U6115: Populations & Land Use

Tuesday July 8, 2003

 What is Biodiversity
 Importance of Biodiversity
 Levels of Biodiversity
 Threats to Biodiversity
 Patterns of Biodiversity
A one-acre patch of elm trees produces
oxygen, removes carbon from the
atmosphere, and captures at least 16 tons
of airborne dirt, which rain then washes
back to the ground as productive soil.

Norman Myers 1983

What is Biodiversity?
 The variety of different types of organisms present
and interacting in an ecosystem.
 Often more species equals more diversity, although
there are, in fact many more factors beyond a simple
count of species that determine whether biodiversity
is higher or lower in any given ecosystem.
Biodiversity and global economy
 Globally agriculture, which depends on genetic stock from
natural ecological systems, is now a $3 trillion global
 Recreation and nature tourism generates some $12 billion
worldwide in annual revenues
 In the United States, the economic benefits from wild plants
and animals comprise approximately 4.5% of the Gross
Domestic Product.
 Global trade in wild plants (timber and others) is estimated at
$6 billion annually
Biodiversity and food security
 Much of the world's major food crops, including corn, wheat,
and soybeans, depend on new genetic material from the wild to
remain productive and healthy.
 Food production from wild stocks of fish is the single largest
source of animal protein for the world's 6 billion inhabitants. In
the US alone more than 10 billion pounds of fish, valued at
about $4 billion, were caught and sold yearly.
Levels of Biodiversity

 Genetic Diversity
 Species Diversity
 Ecosystem Diversity
Genetic Diversity
 Amount and variety of genetic material within individuals,
populations or communities
 Source of biodiversity at all levels
 Knowledge of amount of genetic variability present within local
populations essential in directing conservation programs.
 Amount of genetic differences among species could help
determine rates of evolutionary change
Species Level
 Species Richness: numerical count of species present in an
area. Richness tends to increase over area and sampling
intensity

 Species Diversity: When species are weighted by some

measure of importance e.g. abundance, productivity or size.
 Measures of Diversity include:
– Shannon-Wiener Index
– Simpson index
Shannon’s Diversity Index

 Assume that there are n possible categories in a data set and

that their proportions are pi,.....,pn. Then Shannon’s diversity
index for this system is defined to be :
 H’ = -Σpiln(pi)
 accounts for both abundance and evenness of the species
present
 The proportion of species i relative to the total number of
species (pi) is calculated, and then multiplied by the natural
logarithm of this proportion (lnpi).
Simpson’s Diversity Index, D

 Simpson's diversity index (D) characterizes species

diversity in a community.
 Simpson's diversity index (D) characterizes species
diversity in a community.
 D = 1/(Σpi2)
 The proportion of species i relative to the total
number of species (pi) is calculated and squared.
The squared proportions for all the species are
summed, and the reciprocal is taken.
Ecosystem and Biome diversity
 Ecosystems are the collection of all the plants and
animals within a particular area
 Ecosystems may differ in species composition,
physical structure and function as a result of
differences in physical structure and composition
 Biomes are large ecological units on the basis of
dominant vegetation
 Preserving a variety of ecosystems and biomes are
necessary for preserving species diversity
Temporal Patterns of Species richness

 Fossil record indicate variation of species

richness over time and space
 Largest number of phyla in the Cambrian
and pre-Cambrian period
 Total number of phyla has since declined but
overall richness has increased
Spatial patterns of species richness

 Point Richness: number of species that can be

found in a single point in space
 Alpha (α-) richness: number of species found in a
small homogenous area
 Beta (β-) richness: rate of change in species in
species composition across habitats
 Gamma (γ-) richness: change across large
landscape gradients
 Richness is directly related to physical environment,
productivity and structural complexity of communities
 Species /Area relations
100 Cuba
Number of species

Jamaica

10 Monserrat
Saba
Redonda

10 100 1000 10000 100000

Area (sq.mi)
Relationship between area and number of amphibian
species in selected Islands in West Indies- MacArthur & Wilson 1967
Limits of species richness

 Productivity hypothesis: High productivity

results in higher number of species
 Stability hypothesis- environments that are
stable tend to support higher number species
Threats to biodiversity
 habitat destruction (slash and burn agric. or felling
of old-growth forests)
 overexploitation (fishing, hunting)
 pollution (domestic and industrial emissions)
 global climate change (the greenhouse effect and
destruction of the ozone layer)
 invasion by introduced species (displacement of
native species
 underlying social conditions (increased per-capita
consumption, poverty, rapid population growth,
unsound economic and social policies )
Threats to Biodiversity cont’d

 Habitat degradation
– Some 93% of coral reefs damaged directly or
indirectly by human activities
– During the 1990s between 130,000 and 150,000
km2 of forest cover lost each year
 Changes in atmospheric composition.
 siltation, nutrient loading, pollution of air and
water by toxic chemicals
Patterns of species vulnerability

 Rare Species
 Long-lived species
 Keystone species
Rare species

 May be the result of many factors small

range, high habitat specificity or small
population density
 Human-induced rarity may be more
damaging
Long-lived species

 Well-suited to long-term predictability

 Often not equipped to adapt to rapid changes
brought by human-induced changes
 Often population declines may take many
years to recover
Keystone species

 A species or group of species that makes

and unusual contribution to a community
structure or processes
 May be predators, food source or species
that maintains critical ecosystem processes
 A loss of a keystone species may lead to loss
of others that depend on it.
 Biodiversity Management
Conservation vs Preservation?

 All about management of Genetic Variation

– Aim is to allow continued evolutionary change in the
populations and species concerned
– Since ecological systems are not static- management
should allow for change- Conservation rather than
preservation.
– 3 Time scales of concern: extinction avoidance (short-term);
ability to adapt or evolve (medium term) and potential for
continued speciation (long-term)
– Units of conservation: What are the units of conservation?
How do we determine the most appropriate unit?
Next week

 Habitat fragmentation and biological

consequences
 Population dynamics on heterogeneous
landscapes
Today’s lab
 Review of two short papers.
 Stuart Chapin III et al 2000. Consequences of changing
biodiversity Nature Vol. 405 pp. 234
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v405/n6783/full/405234a0_fs.html&conte
nt_filetype=pdf

 Franklin, J.F. 1993. Preserving Biodiversity: Species,

Ecosystems or Landscapes? Ecological Applications, 3(2), pp.
202 - 205. http://www.jstor.org/cgi-bin/jstor/printpage/10510761/di960380/96p0004u/0.pd
f?userID=a027019f@columbia.edu/01cc9933410050dc70eb&backcontext=table-ofcontents&config=jstor
&dowhat=Acrobat&0.pdf