Understanding Biodiversity and its Importance

• Biodiversity encompasses the variety of genes, species, ecosystems, and life in the world
• Biodiversity helps keep the planet habitable and supports economies

Status of Earth's Biodiversity

• Extinction is reducing biodiversity
• Human impacts have resulted in many extinctions reducing global biodiversity
• Many scientists believe a human-driven mass extinction, "the sixth extinction," is underway impacting hundreds to >10,000 species
• Habitats are being altered through agriculture, deforestation, and urbanization
• Many habitats are so fragmented that species have lost necessary population size and genetic diversity
• Overexploitation (overhunting) leads to the overuse or overexploitation of resources
• Seafood is being overexploited due to modern fishing technologies
• Modern fishing techniques generate bycatch- animals that industries do not want, cannot sell, or are not allowed to keep
• The introduction of invasive species impacts natural predation, harming native species and biodiversity
• Kudzu vines and English ivy have smothered and eliminated several native plants
• Human activity has created dead zones in water systems by damming rivers, changing fish migrations, withdrawing large water volumes, and polluting
• Climate change is apparent around the globe, and especially noticeable due to the loss of artic ice and coral bleaching from acidification and temperature increase

Why Protect Biodiversity?

• One reason to protect biodiversity is the instrumental value of species, which is the usefulness of a particular species for human purposes
• The rosy periwinkle flower from Madagascar has instrumental value, since it has been a source of cancer treatment
• Another motivation is the intrinsic value, the value of something separate from its usefulness to others.
• Loss of species diversity reduces productivity and resilience of ecosystems, according to the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
• Ecosystem services are beneficial to humans, like fire protection.
• Ecosystem services include a wetland's ability to naturally purify water
• Examples of ecosystem services include oxygen, water, food, energy, and building materials
• Provisioning services are services ecosystems provide that are consumed or used by humans
• Examples of provisioning services include salmon, fresh water for survival, wood from forests, and plants

What Are Protected Areas?

• Governments create protected areas where ecosystems are protected, such as national parks
• National parks protect areas of scenic, historical, and/or scientific importance and are maintained by the National Park Service
• The first US national park was Yellowstone National Park
• Yellowstone contains a diversity of mammals similar to when it first opened

Limits of Protected Areas

• Areas most favorable to human crop production and settlement have the least percentage of protected land.
• A large percentage of grasslands have been converted to agricultural land and are under-protected
• Coastal areas have been converted for human settlement and have little protection. Outpacing marine environments
• Most global protected areas still experience poaching (illegal hunting) as well as illegal logging and mining operations
• Enforcing protected area status is challenging due to access, conflict, and expense

How Laws Protect Biodiversity

• In 1918, the United States and Canada ratified the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protects more than 800 types of birds, such as the bald eagle
• Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 protects whales, dolphins, seals, and manatees
• The Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 protects both endangered plants and animals from hunting and trapping

International Laws

• The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) bans the hunting, capturing, and selling of endangered and threatened species
• The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity commits countries to pass laws to expand protected areas, restore degraded ecosystems, and ensure sustainability

Reducing Biodiversity Loss

• Deforestation, the clearing of forested areas, is destroying habitats for land-based plants and animals and promotes soil erosion
• In Africa, 90% of harvested wood is used for firewood
• In Southeast Asia, much of the deforestation is due to conversion of land to oil palm plantations
• Sustainable forest management manages forests not only for harvest but also for maintaining biodiversity
• Important practices include leaving patches of living trees to reseed, leaving patches of dead trees known as “snags" as bird habitat, and prohibiting logging on steep slopes to present erosion

Test Questions and Answers

• Question 1: Activities that violate CITES
• Answer: Bringing back an ivory chess set bought on safari in Africa (Correct)
• Question 2: Consequence of clearing forests for agriculture
• Answer: Soil erosion increases (Correct)
• Question 3: True about ecosystem services?
• Answer: Ecosystem services are economically valuable (Correct)
• Question 4: Motivation of species diversity focus
• Answer: Value of the organism is apart from the usefulness to others (Correct)