ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

(PE014IU)

LECTURE 3
BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

MAppSc. Dao Bui

 Outlines

1. Biodiversity

2. Biological evolution

3. Ecological succession
 Biodiversity
Biodiversity = Biological Diversity = Variety

❖ Species diversity: Variety in species, organisms can be classified

into different species based on certain distinctive traits

❖ Genetic diversity: In most natural population, individuals vary

slightly in their genetic make up. This genetic diversity enables
life on the earth to adapt to and survive dramatic environmental
changes.

❖ Ecological diversity: Terrestrial of the biosphere is classified into

biomes. The differences reflect changes in climate, mainly
differences in average annual precipitation and temperature.

❖ Functional diversity: The variety of processes or function / role

that occur within ecosystems as species interact with one another
in food chains and webs
 Ecological diversity

• Terrestrial (land) portion of the biosphere is classified into

biomes
• The differences reflect changes in climate, mainly differences
in average annual precipitation and temperature.
 Functional Diversity
Community 1 Community 2

Barnacle

Seastar Mussel

Barnacle Mussel

Anemone
Barnacle Seagrass

• Barnacles: filter feeder • Mussel: filter feeder

• Mussel: filter feeder • Anemone: sessile predator
• Sea star: mobile predator
• Seagrass: photosynthesize
 Biodiversity
❖ Most undescribed are in rainforests and deep oceans.

❖ Tropical rainforest cover no more than 6% of the Earth’s

surface and contain up to half of world’s plant and animal
species live in tropical rain forest.

❖ Tropical rain forest are near equator, warm year-round,

high humidity and heavy rainfall almost daily.

❖ They are damaged, degraded and disappeared

Costa Rica’s tropical
rainforest are being used
for cultivation for coffee,
palm wine, banana and
cattle pasture
Costa Rica’s tropical rainforest at an aerial view
Costa Rica’s tropical rainforest at an aerial view
 Biodiversity
❖ Habitat: where an organism lives. Each organism have a
range of factors it can survive in (temperature,
salinity…)

❖ Important characteristic of a community and ecosystem

is its species diversity: the number of different species
combined with the relative abundance of individual
within each of those species

❖ Species rich ecosystems tend to be productive and

sustainable.
 Why is biodiversity important?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK_vRtHJZu4&feature=youtu.be
❖ 2 main questions of ecology
1. How can we have so many different species?

2. How have they come to live together?

 Niches
➢ Niches : total way of life or role of a species in an ecosystem.
Include physical, chemical and biological condition that
species needs to live and reproduce.
• In order to live together in an environment, different
species exploit different niches
Example: some species are hunters (killer whale), other
are scavengers (crabs and snail)
 Niches example

Specialized feeding niches of various bird species in a

coastal wetland. This specialization reduces competition
and allows sharing of limited resource
 Niches
• Niches of different species could overlap
• Although all species are essentially doing the same thing,
they respond differently to environment conditions
• All off these thing enable a species to fit into a
community in a unique way. How and where a species fits
in its niche.
 Niches
➢ Generalist species: have broad niches, can live in many
different place, eat variety of foods and tolerate a wide range
of environmental conditions ( mice, deer or human)

➢ Specialist species: occupy narrow niches, able to live in only

1 type of habitat, use one or few types of food or tolerate a
narrow range of climate and other environmental conditions
(tiger salamanders, giant panda)

Is it better to be generalist or to be specialist species?

Specialist species such as the giant panda have a narrow niche
(left curve) and generalist species such as the raccoon have a
broad niche (right curve).
 Major roles in Ecosystem
Each species has a specific role to play in the ecosystems where it is
found.
❖ Native species: species normally live and thrive in a particular
community.
• Example: Kiwi bird in New Zealand,

Phu Quoc Ridgeback in Vietnam

❖ Native species: Kiwi bird in New Zealand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OkCl0txAfM
❖ Nonnative / Invasive/ Alien species: migrate into or
accidentally introduced into a community
• Nonnative species could compete and crowd out
native species; cause unintended and unexpected
consequence.
• Example: Red –eared slider in Vietnam
❖ Invasive species traits include:
• Fast growth
• Rapid reproduction
• High dispersal ability
• Able to alter growth form to suit with current
conditions
• Wide range of food type
• Prior successful invasion

Example: Golden apple snail

 Question

Can invasive species bring benefit effect to ecosystem?

• Nonnative species could be beneficial (as food source)

• Most domesticated species, including many food
crops, flowers, chickens, cattle, and fish were
introduced
❖ Indicator species: serve as early warning of damage to a
community or an ecosystem. (biological smoke alarm)
• Example: Amphibians, Trout or coral is sensitive indicator
for change of environment.

Trout is an indicator of water

quality as they need clean
water with high levels of
dissolved oxygen.
❖ Keystone species: have large effect on the types and
abundances of other species in community
• Removal of this species greatly changes the entire
ecosystem. Could lead to crashes and extinction of other
species
• Example: Predation allows other organism to grow without
mussels dominating space
❖ Foundation species: create and enhance habitats that can
benefit other species in a community.

• Example: Elephants push over, break or uproot trees,

creating forest opening in the savannah grassland and
woodlands of Africa. They promote the growth of
grasses and other forage plants that benefit smaller
grazing species
Biological evolution
 Evolution
❖ According to some scientific evidence, Earth life is result
of about 1 billion years of chemical evolution to form the
first cell, and 3.7 billion years of biological evolution to
form the species.
 Evolution
❖ The process of change in genetic characteristic of
population of a species in successive generations.

❖ It can lead to formation of a new species.

❖ 3 conditions for evolution:

• There must be genetic variability for trait in a
population (biodiversity)
• The trait must lead to differential reproduction
• The trait must be heritable
 Evolution
❖ Microevolution: small genetic changes that occur in a
population.

❖ Macroevolution: long-term, large-scale evolution

changes through which new species arrive from
ancestral species and other species are lost through
extinction.

❖ Gene pool: consist all of genes in its individuals.

Microevolution is change in a population’s gene pool
over time.,
• Evolution of horses and
their leg/foot bone
 How do we know which organisms lived
in the past
• Our knowledge about
pastlife comes from fossils,
chemical analysis, cores
drilled out of buried ice,
and DNA analysis.
 Evidence of evolution
• Physical similarities: most animal
have similar bones in their limbs
(arms, fins and wings)

• Vestigial structures: some

structure still exist in the body
but are no longer needed such as
coccyx (tail bone), appendix and
wisdom teeth

• Comparing DNA
 Natural selection
➢ Biological evolution: earth’s life changes over time
through changes in the genetic characteristics of
population
➢ Natural selection: Process by which a particular beneficial
genes (or set of genes) is reproduced in succeeding
generations more than other genes. The result is a greater
proportion of organisms better adapted to certain
environmental conditions.
➢ Process where better competitors survive and reproduce
more successfully
➢ Biological evolution by Natural selection depends on
genetic diversity
 Natural selection
➢ Natural selection is a necessary consequence of some main
properties of living organisms
 Natural selection
➢ Natural selection is caused by:
• Random mutations: changes in DNA are usually bad
but can be beneficial
• Selective pressure: limited resources means only the
best competitor survive
• Sexual selection: Female choose a mate based on
certain characteristics
 Mutation
❖ Random changes in the structure or number of DNA molecules
in a cell that originate genetic variability
❖ In 2 ways:
• DNA may be exposed to external agents such as
radioactivity, x-rays or chemicals…
• Random mistakes occur in coded genetic instructions when
DNA molecules are copied each time, a cell division and
organism reproduces
❖ Some mutations are lethal, some other results in beneficial
genetic traits may give that individual and its offspring better
chances for survival and reproduction.
 Adaptation
❖ Adaptation – A adaptive trait that improves the ability of an
individual organism to survive more easily and reproduce at a
higher rate than other individuals in a population under
prevailing environmental conditions

❖ A population’s ability to adapt to new environmental

conditions is limited by its gene pool and its reproductive
capacity.

• A change in environmental conditions can lead to

adaptation only for genetic traits already present in a
population’s gene pool
• Population of genetically diverse species that reproduce
quickly with large number offspring often adapt in short
time.
Adaptation
 Adaptation
• Natural selection can result in the evolution of genetic resistance,
the ability of one or more organisms in a population to tolerate a
chemical designed to kill the population.
Examples include antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pesticide-resistant
insects.
 Speciation
❖ What is a species?

A group of individuals capable of interbreeding to produce

fertile offspring.

❖ Hybrid Infertility

Horse X Donkey = Mule

➢ A group of individuals capable

of interbreeding to produce
offspring that are fertile and
these offspring, in turn, can
produce offspring that are
fertile.
 Speciation
❖ Speciation is process of how new species develop.

2 species arise from 1.

• For sexually reproducing species, a new species is form

when some members of population can not longer breed
with other member to produce fertile offspring.

• There are 2 stage of speciation: Geographic isolation and

reproduction isolation
 Speciation
❖ Geographic isolation: population can be separated by
physical barrier (mountain range, river, road); by a change
such as volcanic eruption or earthquake or migration for
food
Two tectonic plates collide in New Zealand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQTfFCMYEI4
 Speciation
❖ Reproduction isolation: member of population may become
so different in genetic makeup that can never produce live,
fertile offspring.
 Extinction
❖ Extinction: A species becomes extinct when its population can
not adapt to changing environmental conditions. An entire
species ceases to exist. Reason could from natural or from
human impact.
❖ 98% of all species that ever existed are now extinct
❖ Background extinction is a certain number of species disappear
at a low rate as local environmental conditions change in a long
period of time.(Ex: extinction of amphibians)
❖ Mass extinction is significant rise in extinction rate that involve
many species at a short time, widespread event, large group
(25-95%) are wiped out... (Ex dinosaur extinction)
❖ Mass depletion: extinction rate are much higher than normal but
not high enough to classify as mass extinction
 Extinction
❖ Mass extinctions have been followed
by an increase in species diversity as
new species have arisen to occupy
new habitats or to exploit newly
available resources.
❖ There is growing evidence that we
are experiencing the beginning of a
new mass extinction, with much of
the increase in extinctions and loss of The golden toad of
biodiversity due to human activities. Costa Rica’s
❖ Species that are found in only one Monteverde cloud
area, called endemic species, are forest has become
extinct because of
especially vulnerable to extinction
changes in climate.
 Mass Extinction
• Fossil and geological evidence indicate that there have
probably been 5 mass extinctions during the past
• Mass extinction is a significant rise in extinction rates
above the background level, in which large groups of
species are wiped out.

Source: Univ. of California at Berkeley

Climate change and catastrophes affect
natural selection
❖ Cooling and warming periods have covered much of the earth
with glacial ice or melted the ice and drastically raised sea
levels.
❖ Long-term climate changes determine where different types of
plants and animals can survive and caused the extinction of some
species.
❖ Catastrophic events, such as collisions with large asteroids, have
caused:
– Destruction of ecosystems and extinction of large numbers of
species.
– Shifts in the locations of ecosystems and created opportunities
for the evolution of new species.
Glacia ice coverage during the past
18,000 years
Effect of human activities on biodiversity
❖ Human activities are decreasing the earth biodiversity.

❖ Although extinction is a nature process, humans have

become a major force in premature extinction of species.
Extinction rate increased by 100-1000 times the natural
background extinction rate. The premature extinction of at
least one-fifth of earth’s current species by 2030 and half of
those species by the end of this century.

❖ However, humans are having an increasingly larger effect on

the earth’s biodiversity by manipulating and combining the
genes of species. We have used artificial selection to change
the genetic characteristics of populations with similar genes
by elective breeding, or crossbreeding.
 Big ideas
❖ Each species plays a specific ecological role, called its niche,
in the ecosystems where it is found.

❖ As environmental conditions change, the genes in some

individuals mutate and give those individuals genetic traits
that enhance their abilities to survive and to produce
offspring with these traits.

❖ The degree of balance between speciation and extinction in

response to changing environmental conditions determines
the earth’s biodiversity, which helps to sustain the earth’s
life and our economies.
 Case study about Amphibians
❖ The role of Amphibians in ecosystem

❖ Amphibians are vanishing. Why?

 Contents
• Section 4.1: What is biodiversity and why is it
important?
• Section 4.2: What roles do species play in
ecosystems?
• Section 4.3: How does the Earth’s live change over
time?
• Section 4-4: What factors affect biodiversity?