Biology 367: Conservation Biology Introduction

• Biology 367 is a course in Conservation Biology taught by Professor Jessica Haines
• Office is 6-118M with office hours being Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30-1:50 in room 5-234
• The textbook can be found at https://pressbooks.openeducationalberta.ca/schneider/

Introduction

• Group projects can have up to 4 people

Defining Conservation Biology

• A case study example is the Peregrine Falcon in Canada
• The Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus, is good for pest control because it eats pigeons
• Peregrine falcons are in Canada during the summer and widespread across the world
• Peregrine falcons are birds of prey that hunt other birds by diving very fast
• A concern with Peregrine Falcons is eggshell thickness due to DDT consumption
• DDT is a pesticide used to target insects but also affects prey species eaten by predators
• Predators consuming insects with DDT results in a decline in the predator species due to decreasing eggshell thickness
• Studies on Herring gulls showed that DDT thins eggshells
• Higher DDT concentrations resulted in lower eggshell thickness and weight
• Studies on Peregrine falcon eggs showed that DDT likely thins eggs, resulting in lighter and thinner eggs

Population Impacts

• High levels of eggshell thinning are associated with population decline
• Thinner eggshells are more likely to break, leading to lower reproductive success and ultimately a population decline
• Broken eggshells in a North American peregrine eyrie were first observed in 1947 by J.A. Hagar
• Broken eggs, along with egg eating, were next observed in Quebec in 1948, and Pennsylvania in 1949 and 1950

Reintroduction and Recovery

• The Peregrine Falcon population began to increase in the 2000s due to several conservation efforts that were introduced:
  • Population monitoring showed that peregrines were returning to areas where they previously lived.
  • Reintroduction and captive breeding programs increased the population.
  • DDT was banned.
• As a result, Peregrine falcons are no longer threatened with extinction.

Conservation Biology Definition

• Conservation biology is a mission-oriented science focused on protecting and restoring biodiversity
• It is goal-oriented in bringing species back from extinction

Three Goals of Conservation Biology

• To understand how the diversity of life is distributed around the planet.
• To identify the threats facing this diversity.
• To reduce or eliminate these threats and restore biological diversity and ecosystem health
  • Exam tip: This case study serves as an example of the goals of conservation biology

Ethical Principles of Conservation Biology

• Biological diversity has intrinsic value.
• The untimely extinction of populations and species should be prevented.
• The diversity of species and the complexity of biological communities should be preserved.
• Science plays a critical role in understanding ecosystems.
• Collaboration among scientists, managers, policymakers, and the public is important.

Conservation Models

• There is a Biocentric model
• There is a Social Model

Review Questions

• Conservation biology focuses on protecting and restoring biodiversity on Earth
• Peregrine falcons were threatened by DDT, which led to eggshell thinning
• Conservation measures like banning DDT, reintroduction, captive breeding, and monitoring helped bring them back
• The ethical principles of biology in the peregrine falcon case study demonstrated prevention of untimely extinction
• DDT was banned to keep Peregrine Falcons from going extinct
• Biocentric models are less specific, focusing on identifying and counteracting disturbances.
• Social models prioritize the roles of science, economy, and organizations in biological conservation.

History of Conservation Biology

• Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau: 1800's
  • Believed in nature's importance for human spirituality
  • Emerson: Nature is a temple for enlightenment
  • Thoreau: Argued against materialism and advocated for nature
  • They were philosophers wrote about the importance of nature
• Muir and Pinchot:
  • Muir held a preservationist ethic
    • Spiritual value of natural areas outweighs economic gains
    • Natural areas should be protected, separate from humans
  • Pinchot was the first head of the US forest service
    • Resource conservation ethic: using the natural world to provide goods sustainably
    • Natural resources are commodities: wood, medicinal plants, clean water
• Aldo Leopold:
  • Believed in a Land ethic: conservation should protect ecosystem function and processes
  • Humans are members and good neighbors in the natural community
• Rachel Carson:
  • promoted Environmentalism as a social and political movement
  • Silent Spring educated the public about pesticide impacts
  • Credited with starting the environmental movement
• Michael Soule:
  • Organized an international conference in 1978 focused on Conservation Biology
  • Proposed the new field of conservation biology due to declines in biodiversity across the globe
  • Founded the Society for Conservation Biology in 1985.

Inclusion

• Women were often excluded from history and participation
• Colonialism and racism are linked to scientific racism
• Controlled burns are helpful to control and manage wildlife

Three Levels of Biodiversity

• Species diversity
• Genetic diversity
• Ecosystem diversity

Three Species Definitions

• Morphological: Define species based on physical similarities, used in field guides
• Biological: Define species based on their ability to breed, challenges arise with hybridization
• Evolutionary: Define species based on shared evolutionary history
• Defining species is important for conservation, such as protecting species with legislation
• Bighorn and Thinhorn sheep are hunted, so defining species and subspecies is key for sustainable hunting and to combat disease
• Long Tailed Shrew (Sorex dispar) and Gaspe Shrew (Sorex gaspensis) were originally considered separate species by COSEWIC
• Genetic research proved they were a single species of Long tailed shrew
• Cosewic reassessed Gaspe shrew and designated it as “not at risk” because long tailed shrews had a larger distribution
• Species definitions have consequences for conservation decisions

Species Diversity Measurements

• Species richness: Diversity in an area
• Alpha: Species number in a small area, used to prioritize species diversity
• Gamma: Species number in a larger area/region, used to prioritize species diversity
• Beta: Comparison between the region and smaller habitat patches (Gamma / Alpha)
  • If Beta=1, region and small habitats have the same species
  • If Beta>1, more species are present in the region than in individual habitat patches
  • Beta prioritizes whether small habitat patches represent the larger region
• Shannon Diversity Index (H): Relative abundance, assessing if all species are equally abundant
• Effective Population Size (Nₑ): Number of breeding individuals in a population
• Total Population Size: Total number of individuals in a population

Organizations

• IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) assesses across the entire global range
• COSEWIC (Committee On the Status of Endangered Wildlife In Canada) focuses on the Canadian range
• SARA (Species At Risk Act) is a risk act

Cougar Conservation

• In the 1990s, there were only 20-25 Florida panthers which lead to inbreeding and lead to - Kinked tails - Heart defect - Low sperm count - High parasite loads - Low fecundity - Low testosterone

Florida Panther Conservation

• Texas cougars used to travel to Florida, so Texas cougars were a source for new genetics
• 8 individuals were moved from text to Florida and markers showed that they successfully bred with the Florida population
• Heterozygosity measures genetic diversity
  • Percent of Heterozygosity in Florida Panthers: High = good genetic diversity/ low inbreeding

Effects of Introducing Texas Cougars

• Increase in heterozygosity
• Increase in reproduction
• Increase in population size
• Decrease in the average age of the population

Current Issues

• Habitat changes
• Road mortality
• Feline leukemia

Hunting

• Hunting causes decline in breeding value for body and horn size
• Hunted males have larger horns and bodies than unhunted ones
• Hunting can result in the loss of genes for large horn and body size leading to reduced genetic diversity

Conservation Genetics of Arctic Grayling in Alberta

• Study of species of Grayling fish
• Designates species and sub-species in Eurasia using genetic analysis
• Conservation can be achieved via molecular ecology
  • What you need to understand when conserving at the molecular level:
    • How many genetic groups are on the landscaper?
    • How genetically diverse are those groups?
    • Can we link genotypes to traits?

Conservation Genomics

• Uses genetic information to inform management decisions
• You can conserve and inform management of the: - Most threatened Species - Restricted-range endemics - Flagship umbrella or keystone species - Species with significant economic, ecological, scientific, or cultural value - Genetic diversity

Arctic Grayling Conservation Status:

• They are susceptible to the reductions in water quality and increases in temperature when
• They are an AB species of special concern by Canada has them not listed
• COSEWIC( Arctic grayling (western Arctic DU) are high priority candidate for status assessment

Understanding the Phylogeographic Structure of Arctic Grayling:

• A unit of Canadian biodiversity that is discrete and evolutionarily significant
  • Divides the species range into smaller pieces
  • The pieces get assessed independently
  • Assessments can produce different status ranks

Why is COSEWIC essential in Designatable Units:

• Units get divided into species range into smaller prices depending on whether they are a: - Taxonomic Entity - Isolated population - Maor Phylogenetic Group - Diagnostic linear genes - In terms of the degree of adaptation - What the ecosystems are delineated and what Ecoregions are there

Follow up Research Objectives to see if a species of Arctic Grayling as designatable

     - catch and photograph the fish
     - take a tissue sample for DNA analysis and conduct geometric morphometrics
     - measure meristics and compare morphology and genetics.

How Genetic Adaptation Can Influence Species Development

• There must be other genetic (generic) signals that show some local adaptation
  • Need to define what is the range of NAhani lineage
  • whether two lineages interbreed

Inbreeding vs. Outbreeding

• Inbreeding Depression is when an inbreeding population suffers a reduction in what was expected
  • Examples from lack of reproduction to physical abnormalities
• Outbreeding Depression is when when a population will suffer impact such as reduction in a genetic adaptations

Loss of Evolutionary Flexibility

• if diversity is lower than expected the species will not adapt well
  • Genes that do have the higher possibility to help a population change are to be conserved so that populations can cope with changes

Managing Genetic Diversity

• You must understand in Black rhinos the males will kill males and females
  • Trophy hunting is to monitor population making sure it will thrive
• Ecosystem Diversity

Key Terms

• Ecosystem Diversity is the function of the conservation ecosystems that help population
  • Kelp forests increase and thrive with sea otters due to them keeping urchins that destroy it away
  • Wolves are a prime example of the importance of biodiversity as they control populations and cause biodiversity to thrive

Key definitions that involve interactions in Eco system biodiversity:

• Mesopredator release happens when something reduces populations of higher population which allows mid-level species to reproduce and consume more resources
  • this can happen due to large threats to bigger populations, direct prediction or competition
• Landscape of Fear includes description on the impact of predators of prey
  • consumptive effect which causes impacts due to a predator eating the organisms
  • fear effects which causes species to change behavior
  • trophic cascade which happens when removing one species causes changes to multiple levels

Major threats in the Earth right now with effects:

• Climate Change which is causing shifts in: - Temperature resulting in the burning of coal and oil - the weather as weather patterns worsen with increase heat

Key Effects:

• Temperature increase creates a high concentration
  • it also reduces ice/ alters Ice patterns changing animal behavior
• The rise in sea level is becoming a bigger impact as animals will suffer from habitat loss or lack of mobility

Conservation Consequences

• The phenology of mountainous regions may decline as the species will have habitat loss,
  • Species will not have the safety they need in the environment to the weather and potential predation
• Alpine species that bloom will not be able to have what is needed for proper pollination
• if a species is atop in high elevated temperatures what do they need to survive as they no longer have more to expand the habitat,
• Over is used because there is no regulation on many areas which can cause problems in water fishing or poaching

What Invasive Species Do

• Introduction causes harm and are accidental through human contact
  • they take down natural habitats
  • some harm and can spread disease with the species
    • An organism having or obtaining a form of habitat loss

There are varying forms of how habitat degradation happens when damage through humans affect habitat:

• Overgrazing and Pollution
  • If animals cause to much disruption to a piece of earth what comes after it cannot form roots
  • Pollution (air pollution) causes a habitat to be diminished when a chemical is released into the environment
    • Microplastics are able to cause habitat degradation.
    • This causes a negative effect on animals and their habitat due to the disturbance.

Threats By Region

• The use of pesticides chemicals when you're dealing with something in nature
  • But the conversation of initiatives have had success with species when they been to specific species with good results

Major key ways the use of certain regions has created a cause for damage

• The hunting of markets to harvest food species
  • certain hunting that cause that effect is banned
• Certain pesticides and hunting
  • Industrial forsety is the main pressure in the ecosystem due to forestry

Effects On Species Due To Human Action

• An organism getting killed due to the means of the forest causes the rest to be disrupted as it is a chain of effects
• Oil and Gas industry does the same by having impact from fragmenting a good region for potential habitat
• Human activity increases human population which effects habitat loss and biodiversity

Effects Of Over population on species

• We are going over the carrying over capacity:
  • health care industry
  • food supply
  • other forms of technological advances
• The planet uses a Ecological Footprint system to map ecological impact/
• Human development index measures living through the means of resources
  • The more money/ living you have the bigger impact you have on ecological systems
• Living index measures the changes from the 1970