1. Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity: The Ecosystem Approach
G. Tyler Miller’s
Living in the Environment
13th Edition
Chapter 23

2. Key Concepts Human land use Types and uses of US public lands
Forests and forest management
Implications of deforestation
Management of parks
Establishment and management of nature preserves
Importance of ecological restoration

3. Land Use in the World
Fig. 23-2
p. 595

4. Land Ownership and Use in the United States
Rangeland and pasture 29%

5. Types of US Public Lands
Multiple-use lands: National Forests; National Resource Lands
Moderately-restricted use lands: National Wildlife Refuges
Restricted-use lands: National Park System; National Wilderness Preservation System

6. US Public Lands
Fig. 23-4
p. 596

7. Managing US Public Land
Primary goal to protect biodiversity and ecological functions
No subsidies or tax breaks for use
Public should get fair compensation
Users held responsible for actions
(Aldo Leopold’s Land-Use Ethic)

8. Managing and Sustaining Forests
Ecological Importance of Forests
Food webs and energy flow
Water regulation
Influence local-regional climate
Numerous habitats and niches
Air purification
Carbon sequestration

9. Managing and Sustaining Forests
Economic Importance of Forests
Fuelwood (50% of global forest use)
Industrial timber and lumber
Pulp and paper
Medicines
Mineral extraction
Recreation

10. Layers of Biodiversity
Forest Structure
Layers of Biodiversity
Fig p. 601

11. Types of Forests Old-growth (frontier) forests Second-growth forests
Tree farms/plantation
Fig p. 609

12. Forest Management Rotation cycle Even-aged management
Industrial forestry
Uneven-aged management
Improved diversity
Sustainable production
Selective cutting
Multiple-use

13. Management Strategies
Fig p. 601
Short Rotation Cycle
Fig p. 602

14. Logging Roads result in
increased erosion and runoff
habitat fragmentation
pathways for exotic species
accessibility to humans
Fig p. 602

15. Harvesting Trees
Trees can be harvested individually from diverse forests (selective cutting), an entire forest can be cut down (clear cutting), or portions of the forest is harvested (e.g. strip cutting).

16. Tree Harvesting Methods
Selective cutting
high grading
Shelterwood cutting
Seed-tree cutting
Clearcutting
Strip cutting
Fig p. 603

17. What is happening to the world’s forests?
Forests are renewable resources as long as the rate of cutting and degradation does not exceed the rate of re-growth.

18. Sustainable Forestry Longer rotations Selective or strip cutting
Minimize fragmentation
Improved road building techniques
Certified sustainable grown (See Solutions p. 598)

20. Pathogens Fungal Diseases Chestnut blight Dutch elm disease
Insect Pests
Bark beetles
Gypsy moth

21. Fire (intermittent natural fires set by lightening)
Depending on their intensity, fires can benefit or harm forests.

22. Surface/Ground Fire Burn away flamable ground material
Release mineral nutrients
Increase activity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria
Stimulate germination of some seeds
Help control pathogens and insects

23. Crown Fire Destroys most vegetation Kills wildlife
Increases soil erosion

24. Fire Management Prevention Prescibed burning Presuppression
For more than 70 years, firefighting has been a high priority for forest managers.

25. Fire Management “Only you can prevent forest fires.”
In 1989, the US spent over $1 billion and lost 33 lives in efforts to stop forest fires.
Smokey the Bear

26. Forest Resources and Management in the United States
Sustained yield
potentially renewable resources should not be harvested or used faster than they can be reproduced
Multiple Use
Wildlife, timber harvests, watershed protection, recreation, livestock grazing
Only 3% of timber harvest comes from national forests
Substitutes for tree products
Tree-free fibers

27. Solutions: Reducing Demand for Harvest Trees
Tree harvesting can be reduced by wasting less wood and making paper and charcoal fuel from fibers that do not come from trees.
Kenaf is a promising plant for paper production.

28. TROPICAL DEFORESTATION
Large areas of ecologically and economically important tropical forests are being cleared and degraded at a fast rate.

29. TROPICAL DEFORESTATION
At least half of the world’s terrestrial plant and animal species live in tropical rain forests.
Large areas of tropical forest are burned to make way for cattle ranches and crops.

30. Tropical Deforestation Issues
Rapid and increasing deforestation
% per year
Loss of biodiversity
Madagascar Case Study
Cultural extinction
Should we be protecting the rights of the earth’s remaining indigenous cultures?
Unsuitable agriculture and ranching
Clearing for cash crop plantations
Increasing forest fires
Commercial logging
Fuelwood

31. Rapid population growth
Bromeliad
Orchid
Toucan
Scarlet
macaw
Golden lion
marmoset
Blue morpho butterfly
Primary Causes
Rapid population growth
Poverty
Exploitive government
policies
Secondary Causes:
Roads
Logging
Cattle ranching
Cash crops
Unsustainable peasant
farming
Tree plantations
Flooding from dams
Mining
Oil drilling

32. Reducing Tropical Deforestation
Identification of critical ecosystems
Reducing poverty and population growth
Sustainable tropical agriculture
Encourage protection of large tracts
Less destructive harvesting methods
Debt-for-nature swaps

33. Debt-for-Nature Swaps
Participating countries act as custodians for protected forest reserves in return for foreign aid or debt relief

34. The Fuelwood Crisis Planting fast-growing fuelwood plants
Burning wood more efficiently (new stove designs)
Switching to other fuels (root-fuel plants)
Fig p. 618

35. U.S. National Parks Goals To preserve nature in parks
To make nature more available to the public
Sometimes these two goals are in conflict with one another.

36. Managing and Sustaining National Parks - Threats
Most parks too small to maintain biodiversity
Invasion of exotic species a threat
Limited Funding
Popularity a major problem
Traffic jams and air pollution
Visitor impact
Nearby human activity
mining, logging, grazing, power plants, development

37. Managing and Sustaining National Parks - Solutions
Principle of natural regulation
parks will be self sustaining if left alone
considered a misguided policy
Suggestions
require integrated management plan
increase budgets
locate commercial facilities outside park boundaries
survey conditions and types of wildlife
raise entrance fees
limit visitors
increase pay for park rangers
encourage volunteers
encourage individual and corporate donations

38. Managing Nature Reserves: Establishment and Design
Should include some moderate disturbances
Design should sustain natural ecological processes
Round
Large
Heterogeneous
Buffer zones

39. Model Nature Reserves
contains a protected inner core surrounded by two buffer zones that people can use for multiple use.

40. Managing Nature Reserves: Establishment and Design
Gap analysis
Maps of topography, vegetation, hydrology, land ownership, and existing nature reserves
Estimates of geographic distribution of plants and animals by regions
Superimpose species distribution maps on vegetation maps to determine unprotected areas, gaps with high species diversity, unprotected pockets of rare species.

41. Managing Nature Reserves
Protect most important areas
Biodiversity hotspots
Wilderness areas
Protection of undeveloped lands from human exploitation by legally setting them aside.
Wilderness – areas “of undeveloped land affected primarily by the forces of nature, where man is a visitor and does not remain”

42. 34 hotspots identified by ecologists as important and endangered centers of biodiversity.

43. Ecological Restoration
What is here?
What will nature permit us to do here?
What will nature help us to do here?
Restoration
Return to pre-existing condition
Mitigation – protect, restore, or create a similar ecosystem of roughly the same size
Rehabilitation
Restore some of the natural species and ecosystem functions (i.e. remove pollutants)
Replacement
Replacing a degraded ecosystem with another type of ecosystem

44. WHAT CAN WE DO? Eight priorities for protecting biodiversity:
Take immediate action to preserve world’s biological hot spots.
Keep intact remaining old growth forests.
Complete mapping of world’s biodiversity for inventory and decision making.
Determine world’s marine hot spots.

45. WHAT CAN WE DO?
Concentrate on protecting and restoring lake and river systems (most threatened ecosystems).
Ensure that the full range of the earths ecosystems are included in global conservation strategy.
Make conservation profitable.
Initiate ecological restoration products to heal some of the damage done and increase share of earth’s land and water allotted to the rest of nature.