PDS AP Environmental Science 8th Period 2010-11

On Tuesday we covered Sustaining Biodiversity, and I will be covering the species approach(Will W. has already covered the ecosystem approach). The three types of species extinction are as follows:-Local Extinction (or extirpation), -Ecological Extinction (when a species can’t fulfill a niche), and -Biological Extinction (global, permanently gone)

I know terms like endangered and threatened are tossed around a lot today, but they aren’t just based off someones “feelings” about there not being enough of a certain species; they’re legal terms put in place by the Endangered Species Act of 1973. This law placed species into two categories: -Endangered Species (a species in threat of extirpation in all or part of its range), or -Threatened Species (a species in threat of becoming endangered in all or part of its range).

Here are some characteristics of Extinction-prone species: -low reproductive rate, narrow distribution, fixed migratory patterns, specialized niche, feeds at high trophic levels, rare/commercially valuable, large territories(larger territories=more interaction with humans=more likely to be hunted/exterminated/have habitat destroyed)

Here is a link to a brief video from a documentary on  Species Extinction

*sorry about not embedding the clip, but I kept getting an HTTP error overtime I tried to post it.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpxmTZ02FXg uploaded to Youtube by: livehistoryvideo on Feb 7, 2008, originally part of a documentary)

Yeah, I realize that clip was a little dramatic near the end…but it did a great job of addressing Utilitarian, Moral, and Ecological reasons of the importance of species (see lower in post for clarification of terms).

Human Impacts: As the video pointed out, humans have accelerated extinction rates (1,000-10,000x the background rate0, and this leads many scientists to believe we are now in our 6th major extinction period.

Some of the reasons for acknowledging the Importance of Wild Species are: -Utilitarian: humans benefit/rely on many wild species such as bees for pollination. -Aesthetic: quite simply enjoying the natural beauty of wild species(cute pandas…)-Moral: some might argue that all living things have a right to live, and humans should therefore feel morally obligated to acknowledge and protect wild species. -Ecological: If one species goes extinct then other species in the exterminated species habitats will be affectedly negatively.

Causes of Premature Extinction: borrowing Mr. Willard’s acronym here, HIPPO; which is a rank-ordered list that stands for Habitat destruction & fragmentation, Invasive species, Population growth (humans), Pollution, Overharvesting (including poaching).

On Thursday of last week, guest speaker Garet Johnson came to our class to discuss Charlotte’s future in terms of growth, planning, and the environment. Ms. Johnson graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and has gone on to become part of the Charlotte planning department staff. She started off by lying out in layman’s terms what land use planning means, helping to figure out what goes where.Ms. Johnson’s lecture was brought our classes attention to the complex planning that goes into laying out the residential, office, retail, institutional, and transportation systems of the city. The challenge lies in determining things such as: where to put residential areas and what type of housing to build, building industrial areas that are either distant from residential areas or have an adequate buffer from residential areas, and keeping development close together so as to cut down commuting time.

She stressed that the goal of Charlotte’s urban planning is to provide integrated planning services that promote sustainable growth to improve our community’s quality of life.  Ms. Johnson talked on Charlotte’s projected growing population, 728,000 people and 459,000 jobs today, but by 2035 approximately 324,000 more people and 458,000 more jobs will be in Charlotte. This growth presents a challenge for urban planners like Ms. Johnson; they must find ways to maximize use of transportation systems, infrastructure, and services. Ms. Johnson focused a lot of time discussing the various transit systems that will help cut down traffic and cars on the road; the four proposed transit systems are: a light rail transit to the University area, bus rapid transit for Independence Blvd., and a commuter rail to north Charlotte. These rapid transit systems will assist in transporting masses of commuters along the growth corridors and activity centers where urban planners project the greatest amount of growth in the future, and they will vary due to environmental and community needs. Ms. Johnson discussed the importance of redevelopment and reuse in areas where there is a lot of poorly planned use and/or abandoned buildings. The main point of Ms. Johnson’s lecture was to bring to our classes attention the complex planning that goes into laying out the residential, office, retail, institutional, and transportation systems of the city.

She concluded her presentation by having us all participate in an urban planning activity in which we had to decide where to place housing, work, recreational, and institutional buildings and spaces. This activity really brought to life the difficulties of urban planning because it was hard to determine the most appropriate place for the icons on the map. Although we were crunched for time, the activity still illustrated the complexity of using land in the best possible way.

Hey everybody, I was little confused on what the difference in directional, stabilizing, and disruptive forms of natural selection are, and what kind of scenario would lead a population to each type of scenario?

I think that the biggest environmental problem we face today is pollution; pollution of the air through CO2 emissions, pollution of fresh and salt water resources , and pollution of arable farm lands. Pollution, if left unchecked, will lead to the destruction of irreplaceable resources and some species.