BIO 3115 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Commercial Fishing, Shifting Baseline, Pollination
15 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
The dilemmas of conservation biology 1: the nero dilemma. The dilemmas of conservation biology 2: the bottom line dilemma. The dilemmas of conservation biology 3: the tragedy of the commons dilemma. The commons was a shared piece of land for which cattle could graze, often to make more profit, one was motivated to place more cattle on the land. When everyone has this same motivation the cattle quickly exceed carrying capacity and will cause the crash of the population. The argument then becomes for privatization of all lands: this is appropriate in some instances. The dilemmas of conservation biology 4: the tyranny of small decisions. The cumulative effects of many small decisions may be large, even though the individual effects of each decision is small, so in assessing impacts of human activities on biological resources, selecting the correct reference point is crucial. Many small decisions quickly add up in biological systems.
