1. Explain biodiversity and its importance. BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION VANISHING SPECIES CHAPTER 5.1:Objectives: Relate various threats to the loss of biodiversity.

2. __________ refers to the variety of species in a specific area. The simplest and most common measure of biodiversity is the number of different ______ that live in a certain area. Areas around the world differ in biodiversity. Biodiversity increases as you move toward the _______.

3. Section 5.1 Summary – pages 111-120 ______ regions contain two-thirds of all land species on Earth.

4. The richest environments for biodiversity all seem to be warm places: _____ rain forests, ______ reefs, and large tropical lakes. How do ecologists perform experiments related to biodiversity? Today you can read about projects in rain forests that require scientists to live 150 meters up in the _______ for weeks while they collect species that live only at that level.

5. Other researchers catalogue the organisms that live in coral reefs and others attach ____ collars to sea turtles. Still others work in laboratories comparing the ____ of members of isolated populations to see how or if these populations might be changing.

6. Living things are inter _______. Living things can be _____ for other living things. _________ are adapted to live together in communities. Scientists do know that if a species is lost from an ecosystem, the loss may have consequences for other living things in the area

7. Biodiversity can bring ______ to an ecosystem. A ____ could easily destroy all the corn in a farmer’s field, but it would be far more difficult for a single type of insect or disease to destroy all individuals of a plant species in a rain forest. Ecosystems are ______ if their biodiversity is maintained.

8. ________ depend on other organisms for their needs. Yet only a few species of plants and animals supply the major portion of the food eaten by the human population. Biodiversity could help breeders produce additional food crops.

9. Another important reason for maintaining biodiversity is that it can be used to improve people’s ______. Living things supply the world’s _________. Penicillium Preserving biodiversity ensures there will be a supply of living things, some of which may provide future drugs.

10. ______ is the disappearance of a species when the last of its members dies. Extinction is a natural process and Earth has experienced several ______ extinctions during its history.

11. Scientists estimate that background extinction accounts for the loss of one to ten species per year. However, the current rate of extinction exceeds that by many times. There is also a certain level of natural extinction, called ________ extinction, that goes on.

12. A species is considered to be an ________ species when its numbers become so low that extinction is possible.

13. When the population of a species is likely to become endangered, it is said to be a _______ species.

14. ______ interactions among species make each ecosystem unique. Changes to _______ can therefore threaten organisms with extinction.

15. One of the biggest reasons for decline in biodiversity is habitat ____.

16. Habitat ________ is the separation of wilderness areas from other wilderness areas.

17. Habitat fragmentation has been found to contribute to: increased extinction of local species. changes in overall biodiversity. disruption of ecological processes. new opportunities for invasions by unwanted or exotic species. increased risk of fire.

18. The smaller the fragment, the _____ biodiversity the area can support. Geographic _____ can lead to _______ isolation. Habitat fragmentation also makes it difficult for species to ________ themselves in an area.

19. The ____ of a habitat or ecosystem is where one habitat or ecosystem meets another.

20. The different conditions along the boundaries of an ecosystem are called _____ ____. Different organisms might live along the edge of a forest instead of in the ______ of the forest.

21. If a road is cut through a wooded area, the shape of the wooded area changes and the edge is changed. Now there is less distance between the edge and the interior. Some plants might die out.

22. When an edge changes, animals might _______ because there isn’t enough space from which to gather food. As a result, biodiversity of that area changes. Another threat to biodiversity is habitat ________, the damage to a habitat by pollution. Three types of pollution are air, _____, and land pollution.

23. _______ enter the atmosphere in many ways—including volcanic eruptions and forest fires.

24. Burning ______ fuels is also a major source of air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide. _____ precipitation—rain, snow, sleet, and fog with low pH values—has been linked to the deterioration of some forests and lakes. ________ waves emitted by the Sun also can cause damage to living organisms. ______, a compound consisting of three oxygen atoms, is found mainly in a region of Earth’s atmosphere between about 15 km and 35 km altitude.

25. The ozone in this region—known as the ozone layer—absorbs some of the ultraviolet waves striking the atmosphere, reducing the ultraviolet radiation reaching Earth’s surface.

26. Water pollution degrades ______ habitats in streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. A variety of pollutants can affect aquatic life.

27. Excess _____ and _____ wastes are often carried by rain into streams and lakes. The sudden availability of nutrients causes ______ blooms, the excessive growth of algae.

28. Section 5.1 Summary – pages 111-120 Detergents, heavy metals, and industrial chemicals in runoff can cause death in aquatic organisms. Abandoned drift nets in oceans have been known to entangle and kill dolphins, ______, and other sea life.

29. Trash, or _____ waste, is made up of the cans, bottles, paper, plastic, metals, dirt, and spoiled food that people throw away every day.

30. The average American produces about 1.8 kg of solid waste daily. That’s a total of about 657 kg of waste per person per year. Although some of it might _______ quickly, most trash becomes part of the billions of tons of solid waste that are buried in ________.

32. People sometimes introduce a new _______ into an ecosystem, either intentionally or unintentionally. These species can cause problems for the _____ species. Kudzu

33. When _____ species are introduced, these species can grow at an exponential rate due to the fact that they are not immediately as vulnerable to local competitors or _______ as are the established native species.

34. CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY CHAPTER 5.2: Objectives Relate success in protecting an endangered species to the methods used to protect it. Describe strategies used in conservation biology.

35. ________ biology is the study and implementation of methods to protect biodiversity. Effective conservation strategies are based on principles of _______. _______ resources are those parts of the environment that are useful or necessary for living organisms. Natural resources include sunlight, water, ___, and plant and animal resources.

36. In response to concern about species extinction, the U.S. Endangered Species Act became law in ____. This law made it _______ to harm any species on the endangered or threatened species lists.

37. A _______ is the physical location where an organism lives and interacts with its environment. One way that habitats have been protected is `through the creation of natural preserves and `_____.

38. Establishing parks and other protected regions has been an effective way to preserve ecosystems and the communities of species that live in them. Saguaro National Park, Arizona

39. A general strategy for protecting the biodiversity of an area probably is to protect the largest area possible. However, research is showing that keeping wildlife populations completely separate from one another may be resulting in ______ within populations.

40. Therefore, another strategy for preserving biodiversity is to connect protected areas with habitat _______. Habitat corridors are protected strips of land that allow the _______ of organisms from one wilderness area to another.

41. Parks and protected areas usually hire people, such as _____, to manage the parks and ensure the protection of organisms. The philosophy of _______ use strives to enable people to use natural resources in ways that will benefit them and maintain the ecosystem.

42. _______ programs release organisms into an area where the species once lived. The most successful reintroductions occur when organisms are taken from an area in the wild and transported to a new suitable habitat.

43. Some species no longer exist in the ___, but a small number of individual organisms is maintained by humans. An organism that is held by people is said to be in ________.

44. The ideal way to protect a plant species is to allow it to exist in a natural ecosystem. But _____ can be cooled and stored for long periods of time. By establishing seed banks for threatened and endangered plants, the species can be reintroduced if they become ______. Reintroductions of captive animals are more difficult than for plants. Animals kept in captivity may lose the necessary _________ to survive and reproduce in the wild.