GEV 1050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Holocene Extinction, Bumblebee, Keystone Species
28 Nov 2016
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Key concepts: biodiversity, why species are important, speciation, extinction, human impacts on biodiversity, conservation efforts. Few left: 3200 tigers left from 100k 100 ya, mainly in sanctuaries, still hunted. Bumble bee about to go extinct (honey bees suffering; pesticides and climate change) Zika: nc sprayed chemicals on land to kill mosquitos and ended up killing all the bees. Plant, animals, microbes, variability across biomes decreasing: includes population and ecosystem diversity (not just considering species richness) Also includes genetic diversity and ecological diversity (some ecosystems dependent on others) fish in estuaries, if estuaries at risk so are fish species interdependence. Total species defined-1. 5 million estimated total 15 mil insects (most abundant) What services are provided by the ecosystem: literally everything we need: food medicine furniture, richness, genetic reserves, genetic diversity, industrial importance, aesthetic, ethical, spiritual value. Each species has a role in the environment: rosy periwinkles/alligators: incorporation of genes from one organism into a different species (cure cancer) provided: new vaccines.
