Conservation Biology

1. Conservation Biology Michelle Tipton Wesleyan University (mtipton@wesleyan.edu) Guest Lecture at UMASS Dartmouth 5/2/11

2. A Biodiversity Crisis • In 2007, the World Conservation Union’s red list of threatened species listed 16,118 species as threatened with extinction (probably an underestimate).

3. What is Conservation Biology? Define: Conservation Biology • An integrative discipline that applies the principles of ecology to the conservation of biodiversity • The field of conservation biology arose in response to global biodiversity losses • Emerged as a discipline distinct from ecology ONLY in the 1980’s Define: Extinction • The end point of incremental biological decline

4. Why is protecting biodiversity important? • Domestic species that sustain us: Food from cow, chicken, pig, corn, grain, garden vegetables, companions such horse, bird, dog, cat, etc. • Medicinal species • Building materials • Spices • Decorative items

5. Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), source of antileukemia drugs

6. Bark of Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia); chemicals extracted from bark treat cancer

7. Why is protecting biodiversity important? • Domestic species that sustain us: Food from cow, chicken, pig, corn, grain, garden vegetables, companions such horse, bird, dog, cat, etc. • Medicinal species • Building materials • Spices • Decorative items • Many rely on natural resources for their livelihood ($$$) • Ecosystem services • Water purification • Generation and maintenance of soil • Pollination of crops • Climate regulation • Flood control • Emotional and spiritual health

8. What does a conservation biologist do? Scientists play an important role in observing, measuring, and communicating the changes in species abundances, distributions, and biological traits that have resulted from human activities or natural phenomena Public reporting is important too! • Ex. Moose sightings, bear sightings, marine organisms blooms or beachings, invasive plant, etc. Photos taken by: Ryan Marinelli

9. Declining Biodiversity • The rate at which Earth is losing species is accelerating; Biodiversity is declining globally • Using fossils we can establish a ‘background’ extinction rate with which current rates can be compared • Overall extinction rate of the 20th century was 100-1000 times higher than the background rate estimated from the fossil record (May 2006)

10. Why is Biodiversity Declining? The primary threats to biodiversity are: • Habitat loss and degradation • Invasive species • Overexploitation Habitat loss and degradation by humans are the most important

11. 1. Habitat Loss and Degradation Definitions: Habitat degradation- Changes that reduce the quality of the habitat for many, but not all, species. Habitat fragmentation- The breaking up of once continuous habitat into a complex matrix of habitat patches amid a human-dominated landscape. Habitat loss- The outright conversion of an ecosystem to another use.

12. Habitat Loss and Degradation Source of biodiversity crisis: • The ecological footprint of humanity on Earth; large and rapidly increasing.

13. We have modified >83% of Earth’s land surface • We appropriate between 10% - 55% of Earth’s primary production • We grow wheat, corn and rice in 98% of the areas that it CAN be grown on Earth • On a scale of light to heavy human influence, 60% of the terrestrial surface lies in areas of moderate human influence

14. Figure 22.10 The Atlantic Forest of Brazil Has Been Significantly Reduced in Area

15. Habitat Loss and Degradation Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaicapyrenaica); a mountain goat endemic to the Pyrenees in Spain and France; it was in decline (~ 40 individuals for the past century) because of: • Hunting • Climate change • Disease • Competition with domesticated livestock • Non-native ungulate species such as Chamois (Perez et al. 2002) Indirect threats that reduce the habitat quality

16. 2. Invasive / Introduced species Introduced vs. Invasive species • Introduced = non-native: • Ex. Ginkgo Tree Vs. Japanese Knotweed!!! • Bluegill (fish) vs. Zebra mussel (mollusk) • On purpose vs. By accident http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/spf/fhp/weed_book/pages/japanknto.html

17. Zebra Mussel (Dreissenapolymorpha) 2009

18. 3. Overexploitation • Globally, overexploitation is contributing to the imperilment of many species, including many mammals, birds, and fishes, but also reptiles and many plants. • Overhunting on forests, particularly tropical rainforests, have been substantial, resulting in what Kent Redford (1992) has called an ‘Empty Forest’. Forests can look healthy from satellite images and still be devoid of all of their large vertebrate faunas (e.g. Monkeys, deer, tigers, wolves, raccoons, foxes, etc). • Whenever a species has market value, it is likely to be overharvested. We also overharvest: wood, fibers, medicines, oils, etc. • Ex. All three species of Mahogany

19. Overfishing and Bycatch

20. 22.11 Strip cropping of wheat, high plains of eastern Colorado

21. 22.12 Cows grazing, Hana Maui, HI

22. Overexploitation

23. Other Threats: Climate change, Disease & Pollution They erode the viability of populations • Shifting of species’ distributions to higher latitudes and elevations • Emergence of new diseases • Pollutants are omnipresent in air and water • Growing concern over endocrine-disrupting contaminants, especially in marine environment

24. Other Threats: Pollution DEFINITION: • Bioaccumulation (aka Biomagnification)- the accumulation of substances, such as pesticides, or other organic chemicals in an organism. The larger and older the animal the more food it has eaten and the more chemicals it has had time to accumulate through its food. Accumulate particularly in the top predators • Ex. of chemicals that bioaccumulate: DDT, PCBs, flame retardants, and organophosphates from agricultural pesticides. The amount and different types of chemicals found in animals has risen markedly in the last 40 years.

25. Figure 22.13 Persistent Synthetic Chemicals that Disrupt the Endocrine System Are a Growing Threat to Marine Mammals (Part 1)

26. Approaches to Conservation • Conservation biologists use many tools and work at multiple scales to manage declining populations • Ultimate decision: • Protecting habitat is of primary importance • Understanding species is also important • Ex. Vernal pools

27. What can we do? • Control or eradication of invasive species is difficult, labor intensive, and expensive, but at times may be warranted in the interest of protecting economically or culturally valuable native species or natural resources. BEST STRAGEY for combating invasive species: • to prevent its invasion altogether • Through careful screening of biological materials at international (and in US, state) borders • Ex. Firewood

28. Ask Questions • Is the growth rate of the Yellowstone grizzly bear population high enough to allow it to persist? • At what life stages are loggerhead turtles most vulnerable to predation, and what management decision would be most expedient to ensure their continued viability? • How much old-growth forest habitat must be preserved to ensure the persistence of the northern spotted owl?

29. What can we do? • Preserve & protect • Discover, investigate, and ask questions • Be observant

30. Local examples of Biodiversity in Peril

31. Bats: White-nose Syndrome • The condition in bats known as 'white-nose syndrome' (WNS) was first noted among dead and hibernating bats found in caves near Albany, New York, by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation beginning in February 2007. Affected bats appeared to have a white substance on their heads and wings. In early 2008, 'white-nosed' bats were once again seen in hibernaculae. Since March 2008, biologists and cavers have documented thousands of dead and dying bats at over 25 caves and mines in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Source: http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov SCIENCE Vol332 Apr 1st 2011

32. The Right Whale Scientists believe that there are only 450 right whales in the world but say the numbers have been slowly recovering since commercial whaling of the species was banned more than 70 years ago. The more than 100 whales counted in the bay this month is the largest number recorded in one place, according to the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts. "We're looking at an exceedingly rare animal in unusual numbers in one of their last critical habitats," Charles Mayo, a scientist at the center who studies right whales, said Friday. Why so many in one place? In a word, food, said Mayo Source: CNN http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/endangered-whales-spotted-off-massachusetts-coast-13447056?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=1363340&page=3 2 min VIDEO!!!!

33. Good Luck! Thank you for the invitation and your attention today! If you have questions: Michelle Tipton • mtipton@wesleyan.edu

34. Use Modeling Demographic models • The quantitative approach most widely used for projecting the potential future status of populations in a species of interest is referred to as population viability analysis (PVA) • This allows ecologists to assess extinction risks and evaluate management options for populations of rare or threatened species (Morris & Doak 2002) • In this process scientists calculate the likelihood that a population will persist for a certain amount • PVA encompasses a whole-suite of models, ranging from relatively simple stage- or age-based demographic models to more complex, spatially explicit models that can take actual landscape features and dispersal of individuals from multiple populations into account. • To be used effectively, such models need to be constantly refined and revisited by different researches to check their validity against field observations and adjusted for effectiveness

35. Ex-situ conservation is a last-resort measure to rescue species on the brink of extinction • When a population drops below a certain number, demographic models become inappropriate and direct, hands-on action is called for. • The only chance that a species might have left is to be taken out of the environment- ex-situ – and allow them to multiple in sheltered conditions under human care with the hope of later returning some individuals to the wild. • Ex. California Condor (Gymnogypscalforniamus)- Originally distributed throughout much of North America, it declined steeply between 1960s to 1980s, reaching a low of 22 birds in 1982, going extinct from the wild in 1987 because the last few were caught and brought to a facility in California and a program generating progeny, eventually mixing wild and captive to ensure max genetic diversity. • Their populations were threatened by : • Lead poisoning from ammunition found in the carrion that condors feed on • Negative health effect of ingesting plastic and other trash • West Nile virus • Genetic drift

36. Putting a Value on Biodiversity Although some dislike the thought of trying to put an economic value on biodiversity (some things are just priceless), there have been attempts to do so in order for people to understand the magnitude of the issue: how important the environment is to humanity and what costs and benefits there can be in doing (or not doing) something. • For example, In a recent report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for National and International Policy Makers 2009 , the UN-backed TEEB organization noted the following (p.18): • Implementing REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) could help • Halve deforestation by 2030, and • Cut emissions by 1.5 Gt of CO2 per year. • From a cost perspective (p.18), it is estimated that • It would cost from US$ 17.2 – 33 billion per year The estimated benefit in reduced climate change is US$ 3.2 trillion • The above would be a good return on the initial investment. By contrast, waiting 10 more years could reduce the net benefit of halving deforestation by US$ 500 billion. • (The BBC puts that saving in a range, of $2 - 5 trillion, “dwarfing costs of the banking crisis”.) • Another BBC article notes that biodiversity is fundamental to economics. For example, • The G8 nations, together with 5 major emerging economies — China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico — use almost three-quarters of the Earth’s biocapacity • An estimated 40% of world trade is based on biological products or processes. Regardless of what one thinks about trying to put a monetary value on parts of the environment, the above numbers add to the case that taking care of the environment is important. (This particular issue is explored a bit further on this site’s page on why biodiversity is important.)