4.2 Measuring Diversity

Estimate SpeciesNew Species

Taxonomy

• The study of placing species into categories• Kingdoms thru Species

Taxonomist

• A person• Study organisms and look for• Traits• Genes• related organisms• Ancestors

(Museums, Universities, and Governments)

Unidentified Species

• Millions• Most are microscopic (hard to find)

Find a New Species

• Collect a specimen (preserve it)• Name it

– Find the genus it belongs to – Create a new species name

                                             

The new squid species, 70 centimeters long, is a large member of the chiroteuthid family. (Credit: Photo by Rainer von Brandis)

•The tiger huntsman is believed to be a new species•35-millimetre body and a legspan of about 90 millimetres .

golden-mantled tree kangaroo

• discovered in late 2005 by a team of Indonesian, Australian, and U.S. scientists on the island of New Guinea

blind snake

• Fiji

Lepidodactylus buleli

• The French have discovered a new gecko species from an egg taken from its nest in a South Pacific island, then transported 12,000 miles to Paris in a Kleenex box.

What group would this fit in?

Mass Extinction

• Loss of many species at one time

Asteroid or Comet Impact• A massive object from outer space struck Earth• 185 million years ago • An impact triggers earthquakes, tsunamis, and a shockwave of heat,

incinerating the surrounding landscape. • Hot debris from the impact rains down over a wide region, igniting

wildfires that burn for weeks on end. • More importantly, the airborne dust and gases from the impact and

the fires filter out sunlight for months, shutting down photosynthesis and dramatically cooling the Earth.

• The cold period is followed by extreme heat, as the skies clear of dust particles yet remain full of greenhouse gases.

• The extreme climatic shifts devastate life around the globe.

Volcanism

• One million years ago• A series of eruptions inundated an area the size of the

continental U.S. with layer upon layer of lava and ash, leaving deposits up to four miles thick across what is today Siberia.

• In total, nearly a million cubic miles of magma was unleashed. • Here's how eruptions could kill life far and wide: • First, sulfurous gas and dust circle the Earth, blocking sunlight

and creating storms of acid rain. • Then years of cold are followed by decades of unbearable

warming, as carbon dioxide and methane linger in the atmosphere.

Formation of Supercontinent• Pangea (or "all Earth") • Earth's landmasses slowly move• Decimates life in two ways. • First, as species on separate landmasses and in different waters

come together, they compete for resources, and the losing species die out.

• Second, Pangea's creation affects regional and global climates. • Once-warm waters become intolerably cold. • The vast interior of the continent experiences wild seasonal

swings (think Siberia but worse). • In short, most species face new stresses, and as some perish, the

effect ripples through the web of life, killing many others.

Glaciation

• Global cooling and the spread of glaciers• 439 million years ago• Growing glaciers pull water from the ocean and reduce

the area of shallow continental shelves, which are home to the greatest diversity of marine plants and animals.

• Species compete fiercely for resources, and many lose out.

• On land, with giant glaciers encroaching, species unable to migrate toward proverbial greener pastures also perish.

Anoxic Oceans and Bacteria

• low oxygen levels , called anoxia• Suffocation• anaerobic bacteria that give off hydrogen sulfide—

would have thrived• The hydrogen sulfide would have spread through

the oceans, killing more species, and as it slowly fizzed out into the atmosphere, it would have poisoned life on land as well.

• Hydrogen sulfide in the atmosphere then would have damaged the ozone layer, opening paths for deadly ultraviolet radiation to reach the remaining life on Earth.

Methane Gas

• Sediments on continental shelves contain vast amounts of methane

• Methane, besides being toxic to most organisms, is also a potent greenhouse gas.

• Methane could have caused runaway global warming and ended much of life on the planet.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3318/01.html

Species Diversity

• Declining rapidly!!• Endangered or extinct

Endangered Species

• Few left in world• Almost extinct

http://www.earthsendangered.com/index_s.asp

Endemic Species

• Few left in a specific geographic area• EX.• Islands, Large bodies of water, mountain tops

• geographicly isolated

Lemurs of Madagascar

• 5 families of lemurs• 99 species and

subspecies• Live in the trees

and travel the forest canopy climbing and

Hawaiian honeycreeper• A beautiful bird with a distinct

beak• Probes flowers for nectar that

tastes like honey• Less than half of Hawaii's 51

historic species of honeycreepers still exist

• Driven to extinction by hunters, disease, habitat loss, competition from invasive species, and predation by human-introduced animals like rats, cats and dogs.

Sinarapan• The world's smallest

commercially harvested fish• Native to the Phillippines• Prized as a food source in Asia

where they are fried in oil, boiled with vegetables, or dried and salted.

• In addition to having to dodge the fisherman's net, Sinarapan are under threat from larger invasive species that find them as tasty as humans do.

Extinct Species

• All species members are dead

Moving Target= • Species not identified yet, are going extinct

quickly!

http://www.oddee.com/item_88742.aspx

Counting Existing Species

• Rapid Assessment• Sampling

Rapid Assessment

• Quick survey• Identify all living species in one small area• Looking for endemic, extinct, or new species

Sample

• Choose one area• Count the number of one type of species• Estimate the larger area

Remote Sensing

• Satellites produce imagery from hundreds of meters away

• See large organisms and count them• Not good for microorganisms or small

organisms