Biodiversity Dilemmas
1. You are the director of a new botanical garden, and your garden has
just received a large donation to create an exhibit. Some of our
colleagues are recommending that you use the money to create a
display of prize-winning roses. However, your conservation director is
urging you to consider making a display of plants native to your
region. Many of the people on the selection committee have argued
that native plants may be important but that several of these species
are not as attractive and showy as the plants people expect to see at
your garden. Answer the following questions: A) What would be the
benefits of creating each type of display? B) What other alternatives
could you propose? C) What do you think people expect to see when
they visit a botanical garden? D) Why do you think native plants
might not be given much attention in some gardens? E) What are
some of the ways that botanical gardens can educate people about the
importance of native plants? What is your local garden doing?
2. Plans are underway to build a new swimming pool in your
neighborhood. A site has been chosen that will be safe for kids
arriving by bike and will provide enough space for an Olympic-sized
pool. However, the state biologist has just issued a report that there is
a small population of a very rare native plant on this site. Your
community has already gone through a lengthy process to choose a
site that would meet its needs, and some people are upset that plans
might be changed because of a handful of plants. People have
suggested building around the plants or moving them to a safer area,
but others worry that destroying the habitat could cause irreversible
damage since the plants only grow under certain soil conditions.
Answer the following questions: A) Who is potentially affected by
this dilemma and how? B) What would your community gain by
saving the plants? C) What else do you need to know to make the
decision about whether or not you agree with the plants to build a pool
on the site? D) Would you feel differently if there were an endangered
animals rather than a rare plant on the site? Why or why not?
3. We have improved most of our crops so that they grow fast, stay fresh
for long periods of time, and look appealing. However, in the process
of breeding crops for these traits, many food plants have lost the
genetic diversity characteristic of their wild, uncultivated relatives.
This can have tragic consequences. In 1970, a scientist in Florida
found that a previously minor disease was destroying corn crops. By
the end of the year, the disease had spread to Texas and Minnesota
and had ruined a billion dollars worth of corn. It turned out that 80%
of the corn in the U.S. carried a gene making it susceptible to the
virus. In this case and many others, incorporating genes from wild
plants into crop species through selective breeding is needed to fight
diseases and pests. Many native U.S. plants are important for this
reason. To name one example, disease resistant root stock from wild
U.S. grape plants was used to save the European grape industry from a
pest outbreak at the end of the nineteenth century. Do the following
exercise: A) List five ways in which your life would be different if the
world’s tomato crops were suddenly decimated by a disease. Do the
same for wheat, corn, and potatoes. B) Answer the following
question: Why do you think wild species are more effective at fighting
diseases and pests than cultivated one?
4. Almost all the native plants on the Hawaiian islands occur nowhere
else on Earth, and most are defenseless against introduced species
such as pigs. Pigs that were once brought to these islands from
elsewhere in Polynesia and Europe have since escaped and turned
wild (or “feral”). As they multiplied rapidly, the pigs have destroyed
native vegetation, caused soil erosion, eaten bird eggs and nestlings,
spread weeds and diseases, and polluted water supplies. Hawaii has
already lost two-thirds of its original forests and half its native birds,
and saving the remaining native species and habitats is now a race
against time. To curb feral pigs, conservationists have used fencing,
hunting, live trapping, and as a last resort, snares. However, many
people feel that it is unethical to kill pigs with snares when humans
were the one who brought them to Hawaii in the first place. Answer
the following questions: A) Who is potentially affected by this
dilemma and how? B) What are the consequences of killing versus not
killing the pigs? C) What alternatives could there be to the methods
described? D) What else do you need to know to decide how you feel
about the dilemma?