BISC 1112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Greater Prairie Chicken, Extinction Vortex, Population Viability Analysis
Document Summary
Throughout the biosphere, human activities are altering trophic structures, energy flow, chemical cycling, and natural disturbance ecosystem processes on which we and all other species depend. Conservation biology: integrated study of ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology, molecular biology, and genetics to sustain biological diversity at all levels. Three levels of biodiversity: biodiversity (short for biological diversity) Three main levels: genetic diversity, species diversity, ecosystem diversity, genetic diversity. Erosion of genetic diversity in turn reduces the adaptive potential of the species: species diversity. The variety of species in an ecosystem or across the biosphere: as more species are lost to extinction, species diversity decreases. Endangered species: species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Threatened species: species that are considered likely to become endangered in the near future. Extinction of a species may be local: species may be lost in one river system but survive in an adjacent one.