Biology 2483A Lecture Notes - California Tiger Salamander, Extinction Vortex, International Union For Conservation Of Nature
1 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
As the human population has grown, and our use of resources has increased, we have destroyed the habitat of many species. The world conservation union lists 16,913 species as threatened with extinction. Conservation biology the scientific study of phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss and restoration of biodiversity. Conservation biology is an integrative discipline that applies the principles of ecology to the protection of biodiversity. Stabilization of populations requires expertise from several biological disciplines, as well as law, political science, and sociology. The scientific method calls for objectivity collection and interpretation of data without bias. But it is not free of human values, and takes place within a larger social context. Rates of extinction are difficult to measure because the number of species on earth is currently unknown. Extinction rates determined from the fossil record are used as background rates.
