Announcements

1. Announcements September 1, 2006 No class on Monday! Have a great weekend. Turn in your ecological footprint for extra credit http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp

2. Basics of Ecology and Evolution (part 1) Lecture Objectives: 1. Be introduced to the diversity of life on Earth 2. Understand the scientific definition of Ecology and Evolution 3. Learn basic concepts of Ecology and Evolution

3. What is biological diversity? “the variety and variability among living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they occur” U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (1987)

4. Scales or types of biological diversity: Genetic diversity - Amount of genetic variation within or among populations of a given species. Species diversity - The number of species in a given community. Community level diversity - Variation in species assemblages based on variation in habitat within an ecosystem type. Ecosystem level diversity - Variation in ecosystems across a landscape or region.

5. What is a species? Species are groups of interbreeding organisms. Biological Species Concept (E. Mayr)

6. Linnaeus (1707-1778) originator of modern scientific classificationof plants and animals Taxonomy: the study of types of organisms and their relationships. Classification ranked according to - similarity - common ancestry

7. Scientific Classification Animalia Kingdom Chordata Phylum Aves Class Falconiformes Order Accipitridae Family Haliaeetus Genus leucocephalus Species King Phillip Can Order Fried Green Snails

9. The Kingdoms of Life Organisms are classified into groups based on how they make a living Fungi Animals Plants Protists Archaebacteria Bacteria

10. The Kingdoms of Life Organisms are classified into groups based on how they make a living Prokaryotes: do not have membrane bound nucleus nor other organelles, are unicellular. Archaebacteria Bacteria

11. The Kingdoms of Life Organisms are classified into groups based on how they make a living Fungi Animals Plants Protists Eukaryotes: have membrane bound nucleus and other organelles, can be multicellular or unicellular.

12. How many species are there? 1.4 -1.7 million described 10-100 million estimated

14. Animal Diversity Over 1 million different species of animals have been described 34 Animal Phyla < 5 % of described animals have a backbone

15. Phylum Porifera: The Sponges

16. Phylum Cnidaria: jellyfish sea anemones coral Hydra

17. Phylum Ctenophora: The Comb Jellies

18. Phylum Platyhelminthes: The flatworms Phylum Nemertea: The Ribbon Worms

19. Phylum Nemata: the roundworms

20. Phylum Annelida: The Segmented Worms Christmas tree worm Earthworm Leech

21. Phylum Onychophora: Velvet worms Phylum Tardigrada: Water Bears

22. Phylum Arthropoda: Crustaceans Lobster Crab Water fleas

23. Ants Insects Phylum Arthropoda: beetle Butterfly cockroach

24. Phylum Arthropoda: Centipedes and Millipedes

25. Phylum Arthropoda: Spiders

26. Phylum Mollusca: Clam Snail Octopus

27. Phylum Echinodermata: Starfish Sea Urchin

28. Phylum Chordata: Tunicates Vertebrates

29. Plant Diversity

30. Food webs: All species in a community are interconnected to varying degrees.

31. An estimate of interactions among species between only 2 trophic levels (10,000 plants and 100 herbivores) in Hawaii Sheppard et al. 2004 Mol. Ecol.

32. From Cohen et al. 2003 PNAS

33. Keystone species: a species that plays an essential role in community stability. Umbrella species: a species that can be used as a surrogate for the heath/status of the entire community. (tend to need a lot of area) Indicator Species: a species that provides information about the quality of an area. (could be rare or a habitat specialist)

35. Paul Ehrlich made an analogy between species in communities and rivets on the wing of an airplane. Removing a few rivets from an airplane is undoubtedly safe. How many are you willing to remove? Do all species matter? Is there redundancy in communities? On average, there are only 2 degrees of separation between any two species in a food web.

36. Many species are in danger of extinction If current trends continue, 1/5 of all current plant and animal species could be gone or on the road to extinction by 2030. WHY??

37. Why are species declining? Percentage of threatened or endangered species in the U.S. imperiled by: Habitat degradation and loss - 85% Invasive species - 49% Pollution - 24% Overexploitation - 17% Disease - 3% Dave Wilcove et al. 1998 BioScience

38. Rarity: A species that is either very uncommon throughout its range, or its range is very small. Endemism: An endemic species occurs no where else. Most common on islands.

40. Photo: Darren Irwin

41. Why value diversity? Motivation can be based on many principles. Ethical Moral Aesthetic Monetary Spiritual Environmental Anthropocentric

42. Basic Ecological Concepts Ecology – the study of the interrelationship between organisms and their environment Environment – everything that affects an organism it its lifetime • Organisms interact with their environment • Survival of each individual depends on getting enough to eat and not being killed • Survival of the species depends on births being higher than deaths

43. Environment can be divided into biotic and abiotic factors • Biotic - Living portions of the environment • Predation, parasitism, competition, etc. • Abiotic - Nonliving factors • Rain, soil type, temperature, etc.

44. All organism have a range of requirements that determines where they can live The biotic and abiotic factors of any particular place determine where they do live

45. All organisms need resources to grow and reproduce food water places to live mates • Often, there are not enough resources for all individuals in the population Many individuals die before reproducing Some individuals are better at surviving and reproducing than others

49. What is Evolution? The process of change in the traits of populations over time. Process by which species' characteristics change over generations. Traits must have genetic basis. Evolution does not occur within an individual. Evolution does not occur within a generation.

50. What is Evolution? Adaptive evolution occurs primarily through natural selection Natural Selectionis the process that determines which individuals within a species will reproduce and pass their genes to the next generation.