Geography 1500F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Urban Sprawl, Habitat Fragmentation, Habitat Destruction
14 Nov 2016
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1500f: lecture 5: monday september 26th 2016: biodiversity. The variety of all forms of life, from genes to species, through to the broad scale of ecosystems. Use value: organisms provide us with things we need or want: examples: food, medicine (present and future, need to protect habitat, not just individual species. Non-use value: we benefit from biodiversity without using it up: aesthetic value (enjoy a nice sunset, existence value (feel good knowing pandas exist, bequest value (protect for future generations) Invasive species: habitat loss, pollution, population growth, overconsumption. 10% of the world"s wilderness has been lost since the 1990s. Causes: deforestation and forest fragmentation, urban sprawl, agricultural activities, resource extraction and industry. Introduced species that change the competitive balance of an ecosystem. Can crowd out, replace or kill native species. Can be hard to remove or control. Ontario examples: emerald ash borer, zebra mussels, purple loosestrife, goby fish.
