dst-nrf centre of excellence for invasion biology ecology and biodiversity energy and food webs what...
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DST-NRF CENTRE OF EXCELLENCEFOR INVASION BIOLOGY
Ecology and Biodiversity
Energy and Food websWhat is biodiversity
The biodiversity crisisThe Convention for Biological Diversity
How to measure biodiversityLinks
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WHAT IS ENERGY?
Energy is the property of a system that enables it to do work
Several forms of energy: kinetic, potential, heat, chemical, nuclear and radiant energy.
Common measures of energy: joules (SI Unit), calories and kilowatt-hours
SOURCES OF ENERGYSun: primary source of energy on earthFossil fuels: coal, oilNuclear energy
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LAWS OF ENERGY1st law of energy: Energy cannot be created or
destroyed but can be transferred from one form to another
2nd law of energy: When one form of energy is transferred into another form, some useful energy is always lost as heat, therefore, energy cannot be recycled.
In nature systems go from order to chaos - Entropy is the amount of disorder in a physical system
Closed system: entropy remains constant or increases
In an open system: entropy can decrease, at a local scale - by using energy, this tendency can be “reversed” - Think of a teenager’s bedroom
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FLOW OF ENERGY
HEAT ENERGY RETURNED TO THE ATMOSPHERE
Solar energy
plants
herbivores
carnivores
top carnivores
deat
h an
d de
cay
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ENERGY & NUTRIENT FLOW IN A FOOD CHAIN
Solar energy
Plants Consumers (herbivores and carnivores)
DecomposersInorganic nutrient pool
Heat
Heat
HeatEnergy
Nutrients
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EXAMPLES OF A FOOD CHAINT
ER
RE
ST
RIA
L F
OO
D C
HA
IN
MA
RIN
E F
OO
D C
HA
IN
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EXAMPLE OF A FOOD WEB
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Definition of Biodiversity
“Biological Diversity or Biodiversity- The variety of life in all its forms, levels and combinations. Includes ecosystem diversity, species diversity, and genetic diversity.”
EcosystemsRiver, forest, high alpine, …
SpeciesFir, spruce, oak, …
Genetic diversityDifferent alleles ina population
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More Definitions
Visualise the Earth as being made up of building blocks
We start with an INDIVIDUAL
A group of individuals from the same species together in an area is known as a POPULATION
An organism is an individual from any kingdom
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More Definitions
Populations of different species are usually found living together making up a COMMUNITY
The grouping of both living communities and their non-living surroundings form an ECOSYSTEM
River, forest, high alpine, …
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More Definitions
A BIOME consists of many different ecosystems together
Map taken from: http://www.environment.gov.za/enviro-info/nat/biome.htm
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Species diversity
Many studies have focused on a few groups of organisms; mostly plants and vertebrates.
Ecologists should also investigate the effects of environmental change on invertebrates.
InsectsAfter Purvis & Hector 2000 Nature 405: 212-219
Chordates incl.vertebrates
Plants
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Biodiversity in South Africa
South Africa is home to an unique selection of species. This even includes the worlds smallest floral kingdom.
South Africa is a signatory to the Convention for Biological Diversity that aims to reduce the loss of biodiversity.
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Capensis The Cape Floral Kingdom
The smallest of the six floral kingdoms (the Western Cape province).
With a very rich flora including many endemic plant families.
Like Australis, Capensis is regarded as a segregated remnant of an ancient Antarctic Floral Kingdom (Gondwana).
Fynbos traditionally thought to be less rich in insects than other habitats.
Seeds of many fynbos plants are ant –dispersed (myrmechory)
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Cape Floristic Biodiversity Hotspot
One of the world's five Mediterranean hotspotsCharacterised by evergreen fire-dependent
shrublands The greatest non-tropical concentration of
higher plant species in the world The only hotspot that encompasses an entire
floral kingdom, 5 of South Africa’s 12 endemic plant families and 160 endemic genera.
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The Succulent Karoo Biodiversity Hotspot
Richest succulent flora on earth69% of plants are endemicReptiles show relatively high levels of
endemismOne of only two entirely arid ecosystems to earn
hotspot statusHome to the mysterious tree-like succulent, the
“halfmens”, as well as many unique species of lizards, tortoises and scorpionsThreats: Grazing, agriculture and mining, especially for diamonds and heavy metals
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Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Biodiversity Hotspot
Highest tree richness of any temperate forest on the planet (nearly 600 tree species)Important centre of plant endemismThe celebrated, bird-of-paradise flower is a
distinctive hotspot endemicRescue of the white rhino from extinction (took
place in this hotspot) one of the best-known success stories in African conservationThreats: industrial and local farming and the expansion of grazing lands
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Why should we care about biodiversity?
Why we should worry about biodiversity is debated
Intrinsic value
Ethical value (e.g. god’s creation)
Economic value (e.g. medicines)
Ecosystem services (one of the most important reasons from a scientific perspective) The Earth’s organisms and ecosystems maintain our planet’s life support system
■ Increased stability
■ Increased adaptability
■ Increased productivity
Recreation
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But …
Man only uses a small number of species directly for food, medicines, building materials, recreation, … (90% of human food sourced from plants comes from just 30 species)
Many species seem to fulfil similar functions.
Some monocultures are more productive than diverse systems (under ideal conditions).
However, healthy functioning ecosystems are vital to ensure that there essential resources (e.g. air and water) for life on Earth
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What determines local biodiversity
Area
Connectivity
Productivity
Disturbance
History
…
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Species-area relationship
Larger areas harbour more species. (MacArthur & Wilson 1967 Theory of Island Biogeography, Princeton Univ. Press)
■ less extinctions■ more immigrations■ more diverse habitats■ etc.
Same book also explain why more isolated areas are less diverse.
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Diversity-productivity relationship
Overall areas with higher productivity seem to have larger diversity as well.However, some monocultures seem to be very productive (under ideal conditions).Highly productive systems may have reduced diversity through increased competition. The diversity-productivity relationship is scale-dependent.
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Intermediate disturbance
Under stable conditions some species will out-compete others.Disturbance creates free space for establishment
by removing strong competitors. Thus disturbance creates a more patchy environment with different successional stages coexisting.However, in strongly disturbed habitats only a few
specialists can survive.Disturbance events can vary in frequency and
severity.
Cattle: cow pads, grazing, trampling
Fire: ash, removal of litter
Tractor: opening of bare Ground, aeration, …
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INDICATORS OF BIODIVERSITY
Assumption: indicator is correlated with overall biodiversity.
Indicators can be taxa or abiotic variables
Cost effective
Time savings
Easy and accurate to measure
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Biodiversity Indices
Problem how to decide what is a diverse site/ which site has a higher diversity
Simplest method: Species richness
Other Indices contain more information about the species composition than just richness
Equitability or evenness
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Evenness
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Site dominated bysingle speciesSite with more evenspecies distribution
Site dominated by one speciesIf you select an individual at random it is likely to be a grasshopper
Site with even species distributionIf you select an individual at random it is equally likely to be any of the four species
Species
# In
div
idu
als
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Biodiversity Indices
Shannon-Wiener Diversity: H Shannon-Wiener Equitability: EH
Simpson’s Diversity: D Simpson’s Equitability: ED
S total number of species in the community (richness)
pi proportion of S made up of the ith species
Useful for questions like: “Which site is the most diverse?”“Are school grounds impoverished?”
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Biodiversity Indices
Renkonen index Sørensen index
p1i = Frequency of species i in site 1p2i = Frequency of species i in site 2a = Number of shared speciesb = Number of species only in site 1c = Number of species only in site 2
Useful for questions like: “Is ant species composition within a habitat type (e.g. fynbos) more similar than ant species composition between sites from different habitats?”“Are school grounds more similar to each other than nature reserves are to other nature reserves?”
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Links (Biodiversity)
Convention on Biological Diversity Handbook (the 3rd Edition) http://www.biodiv.org/handbook/default.asp
IUCN Red lists http://www.redlist.org/
Biodiversity Hotspots http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/Pages/default.aspx
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Links (General)
Air photograps http://earth.google.com/
can be linked with antbase http://www.antweb.org/google_earth.jsp
Control sites: South Africa National Parks
http://www.sanparks.org/
Cape Nature Conservation managed reserves http://www.capenature.org.za