You are a conservation biologist and have just completed a conservation review p
ID: 178761 • Letter: Y
Question
You are a conservation biologist and have just completed a conservation review project focused on a single mammal species. You are taking your research in a new direction, looking for a study system with diverse species. You begin by evaluating four groups of potential study species, using data from the 2008 IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, shown in Table 1 below.
1. Calculate the percent of described species for which conservation status has been evaluated and enter your data into a new table (this will be referred to as Table 2).
2. Refer to Table 2 to determine how evaluation of conservation status differs among the four main groups. Based on the nature of conservation programs, which tend to focus public attention on a single species, and the nature of conservation biology in general, how can you explain the differences in the percent of described species that have been evaluated across the four groups?
Table 1 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Number of species Number of species Number of species Group described evaluated threatened Vertebrates 61,259 5,966 26,604 6,161 2,496 Invertebrates 1,232,384 8,448 11,995 Plants 288,468 3 3 Lichen /Fungi 47,000 Source: Data from the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, as reported in Vie et al. (2009).Explanation / Answer
1. Percentage
Vertebrates - 43.43%
Invertebrates- 0.50%
Plants - 4.15%
Lichen/fungi- 0.00638%
2. from the table it is seen that we need to conserve invertebrates and lichen/fungi.
If we conserve the vertebrates alone then the invertebrates number will be highly reduced and lead to their extinction. The levels of plants and lichen should also be conserved so that there is a balance between the herbivores and carnivores
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