An brief overview of this topic can be found in several different chapters of your text. For more in depth coverage read information given in the links given below (this is part of the assigned reading).

• Chapt. 1: pg 12-14 (biodiversity, life in hot springs and thermostable enzymes, taxonomy)
• Chapt. 16: pg 338-344 (mutations: their causes and types)
• Chapt. 20: pg 404-405 (genetics of populations), p. 410 (mutation), pp. 413-414 (how species arise), pp. 416-419 (mass extinctions)
• Chap. 21: pg 426-437 (Classifying Life: taxonomy, biodiversity, and life's three domains)
• Chapt. 44: pg 890-907 (Environmental Concerns: review and biodiversity)
• What is Biodiversity? Read "Defining the B word" and "The Threatened Biosphere".
• Biodiversity: An Overview from the World Conservation Monitoring Center

1. Define what biodiversity is and how it can be identified at the a.) genetic, b.) species, and c.) ecosystem or habitat level.

2. Explain how the levels of biodiversity are related and dependent on one another.

3. Describe the roles of sexual reproduction, meiosis, and mutation in the origin and maintenance of genetic variation in a population.

4. Define what a species and subspecies is and how their definitions are important to the protection of species by the Endangered Species Act.

5. Have a basic working knowledge of the number of species known, the estimated number in existence, and how these numbers are distributed among the three domains of life.

6. Explain how biodiversity is lost and how rapidly it is currently being lost.

7. Discuss the value and potential value of biodiversity to humans.

1. Genetic diversity

• The variety of genetic information contained in DNA of all the individual plants, animals, and microorganisms in the world.

• Occurs within and between populations of the same species as well as between species.

• Measured by distinguishing differences in expressed, phenotypic traits (race, eye color, height etc..) or by using DNA and protein-based techniques.

• Genetic diversity based on sexual reproduction, meiosis, mutation, and populations.

  • How does new genetic variation arise?

    
    

  • What are the sources of genetic variation in a population?

    
    

  • How does genetic variation spread through a population?

    
    

2. Species diversity

• The variety of living species.

• The question "What is a species?" is debatable. Lewis defines as "a group of similar individuals that interbreed in nature and are reproductively isolated from all other such groups."

• Why important?? Species are the baseline "natural unit" that we, as humans, can define and comprehend. The basis of our decision to protect or extinguish. The Endangered Species Act (1973) protects both species and subspecies.Endangered or Threatened Species in US

• All life is grouped into three domains:
  1. Bacteria (the "prokaryotes")
  2. Archaea
  3. Eukarya (the eukaryotes)
     • protists (single celled eukaryotes; protozoans, algae, amoeba)
     • plants
     • fungi
     • animals
       • mammals
       • reptiles
       • birds
       • amphibians
       • fish
       • invertebrate (insects, worms, crustaceans etc...)

• 1.4 to 1.6 million species have been described to date.

• Estimates for the total number of species vary from 10 to 50 million (and perhaps up to 100 million).

• Species diversity greatest in tropical rainforests. Fifty percent of all species are found here, a region that comprises only 7% of the Earth's land surface.

3. Ecosystem (or habitat) diversity

• The variety of habitats and ecological processes (e.g., energy flow, water and nutrient cycling, succession, competition, mutualism) occurring within and between each type of ecosystem.

• Habitat Loss:
  • Deforestation:1-2% of the tropical forests are removed each year. This is equivalent to losing an area the size of Florida each year!
  • Pollution
  • Development

• Species Loss (Extinction):
  • Rate of extinction is 1,000-10,000 times higher than the time before humans evolved.
  • Losses are numerically comparable to those in the 5 mass extinctions that occurred on earth during the last 500 million years. But humans are responsible for this one!!

• Population Loss (Loss of genetic variation)
  • Invasive Alien Species Their pictures and stories.

  • Invasive or non-native species competition

  • Festive Butterfly Release

How do we place value on a species or ecosystem? Do species differ in their value?

• Historical, Cultural, Ethical Value

• Economic value for ecosystem services $ value of air, food, clean water, raw materials etc...
  • Food 30,000 or more plant species have edible parts; 20 species feed the majority (90%) of the world's population; just 3 species are the major world-wide staples (rice, wheat, and corn).

• Biotechnology value and potential pharmeceuticals--Saving lives, engineering new organisms, and up to $32 billion / yr to the pharmeceutical industry
  • Digitalis (foxglove), for the cardiac stimulant digitoxin.

  • Catharanthus roseus (Madagascar rosy periwinkle) The most effective anticancer agents ever discovered. Treatment of childhood leukemia and Hodgkin's disease.

  • Taxus brevifolia (Pacific yew) for taxol, used to treat ovarian and breast cancer.

  • Cyclosporin, a powerful immunosuppression agent used in organ transplants, was discovered in a Norwegian fungus.

  • Penicillin,first isolated from bread mold.

  • Over 70% of the promising anti-cancer drugs come from plants in the rain forest. See bioprospecting for new pharmaceuticals.

• Ecosystem value-- protection of water resources, pollution breakdown, keystone species, succession and ecosystem recovery from disturbance

• Evolutionary value--Maintanence of genetic diversity provides opportunity for evolution instead of extinction. Maintanence of species that are evolutionary "links" or the only living member of a taxonomic group.

• Taxonomy, Systematics, and Evolutionary Biology-- To understand genetic diversity and genetic relatedness for the construction of evolutionary histories and to understand how species arise.

• Ecology & Conservation Biology-- The study of the interrelationships of organisms and their environment. How to protect and conserve populations, species, and ecosystems under the growing pressure of human habitation.
  • Florida Panther, Felis concolor coryi and The Mountain Lion, Felis concolor
  • David Tilman
  • Grassland Diversity Depends on Fungi

and away we go!