Conservation Biogeography

Decline in biodiversity far exceeds natural conditions

• Anthropogenic biomes
• Represent the global ecological patterns created by sustained direct human interactions with ecosystems

• Anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases as the primary factor to global warming
• CO₂

4^o Celsius

• Climate change is uneven throughout time in years, seasons, and times of day.
• It is also uneven in latitudes and elevation.

Invasive species and ocean acidfication

• Habitat destruction and fragmentation is creating habitat islands on what was once mainland (increased isolation)
• Reduction in total area, resources, and productivity

What is out there is unknown to us. Refers to our lack of knowledge about how many, and what kind of species exist

Refers to our inadequate knowledge of the distribution of species.

• Early views predicted that ranges would collapse toward the center
• In actuality, populations near the parameter are most vulnerable to extinction or in isolated portions of the range.

• Conservation planning and assigning urgency towards biodiversity loss.
• –  Geography of global change and threat
• – Geography of extinction and threatened taxa
• –  Linnaean and Wallacean shortfalls Improving understanding of processes that maintain and threaten biodiversity
• –  Range collapse
• –  Studies in biotic invasion  
• Contributing to solutions
• –  Conservation planning and triage

• The earth has endured waves of extinction and diversification.
• Other changes can be no less important, such as invasive species (which we’ve covered a bit already) and ocean acidification (which we have not but may be one of the biggest change of them all)!