Sustainable Ecosystems 3

the number and variety of organisms found in a specific region

• To legally guard from harm a species that is listed as endangered,threatened or of special concern.
• eg. dont fish dolly varden

• a place where there is an exceptionally large number of species in a relatiively small area
• eg Carolinian Canada

all the populations of the different species that interact in a specific area or ecosystem

• a species that is so abundant that it has the biggest biomass of any community member
• eg. primary producers; if removed ecosystem will collapse

• a species that can greatly affect population numbers and the health of an ecosystem
• eg sea otters eat sea urchins, controls kelp levels

• the breeding of rare or endangered wildlife in controlled settings to increase the poulation size
• eg, prairie dogs help soil and earth but had low numbers because of ferrets so were bred captively until had a sustainable population size

• a species that causes such dramatic changes to landscapes that it creates a new ecosystem
•  eg. beavers turn small stream to aquatic ecosystem

• the series of changes in an ecosystem that occurs over time, following a disturbance
• eg beavers turn forest to flooded forest, to sunny pond to abandoned pond.
• can benefit many species

the destruction of habitats which usually results from human activities, or perhaps natural disasters

• the practice of claring forest for logging or other human uses, and never replanting them 
• may lead to desertification

• a species that is accidentally or deliberately introduced to a new location
• eg. zebra mussels

• a species that can take over the habitat of native species
• (no natural predators, grow exponentially and eat many other organisms)
• eg round gobies

• the use or extraction of a resource until it is depleted.
• biodiversity is threatened

• the death of all the individuals of a species
• eg platypus, dinosaurs, etc
• happens to 17 species per hour! :0

• the current accelerated rate of extinctinons
• usually results from actions of humans; deforestation, air and water pollution

• the renewal of degraded or destroyed ecosystems through acticve human intervention
• goal is to stimulate natural processes of regeneration to produce a sustainable or identical ecosystem

the regrowth of a froest, either through the planting of seeds or trees in an area where a forest was cut down :)

• the use of a species to control the population growth or spread of an undesirable species
• eg european parasitoid was relased to control amont of gypsy moths eating leaves (had escaped from lab)

• the use of living organisms to clean up conatminated aeras naturally
• eg certain plants are grown at toxic sites because they clean soils by colleccting poisons in their tissues

• the use of organisms to add essential nutrients to depleted soils
• eg. clover is often planted to replenish nitrogen levels in soil (important nutrient for plants)