1. How are elephants individually identified in the long-term study described?
a. long-term researchers who recognized each elephant individually using age, sex, ear markings, tusk configurations and other notable features pictured in a continually updated photo identification file.
b. adult ages were estimated using shoulder heights and physical appearances according to guides established from molars of dead elephants
1. Why are there so many orphaned elephants – what are the drivers of orphaning?
a. Poaching
1. What are the social consequences of orphaning?
a. Less access to matriarchs and more aggression from family
1. How did Jenna Parker test her predictions about potential impacts of orphaning on physiological condition? What did she measure?
a. concentrations of glucocorticoid metabolites
hormone cortisol in elephant dung
1. What surprising results emerged from her study of orphans and parasitic worms, and what could explain these findings?
a. the orphaned elephants had lower levels of parasitic infections than the non-orphaned elephants.
b. orphaned elephants were receiving better nutrition and care from their human caretakers
1. Jenna ended by showing a TED talk about conservation in Africa. What was the key take home message from this talk?
a. collaborative and holistic approach
What impact has the invasive Brown Tree Snake had on Guam?
a. Reduction in prey population
changes in vegetation, increased insect populations, and altered nutrient cycling. Additionally, the snake has been known to cause power outages by climbing onto electrical infrastructure
1. What novel tools/techniques are being used to control Brown Tree Snakes on Guam?
a. Tracking the snakes to nests
b. Acetaminophen-laced mice
c. Dogs
1. In what ways is the Veiled Chameleon on Maui a conservation success story? Be familiar with the invasion curve and the point at which it is most cost-effective to control invasive reptiles (and other taxa)
Most cost effective in the LAG PHASE
a. Educated public
b. Dogs found the chameleons and removed them
c. Most cost effective at beginning before exponential growth
1. What are the impacts of the Burmese python on the native bird, mammal and reptile community in the Florida Everglades?
a. Decreased prey population
b. Disease spreading
1. Are pythons easy to detect? Why or why not? Why is detection so important for management?
a. Not easy to detect
b. Detection is important because you need to get an early start on the mangment
1. How (generally) will climate change affect where Tegu can invade and persist in the United States?
a. Could expand their range due to increasing temp
b. Precipitation changes could also do this
1. Recall the five major drivers of species loss and decline. How have these drivers impacted Hawaii’s native forest birds? In what ways have these drivers interacted synergistically to have negative consequences for biodiversity?
a. Habits In Oprah Change Politics
The five major drivers of species loss and decline are habitat loss, invasive species, overharvesting, climate change, and pollution.
b. habitat loss and fragmentation make it easier for invasive species to establish and spread
c. Climate change exacerbates these impacts by altering precipitation patterns and creating more favorable conditions for invasive species to thrive.
1. How might reforestation with native species in Hawaii provide benefits for people and biodiversity?
a. reforestation can help to prevent erosion and soil degradation, which can have negative impacts on water quality and availability
i. Cleans the water
b. Habitat conservation
1. How is light pollution affecting seabirds in Hawaii?
a. Attracts them to artificial light
b. Disrupts breeding
c. Effects migration
1. Why are conservationists constructing fenced reserves in New Zealand? What are the outcomes for native birds and bird-mediated ecosystem services?
a. To protect birds from invasive mammal predators
b. Provide seed dispersal networks
1. Why do you think islands have more endemic species, and why are species on island at greater risk of extinction relative to those on continents?
a. They are isolated from other lands
b. Extinct likelihood due to Small population size
c. Less adaptations to fend off invasive predators/disease
1. Why are carnivores often involved in human-wildlife conflict?
a. because they may attack livestock or pets, pose a threat to human safety, or be seen as a nuisance
b. They also use man made waste as a food source
1. What are the key elements of co-existence?
a. Must be dynamic and sustainable
b. Resource partitioning
c. Mutualism – must benefit from eachother
1. What are some non-lethal tools to mitigate/reduce conflict between people and carnivores? Discuss these in the context of one or more case studies presented in class
a. Bear resistant trash cans
b. Establish a sustainable natural food source
1. What percent of the water on earth is available for freshwater fish?
0.01
1. Is most of this water available for fish lotic or lentic?
Lotic
What are the primary causes of freshwater fish extinction?
HIC the HO
a. Habitat Loss
b. Introduced species
c. Chemical pollution
d. Hybridization
e. Overharvesting
1. How do invasive fish affect native fish?
a. Competition for the best positions to feed in flowing water
b. Predation
1. Why is climate change a concern for freshwater fish populations?
a. They are ectotherms
i. Rely on temp of water to regulate body heat
b. Rain affects flow of rivers
1. What is a biocrust? Which groups of species typically make up this biological community?
Create Lips Man Fuck - cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, fungi and other microorganisms
A biocrust, also known as a biological soil crust, is a living community of organisms that forms on the surface of soil in arid and semiarid environments. This community typically includes cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, fungi, and other microorganisms. The biocrust functions to stabilize soil, prevent erosion, retain moisture, and fix nitrogen in the ecosystem
1. How do biocrusts affect plant performance?
a. Increase growth rate
b. Give them nutrients from decaying organisms
c. Inhibit invasive plants
1. Know that biocrusts are very sensitive to trampling. How can we minimize harm to biocrusts?
a. Educating public
b. Growing biocrust/farming
1. What is conservation genetics?
a. understanding how genetic processes and variation within and among populations of endangered or threatened species
1. Be familiar with the following terms: genes, locus, allele, genome, inbreeding depression
a. Genes = Unit of hereditary info
b. Locus = Place on a chromosome
c. Allele = Mutated gene on a specific locus on the chromosome
d. Genome = Complete gene set
e. Inbreeding depression = Reduction in fitness due to a high likelihood of having two copies of the same allele at a given locus which can reveal deleterious recessive alleles that were previously hidden.
1. What are sources of DNA in the cell – and how/where would you sample to collect DNA using invasive and non-invasive methods? What is eDNA?
a. DNA is found in the nucleus of cells, as well as in other cellular organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts.
b. Non invasive = This can be done through techniques such as fecal sampling, hair snaring, or swabbing of skin or feathers.
eDNA (environmental DNA) refers to DNA that is collected from the environment (sucha as soil or water) rather than directly from an organism
1. What is the relationship between genetic diversity and population size?
a. The relationship between genetic diversity and population size is generally positive, meaning that larger populations tend to have greater genetic diversity than smaller populations.
1. How do genetics contribute to conservation? Be able to describe at least three applications of this tool and illustrate these applications through an example.
a. Identifying at risk populations
b. Minimizing inbreeding
c. Assesing adaptive potential
d. Detecting hybridization
1. Be familiar with positive density dependence (Allee affect). Provide two examples of where you would expect to observe the Allee effect.
a. Allee affect = Positive density dependence
b. increased mating opportunities, cooperative defense against predators, and improved foraging efficiency at high population densities.
c. Social insects – Benefit from dense populations because its necessary for cooperation in foragin
d. Large mammals – Exhibit Allee effect because they need to have dense populations to defend against predators
1. Distinguish between proximate and ultimate causes of extinction. What are some common examples of each? How were these illustrated by the Carolina Parakeet and/or Passenger Pigeon?
a. Proximate causes of extinction refer to the immediate factors that lead to the disappearance of a species, such as habitat loss, overhunting, or introduction of invasive species. Ultimate causes of extinction refer to the deeper, underlying factors that ultimately lead to a species' extinction, such as environmental change or loss of genetic diversity.
b. The Carolina parakeet was overhunted but ultimately went extinct due to habitat loss same with the passenger pigeon and low populations size
1. What is meant by an ecologically functional population? Under what scenarios could you imagine a species going “functionally extinct”?
aa. Functionally extinct means when a ecologically important species’ population size gets too small to fullfill its ecological role
b. This would happen when a populations size is so small that they don’t have the ability to interact with other species at a sufficient frequency
c. Climate change could affect the ecological behavior of a species
1. What is population viability analysis? What information does it provide?
a. demographic effect of different threats or managementpractices on a population by projecting into the future topredict extinction risk. A PVA is a form of “quantitative riskanalysis”.
b. It is used to predict how different factors, such as environmental changes or management actions, will affect a population's viability.
c. They help identify the most important factors affecting a population's viability and can be used to test different management strategies to improve the population's chances of survival.
d. Tells you how large a population must be to survive
1. What are some strengths and shortcomings of PVA for recovering endangered species?
a. Strengths
i. allows for the testing of different management strategies to determine which ones are most likely to be effective in preventing extinction.
ii. Used to make evidence-based decisions
b. Short coming
i. PVA requires lots of data which takes time and money
ii. Only as good as the data used
1. Be able to discuss and interpret the results of at least one PVA from lecture or readings (Marbled Murrelet or Ocelot).
a. In recent decades, the number of Marbled Murrelets, a seabird of the Pacific coast, has declined. Scientists in Canada and the US have analyzed the chemical composition of murrelet feathers - some from birds carefully preserved since 1894 by the Burke Museum in Seattle. The analysis shows that the diet of the murrelets has changed dramatically in the last 40 years, to smaller and smaller prey items, which take longer to find. This means that adult murrelets are away from their nests longer, leaving the young birds unprotected.
a. Nt+1 = (NT * S) + (NT * B * S)N is changing only as a function of births ordeathsNT = population at time TS = probability of survivalB = number of offspring produced perindividual
1. Understand what characterizes a source population, sink population, and ecological trap.
a. Sources: areas where local reproductive success is greater thanlocal mortality. Excess individuals must disperse outside their natalhabitat to find a place to settle/breed
b. Sinks: areas where local reproductive success is less than localmortality. Without immigration from other populations, thesepopulations “spiral down the drain” to extinction
c. Ecological Trap: habitat that resembles a source but is really a sink!
What are the key characteristics of a metapopulation?
a. Network of subpopulations
b. Some areas are uninhabited some inhabited
c. Local extinctions and repopulations
1. Why are small subpopulations potentially as important as large subpopulations for maintaining a metapopulation? What is the rescue effect?
a. They can serve as sources of immigrants and emmigrants
b. Small populations can have unique genetic codec. The rescue effect is when immigrants from a neighboring populations save the local populous from extinction.
1. Distinguish between ex situ and in situ conservation, and species introduction and reintroduction.
a. Ex situ = off site like captive breeding, seed banks, and zoos.
b. In situ = Park and habitat restoration
c. Introduction = Putting species where they didn’t exist before Wild or Bred
d. Reintroduction = Releasing captive born individuals into natural habitat.
1. What are common critiques of captive breeding as a strategy for biodiversity conservation?
a. Limited genetic diversity
b. Captive animals lack skills gained in the wild
c. Expensive
d. Ethics
e. Doesn’t do anything unless the natural habitat is first viable
1. Be familiar with ways to increase the likelihood that captive breeding and reintroduction programs will achieve success. What are some tools that were used to support the examples described in class?
a. Make sure the population size is viable
b. Make sure the historic range of the species is comparable to the new habitat
c. Ensure long-term support
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Pleistocene rewildling approach proposed by Donlan et al. (2006)?
a. Strengths
i. Ecological restoration
ii. Biodiversity
iii. Ecotourism
b. Weaknesses
i. Uncertainty
ii. Ethics
1. Conflicts with modern animals
iii. Cost
iv. Genetics from that time may not work today
1. What is de-extinction? What are the arguments for and against investing in this approach from a biodiversity conservation perspective?
a. De-extinction is bringing extinct animals back
b. For
i. Restoration of ecosystems
ii. Biodiversity
iii. Scientific knowledge
iv. Ethical obligation
c. Against
i. Resources used on de-extinction could be used in modern conservation
ii. Could have unintended ecological consequences
iii. May not be feasible