ECOL 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Conservation Biology, Radioactive Contamination, Insular Biogeography

• School: University of Georgia
• Department: Ecology
• Course: ECOL 1000
• Professor: Scott Connelly

Document Summary

Biodiversity: variety among organisms and ecological systems at all levels of organization. Genetic diversity: variations in the genes among individuals of the same species. Species diversity: the variety of species present in an area; includes the number of different species that are present as well as their relative abundance. Endemic: organisms that are found only in specific locations. Ecological diversity: the variety of habitats, niches, trophic levels, and community interactions. Isoclines indicate species richness increases going towards equator. Within most groups of organisms, numbers of species increase toward the equator. Extinction event: a sharp decrease in diversity and abundance of macroscopic life. Background rate of extinction: average rate of extinction is the average rate of extinction that occurred before the appearance of humans. Current estimates put us at somewhere around 1,000-10,000x"s the background extinction rate. Esa: designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a consequence of economic growth and development.