Chapter+Eleven

Biodiversity Chapter Eleven 1. What is the connection between a devastating pandemic and the importance of maintaining biodiversity? To delve into this issue you need to look into two things...  The 1918 Flu Pandemic. Biodiversity and the 1918 Flu Your task here is to explain the connection between biodiversity and the importance of protecting biodiversity with a plant determined to have been used as a treatment for a specific aliment.

media type="youtube" key="HA3xNMJnFuo" height="315" width="420"This video presents a good overview ofsome of the issues involved in the biodiversity issue. Follow this link to learn more about [|biodiversity]. 2. Visit Green Facts page on Biodiversity. On the right hand side of this page you will find the following list of links: I would like you to choose one of these areas of biodiversity and read the information posted there and summarize it below.


 * Biodiversity: What is it, where is it, and why is it important?
 * Max: Biodiversity is any degree of variation in life forms, from small scale species up to the entire planet. A healthy ecosystem has a large amount of biodiversity. It is everywhere, and without biodiversity, some ecosystms will eventually crumble. Interconnectedness between all organisms in an enviornemnt keeps a systme of checks and balances in place, making sure life is sustained and in order. When biodiversity is lowered, maybe from climate change, fewer species can survive in an ecosystem.
 * ** Logan: ** Biodiversity is the vary of species in a ecosystem. Biodiversity is found throughout the world but particularly in ecosystems, such as the ocean or a rainforest. Biodiversity ensures that a ecosystem has stability and can sustain itself. It is in other words a energy source to a healthy ecosystem.
 * Why is biodiversity loss a concern?
 * Alex: Biodiversity is essentional for the benefits that ecosystems can provide to humans. As a result, biodiversity contributes to several aspects of human-welbeing, including the availability of raw materials, health, security, and other freedoms and choices.Many of the natural ecosystems that used to surround us have been transformed into human-dominated ecosystems, which has damaged the natural biodiversity. With the loss in biodiversity, we are apt to lose some the the benefits from the biodiversity like food and water security and basic materials for good living. The concern is that this will ultimatley lead to poor human-wellbeing.

NICK: overall, biodiversity is decreasing. Human interaction by means of agriculture and other methods has largely been the cost of this. The rate at which biodiversity is going down is decreasing. Mohan
 * What are the current trends in biodiversity
 * What factors lead to biodiversity loss? Direct Drivers that explicitly influence ecoystem processes . ex. climate change, invasive species, overexploitation, and pollution.
 * Indirect drivers: ex. changes in human population, incomes or lifestyle, operate more diffusely, by altering one or more direct drivers

NICK: TO conserve biodiversity, there are many things we can do. The first of course would be to cease the alteration of natural ecosystems.Another measure would be monitoring ecosystems for invasive species. Mohan : With appropriate responses at global, regional, and especially national level, it is possible to achieve, by 2010, a reduction in the rate of bidiversity loss for certain components of biodiversity or for certain indicators, and in certain regions, and several of the 2010 sub-targets adopted by the CBD could be met. 3. Watch the following lecture and answer the questions that follow. media type="custom" key="12523548"
 * How might biodiversity change in the future under various plausible scenarios?
 * Freddie: There are four possible scenarios that have been outlined, each plausible, with its own faults and succeses. These four are divided two and two, globalization, and regionalization. Globalization is the move towards a global society, and economy, while regionalization is the opposite, the fracturing of our earth into very separate divisions, where security and money come before the environment. Starting with globalization, the two possible outcomes of the future are a "global orchestration" where the entire world works together in one economy to focus on improving the earth, and all inhabitants. This has great potential where the entire world can be regulated on how they treat the environment, and vast programs to repair past damage can be the most effective ever. The second is a global society dependent on technology, to stretch the limits of the economy and ecosystems and predict environmental problems before they become irreparable. By making ecosystems produce their maximum potential, it can change the definition of the ecosystem, from being able to support themselves to organic factories.
 * The two predictions if the world regionalizes are where the strongest parties in the world neglect environmental concerns in favor of security and pushing all the world's problems outside their personal borders. The next is if small societies focus on small scale projects. Some groups will learn from the successful ones, but many will fail completely and cause lasting damage to the ecosystems they live near. This scenario is the closest to our current situation. The richer, more stable countries can afford to worry about the environment, while others neglect it due to more immediate problems, such as poverty and war. My personal opinion is that if there was a singular global society, the wealth spent on the environment would be spread throughout the world, doing greater good than just improving their individual countries. This would also improve the quality of life for many people, reduce war, which would make the environment a much higher priority.
 * What actions can be taken to conserve biodiversity?
 * Can the 2010 biodiversity targets be met?

What is meant by the term of ecosystem function? Kelcie: Ecosystem function is the capacity of natural processes and components to provide goods and services that satisfy human needs, either directly or indirectly. Ecosystem functions are conceived as a subset of ecological processes and ecosystem structures. There are four primary groups of ecosystem function: regulatory functions, habitat functions, production functions and information functions.

Why is this professor concerned about using this argument?

Why are estuaries and development in and around estuaries an especially important area of concern?

What does the term “tragedy of the commons” mean? Max: The tragedy of the commons reffers to a scenerio that rises when a population or individual will, overtime, consume a limited resource until a point of depletion. This process occurs naturally, even when it is not the intention of a species to exhaust a resource.

How does human dominance fit with an evolutionary point of view? Kelcie: An evolutionary point of view shows how artificial the human "right" to dominance is. The evolutionary theory is how we evolved, with human dominance an evolutionary theorist would say that we have evolved over time to become more active and dominant in order for us to survive.

Why do you think this professor is bringing in evolutionary theory in a discussion about biodiversity?

Choose one of the examples shared at the end of the video and summarize