Species Diversity

Number of breeding birds

Values of species

• Instrumental value – a thing is valuable because it is useful to humans

• Intrinsic value – a thing is valuable in and of itself – valuable because it exists

Economic Values

Germplasm storage at Millennium Seed Bank Project,Royal Botanic Garden, Wakehurst Place – outside of London, England

The Aurochs – cave paintings

Teosinte and Corn

New Foods

Paca or Mountain Agouti

Harvest of Wild Foods

Fishing Boats Thailand

Digging and Baking Camas Bulbs- Pacific Northwest

Medicines

Cover of Gerard’s Herbal

1597

Botanic Garden in Padua – 1540’s

Rosy Periwinkle

Medicine from Live Organisms

• Today in US about 41% of medicines have ingredients directly produced by biological organisms - 25% from plants, 13% from microogranisms (penicillin, tetracycline, virtually all other antibiotics, vaccines, hormones, and antibodies) and 3% from animals

Epipedobates tricolor – painkiller developed from toxin

Clothing, Shelter, Tools, Trinkets, etc.

Sisal Fibers

Thatch Reeds

Thatch Roofing

Fuel

Gathering firewood - Bolivia

Growing willow for biomass fuel

Jojoba plant, seeds and oil

Sperm whale capture and oil

Recreation

Biophilia

Bird feeding and housing

Birding

The Big Year

Fishing – Winslow Homer

Hunting – Winslow Homer

Services

Pollination

Pollinator Loss

Native Pollinators – North America

Soil Aeration and Decomposition of organic matter

Spiritual/Symbolic Values

Seagull Monument – Salt Lake City

Species as National Symbols

River Otter

Belted Kingfisher

Scientific and Educational Values

JaneGoodall

AndFriend

Ecological Values

• dominant species - usually the species which constitute a large portion of the biomass in an ecosystem - pines in a pine forest

• controller species - species which play major role in movement of energy and nutrients - primary producers and fungal decomposers

• keystone species - species which have a larger impact on their environment than we predict based on their abundance

Keystone species

Strategic Values

• Flagship species - the charismatic species that have attracted public attention and won support for conservation - humpback whales, mountain gorillas, tigers, the gray wolf

• Umbrella species - species with large home ranges so that by protecting enough habitat to save that species we save many other species as well - northern spotted owl, tigers, Pacific salmon

• Indicator species - species with narrow ranges of environmental health and tolerance so that the size of their populations is a good indicator of ecosystem health - often these are smaller species - lichens are sensitive to air pollution

Northern Spotted Owl

Mussel Watch Program

Lichens on headstones

Uniqueness Values

• Uniqueness values: some species are fairly unique from evolutionary standpoint - only members of their lineage - tuatara; duck-billed platypus; gingko; dawn redwood (a living fossil)

Tuatara

Duck-billed playtpus

Gingko

Metasequoia –Dawn Redwood

Function of Species in Ecosystems – the airplane analogy

Function of Species in Ecosystems – the airplane analogy – are species the rivets or the passengers?

What happens when we lose too many pieces?