Post Reading Discussion:
Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity
Chapter 11
(Miller and Spoolman, 2009)
2a. Describe three general patterns of marine
biodiversity. (p. 250)
2b. Why is biodiversity higher (a) near coasts than in the
open sea and (b) on the ocean’s bottoms than at its
surface? (p. 250)
3c. Describe the effects of trawler fishing, purse seine
fishing, longlining, and driftnet fishing. (p. 256)
Fig. 11-7, p. 256
8b. What are three major ecological services provided by
wetlands? (pp. 265-66)
4b. Describe international efforts to protect whales from
overfishing and premature extinction. (p. 258)
Fig. 11-9, p. 259
Fig. 11-8, p. 258
9a. Describe the major threats to the world’s rivers and
other freshwater systems. (pp. 269 and 270)
Fig. 11-15, p. 269
9b. What major ecological services do rivers provide? (p.
270)
Fig. 11-16, p. 270
6a. Describe and discuss the limitations of three ways to
estimate the sizes of fish populations. (p. 263)
6d. How can government subsidies encourage overfishing?
(p. 264)
8a. What percent of the U.S. coastal and inland wetlands has
been destroyed since 1900?
8c. How does the U.S. attempt to reduce wetland losses? (pp.
265-66)
Fig. 11-13, p. 267
4c. Describe the threats to sea turtles and efforts to
protect them. (pp. 259-60)
Fig. 11-10, p. 260
5a. Describe the use of marine protected areas and marine
reserves to help sustain aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem
services. (pp. 260-61)
5c. Describe the roles of fishing communities and individual
consumers in regulating fishing and coastal development. (p.
262)
3a. What is fishprint? (p. 254)
How has the modern fish industry affected large predatory fish?
(p. 255)
7. Describe how consumers can help to sustain fisheries,
aquatic biodiversity, and economic systems by making careful
choices in purchasing seafood? (p. 265)
5d. What is integrated coastal management? (pp. 262-63)
10a. What are six priorities for protecting terrestrial and
aquatic biodiversity? (pp. 272-73)
2f. How does climate change threaten aquatic
biodiversity? (p. 254)
1b. Describe how human activities have upset ecological
processes in East Africa’s Lake Victoria? (pp. 249 and 253)
Interpret this photograph.
Fig. 11-A, p. 253
Interpret this photograph.
Interpret the photographs.
Fig. 11-3, p. 251
Figure 11.6
Natural capital degradation: this graph illustrates the collapse of the cod fishery in the northwest
Atlantic off the Canadian coast. Beginning in the late 1950s, fishers used bottom trawlers to capture
more of the stock, reflected in the sharp rise in this graph. This resulted in extreme
overexploitation of the fishery, which began a steady fall throughout the 1970s, followed by a slight
recovery in the 1980s and total collapse by 1992 when the site was closed to fishing. Canadian
attempts to regulate fishing through a quota system had failed to stop the sharp decline. The
fishery was reopened on a limited basis in 1998 but then closed indefinitely in 2003. (Data from
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment)
What are some ways to manage fisheries more sustainably and protect
marine biodiversity and ecosystem services? Which four of these
solutions do you think are the most important? Why?
Fig. 11-12, p. 265