Biodiversity/LPI part 3

Summary

This script discusses the spatial aspect of biodiversity, focusing on 'Mega diverse countries' and 'biodiversity hotspots'. It explains that 17 countries, occupying less than 10% of the Earth's surface, hold over 70% of its biodiversity. These countries are characterized by having at least 5,000 endemic plant species and marine ecosystems. The concept of biodiversity hotspots, areas with high endemic species under severe threat, is also explored. The script touches on conservation strategies, including national reserve systems and the importance of protecting these areas for global natural capital.

Takeaways

• 🌏 The concept of 'Mega diverse countries' refers to nations that, despite occupying less than 10% of the Earth's surface, hold over 70% of the world's biodiversity.
• 🌱 These countries are characterized by having at least 5,000 endemic plant species and marine ecosystems within their borders.
• 📍 Mega diverse countries are primarily located in regions such as Australia, parts of Asia, Africa, and South America.
• 🏙️ Many of these countries have relatively low levels of economic development, which may contribute to the preservation of their high biodiversity.
• 🔥 The term 'biodiversity hotspots' is used to describe regions with a high concentration of endemic species that are under severe threat, often due to habitat loss.
• 🌳 There are 34 recognized biodiversity hotspots globally, including areas in Western Australia, which are significant for their biodiversity but also face substantial environmental pressures.
• 🌊 The biodiversity hotspot concept also extends to marine ecosystems, with different levels of protection and restrictions on activities within these areas.
• 🛡️ National Reserve Systems and marine reserve systems are established to protect biodiversity, but their effectiveness can vary depending on the restrictions placed on economic activities within these areas.
• 🌱 Conservation strategies include ex situ conservation, paying for ecosystem services, creating wildlife corridors, biodiversity offsets, and species translocation to protect and restore biodiversity.
• 🔬 The importance of measuring biodiversity is emphasized, connecting with upcoming discussions on statistics and their role in understanding and protecting biodiversity.

Q & A

What are the characteristics of Mega diverse countries?

Mega diverse countries cover less than 10% of the Earth's surface and contain more than 70% of the world's biodiversity. They are characterized by having at least 5,000 of the world's plants as endemics and some marine ecosystems within their borders.

What is the significance of the number '17' in the context of Mega diverse countries?

The number '17' refers to the total count of Mega diverse countries that have been identified according to the classification work done in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Why are Mega diverse countries often associated with low levels of economic development?

Mega diverse countries often have low levels of economic development because the high levels of biodiversity are maintained in areas where there is less human development and resource exploitation, preserving the natural ecosystems.

What is the definition of a biodiversity hotspot?

A biodiversity hotspot is defined as a region with at least 1.5% of the world's endemic vascular plant species, which means these plants only occur in that specific area, and where at least 70% of the original habitat has already been lost.

How does the concept of biodiversity hotspots differ from that of Mega diverse countries?

While Mega diverse countries are characterized by a high overall biodiversity and are often large in size, biodiversity hotspots are regions, not necessarily countries, that have a high concentration of endemic species but are under severe threat due to habitat loss.

What is the importance of marine ecosystems in the context of biodiversity?

Marine ecosystems are important in the context of biodiversity because they contribute significantly to the overall species diversity on Earth. The criteria for Mega diverse countries include the presence of marine ecosystems within their borders.

How does the concept of biodiversity hotspots relate to conservation efforts?

Biodiversity hotspots are areas of significant conservation priority because they represent regions with high biodiversity that are under severe threat. Conservation efforts often focus on these areas to protect and restore the habitats and species that are endemic to them.

What are the challenges in protecting biodiversity in countries with lower incomes?

In countries with lower incomes, the challenge lies in balancing the need to use natural resources for immediate economic and social development with the long-term goal of preserving biodiversity. This often involves managing the trade-offs between resource extraction and conservation.

What is the role of national reserve systems in biodiversity protection?

National reserve systems play a critical role in biodiversity protection by designating specific areas for conservation. These reserves limit economic activities within their boundaries to protect the ecosystems and species they contain.

How do different levels of protection within marine protected areas affect biodiversity?

Different levels of protection within marine protected areas can significantly affect biodiversity. Areas with strict restrictions on activities such as fishing or oil drilling offer higher levels of protection, while areas with less restrictive regulations may still experience biodiversity loss.

What are some alternative conservation strategies mentioned in the script?

Alternative conservation strategies mentioned include ex-situ conservation through seed banks and botanical gardens, paying people to provide ecosystem services, creating wildlife corridors, biodiversity offsets, and species translocation to protect species under threat from development or climate change.

Outlines

00:00

🌿 Mega Diverse Countries and Biodiversity Hotspots

The paragraph discusses the concept of biodiversity distribution over space, focusing on 'Mega diverse countries' and 'biodiversity hotspots'. Mega diverse countries, identified in the late 1990s and early 2000s, cover less than 10% of the Earth's surface but contain over 70% of the world's biodiversity. They are characterized by having at least 5,000 endemic plant species and marine ecosystems within their borders. These countries are primarily located in regions with lower economic development, which may contribute to the preservation of high biodiversity levels. The concept of biodiversity hotspots introduces a more nuanced perspective; while these areas are rich in endemic species, they are also under severe threat with at least 70% of their original habitat already lost. This dual nature of hotspots as areas of high biodiversity and high risk underscores the urgency in conservation efforts.

05:02

🌍 Biodiversity Hotspots and Conservation Challenges

This paragraph delves deeper into the concept of biodiversity hotspots, emphasizing that these regions, while biologically rich, face significant habitat loss. The criteria for being designated a hotspot include having at least 1.5% of the world's endemic vascular plant species and having lost at least 70% of their original habitat. The paragraph also introduces the idea of national biodiversity hotspots within Australia, which are identified based on similar criteria of high endemic species and threats to their ecosystems. The discussion highlights the complexity of conservation, where the value of biodiversity must be weighed against the feasibility and cost of protection. It also touches on the pragmatic approach to conservation funding, where areas that are highly valuable but challenging to protect may not be classified as hotspots due to the perceived infeasibility of conservation efforts.

10:03

🏞️ Protected Areas and Conservation Strategies

The final paragraph shifts the focus to the practical aspects of biodiversity conservation, including the establishment of protected areas and various strategies to safeguard biodiversity. It outlines the different levels of government involvement in Australia, with state and commonwealth controls over marine areas. The paragraph discusses the National Reserve System, which includes marine reserves, state forests, and other protected areas, emphasizing that these areas are not uniformly protected and that the level of restriction on activities can vary. The summary also introduces alternative conservation methods such as ex situ conservation, payment for ecosystem services, biodiversity offsets, and species translocation. The paragraph concludes by connecting the discussion to the importance of biodiversity measurement and the upcoming lab work and statistical analysis in the course.

Keywords

💡Biodiversity

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life in all its forms and levels of organization, including the number and diversity of species, genetic variations within species, and the complexity of ecosystems. In the video, biodiversity is a central theme, with discussions revolving around its measurement and the importance of preserving it. The script mentions that biodiversity is broadly defined in terms of numbers and diversity of species and is a key factor in understanding the ecological health of regions.

💡Mega diverse countries

Mega diverse countries are nations that contain a significant proportion of the world's biodiversity, often hosting a large number of endemic species. The video explains that these countries, identified in the late 1990s and early 2000s, are characterized by having at least 5,000 endemic plant species and marine ecosystems within their borders. They occupy less than 10% of the Earth's surface but contain over 70% of the world's biodiversity, highlighting their importance in conservation efforts.

💡Biodiversity hotspots

Biodiversity hotspots are regions with exceptional concentrations of endemic species and high levels of habitat loss. The video script describes these areas as having at least 15,000 endemic vascular plant species and having lost at least 70% of their original habitat. While the presence of many endemic species is a positive aspect, the designation as a hotspot also indicates severe threats to biodiversity, making conservation in these areas particularly urgent.

💡Endemics

Endemics are species that are native and restricted to a certain geographic area. The script uses the term to describe plants that only exist in a specific country or region, such as the 5,000 endemic plants that are a criterion for mega diverse countries. Endemics are important for biodiversity because they represent unique genetic resources that contribute to the overall diversity of life on Earth.

💡Ecosystem Services

Ecosystem services are the benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems, such as clean water, food, and climate regulation. The video discusses the concept of paying people to provide these services, recognizing their value and encouraging their preservation. This approach shifts the focus from traditional conservation methods to one that involves local communities and private landowners in maintaining biodiversity.

💡Marine ecosystems

Marine ecosystems are the environments found in the ocean, including coral reefs, estuaries, and open seas. The video mentions marine ecosystems as part of the criteria for mega diverse countries, emphasizing the need to include marine biodiversity in conservation efforts. The script also discusses marine reserves as a form of protection for these ecosystems, highlighting the importance of marine biodiversity in global conservation strategies.

💡National Reserve System

The National Reserve System refers to a network of protected areas established by a country to conserve its natural heritage. The video script describes the system in Australia, which includes a variety of protected areas such as national parks, marine reserves, and state forests. These reserves aim to protect biodiversity by restricting certain economic activities and development within their boundaries.

💡Conservation

Conservation in the context of the video involves the preservation, protection, and restoration of biodiversity. The script discusses various conservation strategies, including in-situ conservation (protecting species in their natural habitats) and ex-situ conservation (maintaining species in controlled environments like botanical gardens or seed banks). The video also touches on the concept of biodiversity offsets, where developers are required to restore ecosystems of equal value if they damage or destroy them.

💡Species translocation

Species translocation is the process of moving species from one area to another to protect them from threats such as habitat loss or climate change. The video mentions this as a potential strategy for preserving biodiversity, particularly in the face of changing ecosystems that may no longer be suitable for certain species. This approach is part of a broader discussion on innovative conservation methods to ensure the survival of endangered species.

💡Economic Development

Economic development is the process of improving a nation's economic well-being through increased production and consumption. The video script contrasts the ability of countries with higher levels of economic development, such as Australia and the US, to devote resources to biodiversity conservation with the challenges faced by countries with lower incomes, where resources may be directed towards immediate economic needs at the expense of natural capital and biodiversity.

Highlights

Mega diverse countries occupy less than 10% of Earth's surface but contain over 70% of the world's biodiversity.

Mega diverse countries are characterized by having at least 5,000 endemic plant species and marine ecosystems within their borders.

Mega diverse countries are predominantly located in regions such as India, Asia, central Asia, parts of Africa, and northern parts of South America.

Many mega diverse countries have relatively low levels of economic development, which may contribute to the maintenance of high biodiversity levels.

Biodiversity hotspots are regions with at least 15,000 endemic vascular plant species and more than 5% of the world's total species.

Biodiversity hotspots have lost at least 70% of their original habitat, indicating severe threats to their biodiversity.

Southwest Australia is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot, signifying both high biodiversity and significant degradation.

Biodiversity hotspots are not only areas of high biodiversity but also regions under considerable pressure, necessitating conservation efforts.

The concept of biodiversity hotspots is used to determine where conservation funding can be most effectively allocated.

Australia has both national and international biodiversity hotspots, with specific criteria for each classification.

The Australian National Reserve System includes a variety of protected areas with different levels of restrictions on economic activities.

Marine protected areas in Australia have varying levels of protection, with some allowing commercial fishing and other activities.

Conservation strategies include ex situ conservation, paying for ecosystem services, creating wildlife corridors, and biodiversity offsets.

Species translocation is considered as a potential response to threats like climate change, moving species to more suitable ecosystems.

The course connects the importance of biodiversity with practical measurements and future discussions on statistics and conservation strategies.

Transcripts

so we've talked about measuring

biodiversity over time now we're going

to think about what it might mean over

space in terms of understanding the

distributions and there are two concepts

that are used to think about this uh the

idea of Mega diverse countries and the

idea of biodiversity

hotspots um as we're going to

see especially the definition of the

second one isn't always as positive as

as people might

think so Mega diverse countries so this

has been classified in work back in

um sort of 1999 2000s um this is where

this idea was defined uh 17 Mega diverse

countries have been

identified what's the characteristics of

them well they're in less than 10% of

the Earth's surface and contain more

than 70% of the world's

biodiversity so biodiversity as broadly

defined as we have previously in terms

of numbers and diversity of the species

so

criteria have at least 5,000 of the

world's plants as endemics I.E that uh

those plants only exist in that area uh

and they need to have some marine

ecosystems within it borders so that

um the definition of of of uh the

biodiversity needs to expand expand into

marine and not just be be

terrestrial uh this is where they um

where they lie

uh as you can

see

um

Australia uh there taking up a big chunk

as in it's a big country so

um it's got a good chance of of

collecting a large amount of the

biodiversity but then what you can um

typically see is the where it

predominantly is located is through

um uh India Asia central Asia through

here some areas in Africa um the

northern part of uh South America

America and so on um and obviously

America includes

Alaska

uh except potentially I suppose

um except for Australia and the US these

are largely going to be um countries

which have got relatively low levels of

uh Economic Development happening um

that may explain why there is the

residual or they still maintain those

high level s of uh of biodiversity which

should you know get them across the

border to classify them

um

uh

Australia

um ranges has in part this is going to

be defined by the range of of of the

ecosystems that that it covers same

presumbly in terms of the US um which

which gets you across the border in

terms of having so many species uh which

are endemic

um to that to that region so that's the

definition of Mega divers is presumably

those countries where you're going to

hopefully going to see

um a large amount of effort placed to

try to protect and maintain um their

biodiversity shouldn't be an

issue in places like Australia and the

US where incomes are sufficient that one

can devote resources to

um protect protect and sustain

biodiversity much harder in in countries

um with lower incomes greater

demands for those resources to be used

in some sense to to draw down Capital

natural capital in order to support uh

the lives of people there but with long

run effects not just for them but also

globally the second measure is this idea

of biodiversity hotspots uh and this is

there's again there's a a

a set of

um definitions as to what they are um

smaller as in so there can be regions

rather than countries at least 15,000

endemic vascular plant species um which

means that these are plants which sort

of um have structure uh uh and they're

endemic which means they only occur

there um which means you know more than

5% of the world's 0 five of the world's

total species are sitting inside each of

these um each of these

areas there's 34 that have been

identified for this uh Southwest of wa

is a biodiversity hotspot which in some

sense uh is sort of you might think of

as a positive component uh because it

suggests well there's a lot of

biodiversity there but then you look at

the second criteria as to um what uh you

need to um

to to cl to to be awarded this

designation at least 70% of the original

habitat is already lost so it's it's not

just saying this is a region that has a

lot of biodiversity this is it's saying

this is a region that's got a lot of

biodiversity which is under severe

threat so it's a hot spot in two ways

it's got a lot there but it's got a lot

of pressure on it um so in that sense

although people quite often are quite

proud of saying saying that Southwest of

w way it's a bity Hotpot yes that means

a lot of um endemic species and so on

there plant species there but it also is

a recognition that it's had a large

amount of degradation has happened and

therefore it's a it's a problem being a

hot spot as much as being a

positive where those International

hotspots across um the the world what

you see it sort of shifted um slightly

in terms of the the patterning uh you

here you can see there we are down here

in South Australia again large amounts

of

um uh South um southern Asia um elements

again in South uh

America uh through Central and bits of

the US what's turning up which wasn't

appearing before is is elements around

the Mediterranean um

which will have high biodiversity but

these um strong pressures and threats

still apply to them so again areas that

you might want to um you need to to

address if you want to maintain that um

natural Capital that you're looking

for they're recognized by as in that's

International classification there are

um uh National ones as in there are

national by diversity hotspots

recognized in

Australia uh what do you need in order

to become that well again largely intact

native species High diversity of

endemics I only there um but again uh

there are risks or it's either existing

or previous or ongoing risks that that

is going to be damage to that to those

values that that the the B of University

is going to be degraded again so hotspot

being a good thing lots of stuff we want

there Hotpot is a bad thing it's where

there's a lot of pressure and they also

have got in um because this is used as a

criteria for deciding where to

fund can we actually achieve value for

money in conservation I.E you might have

something which has a highl high level

of biodiversity it might high level of

threats make the criteria of the Hotpot

but if it's looks it's going to be in

feasible expensive to try to protect

that then it won't actually be sort of

classified um which is sort of a

slightly pragmatic way of talking about

this because it will potentially remove

as being flagged as a hotspot areas

where they're saying well it's there

it's highly valuable it's highly under

threat and we can't do anything about it

so we're not going to sort of tag it as

being um as being a

Hotpot so this is this is the regions

where it exists perhaps not surprisingly

um Southwest of do way again gets in but

it's now broader you can see all through

in terms of the regions as to where this

is coming in but notably a large

proportion in terms of area over here in

wa um around the Kimberly ningaloo so

on uh the wheat belt for us and then

bits over East um

as

well so what are we doing in terms of

trying to protect this in terms of

management well there's this idea of um

a national

Reserve

um the idea is to is to identify

areas specify what and then specify what

can and cannot be done within those

areas in terms of economic activity and

development uh there's a national

Reserve System uh which we're going to

have a quick

um look at in the next slide but there's

also in in terms of the Marine system

there are State and commonwealth state

uh controls

um the waters up to 3 miles off the

coast then beyond that it's Commonwealth

but there are reserves Marine reserve

systems and then there are NATO reserves

and state forests and so on so this it's

given the layers of government um within

Australia there are these similar layers

of of of protected areas so this is the

current as far as I could find the

current Reserve System um and what you

can see is large areas the blue

obviously is the is the Marine um

systems there are some inserts here in

terms of U areas off around Islands

owned by

Australia

um

obviously the um GRE barer Reef and all

around of Queensland high levels of of

protection what you can see notably in

terms of what's happening within the uh

country there's large areas that are

protected but they are largely in the

center where there is very little

economic activity and people there so in

some

sense relatively low levels of threat

and relatively easy to protect I a low

economic cost of saying of limitting the

economic activity that can can occur

which is one of the problems that's also

you need to be careful when you're

looking at this especially in the Marine

space it can be specified as a marine

protected area but there are different

levels and classifications of what can

happen and sometimes the level of

restriction on activity can be really

quite low um it might be limited to

purely you can't put oil rigs or

whatever into those areas but everything

else can commercial fishing Rel

everything else can happen quite happily

so you have to be aware that just

because it's it's been designated um a

protected area there are classifications

as to what you are allowed to do so you

need to dig into those to fully

understand the extent to which things

have been

protected there's then the idea about

well how do you protect and restore

biodiversity and there's these sort of

ideas about how you might want to do

exit your conservation that means you're

doing it away from where the species is

originally um protected or originally

exist so gin or seed banks in order to

avoid Extinction Botanical Zoological

Gardens where you have um plants growing

naturally but they're not in the natural

environment not in their

ecosystem um there's then increasing

moves to try to do uh conservation um

which is not in the Reserve System but

say paying people to provide the

ecosystem Services we recognize that

these ecosystem services are valuable

they might be provided on land that's

held by private individuals we're going

to pay them to ensure that um exists

creating wild of corridors biodiversity

offsets if a development happens

requiring that the developer if they

damage or destroy an ecosystem that they

restore ecosystem of equal value

somewhere

else um and potentially also this idea

of species

translocation as in if there's

development happening or there's threats

climate change in particular now is a

big one um

can one actually move species that are

under threat because their ecosystem is

going to evolve in a way that they can't

cope with to actually move them into

other

areas so what have we covered in this

first uh week for this um biodiversity

section what's biodiversity why is it

important and how we can measure it uh

and it's the measurement part of Light

which connects with what we're going to

be doing in the lab and when we star to

talk about Statistics over the next

couple of weeks

so we'll finish

there