Environmental Mitigations: Protecting Biodiversity

1. Mitigations for Biodiversity Loss • Mitigation: • In our case ‘mitigation’ includes a range of ways humans can reduce their impact on the environment…or help it to heal.

2. Human Population Growth • Human Population Growth (Urban Sprawl) • We need space to live but we would rather use new land and spread out rather than build up and tear down old buildings • Plants and animals are “cleared” to make way for humans

3. Mitigation for: Human Population Growth (Urban Sprawl) • -Increase availability of contraceptives, sexeducation, offer tax breaks for smallerfamilies, and help families to plan new additions. • -Utilize existing buildings • -Build ‘green’ by using responsibly sourced materials, adding gardens to rooftops, paving with permeable material instead of asphalt. • -Replanting native plants in green space. • -Using alternative energy instead of fossil fuels

4. Habitat Alteration • Even if we do not clear the land completely, we can change the type of ecosystem that exist there • Forests are changed to farm lands • Deserts have more water placed in them to convert them in to farmlands

5. Mitigation for: Habitat Alteration • Replant native plants • Reintroduce native species • Clean up toxins • Stop the addition of toxins • Restore natural water flow

6. Habitat Fragmentation • Organisms become separated into pockets • Examples: • Housing Developments • Logging (deforestation) • Highways • Many human activities

7. Mitigation for: Habitat Fragmentation • -Create corridors to reconnect fragmented habitats • -This allows safe passage of animals between natural habitats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzbgurbNnMU

8. Invasive/Nonnative Species • Invasive Species • A new, foreign species that is introduced into an ecosystem that can destroy their new ecosystem • Invasive species are always harmful to their new environment • Non-native Species • A new species that is introduced to an ecosystem that does not harm their new environment • This new species usually will fit into the new ecosystem fairly well

9. Mitigation for: Invasive Species and NonNative Species • -There is currently NO effective way to remove an invasive species once it has established itself in an environment. • -Efforts include: physical removal, chemical treatments, biocontrol (introducing it’s natural predator…this has NEVER ended well). • The BEST method is to be careful when traveling and to not bring in non-natives.

10. Define Deforestation

11. Mitigations for: Clear-cutting/Deforestation • Selective cutting takes down useful trees, leaving young ones to mature and babies to sprout up. • Replanting of cut trees

12. Overharvesting • When too many animals or plants are removed from their ecosystems, the chance for genetic mutation is decreased because the organism is not there to reproduce that genetic mutation • Examples: • Fishing (trout and salmon) • Deforestation

13. Mitigation for: Over-harvesting • -Limit how much of any one resource we take from the environment at one time, so that the resource will be there later. • -Farming sea life for food is called aquaculture and allows pressure to be taken off the wild individuals. • -As a consumer, be conscious of where your food comes from and how it is harvested.

14. Problems with The Environment • Write these on the left side of your paper • Habitat Alteration • Pollution • Invasive Species • Nonnative Species • Overharvesting • Human Population Growth

15. Match the Problems with Their Categories • From the list below, on the right hand side of your paper, match the problems to their categories that they would fit underneath • Dumping of trash barges from NYC • Near extinction of the cod fish • Kudzu vine in NC • Smoke stack from coal burning factories • Low availability of birth control in developing countries • Zebra mussels in the St Lawrence River • Overgrazing of cattle in the Midwest US • Leaking landfills

16. Larger families • Smog • Deforestation • Oils spills from tankers • Canadian geese • Pythons in Florida • Global Warming leads to warmer biomes • Improper recycling • Stripping of orchards and no new regrowth • Peppered moths from Europe • Irrigation of deserts to produce more farmland

17. Which of these lists contains only biotic factors? • Soil, minerals, grass, and oxygen • Carbon Dioxide, worms, beetles, and clouds • Water, oceans, lakes, and streams • Baboon, boy, beetle, and bunny

18. If there were massive floods over a farm’s lands, which of following would happen to the producers and consumers? • Some of the consumers would benefit and none of the producers would benefit • None of the consumers would benefit and all of the producers would benefit • Some of the consumers and some of the producers would benefit

19. Which of the situations would lead to a genetic variation that would evolve to benefit the species? • An abundant amount of food resources • Pleasant living conditions and shelter • Invasive species move in creating competition • Many males and females in the same area

20. Why would biodiversity loss on even a small scale be such a problem for the human race? • There would be less predators to attach us • We would miss the fuzzy little creatures that are cute in the world • Less bacteria to attack our immune systems • We would lose valuable resources

21. Which of the following would be found at the bottom of a food web? • Snakes, hawks, and lions • Trees, bacteria, and fish • Grass, seaweed, and flowers • Mice, rabbits, and granola