Policies to protect and conserve biodiversity need to have an understanding of:

1. Policies to protect and conserve biodiversity need to have an understanding of: • What is biodiversity? • What does it do? • How do you measure it? • What is a species? • What are the trends through time? • What are the major threats to biodiversity? • What are specific cultural arguments for protection and conservation?

2. Describing diversity • Diversity can be described for different taxonomic levels: • Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Subspecies • Thus one can measure species diversity, family diversity, or class diversity • Which is more diverse? 10 families consisting of 200 species vs 20 families containing 100 species?

3. Taxonomic biases in biodiversity research

4. Terrapene carolina bauri

5. Subspecies • Nomenclature includes three Latin names (Genus, species, subspecies) • Subspecies designation based on morphologic or genetic differences, also geographic location and niche can be used • Interbreed freely with other subspecies to produce viable offspring – but there is also the potential for species divergence. • A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one.

7. Eastern box turtle Order: CheloniaFamily: EmydidaeGenus/species: Terrapene carolina Subspecies: Terrapene carolina bauri (Florida box turtle)Terrapene carolina major (Gulf Coast box turtle)Terrapene carolina triunguis (three-toed box turtle)Terrapene carolina (eastern box turtle)

8. Low evenness: elephants dominant (Lower diversity) • Diversity can be described in terms of evenness and richness Equal richness-same number of species (10) High evenness (Higher diversity)

9. Diversity can be described as alpha, beta, and gamma diversity (note: for simplicity, in our usage here diversity means only richness, the number of species) • Alpha (or local) diversity expresses the number of species within a given habitat. It is the most common way that diversity is employed • Beta (or turnover) diversity expresses the difference, or turnover, in species from one habitat to another. • Gamma (or regional) diversity-total number of species observed in all habitats within a geographic area

13. Genetic diversity • Diversity in genetic entities is another way to express biodiversity • Gene • Alleles • Proteins

19. Phylogenetic diversity • Diversity arising from differences in species lineages based on their evolution and the features they develop

20. Phylogenetic diversity

21. Functional diversity

22. Dark diversity • All species in the region that can potentially inhabit a defined set of local ecological conditions. The dark diversity for the grassland under study would include species D and E as they occur in the same habitat nearby.

23. Cryptic diversity • Undetected or unnoticed biodiversity: organisms are too small, reclusive, isolated, or similar in appearance to get counted • Human visual perception cannot adequately recognize extent of biodiversity • Identification aided by phylogenetic methods

26. Interaction diversity • Measure of the number and kinds of biotic interactions. The two plots below differ in the number of predatory interactions among trophic levels.

27. Landscape diversity • Number, relative abundance, and distribution of different habitat types within a landscape

28. So how do you measure biodiversity? Because of its complexity, the relationships among different types of biodiversity are examined rather than choosing only one

29. These plots convey how the same present day diversity can be comprised of very different phylogenetic diversity

31. What is a species?The morphological species concept

35. A white marlin (top) and roundscale spearfish (bottom) showing their very similar appearance, or phenotype.

36. What is a species?The biological species concept: species can interbreed freely to produce viable offspring under natural conditions

37. Species recognition versus mate selection • Organisms do not determine taxonomic status before mating • Choice based on mate quality does not always reflect taxonomic compatibility • Hybridization does occur, thereby complicating any simple, permanent definition of a species for some taxa. Ursus maritimus – polar bears Ursus arctos horribilis –grizzly bears

39. Species recognition versus mate selection • Eastern wolves are a hybrid of grey wolves and coyotes • Hybridization among wolf species and subspecies, coyotes, and domestic dogs has complicated their conservation under the Endangered Species Act

40. Species recognition versus mate selection • Hybrid created by dispersal of western coyote into the eastern U.S. • Coyotes hybridized with wolf populations north of the Great Lakes region and with domestic dogs • 40% larger than Western coyote • Pack hunter Coywolf or Eastern coyote in West Virginia.

41. Hybridization • Defined broadly as reproduction between members of genetically distinct populations • Interspecific (between species) hybridization has often been seen as an exception rather than the rule • However, a large number of species hybridize regularly, even though only a small fraction of a population may be involved • These interspecific sexual interactions may influence population dynamics

42. So, what is a species? • No always correct answer. There have even been calls to do away with the species concept. • Species are recognized as ontologically open in theory, but in practice there is a need for more stability, especially with the Endangered Species Act • A pragmatic compromise is to apply a combination of concepts: morphological, biological, evolutionary, gene flow, location and niche

43. Identifying species