Werner Kunz. the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and the...

Werner Kunz

the variety of life on Earth at all its levels,

from genes to ecosystems, and the ecological and evolutionary

processes that sustain it.

Source: ©AMNH-CBC

The variation in the nucleotides, genes, chromosomes, or whole genomes of organisms

Source: Human Genome Project, Department of Energy

• Classified as 1 species of killer whale, Orcinus orca

• Genetics show might be 3-5 species of killer whales

• Matters whether or not seen as endangered

Phenotype - the physical constitution of an organism that results from its genetic constitution (genotype) and the action of the environment on the expression of the genes.

Thus, phenotypic diversity refers to variation in the physical traits of the organism.

Domroese ©AMNH-CBC

Source: ©AMNH-CBC

• Species richness: the number of species present in a given area

• Species diversity: species number weighted by measure of relative abundance

•Many people use the term “species diversity” when they mean species richness

• What is a species?- tps

• How many species are there?

• Terry Erwin says 30 million!

• But we know 1.5 million

• What is an ecosystem?

• Ecosystems are a group of interacting species both with each other and the physical environment.– Forests, coral reefs, grasslands, intertidal

• Why is ecosystem diversity important to us?

– coral reefs– tallgrass prairie– coastal wetlands– old-growth forest– tropical rainforest– Urban areas?

Source: Brumbaugh ©AMNH-CBC

Mangroves, Belize

Source: Harrison ©AMNH

• Species associated with: ripening figs in a tropical forest,

• Species clustered around a hydrothermal vent on the ocean floor,

• Species in the spray zone of a waterfall,

• Species under warm stones in the alpine zone on a mountaintop.

Source: ©AMNH

- “a relatively large unit of land or water containing a geographically distinct assemblage of species, natural communities, and environmental conditions” (WWF, 1999)

Biodiversity is not distributed evenly across the planet:

Species diversity for most taxa is lowest near the poles, and increases toward the tropics, reaching a peak in tropical rain forests (may contain more than half the species on Earth).S

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Source: Kristan Hutchison,NSF: US Antarctic Program

Lunde © AMNH/CBC

Adapted from Kaufman and Mallory (1986) ‘The Last Extinction’ fig 2.1

• Evolution required 10 million years or more to attain prior levels of species diversity

• Homo sapiens (humans) are the cause of a sixth major extinction in history.

• causes - human induced

• rate – greater

• breadth of taxonomic groups affected

• it can be stopped or at least slowed!

• http://vimeo.com/39048998