Species Diversity

1. Species Diversity

2. World Conservation Monitoring Centre categories for rare species • Extinct – not definitely reported in 50 years • Endangered – taxa in danger of extinction and whose survival is unlikely if current trends continue • Vulnerable – taxa likely to move into endangered category in near future if current trends continue (USFWS calls this group threatened) • Rare – taxa with small world populations that are not at present endangered or vulnerable but are at risk • Indeterminate – taxa known to be endangered, vulnerable or rare but where there is not enough information to say which category applies • Out of danger – once endangered, vulnerable or rare but now considered relatively secure • Insufficiently known – taxa that are suspected to be endangered, vulnerable or rare but not enough is known to be sure • Threatened – any taxa considered endangered, vulnerable, rare or insufficiently known • Commercially threatened – taxa not currently threatened with extinction but where all or most populations are threatened as a sustainable commercial resource

3. Thylacine – Tasmanian wolf - Extinct?

4. Black rhino – Endangered

5. Nile crocodile - Vulnerable

6. Wood duck – Out of Danger

7. Atlantic cod – vulnerable & commercially threatened

8. Atlantic cod – amount caught

9. Headlines about U.S. backlog of candidate endangered species • ENDANGERED SPECIES: Obama admin confronts 'candidate species' backlog (Greenwire, 09/08/2009) • Endangered Species Backlog to Decrease Under U.S. Work Plan By William McQuillen - May 10, 2011 3:45 PM CT

10. Backlogged candidate species – Florida bonneted bat and streaked horned lark

11. Climate and distribution • Climate, particularly temperature and precipitation, influences the distribution of the earth's organisms • In each major kind of climate, a distinctive type of vegetation develops - for desert plants occur in arid (dry) climates, grasses with semi-arid climates and forests with moist climates • Certain animals, fungi and other organisms are associated with particular vegetation types

12. Biomes • A Biome is a large, relatively distinct terrestrial ecosystem characterized by particular climate, soil, plants and animals, regardless of where it occurs on earth • A biome's boundaries are determined by climate more than by any other factor

13. Biomes

14. Limits to Biome Distribution

15. Limits to Biome Distribution

16. Anthropogenic Biomes – fromEllis and Ramankutty 2008

19. Global Patterns of Species Richness Global Amphibian Diversity

20. Global Patterns of Species Richness

21. Measures of Biodiversity • Species richness – the number of species in an area – the simplest measure of biodiversity • Species evenness or equitability – the relative proportion of number of individuals of each species in an area • Often richness and evenness are combined into a Species Diversity Index

25. Explanations for Global Patterns of Species Richness 1) Morphological diversity, spatial heterogeneity 2) High average rarity - no monocultures – in tropics 3) Climatic constancy of tropics 4) Geological age 5) Special adaptations in extreme (harsh) environments 6) Competitive "balance" 7) Alternating competitive advantages 8) "All niches filled theory" - saturation of community 9) Productivity from A.R. Wallace - 1878

26. Richness and Productivity

27. Richness and Structural Diversity

28. Environmental harshness

29. Richness and Climatic Variability

30. Richness and Environmental Age South American Rain Forest – Today and Past Refuges

31. Richness and High Average Rarity Global Plant Richness Local Centers Of Diversity Quality of Data

32. Richness and High Average Rarity Endemic Plant Species Globally

33. Richness and High Average Rarity Endemic Plant Species Globally

34. Richness and High Average Rarity Endemic Plants in Africa