ENV 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Coelacanth, Treaty, Passenger Pigeon
Document Summary
Includes the number, variety, variability of earth"s organisms. Ways of looking at diversity: species richness. This produces new vaccines, more productive agricultural plants and farm animals (aka gmos) Example contributions to human life: food, shelter, clothing, antibiotics and medicines (esp. plants, biological processes (nitrogen fixation, pollination of crops (bees) Biodiversity represents an untapped resources for future uses. Agricultural importance: numerous species exist that are nutritionally superior to the food we eat. Paper and lumber: ethical and aesthetic importance. 2010 - international year of biodiversity: named by the international union for conservation of nature (iucn) Human impacts on biological diversity extinction: elimination of species from earth, it"s irreversible, eventual fate of all species, endangered/extinct species. Standard rate of extinction before humans became the primary drivers of species loss. From fossil record, includes all living things: mass extinction. Numerous species disappear in a short period of geological history. Most recent : 65 mya (k-t extinction) Dinosaurs and about 75% of all plants/animals.
