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The Convention on Biological Diversity, agreed to by 191 countries in 2004, stated that at least 10% of the world’s forests should be protected to allow sufficient protection of biological diversity. Currently, only 7.7% globally is protected, although regions of the Amazon, south-east Asia and Alaska have over 50% of their forests preserved. Read more here.

Your task is to create a virtual tour using Mapwing of the world’s Biodiversity Hot spots, using the map we have in class. You can do a virtual tour of the world’s Coral Reefs at Mapwing. 

Flickr  CC images converted to Panorama in Irfanview

United Nations declared Friday 22nd May as International Day for Biological Diversity, to increase awareness and understanding of biodiversity issues. This year, the theme is invasive alien species – one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, and to the economic and ecological well-being of society and the planet. More information from the ARKive newsletter and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Part 2: Biodiversity and the extinction crisis

Part 3: Setting Global Priorities for Biodiversity Conservation

Part 4: Identifying Priority Species for Biodiversity Conservation

Part 5: Identifying Priority Sites for Biodiversity Conservation

Harrison Ford for Conservation International

Screen capture from http://scribblemaps.com/#id=bZWgRJkpGX

Go to Google Scribble maps at http://scribblemaps.com/ and draw the Winter and Summer migration route of the OBP. Use different colours and label you map accordingly. Remember to SAVE your map and you can post it on your blog.

Birds Australia article about OBP – includes identification, habitat, volunteer opportunities and maps.

Came across this interesting article about “offset packages” – what a wind turbine developer is doing to offset the risk of fatalities due to wind turbines.

Photos by Tacey Gray, Port Fairy Consolidated.

The Orange Bellied Parrot feeds on the beaded glasswort (above left) as well as a range of the seeds and fruits from grasses, sedges and herbs. It roosts in coastal shrubs, such as the woolly tea tree (above right), which provides protection from predators, including foxes and feral cats.

Threats to the OBP include:

• loss and alteration of winter habitat, in particular destruction of its saltmarsh feeding grounds, by industrial and urban development, agricultural practices and recreation
• its small population, making it extremely sensitive to sudden catastrophes such as disease and storms during migrations across Bass Strait
• predation by introduced predators, especially foxes and  feral cats
• competition from introduced seed-eating birds
• loss of genetic variation because of its small population size. 

Management to prevent extinction of this species is contained in the Orange Bellied Parrot Recovery Plan (2005 – 2009), which aims to:

• Monitor the population size, productivity, survival and life history of the Orange-bellied Parrot.
• Identify and document all sites used by Orange-bellied Parrots.
• Increase the carrying capacity of habitat through active management of sites throughout the species’ range.
• Identify and measure threats, particularly in migratory and winter habitats.
• Increase the number of breeding sub-populations.
• Maintain a viable captive population.
• Foster community support and involvement in the conservation and recovery of the species and its habitat.
• Secure adequate funding and support to successfully implement the Recovery Plan.
• Manage, review and report on the recovery process.

OBP Brochure from the Australian Government Department of Natural Heritage and Environment.

National Recovery Plan for the Orange Bellied Parrot.

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The Helmeted Honeyeater (Lichenostomus melanops subspecies cassidix) is Victoria’s bird emblem and a critically endangered species. At it’s worst, the population dipped to fewer than 60, and yesterday 13 captive-bred fledgling birds were released into the Bunyip State Park. The birds were reared through a breeding program at Healesville Sanctuary and Sydney’s Taronga Conservation Society, Australia to prevent extinction.

Dozens of the young honeyeaters were rushed to Melbourne Zoo during February, when Healesville was under threat from the Victorian bushfires. The Black Saturday blaze in the Bunyip State Park also burned within about 200 metres of the local honeyeater colony at their most vulnerable time, during the breeding season.

More information about the conservation program from Melbourne Zoo; Australian Government National Recovery Program; species profile and threats and general information about the biology, habitat and behaviour.

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Ecologists and environmental scientists use several different indices to quantify biodiversity. One example is species richness, which is the total number of different organisms present – it doesn’t take into account the proportion and distribution of different subspecies within an area. Another example is Simpson’s Index, which takes into account the number of species present, as well as the abundance of each species. The Simpson’s index represents the probability that two randomly selected individuals in the habitat belong to the same species. The Shannon-Weiner Index is similar to the Simpson’s index in that it takes into account the species richness and the proportion of species within a zone.

Today we will use Simpson’s Index to calculate and compare species diversity from a site before and after sheep grazing. Refer to page 49 in your text books.

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Today we discussed the processes that contribute to variation within a population and how small populations can be vulnerable to inbreeding, genetic swamping and genetic drift. You can find the definitions of these terms in the VAEE glossary, here: glossaryofterms. Genetic drift occurs when harmful alelles are retained in small populations over time, such as when animals are held in captivity. Genetic swamping is the process that occurs two genetically isolated populations come into contact and the genes from a larger population dominate over the genes in the small population, reducing the genetic diversity in the small population.

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We have discussed the three levels of biodiversity (genetic, species and ecosystem) and reasons for protecting biodiversity and some of the threats. Next we will discuss how populations are measured, the categories of conservation and strategies we use to reduce the threats to biodiversity. The IUCN redlist (International Union for Conservation of Nature list of all known species and their conservation categories) defines critically endangered, endangered and threatened species according to their population size, distribution and likelihood of extinction.

This worksheet (conservation-case-studies) asks you to classify eight different species according to known data. Try to classify the local threatened species listed in the post below using the IUCN criteria. One of the commonly used methods for measuring the number of individuals in a population is “mark and recapture” or “tag and release”. We will do an experiment to simulate this process here (mark-and-recapture-expt).

These beautiful images have been put together by Renata, from the “Back to Nature” group on Slideshare. Many of these species are endangered and all are threatened by climate change. Do you remember the acronym for threatening processes? CHIPPO -

• Climate Change
• Habitat destruction
• Introduced species
• Pest plants
• Pollution
• Overharvesting (fishing, hunting, trapping, shooting, poaching etc)