Semester 1 Final - Unit 5 Chapters 9 + 10

• Species provide vital ecosystem services ——-Pollination, pest control, oxygen production • They provide valuable economic services ——-Ecotourism, medicinal drugs • Extinction can hinder speciation ——-It can take millions of years for nature to recover from large-scale extinctions • Many people believe that species have a right to exist regardless of their usefulness to humans

• Only about 61,000 remain in the wild • Tropical forest habitat being cleared to grow palm oil • They are illegally smuggled and sold • Lowest birth rate of all animals • May disappear within two decades without urgent protective action

• Habitat loss, degradation, or fragmentation • Invasive (nonnative) species • Population and resource use growth • Pollution • Climate change • Overexploitation

• Habitat fragmentation occurs when large intact habitat divided into smaller, isolated patches • Caused by roads, logging, crops, and urban development • Barriers limit species ability to disperse and colonize areas, locate food and mates

• Many species introductions are beneficial • Nonnative species may have no natural predators, competitors, parasites, or pathogens • Nonnative species can crowd out native species • Viewed as harmful, invasive species

• Do not buy wild plants or remove them from natural areas • Do not release wild pets into natural areas • Do not dump aquarium contents or unused fishing bait into waterways or storm drains • When camping, only use local firewood • Brush or clean pet dogs, hiking boots, mountain bikes, canoes, boats, motors, fishing tackle, and other gear before entering or leaving wild areas

• Imported from Japan in the 1930s • Help control soil erosion • Spreads rapidly, taking over land • Very difficult to kill • Common fungus can kill Kudzu vine • Need to investigate harmful side effects • Potential benefits of Kudzu • ——-Medicinal and nutritional uses • ——-Potential uses as paper, biofuel

• Human population growth and rising resource use per person • Degrading wildlife habitat, exploiting animals and plants for survival

• Bioaccumulation occurs in individual organisms • Biomagnification occurs when a chemical becomes more concentrated as it moves up through food chains and webs

• Will accelerate the sixth extinction • Major loss of diversity and ecosystem services

• Poaching and smuggling of protected animals • Organized crime involved because of huge profits involved • Elephants and rhinos killed for their tusks and horns • Tigers poached for skin and other body parts • Pet trade • —–Exotic birds, amphibians, reptiles, tropical fish

• occurs in INDIVIDUAL organisms • an increase in the concentration of a chemical in a biological organism over time, compared to the chemical’s concentration in the environment

• occurs when a chemical becomes more concentrated as it moves up through food chains and webs

Establishing and enforcing national environmental laws and international treaties Creating protected wildlife sanctuaries

• Signed by 181 countries • Helps to protect species • became the only treaty to ensure that international trade in plants and animals does not threaten their survival in the wild. • why you can’t take peaches and stuff on planes

• Commits governments to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss • Ratified by 196 countries (not by the U.S.) • Law lacks enforcement mechanisms

• Identify and protect endangered species in the U.S. and abroad • Creates recovery programs for listed species • Forbids federal agencies (except Defense) from funding projects that jeopardize endangered or threatened species • Requires commercial shipments of wildlife come through certain ports • In 2015, 1,591 species officially listed • 90% of ESA-protected species are recovering at projected rate

• Begins when citizens, interest groups, or corporations seek solutions to issues Policy lifecycle: • Identify problem • Research underlying science • Craft a policy solution • Monitor how well it works • Adjust policy as needed

• In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt established the first federal wildlife refuge • Pelican Island, Florida

• wetland sanctuaries • Provide habitats for one-fourth of U.S. threatened or endangered species • Harmful activities such as mining, drilling, and using off-road vehicles legal in most Refuges

Preserve genetic material of endangered plants

Seed banks, botanical gardens (live plants), Farms (can raise organisms for commercial sale)

• Egg pulling • Captive breeding • Artificial insemination • Embryo transfer • Use of incubators

• Releasing/reintroducing populations to the wild • Captive population must number 100–500 individuals • Public aquariums provide education ——–Not effective gene banks due to limited funds