Conservation Biology- Part 1

• 1.) Overexploitation
• 2.) Habitat destruction
• 3.) Global warming/changes in climate

Process of returning a degraded habitat (caused by human activity) to it former non-degraded state

Ecological principles (both theoretical and empirical)

• 1.) Ecology
• 2.) Population genetics
• 3.) Sociology
• 4.) Anthropology
• 5.) Philosophy/religion

is the max # of individuals of any species that the earth can support

• Groups of individuals (=pops) that actually or potentially can interbreed and are reproductively isolated from other such groups
• The ability of individuals to mate and produce sexually viable offspring

• 1.) Most matings have not been attempted
• 2.) What about species that reproduce asexually
• 3.) Hybridization

Designates species according to the branching pattern of higher taxa based upon the concept of "shared derived characteristics"

• 1.) Character choice can affect the phylogenetic tree
• 2.) Convergent evolution

The acquistion of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages (e.g. wings; bats and birds)

When two or more groups share a characteristic that is not a primitive condition

When two or more groups share a characteristic that is a primitive condition

Lineages of ancestral-descendent populations of organisms that are distinct from other such groups and are subject to their own evolutionary pathway and historical fate

One that is in imminent threat of extinction overall or most of its range

Not currently endangered, but likely to become endangered in the near future

• Made up of farmers, ranchers, rural electric companies, and rural irrigators.
• Believes too much economic hardships in protecting endangered sub-species or distinct populations

• Ban commercial international trade of an agreed upon list of endangered species
• Monitors and regulates the international trade of species that may become endangered in the future

• Confers protection at the species level
• Relies on the "State of Export" to determine the status of the species in their country
• No international overseeing organization for enforcement

Ammospiza maritima

Ammospiza maritima nigrescens

Ammospiza maritima mirabilis

Prefered tree of the Dusky seaside sparrow

Describes nature in a qusi-religious manner in which habitats should be conserved for its aesthetic and spiritual values

• Eastern US: H.D. Thoreau and R.W. Emerson
• Western US: J. Muir

• Diametrically opposed to the RTC
• Divides nature into: good, bad, and useless

J.S. Mills (English intellectual)

• Promoted by academics/scientists in an attempt to maintain biodiversity
• Intermediate between the RTC and RC

Aldo Leopold (wrote "A Sand County Almanac")

• The Nature Conservation
• The National Park Service

• U.S. Forest Service
• Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

Academics and scientists

a species with a disproportionately large effect on the ecosystem

two species interaction where one benefits and one isn't affected

elevated the conservation of species/habitats above the immediate concerns of developers/exploiters

• (=types) species defined based upon the mean value of their traits
• Origins:
• 1.) Plato= "perfect forms"
• 2.) Judeo-christians= "kinds"; species specially created

(=population) variation of the distribution is what defines each species

maximizes the overall good for the max. # of people for the largest period of time

Gifford Pinchot

• 1.) Overexploitation
• 2.) Habitat destruction
• 3.) Introduced species

• Introduced intentionally: like crops
• Introduced accidentally: Like the Cactoblastic cactorum (moth)

• 1.) Distance (as "d" increased, genetic flow decreases)
• 2.) Environment (different populations experience different selective pressures)
• 3.) Time (greater the time seperated creates a increase in unique alleles)

• is a rapid loss of most of the world's species in a relatively short period of time
• (over several generations)

• the keeping or proctecting of something from change, loss, or damage
• ~ to conserve something

Not really a science, but a discipline within sciences

random fixation/loss of alleles in a population

Transfer of genes from one population to another population of the same species

The evolutionary development and history of a species or higher taxonomic grouping of organisms

any gradual change in a particular characteristic of a population of an organism from one end of the gepgraphical range of the population to the other