Do Now List 5 human activities that cause the loss of biodiversity

Do Now•List 5 human activities that cause the loss of biodiversity

Objective: Understand How Human Activities Lead to Loss of BiodiversityKey Words: harvesting, overhunting, overfishing

Direct Harvesting

Causes:• Overhunting & overfishing • Deforestation: clearing of forests for agriculture

Effects:• Extinction or endangered of a species• Loss of biodiversity• Disruption of food chains

Examples: • Extinction: passenger pigeons (extinction); • Endangered species: lion, blue whale, tiger, panda

Positive actions: • Laws & legislation to protect habitat and endangered species

The process of collecting or removing animals and plants from their habitats


Passenger pigeon

3 billions to 5 billions is the estimated population when Europeans arrived America

Overhunting, and the clearing of forest for agriculture.

Because passenger pigeon was a colonial and gregarious bird and needed large number of breeding conditions

September 1st, 1914

•It disrupted food chains in which passenger pigeons were important part of.•Loss of biodiversity•Predator population of passenger pigeons decreased in size, whereas producer population increased.


• It occurs when people take over land and forest for their own use, and species have nowhere to live.

• Causes:• Human population growth• Natural resources, land, space and needs increase• Timber logging• Clear the land for agriculture

• Effects:• Disruption of food chains• Extinction or endangered of a species• Loss of biodiversity• Loss of future medicines

• Example: pandas & tigers.


Habitat Destruction and Deforestation

• Positive Action: How this destruction can be limited?•Using better farming methods on land that is already cleared •Reforestation•Laws & legislation to protect habitat and species

Logging

wildfire

draining a marsh

clearing woodland to grow crops

Grazelivestock

strip mining

Human Activities that Destroy habitats


Human Activities that Destroy Habitats

Deforestation



This destruction can be limited by a) using better farming methods on land that is already cleared b) Establishing laws and legislation to protect the rain forestc) Reforestation

a) Two human activities that contribute to the destruction of this habitat

b) Three ways the destruction of this habitat has affected plants, humans, and other animals

c) Two ways to limit further destruction of this habitat

The rainforest is being destroyed by a) timber logging or deforestation d) strip miningb) plants being burned to clear the land e) graze livestock

These activities affect organisms by:a) Loss of biodiversity b) Extinction or endangered of speciesc) Loss of future medicined) disrupting food chains and destroying their food supply

Causes: How the rainforest is destroyed?

• Timber logging• Clear the land for agriculture

Effects: How does rainforest deforestation affect organisms?

•Loss of future medicines•Loss of biodiversity•Disrupting food chains

Deforestation of the Rainforest

Positive Action: How this destruction can be limited?•Using better farming methods on land that is already cleared •Reforestation•Laws & legislation to protect habitat and species


•Clearing the land for the mall would cause a decrease in the amount of plant life or biodiversity.

•Destroying the plants would reduce the habitat available for some animals.

•The mall will attract more automobile traffic to the area, increasing the amount of air pollution

The Pine Barrens is a government-protected environment located on the eastern end of Long Island. A proposal has been made to allow a shopping mall to be built in the middle of the Pine Barrens. Although the developer has promised jobs for people in the surrounding communities, some community members oppose the building of the mall due to the negative effects it would have on this fragile ecosystem.

Identify two negative effects this mall would most likely have on the Pine Barrens.

Amphibians have long been considered an indicator of the health of life on Earth. Scientists are concerned because amphibian populations have been declining worldwide since the 1980's. In fact, in the past decade, twenty species of amphibians have become extinct and many others are endangered.

Scientists have linked this decline in amphibians to global climatic changes. Warmer weather during the last three decades has resulted in the destruction of many of the eggs produced by the Western toad. Warmer weather has also led to a decrease in rain and snow in the Cascade Mountain Range in Oregon, reducing the water level in lakes and ponds that serve as the reproductive sites for the Western toad. As a result, the eggs are exposed to more ultraviolet light. This makes the eggs more susceptible to water mold that kills the embryos by the hundreds of thousands.

3) The term used to identify the worldwide climatic changes referred to in the passage isA) global warming B) industrialization C) deforestation D) mineral depletion

4) State two ways the decline in amphibian populations could disrupt the stability of the ecosystems they inhabit.

•Prey populations increase. •Predator populations decrease•It reduces the biodiversity in these areas. •Food chains are disrupted.

• Cause: people import an release a species from one environment into another.

• Effects: They often have no natural enemies in their new environment and rapidly overpopulate the area

•Many imported species become pests•Native species become endangered or extinct•Loss of biodiversity

•Examples: rabbits in Australia, Japanese beetles, gypsy moths

• How to fight a pest?• Spraying chemical pesticides• Introducing a predator species of the pest species• Finding a disease organism that only affects the imported species• Setting traps that use chemical scents to attract insects


Imported Species

• How to fight a pest?• Spraying chemical pesticides• Introducing a predator species of the pest species• Finding a disease organism that only affects the imported species• Setting traps that use chemical scents to attract insects


Imported Species

• What is the best solution to fight a pest?• Laws & legislation to prohibit import species• Introducing a natural predator of the pet species.• Pest can be controlled by releasing males sterilized with x-rays• Pest can be repelled or attracted with sex hormones

In July 1997, about 25,000 Galerucella pusilla beetles were released at Montezuma Wildlife Refuge in western New York State. These beetles eat purple loosestrife, a beautiful but rapidly spreading weed that chokes wetlands. Purple loosestrife is native to Europe, but here it crowds out native wetland plants, such as cattails, and does not support wildlife the way the native plants do. Purple loosestrife grows too thick to allow birds to nest. Most native insects do not eat it, leaving little for insect-eating birds to eat. Bernd Blossey, a professor at Cornell University, spent 6 years in Europe trying to find out what limited the loosestrife population there.

1) Explain why the introduction of the Galerucella pusilla beetle is an advantage over the use of herbicides to control the purple loosestrife population.

• Herbicides cause water and land pollution• The herbicides might kill other plants besides purple loosestrife

Objective: Understand How Imported Species Affects BiodiversityKey Words: pest, pesticide, herbicides, overpopulation, predators, trap, scent


2) Describe one possible environmental problem that may result from the introduction of the Galerucella pusilla beetle.

• The beetle might overpopulate the area and become a pest• Increase competition: the beetle might compete with native

species for food



3. How can the introduction of a foreign species lead to the extinction of species that are native to an area?

• Foreign species may be better adapted to the environment than native species. • Increase of competition between foreign and native species.• Foreign species do not have natural predators.• Foreign species may carry disease or parasites that affect native species


3. How might the lack of genetic diversity found in populations of endangered species hinder their recovery?

If all of the individuals in the small endangered species population are genetically very similar none may have the particular combination of traits needed to survive if the environment changes, leading to the loss of the entire species.

Endangered Species

Mountain lions and big horn sheep are part of the natural food web in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The Fish and Wildlife Service recently declared these sheep an endangered species. This action could lead to the shooting of mountain lions.

1) State one reason placing these sheep on an endangered species list could lead to the shooting of mountain lions where the sheep live.

To increase the sheep population, the population of its predator, the mountain lion, would need to be reduced.

OR In order to protect the endangered sheep, any mountain lion found to be attacking sheep may be shot.

2) State two reasons some people would oppose the shooting of the mountain lions.

Mountain lions may become extinct.

OR There would be an increase in competition between sheep and other herbivores.

OR Ethics because it's not right to kill one animal to benefit another.

OR It may disrupt the food chain.

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Do Now List 5 human activities that cause the loss of biodiversity