LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT, 18e

G. TYLER MILLER • SCOTT E. SPOOLMAN

10
Sustaining Terrestrial
Biodiversity: Saving Ecosystems
and Ecosystem Services
©©Cengage
CengageLearning
Learning2015
2015
Core Case Study: Costa Rica – A Global
Conservation Leader

• Suffered widespread deforestation

• Still harbors great biodiversity
– Microclimates provide variety of habitats
– More than 25% of its land is nature reserves
and national parks
• Government pays landowners to restore
forests

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Fig. 10-1, p. 218
10-1 What Are the Major Threats to Forest
Ecosystems?

• Forest ecosystems provide ecosystem

services far greater in value than the value
of raw materials obtained from forests
• Chief threats to forest ecosystems
– Unsustainable cutting and burning of forests
– Diseases and insects
– Projected climate change

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Forests Vary in Their Age, Make-Up, and
Origins

• Old-growth or primary forest (about 36%)

– Uncut not disturbed for several hundred years
– Reservoirs of biodiversity
• Second-growth forest
– Secondary ecological succession
• Tree plantation (tree farm, commercial
forest)
– May supply most industrial wood in the future
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Fig. 10-2, p. 219
 Weak trees
25 yrs removed

Clear cut

30 yrs

Years of growth 15 yrs

Seedlings
planted
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5 yrs 10 yrs Fig. 10-3a, p. 219
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Fig. 10-3b, p. 219
Forests Provide Important Economic and
Ecosystem Services

• Store atmospheric carbon

• Provide habitats
• Influence local and regional climate
• Provide raw materials
• Provide health benefits
– Medicines derived from plant species

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Natural Capital

Forests

Ecological Economic
Services Services

Support energy flow Fuelwood

and chemical cycling
Reduce soil erosion Lumber

Absorb and release

Pulp to make
water
paper
Purify water and air
Mining
Influence local and
regional climate Livestock
grazing
Store atmospheric
carbon Recreation

Provide numerous
wildlife habitats Jobs
Fig. 10-4, p. 220
There Are Several Ways to Harvest Trees

• One of the world’s largest industries

• Selective cutting
– Intermediate-age or mature trees are cut
singly or in small groups
• Clear-cutting
– All trees in an area are removed
• Strip cutting
– Clear-cutting in strips
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 Cleared plots
New highway for grazing Highway
Cleared plots
for agriculture

Old growth

Fig. 10-5, p. 221

(a) Selective cutting
(b) Clear-cutting

Clear stream
Muddy
stream

(c) Strip cutting Uncut

Cut 1 year ago

Dirt road

Cut 3–10 years ago

Uncut

Clear stream
Stepped Art
Fig. 10-6, p. 222
Fig. 10-7, p. 222
 Trade-Offs

Clear-Cutting Forests

Advantages Disadvantages

Higher timber yields Reduces biodiversity

Maximum profits in Destroys and

shortest time fragments wildlife
habitats

Can reforest with Can lead to water

fast-growing trees pollution, flooding,
and erosion, especially
on steep slopes

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Fig. 10-8, p. 222
Fire, Insects, and Climate Change Can
Threaten Forest Ecosystems

• Surface fires
– Usually burn leaf litter and undergrowth
– Provide many ecological benefits
• Crown fires
– Extremely hot – burns whole trees
– Kill wildlife
– Increase soil erosion

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Fire, Insects, and Climate Change Can
Threaten Forest Ecosystems (cont’d.)

• Introduction of foreign diseases and

insects
– Accidental or deliberate
• Global warming
– Rising temperatures
– Trees more susceptible to diseases and pests
– Drier forests – more fires
– More greenhouse gases

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Fig. 10-9, p. 223
Almost Half of the World’s Forests Have
Been Cut Down

• Deforestation
– Temporary or permanent removal of large
expanses of forest for agriculture,
settlements, or other uses
– Tropical forests
• Especially in Latin America, Indonesia, and Africa
– Boreal forests
• Especially in Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and
Russia

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Almost Half of the World’s Forests Have
Been Cut Down (cont’d.)

• Encouraging news
– Recent increases in forest cover
– Due to:
• Reforestation of cleared areas and abandoned
croplands
• Tree plantations

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Fig. 10-10, p. 223
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Fig. 10-11, p. 224
Case Study: Many Cleared Forests in the
United States Have Grown Back

• Forests of the eastern United States

decimated between 1620 and 1920
• Grown back naturally through secondary
ecological succession in the eastern states
• Biologically simplified tree plantations
– Reduce biodiversity and deplete nutrients
from soil

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Tropical Forests are Disappearing Rapidly

• Majority of loss since 1950

– Mostly in Africa, Southeast Asia, South
America
– Clearing trees can accelerate climate change
• Drier climate
– Risk of larger and more frequent forest fires
• Ecological tipping point
– Forest cannot grow back

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Fig. 10-15, p. 225
Causes of Tropical Deforestation Are
Varied and Complex

• Various causes
– Population growth
– Poverty of subsistence farmers
– Ranching
– Lumber
– Plantation farms – palm oil
• Begins with building of roads
• Many forests burned
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10-2 How Should We Manage and
Sustain Forests?

• We can sustain forests by:

– Emphasizing the economic value of their
ecosystem services
– Removing government subsidies that hasten
their destruction
– Protecting old-growth forests
– Harvesting trees no faster than they are
replenished
– Planting trees
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Solutions: Sustainable Forestry

Fig. 10-16, p. 227

We Can Manage Forests More Sustainably

• Certify sustainably produced forest

products
• Use more sustainable logging practices in
tropical forests
• Phase out government subsidies

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We Can Improve the Management of
Forest Fires

• The U.S. Smokey Bear educational

campaign
– What are the pros and cons?
• Prescribed fires
– Remove flammable material
• Allow fires on public lands to burn

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We Can Improve the Management of
Forest Fires (cont’d.)

• Protect structures in fire-prone areas

– Thin trees and vegetation within 60m of a
structure
• Thin forests in fire-prone areas
– Clear away small trees and underbrush

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We Can Reduce the Demand for
Harvested Trees

• Improve the efficiency of wood use

– 60% of U.S. wood use is wasted
• Make tree-free paper
– Kenaf
– Hemp

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Solutions: Fast-Growing Plant: Kenaf

Fig. 10-17, p. 228

Case Study: Deforestation and the
Fuelwood Crisis

• How is Haiti an example of an ecological

disaster?
• Possible solutions
– Establish small plantations of fast-growing
fuelwood trees and shrubs
– Burn wood more efficiently
– Solar or wind-generated electricity
– Burn garden waste

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Fig. 10-18, p. 229
There Are Several Ways to Reduce
Tropical Deforestation

• Debt-for-nature swaps/conservation
concessions
– Protect forests in return for aid
• Crack down on logging
• End subsidies
• Plant trees

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Solutions

Sustaining Tropical Forests

Prevention Restoration
Protect the most Encourage
diverse and regrowth through
endangered areas secondary
succession
Educate settlers about
sustainable
agriculture and
forestry
Subsidize only Rehabilitate
sustainable forest use degraded areas

Protect forests through

debt-for-nature swaps
and conservation
concessions Concentrate
Certify sustainably farming and
grown timber ranching in
already-cleared
Reduce poverty areas
and slow
population growth
Fig. 10-19, p. 230
10-3 How Should We Manage and
Sustain Grasslands?

• We can sustain the productivity of

grasslands by:
– Controlling the numbers and distribution of
grazing livestock
– Restoring degraded grasslands

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Some Rangelands Are Overgrazed

• Rangelands
– Unfenced grasslands in temperate and
tropical climates that provide forage for
animals
• Pastures
– Managed grasslands and fences meadows
used for grazing livestock

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Some Rangelands are Overgrazed
(cont’d.)

• Overgrazing of rangelands
– Reduces grass cover
– Leads to erosion of soil by water and wind
– Soil becomes compacted
– Enhances invasion of plant species that cattle
won’t eat

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Fig. 10-22, p. 231
We Can Manage Rangelands More
Sustainably

• Rotational grazing
– Cattle moved around
• Fence damaged areas
• Suppress growth of unwanted plants
– Herbicides
– Controlled burning

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Fig. 10-23, p. 232
Case Study: Grazing and Urban
Development the American West

• American southwest population surge

since 1980
• Land trust groups – conservation
easements
• Reduce the harmful environmental impact
of herds
– Operate ranch more economically and
sustainably

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10-4 How Should We Manage and Sustain
Parks and Natural Reserves?

• Sustaining biodiversity will require:

– More effective protection of existing parks and
nature reserves
– The protection of much more of the earth’s
remaining undisturbed land area

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National Parks Face Many Environmental
Threats

• Worldwide – 6600 national parks

• Parks in developing countries
– Greatest biodiversity
– 1% protected against illegal:
• Animal poaching
• Logging and mining

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Case Study: Stresses on U.S. Public Parks

• There are 58 major national parks in the

U.S.
• The biggest problem may be popularity
• Other problems include:
– Nonnative species
– Poaching
– Commercial development
– Park maintenance
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Grand Teton National Park

Fig. 10-24, p. 234

Nature Reserves Occupy Only a Small
Part of the Earth’s Land

• Currently less than 13% is protected

• Conservationists’ goal – protect 20%
• Size and design of protected area is
important
– Buffer zone
– Habitat corridor

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Case Study: Identifying and Protecting
Biodiversity in Costa Rica

• Megareserves – large conservation areas

– Designed to sustain about 80% of the
country’s biodiversity
• Large eco-tourism industry

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Fig. 10-25, p. 236
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Fig. 10-26, p. 236
Protecting Wilderness Is an Important Way
to Preserve Biodiversity

• Wilderness
– Land officially designated as having no
serious disturbance from human activities
– Wilderness Act of 1964
• 5% of U.S. land protected as wilderness
• Why is wilderness protection being eroded
today?

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Fig. 10-27, p. 237
10-5 What is the Ecosystem Approach
to Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity?

• We can help to sustain terrestrial

biodiversity by:
– Identifying and protecting severely threatened
areas (biodiversity hotspots), sustaining
ecosystem services
– Restoring damaged ecosystems (using
restoration ecology)
– Sharing with other species much of the land
we dominate (using reconciliation ecology)
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The Ecosystems Approach: A Five-Point
Strategy

• Map global ecosystems and identify

species
• Identify resilient and fragile ecosystems
• Protect the most endangered
• Restore as many degraded ecosystems
as possible
• Make development biodiversity friendly

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Protecting Global Biodiversity Hot Spots Is
an Urgent Priority

• 34 biodiversity hot spots are rich in plant

species
– 2% of earth’s surface, but 50% of flowering
plant species and 42% of terrestrial
vertebrates
– 1.2 billion people

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Fig. 10-28, p. 238
Case Study: Madagascar: An Endangered
Center of Biodiversity

• The world’s fourth largest island

• Roughly 90% of the species found there
are unique
• Severe habitat loss
• Population growth
• Less than 3% of the land area is officially
protected

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Fig. 10-29, p. 239
Protecting Ecosystem Services Is Also an
Urgent Priority

• 2005 U.N. Millennium Ecosystem

Assessment
– Identify key ecosystem services
– Human activities degrade or overuse 60% of
the earth’s natural services
• Identify highly stressed life raft
ecosystems
– Residents, public officials, and conservation
scientists would work together
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We Can Rehabilitate and Partially Restore
Ecosystems That We Have Damaged

• Ecological restoration
– Repairing damage
– Succession processes
• Restoration
• Rehabilitation
• Replacement
• Creating artificial ecosystems

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We Can Rehabilitate and Partially Restore
Ecosystems (cont’d.)

• Carrying out rehabilitation

– Identify what caused the degradation
– Stop the abuse
– Reintroduce species, if possible
– Protect from further degradation

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We Can Share Areas We Dominate With
Other Species

• Reconciliation ecology
– Invent and maintain habitats for species
diversity where people live, work, and play
• Community-based conservation
– Protect vital insect pollinators

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What Can You Do? Sustaining Terrestrial
Biodiversity

Fig. 10-30, p. 242

Three Big Ideas

• The economic values of the important

ecological services provided by the world’s
ecosystems are far greater than the value
of the raw materials obtained from those
systems

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Three Big Ideas (cont’d.)

• We can manage forests, grasslands, and

nature reserves more effectively by:
– Protecting more land
– Preventing overuse and degradation of these
areas and the renewable resources they
contain

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Three Big Ideas (cont’d.)

• We can sustain terrestrial biodiversity and

ecosystem services by:
– Protecting biodiversity hotspots and
ecosystem services
– Restoring damaged ecosystems
– Sharing with other species much of the land
we dominate

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Tying It All Together: Sustaining Costa
Rica’s Biodiversity

• Costa Rica protects a larger portion of its

land than any other country
• Principles of biodiversity
– Respect biodiversity and understand the
value of sustaining it
– Place an economic value on ecosystem
services
– Encourage people to work together

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