BIS 2B Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Species Richness, Ecosystem Services, Invasive Species

• School: UC-Davis
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIS 2B
• Professor: Rosenheim Jay

Document Summary

What is it?- full diversity of life on the planet, organisms, species, habitats, ecosystems. Examples: taxon/groups of organisms- described species/placed into a catalog of life on the planet- estimated species. Plot 2 is more diverse than plot 1. Extinction- natural process, rate of which is accelerating due to conversion of habitats by humans, invasive species, overexploitation, c limate change, pollution, and other activities that result in the loss of biodiversity. Plot 1 - for every 10% of biodiversity you lose 10% of ecosystem function. Plot 2- a little lose in biodiversity you lose a lot of ecosystem function. Plot 3 (the model that our ecosystem resembles)- if we lose some biodiversity there is very little loss of ecosystem function. Example: plant species richness in meadows in minnesota. Selection effect - loss of dominant(star) species hurts the ecosystem since it performs most of the ecosystem services. 6 tree species, 1 oak, 5 pine - million years ago.