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In this video Paul Andersen explains how biodiversity measures the variety of genes, species, and ecosystems on the planet. Biodiversity provides resources and ecosystem services for humans on the planet. He also explains how biodiversity is decreasing on the planet due to habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change, over harvesting, and pollution. Relevant treaties and laws designed to preserved biodiversity is also included.
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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
00:03
hi it’s mr. Andersen and this is AP
00:06
environmental sciences video 35 it’s on
00:08
the loss of biodiversity way up in
00:10
northern Norway is the fall bard
00:12
Peninsula and on there scientists built
00:15
a giant Seed Vault it’s protecting the
00:18
seeds of humanity our crop seeds into
00:21
the future they chose to put it there
00:22
because it’s protected against tectonic
00:24
activities it’s really really cold and
00:27
also as the sea levels rise it’s going
00:29
to be protected as well the idea was
00:30
hundreds or thousands of years into the
00:32
future we could go there and grab seeds
00:34
and then start growing those those crops
00:36
again unfortunately we’ve already had to
00:38
make withdrawals from that area and the
00:40
reason why is the war in Syria put a lot
00:43
of these drought resistant crops at risk
00:45
and so they’ve had to take more seeds
00:46
out and they’ve moved those to Lebanon
00:48
but it does kind of get at this idea of
00:49
the importance of biodiversity
00:51
biodiversity is not only species
00:54
diversity but it can be genes species
00:57
especially our domesticated crops and
00:59
livestock and then ecosystems themselves
01:02
and they have value they give us our
01:04
resources and they also do these
01:06
ecosystem services and they’re at risk
01:08
we’re seeing biodiversity loss all
01:10
around the planet the causes are habitat
01:12
loss invasive species climate change we
01:15
also have overharvesting and then
01:17
finally pollution are all impacting
01:18
biodiversity and so it’s led to
01:20
conservation what do we do first we have
01:22
to figure out where that biodiversity is
01:24
being lost we have to figure out the
01:26
conservation status of these organisms
01:28
or areas and then finally we can pass
01:30
laws and treaties to try to preserve a
01:32
lot of that biodiversity and so again
01:34
why do we need biodiversity it’s where
01:37
we get our food is how we filter our
01:39
water energy medicine we all get that
01:41
from our environment and again our
01:43
environment also does these ecosystem
01:45
services they keep our climate stable
01:47
they decompose material once it’s died
01:50
they pollinate our crops and so we need
01:52
biodiversity on on our planet for
01:54
resources and to do these services if we
01:56
define what it is it’s simply a variety
01:59
variety at the genetic level at the
02:01
species level and at the ecosystems and
02:04
so those genes that organisms have once
02:06
the organism is gone or the gene is gone
02:08
it’s gone forever it’s extinct species
02:11
as well these are all the fruits found
02:12
in
02:13
certain area of the tropical rainforest
02:15
but also we’re talking about the crops
02:17
that we have and so I think it used to
02:19
be we had around 8,000 different types
02:21
of apples that were being grown and now
02:23
it’s 100 and if you look in your own
02:25
supermarket it’s way less than that and
02:27
then it’s ecosystem changes as well once
02:29
an ecosystem is gone
02:31
coral reefs for example you can’t build
02:32
that back again and so what is causing
02:35
this biodiversity loss well when I was
02:37
trying to come up with a quick way for
02:38
you to remember these five things I came
02:40
up with this mnemonic and so if you
02:42
think of the biodiversity cop and if you
02:44
think of hi cop as a way to remember it
02:46
if we put those in order habitat loss is
02:50
the first big impact on biodiversity so
02:52
deforestation when we’re cutting down
02:55
those rainforests and planting crops
02:57
right here we’re growing soybeans this
03:00
is looking from above where we used to
03:02
have a tropical rainforest we’re
03:03
reducing that diversity and we’re
03:06
replacing it with one simple crop
03:08
invasive species this is kudzu it’s a
03:11
plant that was brought from Asia these
03:13
are the zebra mussels in the Great Lakes
03:15
that they’re really wreaking havoc they
03:17
came from the Mediterranean we’re also
03:20
seeing climate change impacting
03:22
biodiversity so if we look at the polar
03:23
bear for example will they go extinct
03:25
it’s hard to tell but if we look at all
03:27
the areas where they used to do well
03:29
we’re seeing a decrease in the optimal
03:31
polar bear habitat also or
03:34
overharvesting humans have been
03:35
harvesting animals for a long period of
03:37
time the dodo is extinct because we
03:39
killed all of the Dodos and we’re also
03:41
seeing over harvesting now especially in
03:43
our aquatic systems and then we can have
03:45
pollution pollutions impacting the
03:47
environment as well so if we look at
03:48
that Deepwater Horizon explosion that
03:51
led to an oil spill which is impacting
03:54
biodiversity in the Gulf of Mexico and
03:55
it’ll take us years to figure out how
03:57
that impacts it now this has been going
03:58
on for a long period of time extinctions
04:01
are part of nature and if we look back
04:03
through the fossil record we’ve seen
04:05
five major mass extinctions over time
04:08
and they have different causes but most
04:10
scientists are pointing to right now as
04:12
the sixth mass extinction this is mass
04:15
extinction caused by humans we’re seeing
04:17
extinction rates that we’ve never seen
04:19
before biodiversity loss that we’ve
04:21
never seen before and it’s and it’s
04:22
caused is us and so how do we solve this
04:26
problem well the
04:26
first step is to identify where the
04:28
problem is and so the IUCN International
04:31
Union for the Conservation of Nature has
04:33
been around for over half a century and
04:35
what they’ve done is come up with these
04:37
different statuses extinct extinct in
04:40
the wild but would be one where we maybe
04:42
have them in a zoo but they don’t exist
04:44
in the wild then we have critically
04:46
endangered endangered and vulnerable
04:47
then we have near threatened and finally
04:50
areas of least concern and so if you go
04:53
on Wikipedia you can look up any animal
04:55
or any plan it’s going to tell you its
04:56
conservation status so for example the
04:58
whooping crane are endangered the
05:00
California condor is critically
05:02
endangered humans you can imagine our an
05:05
area of least concern they’ve then
05:07
created this red list where we look at
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how many of these species fall into
05:11
these threatened or these red categories
05:13
if we look at mammals almost twenty
05:15
percent or over 20 percent are in this
05:17
threat and kind of an area and n fib
05:19
Ian’s are really at risk and so what do
05:21
we do well what we can do is pass laws
05:23
so in the US we passed the Endangered
05:25
Species Act in 1973 to protect species
05:28
and the ecosystems on which they depend
05:30
and so it essentially is a list so bald
05:33
eagles are a classic example that were
05:35
added to the endangered species list and
05:37
so they’re I think we’re around 500
05:39
breeding pairs in the lower 48 and now
05:41
there’s over 10,000 so once they recover
05:43
we remove them from that list grizzly
05:46
bears were added their population is
05:48
coming back in Montana there’s a big
05:50
debate right now over do we remove them
05:52
from the list or not but as also has to
05:55
be balanced with human resources as well
05:58
so logging for example can impact
06:01
certain species that are going to be
06:03
found on the endangered species list
06:04
we’ve also seen global changes the
06:06
Convention on Biological Diversity in
06:08
1992 all of the green countries here
06:10
signed on that biodiversity is important
06:13
it has an economic import and then we’re
06:15
going to try to protect it but again
06:16
it’s not legally binding and so we’re
06:18
still seeing huge decreases in
06:20
biodiversity and it goes back to the
06:21
first thing I talked about in this class
06:23
the idea that the planet supports
06:25
society but society is driven by
06:27
economics and so we’re never going to
06:29
see decreases in biodiversity loss until
06:32
there’s an economic incentive or a way
06:34
to do that and so did you learn the
06:36
following could you pause the video at
06:38
this point and fill in the blanks well
06:40
do that for you biodiversity has value
06:43
it’s a variety in the genes species and
06:45
ecosystems again especially the domestic
06:47
ones that we need to survive that loss
06:50
is caused by high cop
06:51
so that’s habitat loss invasive species
06:54
climate change over harvesting and
06:55
pollution and then how do we solve this
06:57
through conservation we figure out the
06:59
status of those organisms or maybe those
07:01
ecosystems and then we start to protect
07:03
them through laws and treaties so that’s
07:05
it and it’s also the last of the videos
07:07
on AP environmental sciences so I hope
07:09
that was helpful
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
