The document outlines the five-kingdom classification system used to categorize Earth's biodiversity. It discusses the importance of maintaining biodiversity, including benefits such as ecosystem services, genetic resources, and economic benefits. The document also describes the major threats to biodiversity like habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, overharvesting, and climate change. It examines approaches to conservation like protected areas, international agreements, captive breeding programs, and community-based conservation efforts.

1. Biodiversity and
Conservation

2. Objectives
• outline the five-kingdomclassification to illustrate the diversity of
organisms
• discussthe meaning of the termbiodiversity and reasonsfor the
need to maintain biodiversity;
• describe the reasonswhy species couldbecome endangered and
methods of protectingendangered species;
• use the knowledge gained in this section in new situations or to
solve related problems.

3. Classification
• Arrangement in classes or groups based on similarities, e.g.:
– Morphology
– Genetic code
– Ancestry
– Usage to humans.

4. Kingdoms and History of
Kingdoms
• The biggest group of living organism are now known as
kingdoms
• It starts off with two kingdoms
• Then three
• Five
• And now there are six kingdoms
But we are just going to use…

6. The Five-Kingdom Classification
• Consist of:
– Prokaryota
– Protoctista
– Fungi
– Plantae
– Animalia
And all are created through the process of…

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8. Biodiversity
• Can be defined as the degree of variation of life-forms in an
ecosystem.
• Usually differentiated into:
– Ecological diversity
– Species diversity
– Genetic diversity

9. Benefits of Biodiversity
• Ecosystem functions
• Ecosystem services
• Aesthetic and cultural benefits
To sum it up…
• Biodiversity increases the stability of an ecosystem and
contributes to the health of the biosphere

10. Benefits of biodiversity
• Preserving biodiversity preserves ecosystem services, and
directly provides things of pragmatic value to us.
– Food, fuel, and fiber
– Nutrient cycling
– Genetic resources

11. Benefits of biodiversity:
Food

12. Benefits of biodiversity:
Medicine

13. Benefits of biodiversity: Economic
benefits
• Ecotourism.
• Affluent tourists pay good money to see wildlife, novel natural
communities, and protected ecosystems.

14. Benefits of biodiversity:
“Biophilia”
• Biophilia = human love for and attachment to other living
things;
• e.g., - Affinity for parks and wildlife
- Keeping of pets
- Valuing real estate with landscape
views
- Interest in escaping cities to go
hiking

15. Genetic Resources
Rice disease: Bacterial Blight
Causative agent: Xanthomonas oryzae
pv. oryzae

16. Oryza longistaminata

17. Biodiversity Loss
• Five primary causes of biodiversity loss:
–Habitat alteration
–Invasive species
–Pollution
–Overharvesting
–Climate change

18. Habitat alteration
• The greatest cause of extinction today
• Accounts for about 85% of population declines of birds and
mammals
• Habitat change hurts most organisms because they are
adapted to an existing habitat.

19. Invasive species
• Accidental or intentional introduction of exotic species to new
areas
• Most do not establish or expand, but some
• Invasive species have become the second-worst threat to
native biota.

20. Invasive species

21. Invasive species, continued

22. Pollution
• Air and water pollution; agricultural runoff, industrial
chemicals, etc.
• Pollution does serious and widespread harm, but is not as
threatening as the other elements of biodiversity loss.

23. Overharvesting
Usually overharvesting will not in itself pose a threat of
extinction.
If there is no such thing as greed, of course…

24. Climate change
• Emissions of “greenhouse gases”.
• Globalclimatechange could become the fifth cause of
extinctions.
• All five causes are influenced by human population growth
and rising consumption.

25. Endangered Species: Definitions
Threatened
A species is likely to become endangered if it is
not protected.

26. Endangered Species: Definitions
Endangered
A species of plant or animal that is in immediate
danger of becoming extinct and needs protection
to survive.

27. Endangered Species: Definitions
Extinct
A species of plant or animal that is no longer
living.

28. Endangered Species
• Listed in the IUCN red-list (visit www.iucn.org)
• International trade regulated by CITES (Convention on
International Trade of Endangered Species)

29. Conservation biology
• Scientific discipline devoted to understanding the factors,
forces, and processes that influence the loss, protection, and
restoration of biological diversity within and among
ecosystems.

30. Conservation approaches:
Regulations
• U.S. EndangeredSpecies Act, 1973
• Indonesia PP No.7, 1999
• Indonesia UU No.5, 1967
• Indonesia UU No.5, 1990
• Indonesia UU No.5, 1994
• Etc.

31. Conservation approaches:
International treaties
• Various treaties have helped conserve biota.
• A major one is CITES, the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, prepared in
1973.
• It bans international trade and transport of body parts of
endangered organisms.

32. Conservation approaches:
International treaties
• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), from the Rio
Conference in 1992, aims to:
– Conserve biodiversity
– Use it sustainably
– Ensure fair distribution of its benefits

33. Conservation approaches: Captive
breeding
• Many endangered species are being bred in zoos, to boost
populations and reintroduce them into the wild.

34. When animals in captivity
refuse to breed…
• Eggs can be collected from fertile females and fertilised by in-
vitro fertilisation
• In some species, it has been possible to transplant early
embryos of the rare species into a female of another closely
related one (surrogate mother)
• Sometimes possible to split the embryos, thereby cloning them
and increasing the number

35. When there are very few
fertile females left…what do we
do?!?
• Cloning
– Step 1: egg cells collected from a related donor
– Step 2: donor egg is split into 2: cytoplast is taken
(without nucleus)
– Step 3: fusion of cytoplast with cell taken from adult
endangered species
- Step 4: before it mitotically divides, hybrid cell may be fused with
second cytoplast to increase volume
- Step 5: Mitotic division
- Step 6: embryo implanted to surrogate mother of same
species as donor of egg cell

36. Conservation approaches: Seed
Banks
• Starts off as each country’s attempt to preserve the seeds of
their staple foods.
• MilleniumSeed Bank Project: collect at least 25% of world’s
plant (in seed form) by 2025

37. Types of Seeds
• Orthodox: viable for 15 years (or more) if dehydrated and
frozen correctly; could be stored frozen in the seed bank.
• Recalcitrant: could not be dehydrated and frozen; could still
be stored as dormant tissue cultures in the seed bank.

38. Conservation approaches: Protected
Areas
• National parks (Taman Nasional)
• Natural reserve (Suaka Alam & Suaka Marga Satwa)
• Botanical park (Kebun Raya)
• Zoo (Kebun Binatang)
• Natural Refuge
• Sites of Special Scientific Interest

39. Conservation approaches:
Biodiversity hotspots
• Biodiversity hotspot = an area that supports an especially high
number of species endemic to the area, found nowhere else in
the world

40. Conservation approaches:
Biodiversity hotspots
Global map of biodiversity hotspots, as determined by Conservation
International

41. Conservation approaches:
Community-based conservation
• Gets local communities to invest in the sustainability of their
natural recourses.
• Reduces resentment of local people torwardforeign
environmentalist.
• This community-basedconservation makes efforts more
complex, but will probably be more successful in the long run.

42. Conservation approaches: Economic
incentives
Debt-for-nature swaps
Conservation concession

43. Conservation approaches:
Cloning
• A newly suggested approach is to use molecular techniques to
clone endangered or even extinct species, raise them in zoos,
and reintroduce them to the wild.
• Even if this succeeds technically, though, it will be worthless if
there is not adequate habitat and protection left for them in
the wild.

44. Challenges of Conservation
• We still have little idea of how many species inhabit our planet.
• We have set the sixth mass extinction in motion.
• Population declines, extirpations, and extinctions result from habitat
alteration, invasive species, pollution, population growth, and
overexploitation.
• Fragmentation of habitats causes loss of species from habitat islands.
• Conservation biology is fighting an uphill battle to save species, habitats,
and ecosystems.

45. QUESTION: Weighing the Issues
When North American pharmaceutical companies go “bioprospecting” in developing
countries for compounds for new drugs and medicines, should they be required to
pay the host country for its biodiversity?
a. Yes; the biodiversity is a natural resource of the host country, and it
should be paid a fee up front.
b. Yes; the biodiversity is a natural resource of the host country, and it
should share in any eventual profits from any medicines
developed.
c. No; the company is the one doing all the work, so all profits should
go to the company.

46. QUESTION: Viewpoints
Are parks and protected areas the best strategy for protecting
biodiversity?
a. Yes; it is absolutely necessary to preserve untrammeled habitat
for species to persist.
b. No; parks won’t matter because climate change will force the
biota out of them.
c. No; it is more effective to work with local people and give them
economic incentives to conserve nature.
d. Both parks and other strategies are necessary.

47. END?