Minimize nonpoint source pollution by using organic or natural pesticides and fertilizers.
Plant shade trees for air-conditioning and to absorb CO2.
Water plants and lawns in the evening.
Better yet, use native and/or drought-tolerant plants for landscaping.
Remember that City, County, State, and Federal lands are your lands, too. Get involved in local zoning and land use planning to ensure that development follows sustainable guidelines.
Figure 18.21
Sustainability as a goal in decision-making seeks the intersection of three sets of values. The environmental component includes maintaining ecosystem quality indefinitely.
Adopt and Spread Sustainable Perspectives and Philosophy
Focus on diversity as a whole – genes, communities and ecosystems – rather than single “poster” species.
Support the inclusion of ecosystems services in economic valuations.
Encourage protection of areas large enough to accommodate migration, flooding, buffer zones, pollution from nearby development, and people and their activities.
Realize that inequitable distribution of population, land, resources, education, and wealth threatens biodiversity.
Promote the concept of sustainability as a guide for conservation decisions (Figure above).
Join philosophers and religious and community groups to explore environmental ethics.
Help everyone understand basic ecology and the wealth of biodiversity shaped by billions of years of evolution.
Learn More!
About the species with which you share the Earth.
About local, national, and international threats to biodiversity
About more solutions as they develop
Jump in! Join local groups which monitor ecosystem health: Frog Watch, River Watch, or Bird Counts.
Educate yourself about complex issues such as government subsidies and new technologies.
Find out about local protected lands and volunteer your time and energy to restore native ecosystems.
Activate!
Exercise your citizenship to protect biodiversity. Vote, communicate your views, and push for stronger environmental protection laws.
Support organizations which promote national reserves, international treaties, and resource conservation.
Support efforts by zoos, arboretums, museums and seed banks to help maintain genetic diversity through research, breeding, educational, and fundraising programs.
Lesson Summary
Like all species, humans depend on land, water, air, and living resources for food, energy, clothing, and ecosystem services such as nutrient recycling, waste disposal, and renewal of soil, freshwater, and clean air.
Unlike other species, human technology supplements “natural” energy resources with fossil fuels and exploits both biotic and abiotic resources and produces wastes beyond the biosphere’s capacity for renewal.
Biodiversity encompasses all variation in living systems, including genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity.
Scientists do not know how many species currently inhabit the Earth; the vast majority of Bacteria and Archaea, Protists and Insects, are probably unknown. We discover new species of animals, plants, and fungi each year.
About 1.8 million species have been identified, and most estimates of Earth’s overall species biodiversity fall between 5 and 30 million.
In general, biodiversity is highest near the equator, and decreases toward the poles.
Biodiversity “hotspots” such as the California Floristic Province and unique habitats such as bogs occasionally disrupt the overall pattern.
The fossil record and DNA analysis reveal a gradual increase in Earth’s biodiversity after the first prokaryotes appeared roughly 4 billion years ago.
Within the past 600 million years, a more detailed fossil record shows increasing biodiversity interrupted by five major extinctions in which at least 50% of species disappeared.
According to a 1998 survey by the American Museum of Natural History, more than 70% of biologists consider the present era to be a sixth mass extinction event.
Many scientists regard the Ice Age extinctions of large birds and mammals as the beginning of a continuum of extinctions caused by human activity which extends to the present.
Dramatic losses of large mammal species follow a pattern of human dispersal across the globe from tens of thousands of years ago in Indonesia to just over 1,000 years ago in New Zealand, and over 20% of all bird species have become extinct within the past 1,100 years.
Rates of extinction have accelerated in the past 50 years; current estimates include 3 species per hour and as many as 140,000 per year.
In 2002, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson predicted that if current rates of extinction continue, 50% of plant and animal species will be lost within the next 100 years – compared to hundreds of thousands or even millions of years for previous mass extinctions.
Direct economic benefits include the potential to diversify our food supply, resources for clothing,shelter, energy, and medicines, a wealth of efficient designs which could inspire new technologies, models for medical research, and an early warning system for toxicity.
Ecosystem services provided by biodiversity include ecosystem stability and productivity; maintaining and renewing soils, water supplies, and the atmosphere; nitrogen fixation and nutrient recycling; pollination, pest and disease control, and waste disposal.
Less tangible but equally important are the cultural, aesthetic, and spiritual values and the importance of biodiversity to many modes of recreation.
Finally, many people believe that biodiversity has intrinsic value, inherent in its existence.
Human hunting, secondary effects on other species, disease carried and predation by exotic animals, and habitat destruction contributed to Ice Age extinctions.
Habitat loss, including degradation and fragmentation, is the primary cause of extinction today; agriculture and deforestation continue to claim vegetated land and pollute both fresh and salt water seas.
Slash-and-burn agriculture is destroying tropical forest at rates which could result in total loss by 2090.
In the U.S., agriculture has eliminated 50% of wetlands and 99% of tallgrass prairies.
Logging and development have destroyed more than 90% of Temperate Rainforest in the U.S.
Exotic species disrupt food chains and entire ecosystems to contribute to extinction.
The modern equivalent to overkill, overexploitation of economically important species and ecosystems, threatens fisheries, tropical rain forests, whales, rhinos, large carnivores and many other species.
Global climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels disrupts weather patterns and, as it has throughout Earth’s history, holds the potential to force the extinction of carefully adapted species.
Pollution of land, air, and water poisons life and destroys ecosystems.
Between 1960 and 1999, the Earth’s human population increased from 3 billion to 6 billion people. Overpopulation combined with unequal distribution of resources dramatically intensifies pressures on biodiversity.
Our daily activities and decisions can significantly help to protect biodiversity.
After reducing consumption and reusing and recycling, careful consumption can help to conserve ecosystems.
Local, seasonal products save energy costs for transportation.
Durable and efficient products reduce long-term resource consumption.
Wise use of water resources helps to prevent desertification of ecosystems.
Energy alternatives to fossil fuels reduce greenhouse gases, although nuclear energy has its own dangers.
After minimizing waste, best practices for waste disposal ensure less pollution of ecosystems.
The threats to biodiversity posed by exotic species mean that everyone should learn to avoid transporting them.
Sustainable management of land, from small yards to local, state, and federal lan
ds, conserves ecosystems.
Sustainability as a guide for decision-making balances social, economic, and environmental values to structure human activities such that they can continue indefinitely.
Learning about biodiversity and ecology is an important part of valuing and protecting the diversity of life.
Voting, membership in conservation organizations, and working toward protective legislation can contribute to genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity.
Review Questions
Compare humans to other species in terms of resource needs and use and ecosystem service benefits and effects.
Define biodiversity and explain its three major components.
Give the three quantitative values for Earth’s species diversity, and compare biodiversity across the Earth’s surface and throughout the history of life.
Construct a chart showing why you consider biodiversity important. Your chart should include four categories (of the five presented in the chapter, or of your own choosing) and the 2-3 examples from each chapter that you consider most critical).
Analyze humans’ role in extinctions by comparing the causes we think contributed to the Ice Age extinctions to the causes important to extinction today.
How might Tallgrass Prairies, the Brown Tree Snake, the Atlantic Cod, and the Peregrine Falcon serve as “poster species” to explain and highlight some of the causes of extinction?
“Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle” is so familiar to many people that it has lost much of its meaning. Yet it remains an efficient summary of the best conservation principles. Explain. Choose one new idea to add to these workhorses.
What two (or three) ecological principles can govern your food choices to help protect your health, biodiversity, and even global stability?
How does the concept of sustainable use differ from “reduce, re-use, and re-cycle”? How is it similar?
According to Barry Commoner, there are Four Laws of Ecology: Everything is connected to everything else.
Everything must go somewhere.
Nature knows best.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Explain how his laws govern the way nature does – and humans should – use energy and material resources in order to protect biodiversity.
Further Reading / Supplemental Links
Aldo Leopold, Round River: from the Journals of Aldo Leopold. Ed: Luna B. Leopold, 1953, Oxford University Press, New York.
Aldo Leopold, Thinking Like a Mountain.
Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, Living With Biodiversity: What You Can Really Do For the Environment. American Museum of Natural History, 2007. Available online at:
http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/center/living/intro/index.html
Biodiversity and Your Food at:
http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/center/living/Food/index.html
Biodiversity and Your Water Supply at:
http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/center/living/Water/index.html
Biodiversity and Your Energy Use at:
http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/center/living/Energy/index.html
Biodiversity and What You Buy at:
http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/center/living/Buy/index.html
Joan Chevalier, Joel Cracraft, Francesca Grifo, and Curt Meine. Biodiversity, Science, and the Human Prospect. Center for Biodiversity and Conservation of the American Museum of Natural History, 1997. Available online at:
http://cbc.amnh.org/center/pubs/pubscbc.html
Curt Meine, Humans and other Catastrophes: Perspectives on Extinction. Center for Biodiversity and Conservation of the AMNH, editors Marc Lecard, Valeda Slade, 1999. Available online at
Francesca Grifo and Joshua Rosenthal, editors, Biodiversity and Human Health: A guide for policymakers. Center for Biodiversity and Conservation of the AMNH, 1997. Available online at:
http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/card_frame.php?rid=1282&rurlid=1197
Melanie Stiassny, It Takes All Kinds to Make A World (Marine Biodiversity). AMNH Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Resources for Learning. Available online at:
http://www.ology.amnh.org/marinebiology/ittakesallkinds/index.html
The World Conservation Union (IUCN), 100 of the World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species: A Selection from the Global Invasive Species Database. Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG), Auckland, New Zealand, nd. Available online at:
http://www.iucn.org/places/medoffice/invasive_species/docs/invasive_species_booklet.pdf
Daniel P. Faith, Biodiversity. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Metaphysics Research Lab, CSLI, Stanford University, 2003. Available online at:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/biodiversity/
Cox, Tony, Dead zone is price gulf coast pays as farms cash in on ethanol. Bloomberg.com, 23 July 2007. Available online at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a4Tb2AFv6CRk&refer=home
The Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap, in Overfishing and International Ocean Fisheries Governance, Government of Canada, 23 January 2007. Available online at
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/overfishing-surpeche/media/bk_grandbanks_e.htm
Chensheng Lu, Kathryn Toepel, Rene Irish, Richard A. Fenske, Dana B. Barr, and Roberto Bravo, Organic Diets Significantly Lower Children’s Dietary Exposure to Organophosphorus Pesticides. Environmental Health Perspectives Online, 1 September 2005. Available online at
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2005/8418/8418.pdf
J. Emmett Duffy, Biodiversity. Encyclopedia of the Earth, last updated 30 October 2007. Available online at:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Biodiversity
What Percent of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is Electronics? eCycling, US Environmental Protection Agency, last updated 6 November 2007. Available online at:
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/recycle/ecycling/faq.htm#cell
Crop Genetic Diversity and Domestic Animal Diversity Biological Diversity in Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, nd. Available online at:
http://www.fao.org/biodiversity/
David Tilman and John A. Downing, Biodiversity and stability in grasslands. Nature 367, 363 - 365 (27 January 1994). Available online at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v367/n6461/abs/367363a0.html
David Tilman, David Wedin & Johannes Knops, Productivity and sustainability influenced by biodiversity in grassland ecosystems. Nature 379, 718 - 720 (22 February 1996). Available online at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v379/n6567/abs/379718a0.html
Ransom A. Myers and Boris Worm, Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities. Nature 423, 280-283 (15 May 2003). Available online at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v423/n6937/abs/nature01610.html
Facts about Coral Reefs, Coral Reefs of the Tropics. The Nature Conservancy, 2007. Available online at:
http://www.nature.org/joinanddonate/rescuereef/explore/facts.html
Joseph Priestley, Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. Book IX, Experiments and Observations related to Vegetation and Respiration, 1790. Available online at:
http://www.spaceship-earth.org/OrigLit/JP3-911.htm
Nitrogen Pollution and Agriculture WikiStrategy, Nitrogen Wiki, Nitrogen Pollution and Agriculture: A Collaborative Strategy Forum hosted by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Available online at:
https://nitrogen.packard.org/Nitrogen%20Wiki/Home.aspx
Ian Harrison, Melina Laverty, Eleanor Sterling, Species Diversity. Connexions, last edited 29 July 2004. Available online at:
http://cnx.org/content/m12174/latest/
James Gibbs, The Importance of Biodiversity: An Exercise. Connexions, last edited 14 July 2004. Available online at:
http://cnx.org/content/m12175/latest/
http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/card_frame.php?rid=1121&rurlid=1066
http://www.gbif.org/
http://www.eol.org/home.html
http://www.sp2000.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=76&Itemid=73
http://www.itis.gov/
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/eldredge2.html
http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=000B012D-7016-1C72-9EB7809EC588F2D7&catID=3&topicID=3
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/series/paper1/index.html#1.1
http://stort.unep-wcmc.org/imaps/gb2002/book/viewer.htm
http://www.greenfacts.org/en/biodiversity/biodiversity-greenfacts-level2.pdf
http://www.biodiversityproject.org/biodiversity.htm
http://ology.amnh.org/biodiversity/
http://www.biodiversity911.org/
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2007/03/iwaste.html
http://www.eco-action.org/dt/thinking.html
http://en.wikipedia.org
Vocabulary
air pollution
Alteration of the Earth’s atmosphere by chemical, particulate, or biological materials.
biodiversity hotspot
A biogeographic region which has lost at least 70% of its original habitat, yet contains at least 1500 endemic species of vascular plants.
biodiversity
Variation in life – at all levels of organization: genes, species, and ecosystems.
biological magnification (food chain concentration)
The process in which synthetic chemicals concentrate as they move through the food chain, so that toxic effects are multiplied.
bionics
Engineering which uses biological organisms’ design principles to develop efficient products.
carbon sequestration
Process which removes CO2 from the atmosphere.
desertification
Degradation of formerly productive land (usually at least semi-arid).
CK-12 Biology I - Honors Page 83
