1. Biodiversity The variety of living things Three Kinds –Genetic Diversity –Species Diversity –Ecological Diversity

4. Linnaean Classification KingdomAnimalia PhylumCordata –ClassMammalia OrderPrimates –FamilyHominidae »GenusHomo SpeciesHomo sapiens

5. Communities and Niches Community: The populations of all species in a habitat associate with one another directly or indirectly as a community –Habitat: the place where something lives The Niche: Sum total of all activities and relationships in which individuals of a species engage as they secure and use the resources required to survive and reproduce.

6. Species Interactions Commensalism: Neither affected Mutualism: the benefit flows both ways Competition: both competing Predation: one consumes another Parasitism: Benefits one hurts the other.

7. Benefits of Biodiversity Food –As many as 80,000 edible plants Drugs and Medicine –$75-150 Billion/year Ecological Benefits –Soil formation, waste disposal, air and water purification, solar absorption and food –Controls disease

8. Aesthetic and Cultural Benefits

9. Extinction Extinction: elimination of a species –Normal rate = 1/decade –Currently = 100,000/decade Extirpation = Ecological Extinction Between 1/3 to 2/3 of all species could be extinct by the middle of the 21 st century

11. Threats to Biodiversity Habitat Alteration: #1 Cause –Fragmentation: Habitat into smaller patches Invasive Species Pollution Commercial Products and live specimens Overexploitation –Hunting, capturing,

12. Fragmentation

13. National Parks

14. Protecting Biodiversity Hunting and Fishing Laws Endangered Species Act (ESA) –Endangered=imminent danger of extinction –Threatened=likely to become endangered Reintroductions Recovery Plans