
Kodiak Island Ultimate Adventures
Alaskan tour company offering adventure packages to Kodiak Island, including bear
viewing, fishing, kayaking, horseback riding and sightseeing.
MAYUC
Browse various tours offered throughout South America from this ecotourism company,
includes Machupicchu and Amazonia.
Mavroudis Corfield & Corfield
Site for a company offering luxury safaris through the Serengeti in Africa. Features
description of tours, costs, and photos.
Mountaineer Guides
Custom design outdoor trips with activities including fly-fishing and hiking in West
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Supplies contact data.
Natoura Ecotours
Provides photos, prices, and descriptions of the various activities available with this tour
company in Venezuela.
Nature & Adventure NSW
Guide to ecotourism and adventure holiday resources in the state's south-east, from
bushwalking to whale watching. Includes maps.
Nootka Sound Kayaking Adventures
Dive into the scenery of Vancouver Island, Canada, on these Pacific expeditions.
Includes FAQs and schedules, prices, and maps of each package.
Orinoco Tours
Specialized adventure tours and trips throughout Venezuala focusing on ecotourism and
nature. Includes prices and itineraries.
Play Oust Explorations
Company offering personally guided adventure eco-tours of PNG by aircraft, canoe and
trekking. With prices and itinerary.
Port Antonio, Jamaica
Contains accommodation, geography, and attraction information for this holiday spot.
Learn about the cooperative program for nature conservation.
San Lorenzo de El Escorial
Spain travel company offers senior persons, family, and company packages with
activities such as balloon riding and golfing. Also in Spanish.
Southern Alberta Geo History Tours
Trips instruct about the mountains, dinosaurs, heritage, and natural resources of the
Canadian region. Find package details and descriptions.
The Canadian Dream
Descriptions of the adventure and ecotourism tours run by this guide company. In English
or French.
The Helicopter Company
Reserve and order an adventure package to discover the sights of Toronto, Canada, from
an aerial view. Supplies location and company information.
TravelSource - EcoTours
Connections to agents offering eco tours to the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Tasmania and
rainforests throughout the world.
Trek Mexico
Climber and naturalist Robert Copp provides guided tours of Mexican waterfalls,
mountains, and volcanoes. View photos and get contact details.
World Wildlife Fund
WWF travel program offers guided wildlife tours all over the world with a
knowledgeable staff. View trip listings, photographs, and a FAQs page.
Conservation Economics and Green Politics
OBJECTIVES
How do we put value to the natural resources that surround us. How as societies do we
live within a sustainable framework with our environment. How could you translate this
principles into practise.
VIEWPOINT
In this summary I would like to consider how you could extrapolate many of the
principles discussed in this course into a more ecologically sustainable world. In order
to do this I believe that we need to consider the following consideration, approaches and
actions:Stabilise the human population. Regardless of advances in any other areas, including
scientific information policy development and medical science, the human population
juggernaut must be slowed and stopped. Most conservation advances will be lost if
human population continues to grow to its currently predicted levels of 12 to 15 Billion
by the end of the 21st century. Many subsistence communities in Transkei coastal
regions historically were probably ecologically sustainable, but increasing population
pressure and changes to cash based economies are having effects on the coastal
resources.
Identify centres of Biodiversity. In South Africa up until a decade ago much of the
studies on the biodiversity focused on ecosystems such as the Cape Floristic regions
(fynbos) and evergreen forests. As the focus shifts to other regions such as the Succulent
Karoo so will more centers of endemism and high biodiversity be “discovered”. In the
Transkei regions the Pondoland centre of endemism, although identified, the extent of its
uniqueness and its contribution to biodiversity is not fully recorded. For example more
than 1000 plant species have been collected within the Port St Johns area (Kei,
Herbarium University of Transkei). Even within the Cape Floristic Region the
biodiversity in certain areas is only now being documented, e.g. the Hermanus area, a
massively expanding coastal resort and centre for ecotourism had more than 1500 plant
species in a collection area little more than 3000 ha and as yet our knowledge on what
has become locally extinct is not known.
Need to develop a more global perspective of the earth’s natural resources, while solving
problems locally whenever possible. Human communities tend to think locally and in
immediate time frames. This is especially important in subsistence societies that rely
heavily on livestock for their livelihood and as means of economic management (e.g. the
communal lands of the Northern Cape or Transkei region of the eastern parts of South
Africa). Understandably in such communities immediate needs (food, shelter and
comfort) prevail over more abstract issues such as the health of surrounding ecosystems
both spatially and temporally. Most societies acts as though political boundaries will
protect us from various forms of ecological deterioration and yet many problems such as
elevated C02 levels, ozone depletion, water pollution and melting of the ice caps are
global in their effects. Recognition of the globalization of the problems is a partial
acceptance of the joint responsibilities that humans have to the well-being of the earth
but such recognitions needs to be accompanied by considering any problem, where ever it
occurs as relevant and cause for concern. Hardin (1993) argues that environmental and
social problems can and should be solved locally. Solutions need to be solved through
local means, wherever possible, and with the participation of local people. The slogan
“Think globally, act locally” is particularly appropriate.
Develop ecological (steady-state) economics to replace growth economics. An ecological
sustainable world cannot be acheived if we depend on economies that require continued
growth to sustain themselves. Economic growth as reflected by increasing GDPs is the
cornerstone to virtually all political states in the world, a principle that is clearly illogical
since resources must eventually reach limits where supplies are exhausted. The target of
all nations should be equilibrium economies that function within sustainable or steadystate environments.
Modify human value systems to reflect ecological reality rather than economical fantasy.
Many governments have grand plans for economic up-liftment such as the Spatial
Development Initiatives - or SDIs in South Africa that are aimed at bringing outsiders
(especially off-shore foreign investment) and that such capital investment will solve the
issues facing these agrarian-based subsistence societies. Unfortunately rather than
soliciting high stake international markets, these communities should be isolated from
them to prevent the “get rich quick and get out schemes”. It is therefore necessary for
societies ranging from National governments to local communities to change the way
they perceive the world, the value of natural systems and the management of their
economies. A philosophy of “using less is best” should be instilled in our value systems.
Fortunately examples of such philosophies are evolving such as the “Waterwise
Gardening Programme”
READING MATERIAL
African National Congress ANC- Policy Document on the Environment, Western Cape
(Conservation of Biodiversity):http://gopher.anc.org.za/ancdocs/policy/enviroweb.html#6
African National Congress ANC - Towards an integrated management of our natural
environment:- http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pubs/mayi9801c.html
Democratic Party see paragraph at the END of the Election Manifesto!
http://www.dp.org.za/policy.asp?policy=1022
Inkatha Freedom Party IFP - Environmental Policy:- http://ifp.org.za/polenvir.htm
Inkatha Freedom Party IFP - Forestry Policy:- http://ifp.org.za/polfores.htm
National Party:- (Sorry Folks they do not have a search engine on their site) see if you
can find anything on the environment! http://www.natweb.co.za/
Government by the People Green Party (South Africa):- http://www.greenparty.co.za
Government by the People Green Party (South Africa) Natural Resources:http://www.greenparty.co.za/natural.htm
Links to Green Parties and Politics (Very Comprehensive):http://www.greenparty.co.za/ecolinks.htm
Envirolinks - the Online Environmental Community:- http://www.envirolink.org/
Practicals: Mapping and Managing Resources
OBJECTIVES
To understand what information can be obtained from maps, orthophotographs and aerial
photographs and how it can be usefully applied. Familiarize yourself with computerbased techniques to mapping and define what a Geographical Information System (GIS)
is and how it can be used for conservation in remote areas such as the Transkei Coast
(case study). Be able to define the differences between a vector and a raster-based GIS
and know where the strength and weakness of each system is. Discuss how GIS can be
used as a management tool and be developed for modeling and prediction. Discuss how a
GIS can be implemented on an internet. Understands the fundamentals of spatial
interpolations and how distribution maps, contour and territory (nearest neighbour) maps
can be generated. Know what a GPS is and how it can be used to create maps and spatial
model distributions. Know about various Atlas projects in South Africa and how the
public can participate in collecting of scientific data.
READING MATERIAL
Knight, R.S. 1996. Geographical Information Systems: Tools of the future today. IT at
Unitra 1 (2) 4
Maguire, D.J. 1991. An overview and definition of GIS. In: Geographical Information
Systems Prindciples and Applications; Maguire, D., Goodchild, M. & Rhind, D.W. (eds)
Longman Scientific and Technical, Harlow.
Eastman, J.R. 1997. Chapter 11. Image Exploration. In: Idrisi for Windows Version 2;
Tutorial exercises, Eastman, J.R. IDRISI production, Clark University.
Eastman, J.R. 1997. Chapter 12. Supervised Classification. In: Idrisi for Windows
Version 2; Tutorial exercises, Eastman, J.R. IDRISI production, Clark University.
Eastman, J.R. 1997. Chapter 13. Principal Components Analysis. In: Idrisi for Windows
Version 2; Tutorial exercises, Eastman, J.R. IDRISI production, Clark University.
Eastman, J.R. 1997. Chapter 14. Unsupervised Classification. In: Idrisi for Windows
Version 2; Tutorial exercises, Eastman, J.R. IDRISI production, Clark University.
Scott, J.M. 1997. Gap Analysis: Assessing Landscape Trends in Diversity. In: Principles
of Conservation Biology, Meffe, G.K., Carroll, C.R. & contributors. Sinauer Associates,
Sunderland, Massachusetts, pp 408-410.
Fabricius, C. & Coetzee, K. 1992. Geographical information systems and artificial
intelligence for predicting the presence or absence of mountain reedbuck. South African
Journal of Wildlife Research 22: 80-86.
Vertical Mapper tm Contour modeling and display software for MapInfo. 1996. Chapter
1 About Vertical Mapper. Northwood Geoscience Ltd, Ontario pp 1-27.
Goos, M. 1990. The global positioning system and its GIS applications. In: The 1990
GIS sourcebook, pp. 254-259. GIS World Inc.
South African Frog Atlas Project (SAFAP) Information sheet 1 1995. Getting Started.
Avian Demography
Actual Vegetation Layer:http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/gap/AboutGAP/Handbook/LCM.htm
Methods for Developing Terrestrial Vertebrate Distribution Maps for GAP Analysis:http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/gap/AboutGAP/Handbook/VDM.htm
A Question to consider:
You have been given the task of managing small ungulate populations in the West Coast
National Park. Discuss how you could use a Cyber Tracker, Geographical Information
Systems, Spatial Interpolations, GAP analysis and Artificial Intelligence (including
GARP - Genetic Algorithms for Rule set Production) in order to predict the occurrence of
theses animals in the area and whether there are seasonal changes in their habitat
utilization.
Reference Site: http://www.erin.gov.au/database/WWW-Fall94/species_paper_new.html
Application and Course Project
APPLICATION AND COURSE PROJECT
Planning, developing and managing the False Bay Coastal Park and to present results as
a web page.