Pluie, the Wandering Wolf
Epic Journey
Conservation Biology
Design, Restoration Ecology, & Pop Dynamics
Definition
History & Connections
Biodiversity & threats
Ecosystem Goods & Services
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Biotic diversity has intrinsic value.
1. Yes
2. No
93%
7%
1
2
Is the following statement true or false:
Conservation biology does acknowledge the fact
that it is a “value-laden” field.
1. True
2. False
80%
20%
1
2
Definition
• … pursuit of a coherent goal: the protection and
perpetuation of the Earth’s biological diversity. A
mission-oriented, crisis-driven discipline
comprising both pure and applied science
– Meine et al. 2006
• …not defined by a discipline but by its goal — to
halt or repair the undeniable, massive damage
that is being done to ecosystems, species, and the
relationships of humans to the environment.
– Ehrenfeld 1992
PURE VS. APPLIED
• Pure: pursue knowledge for its own
sake
• Applied: use known principles to solve
practical problems
Critique
• Clearly western, North American
• Juxtaposition of ‘wild areas’ and trashed
areas.
• …effort by “an elite group of biologists” who
“[aimed] to change science, conservation,
cultural habits, human values, our ideas
about nature, and ultimately, nature itself.”
– Takacs 1996
Not without controversy
• I have read many definitions of what is a
conservationist & the best one is written
not with a pen, but an axe.
-- Aldo Leopold
HISTORY
• Alfred Russel Wallace
• George Perkins Marsh
• 1860s
HISTORY
• 1900s Progressive Era
• Gifford Pinchot
• John Muir
History
• Realization: Wallace, Marsh
• Progressive Era (utilitarian [Pinchot] vs.
preservationist [Muir])
• Appreciation of the biota as a whole biocentric (vs. anthropocentric view)
• Laws of the early 70s
• Emergence of Conservation Biology
Focus on Biodiversity
• Diversity - the number of different items
and their relative frequency.
• Biodiversity - number and variety of
species, ecological systems, and the
genetic variability they contain.
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/biodiversity/biodiversity.html
Foundation - 1
• Population biology: a study of biological
populations of organisms, especially in
terms of biodiversity, evolution, and
environmental biology.
• Island Biogeography: Number of
species present = f(rate of immigration
& rate of extinction)
• Concept of Umbrella Species
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fosrec/Filson.html
ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY
• The study of island biogeography is a field within
biogeography that attempts to establish and explain
the factors that affect the species richness of a
particular community. In this context the island can
be any area of habitat surrounded by areas
unsuitable for the species on the island; not just
true islands surrounded by ocean, but also
mountains surrounded by deserts, lakes
surrounded by dry land, forest fragments
surrounded by human-altered landscapes.
Foundation - 2
• The worst thing that can happen during the 1980s
is not energy depletion, economic collapse,
limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian
government. As terrible as these catastrophes
would be for us, they can be repaired within a few
generations. The one process ongoing in the
1980s that will take millions of years to correct is
the loss of genetic and species diversity by the
destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that
our descendents are least likely to forgive us.
– E.O. Wilson 1985
Core
Corridor
Fragmentation
Connectivity
Mountains
‘Mainland’
‘Island’
Size
Age
Environment
Loss of Biodiversity - Real or
imagined problem
• The conceptual framework
• A real example
• Practical example
Conceptual Background
Practical Example
• Conventional agriculture vs. “sustainable
agriculture”
• In order to maintain simplified biological
systems, one must use extensive
quantities of energy
– Water
– Fuel
– Fertilizers
– Pesticides
Threats to Biodiversity
• Habitat loss/conversion/degradation/
fragmentation
• Species introductions (includes invasive
species)
• Over-harvesting (hunting, fishing)
• Air pollution
• Climate change
Red pine
Loblolly pine
http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/atlas/
Example with Climate Change
Solutions
• Ex-situ (off-site) conservation: Arboreta,
zoos, plant collections, seed banks
• In-situ conservation: Preserves, reserves
– SLOSS: Single large or several small.
– Working farms and forests
• Recognition of attributes of ‘umbrella’
species (link to discussion of food
chain/web)
• Yellowstone to Yukon (remember Pluie)
• Restoration
Outcome
• Corridor of
connected
protected areas
• Identification of
– Prime habitat
– Areas at risk
Alternative (s)
• Restoration
• Working environments (agriculture,
grazing and forestry)
Analysis of Restoration Project
• Transformation of a relative small piece of
land (~ 0.15 acres)
• Work for 70 minutes @ $10 per hour
– 142 students
– 6 TAs
– 2 Faculty
• $11670 per acre
Renewable Resources: Forest
Ecosystems
Original
Today
Frontier
Choices
B
Which seems the poorest choice?
D
A
C
http://www.cwbiodiesel.com/biodiesel/palm_oil.html
Time Appropriate Questions
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What do forest ecosystems provide?
What is important or valuable?
How do we conserve what is valuable?
What approaches are available for defining
what is important?
• What approaches are available for
conserving?
• Are we kidding ourselves?
Older definition of Ecosystem
goods and services
Ecosystem goods: Biophysical elements
that are directly, or indirectly, consumed
by humans
Ecosystem services: processes that
produce, or support the production of,
ecosystem goods (most involve some
biogeochemical cycle).
Newer definition of Ecosystem
goods and services
• Provisional services (e.g., food, fiber, fuelwood,
biochemicals, genetic resources, and water)
• Cultural services (e.g., recreational, ecotourism,
educational, sense of place, cultural heritage, spiritual,
religious and other nonmaterial benefits).
• Supporting services (e.g., primary production, soil
formation & nutrient cycling)
• Regulating services (e.g., water regulation [floods,
irrigation], water purification, climate regulation, land
degradation, and disease regulation)
Example of an Ecosystem Service
• Soil provides the following ecosystem
services
– Significant regulator of the hydrological
cycle
– Shelters seeds, provides medium for plant
growth, provides physical support
– Retains, delivers & derives nutrients
– Significant role in decomposition
– Contributes to cycling, retention &
regulation of major element cycles (N, P, C,
S)
– Carbon storage & cycle
– Role as a purifier (water, nutrients, etc.)
Forest ecosystems: Goods & Services
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Fiber - paper and products
Fuel - cooking & heating
Water - quantity and quality
Nutrient cycling
Ecosystem energetics (food chain)
Air - CO2 uptake, O2 release, pollutant removal
Climate stability
Biodiversity/habitat: plant and animal (wildlife)
Medicine and food products
Recreation/mental & social health
Reference: Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods (2006)
Ecosystem: A Human Construct
• Definition: An ecological system composed of
living organisms (plants, animals, & microbes)
and their nonliving environment.
• Ecosystems are characterized by:
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Structure & function
Complexity
Interaction of the components
Change over time (e.g., disturbances), “young,
mature, old.”
• Today, these functions must be spatially and
temporally coordinated.
Ecosystem threats?
• Loss of habitat: Land-use change and
irreversible conversion (fragmentation)
• Disruption of biogeochemical cycles
(N,C,P)
• Invasive or introduced exotic organisms
• Toxins, pollutants, human wastes
• Climate change
Ensuring Ecosystem Goods &
Services: Approaches
• Examine three different approaches
– First, we identify specific species we want in
our ecosystem (e.g., wolves, spotted owl,
whitebark pine, etc.).
– Second, we identify a process we want to
maintain (e.g., carbon fixation).
– Third: A more comprehensive or systems
approach.
• Two examples that use this third approach
– NCSSF - small scale, small perspective
– MEA - small to large scale, many perspectives
Whitebark Pine
Approach 1. Save a
species!
Distribution & Importance of
Whitebark Pine
Pinus albicaulis
• High elevation pine
• Large seed
• Special
relationship with a
bird
• Important for other
animals
• Keystone species
in the Rockies
Whitebark Pine: Ecological Importance
• Hardy subalpine conifer, tolerates poor
soils, steep slopes, windy exposures.
• Often the tree line species
• Keystone species (Rocky Mountain
Region)
– Food source - birds, small mammals & bears
– Often colonizes a site, facilitates succession &
promotes diversity
– Regulates runoff, reduces soil erosion
Picture: C.J. Earle
Decline of Whitebark Pine
• White pine blister rust:
Cronartium ribicola, is a rust
fungus with two hosts.
– All North American 5needled pines
– In addition, it infects all
species of the genus Ribes
spp., its alternate host.
– European & Russian
species resistant
• Problems today
– Fire suppression
– Global climate change
– Mountain pine beetle
Situation
• Whitebark pine is likely to disappear.
• What are our choices?
– Do nothing (its “natural”)
– Remove the Ribes
– Breed for resistance
– Introduce resistant European/Russian
species
– Selection and genetic engineering of the
endophyte.
2. Ensure a function!
Manage for Carbon Dioxide Uptake
Two goals:
• Understand where the hidden sink for carbon
dioxide is
• Use forest systems to take up CO2.
Approach taken by Canada - Kyoto Protocol
Difficulties
• Issues of scale (quality of info vs. extent of info)
• Monitoring
• Unknowns (soil carbon)
Lessons from first 2 approaches
• Managing single components or processes:
Hard
• Determination of what to measure, at what
scale, how often, etc.
• Techniques to measure (e.g., what is there
now & how is it changing) are expensive
• Monitoring - expensive, takes time
• Understanding of interactions (e.g.,
cascading effects)
• Regulatory environment may define
• Nature changes (e.g., forest fire)
Third Approach
Work on maintaining “properly”
functioning ecosystems
Key: Remember all the functions?
Two examples
• Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment Program (MEA)
•National Commission on
Science for Sustainable
Forestry (NCSSF)
Ecosystem Goods and Services
Definition of Ecosystem Goods and Services
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Program
Example
MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM
ASSESSMENT
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4 years
1300 researchers
4 volumes and 7 synthesis reports
“powerful, complex linkages between
ecosystem change and human wellbeing”
MEA Conceptual Framework
Global
Regional
Local
Human wellbeing & poverty
reduction
Indirect Drivers of
Change
• Demographic
• Economic
• Sociopolitical
• Science & technology
• Cultural & religious
Direct Drivers of Change
Ecosystem
Services
Life on Earth:
Biodiversity
• Changes in land use & land
cover
• Species removal or
introductions
• Technology
• Climate change
• Natural physical & biological
drivers
• External inputs
MEA Goals
• Identify options that can better achieve core human
development and sustainability goals.
– Recognize & meet growing demands for food, clean water,
health, and employment.
– Balance economic growth and social development with
environmental conservation.
• Better understand trade-offs involved—across
stakeholders—in decisions concerning the
environment.
• Rather than issue by issue, use a multi-sectoral
approach
• Match response options with appropriate level of
governance
Well-Being Defined (MEA)
•Security: Ability to
– a. live in an environmentally clean and safe shelter
– b. reduce vulnerability to ecological shocks & stress.
•Basic material for a good life: Ability to access resources
to earn income and gain a livelihood
•Health: Clean water, air, adequate nourishment, adequate
energy for temperature regulation, good health
•Good social relations
•Freedom & Choice
MEA:
Assessments
& Publications
December 2005
Pressures on Goals of MEA
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Population Growth
Economy, consumption
Combined demand on natural resources
Land degradation & conversion
Invasive organisms
Climate change
Public Health (e.g., HIV, malaria, nutrition)
Template for evaluation
Political acceptance & will (and
consistency)
• Mission: to advance the science and
practice of biodiversity conservation and
forest sustainability
• Critical Question: How does an owner or
manager of forest land tell whether
biodiversity and sustainability are being
positively, negatively or neutrally affected by
management practices and decisions?
• Or: Is your land ‘good’, changing, & changing
in what direction?
http://www.ncseonline.org/NCSSF/page.cfm?FID=1426
What’s needed?
• Early warning assessment system that is
– Rapid & cost effective
And that is based on
• Stand level sustainability (condition):
– Development of functional indicators (of
ecosystem services) &
– associated benchmarks
• These indicators/benchmarks should
represent best available
information/science.
Does it works in practice
• Functions, variables and benchmark
levels can be defined
• A sampling scheme has been
designed & tested
• Evaluation is then a comparison of
values and changes in values.
• Subsequent decisions are then based
on goals and objectives set by land
owner.
Does it work?
• Perhaps (actually data from urban to rural
land
• Weakness:
– Assumes that the indicators are correct and
respond in a measurable & timely way
– Assumes that we can react fast enough.
– Does not link objectives over large areas of
land.
• Clearly better than nothing
Conclusion: Difficulties
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Setting limits and distributing responsibility
Scale & variable (s)
Measurement
Monitoring
Assessment
Regulation
Outcomes and Feedback
Choices
Political will = Human will