LESSON 1: ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, THEIR
CAUSES AND SUSTAINABILITY
 Sustainability - ability of ecosystems and human
cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt
together to constantly changing environments over
long periods of time
 Principles of Sustainability
o Life on the earth:
 Been sustained for billions of years by
solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical
cycling
 Depends on energy from the sun and
natural capital provided by the earth
 Can be preserved by shifting towards
full-cost pricing and win-win solutions
 Environment - Everything around us, living and
nonliving
 Ecosystem - Group of organisms in a defined
geographic area (terrestrial or marine) that interact
with each other and their environment
 Environmentalism - A social movement dedicated to
sustaining the earth’s life-support system
 Ecology - Most of ecology focuses on the study of
ecosystems
 Goals of Environmental Science
o To learn how life on the earth has survived and
thrived
o To understand how we interact with the
environment
o To find ways to deal with environmental
problems and live more sustainably
 Three Scientific Principles of Environmental Science
o Dependence on solar energy
 Supplies nutrients, directly and
indirectly
o Biodiversity
 Provides ecosystem services and
adaptability
o Chemical/nutrient cycling
 In nature, waste = useful resources
 Interdependence – what sustains life
 Key Components of Sustainability
o Natural capital
 Natural resources
 Ecosystem services
o How do humans degrade natural capital?
 By using renewable resources faster
than nature can restore them
 By overloading natural resources with
pollution and waste
 Sustainability Solutions
o Solution Cross Discipline
 Scientific versus economic and political
solutions
o Trade off and compromises
 Corporate subsidies can encourage
sustainability
 Daily individual and local contributions
matter
 Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Ecosystem
Services
 Other Principles of Sustainability from Social
Sciences
o Full-cost pricing (economics)
o Win-win situations (political science)
o Responsibility to future generations (ethics)
 Resource
o Anything obtained from the environment
 Can be readily available for use
 Can require technology to acquire
o Sustainable solutions for resource use
 Reduce
 Reuse
 Recycle
 Inexhaustible resources - Perpetually available and
expected to last (examples: solar energy, wind and
flowing water)
 Renewable resources - Replenished by natural
processes within their sustainable yield (examples:
forests, grasslands, fish, topsoil, clean air, fresh water)
 Nonrenewable/exhaustible resources - Available in
fixed quantities that can be renewed, but only
through long-term geologic processes (examples:
fossil fuels, metallic minerals (cooper and aluminum)
and non-metallic minerals (salt and sand)
 Sustainable yield - highest rate we can use a
renewable resource indefinitely without impacting its
perpetual availability
 Countries Differ in Resource Use and Environmental
Impact
o Industrialized countries
 17% of world’s population (United
States, Canada, Western Europe)
o Developing countries
 83% of world’s population
 Middle income, moderately developed
countries (China, India, Brazil)
 Low income, least developed countries
(Nigeria, Bangladesh, Haiti)
 Environmental Degradation - growth of ecological
footprints depletes and degrades earth’s natural
capital (natural resources and ecosystem services)
 Pollution - contamination of the environment by
polluting substances (pollutants) such as chemicals,
noise, and heat
o Naturally occurring - volcanoes
o Contributed by humans - burning of fossil fuels
 Point Source - Single, identifiable origins (e.g.,
smokestacks)
 Non-point Source - Dispersed and difficult to identify
sources (e.g., pesticides, trash in streams)
 How are we dealing with pollution?
o Pollution cleanup (post-production)
 Cleanup: dilution/reduction of
pollutants
o Pollution prevention (before pollution occurs)
 Reduces or eliminates the production of
pollutants
 Degradation of Commonly Shared Renewable
Resource
o The tragedy of the commons
 Cumulative degradation due to the
overuse of:
- Open access, renewable
resources (atmosphere, open
ocean, fish)
- Shared resources (grasslands,
forests, streams)
o The individual (incorrectly) believes that:
 “The little bit that I use or pollute is not
enough to matter, and anyway, it’s a
renewable resource.”
 Ecological Footprint
o Amount of land and water needed to supply a
population or geographic area with renewable
resources
o The ability to absorb/recycle wastes and
pollution produced by resource usage
o The growth of ecological footprints:
 Leads to degradation of natural capital
 Results in the creation of pollution and
waste
 Ecological deficit
o Occurs when the ecological footprint is larger
than the biological capacity to replenish
resources and absorb wastes/pollution (EF > BC)
o In an ecological deficit, people are living
unsustainably:
 Creates adverse environmental impacts
 Can be mitigated by up cycling
 Per capita ecological footprint - The average
ecological footprint of an individual in a given country
or area
 Up cycling - improving aspects of the environment
while serving humanity’s needs and wants
 Environmental Impact Model
o IPAT Model
 Early 1970s
 Developed to determine the
environmental impact of human
activities
 Impact (I) = Population (P) x Affluence
(A) x Technology (T)
 Environmental Problems
o Environmental and social scientists have
identified five basic causes of the
environmental problems:
 Population Growth
 Unsustainable Resource Use
 Poverty
 Excluding environmental costs from
market prices
 Increasing isolation from nature
 Human Population Is Growing at a Rapid Rate
o Unchecked population/ecological footprint
growth results in natural capital degradation
 Affluence
o Harmful Environmental Effects
 High levels of consumption and waste
of resources
 More air pollution, water pollution,
and land degradation
 Acquisition of resources without
regard for the environmental effects of
their consumption
o Beneficial Environmental Effects
 Better education
 Scientific research
 Technological solutions resulting in
improvements in environmental quality
(e.g., safe drinking water)
 Poverty
o Harmful Environmental Effects
 Short term requirements for survival
can lead to degraded forests, topsoil,
grasslands, fisheries, and wildlife
populations
o Health Effects
 Malnutrition
 Limited access to sanitation/clean
drinking water
 Outdoor and indoor air pollution
o Poverty occurs when the basic needs for
adequate food, water, shelter, health, and
education are not met.
o One in every five people live in extreme poverty
(<$1.25/day), and more are susceptible.
 o Poverty does not always cause environmental
degradation. Some poor populations have
learned to plant and nurture trees and conserve
soils, which are beneficial to their
environments.
 Prices of Goods/Services Rarely Include Their
Harmful Environmental/Health Costs
o Consumers are unaware of the damage caused
by their consumption
o Current government subsidies often increase
environmental degradation
 To live sustainably, government
subsidies must become beneficial to the
environment by:
- Taxing pollution and waste
- Shifting from environmentally
harmful to environmentally
beneficial subsidies
 Nature Isolation
o More than half the world’s population lives in
urban environments technological isolated from
nature
o People are unaware of:
 The origins of their food, water and
other goods
 The pollution and waste generated by
the production of these goods and
services
 Technological isolation
o Cell phones, computers, tablets, games, etc
o Virtual reality, not physical reality
 Environmental Worldview
o A set of assumptions and values reflecting how
one thinks the world works and what one’s role
in it should be
o Each individual has his or her own
environmental worldview
 Three Major Types of Worldview
o Human centered – taking care of the
environment
 Planetary management worldview
 Stewardship worldview - holds that we
can and should manage the earth for
our benefit, but that we have an ethical
responsibility to be caring and
responsible managers.
o Life-centered – living things are connected
o Earth-centered – life is dependent on
everything we have on Earth.
 Preservationist School (John Muir) – Leave
wilderness areas on some public lands untouched.
 Conservationist School (Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford
Pinchot) – Manage all public lands wisely and
scientifically, primarily to provide resources for
people
 Environmentally Sustainable Society - one must live
off the natural resources without depleting or
degrading the natural capital that supplies these
natural resources
 Sustainable development – meeting the needs for
today without compromising the needs of the future
 Protect Our Natural Capital and Live Off of Its
Income
o Earth’s natural capital provides natural income
 Renewable resources such as plants,
animals, soil, and clean water and air
o By living only on the natural income and not
depleting the natural capital, society moves
from an unsustainable lifestyle to a sustainable
one
 A More Sustainable Future Is Possible
o Given enough time, most degraded
environments can recover – but many will take
hundreds and even thousands of years to
recover
 Time is our most scarce resource
 However, 5-10% of a population that
changes can make a difference
 Changes can occur in a shorter time
than previously thought
 An Eco-City – Tianjin, China
o Tianjin, China is a real-life entirely sustainable
community developed on non-arable land
located in an area facing a water shortage in
one of the fastest growing regions of China
 Tiajin and the Three Big Ideas
o Create a more sustainable future
 Use natural capital and natural
resources
 Reduce, reuse, and recycle
o Utilize full-cost pricing
 Be aware of ecological footprints – and
address cleanup and prevention
o Find win-win solutions
 Apply these solutions to other societies
 Three Harmonies
o People living in harmony with other people, i.e.,
social harmony
o People living in harmony with economic
activities, i.e., economic vibrancy
o People living in harmony with the environment,
i.e. environmental sustainability
 Three Abilities
o Practical - the technologies adopted in the Eco-
city must be affordable and commercially viable
o Replicable - the principles and models of the
eco-city could be applied to other cities in China
and even in other countries
o Scalable - the principles and models could be
adapted for another project or development of
a different scale
Lesson 2: SCIENCE, MATTER, AND SYSTEMS  Scientific Law
o Is a well-tested and widely accepted description
 To find out how nature works, scientists: of events or actions of nature that are
o Collect Data repeatable in the same way
o Develop o Cannot be broken except by discovering new
 Hypothesis data that lead to changes in the laws
 Theories  Reliable science - Data, hypotheses, models, theories,
 Laws and laws widely accepted by the field’s experts
 Observations, Experiments, and Models Answer  Unreliable science - Has not been rigorously peer
Questions About Nature reviewed or has been discarded as a result of this
o Scientists discover how nature works by peer review
assuming cause and effect patterns  Tentative science - Not widely tested or accepted
o To understand the patterns, scientists:  Science Has Some Limitations
 Make careful observations o Scientists cannot prove or disprove anything
 Develop hypotheses absolutely
 Take measurements  There are inherent uncertainties in
 Experiment and create models measurements, observations, and
 Use knowledge learned to describe and models
predict what happens in nature  Scientists use words such as
 Scientists Are Curious, Skeptical, and Demand “overwhelming evidence” to clarify
Evidence probability or certainty
o Scientists are skeptical of new data o Being human, scientists are not free from bias,
o During the peer review process, what do but peer review helps to reduce personal bias
scientists publish?
 Methods they used
 Results of their experiments
 Reasoning behind their hypotheses
 Four Steps in Scientific Critical Thinking
o Be skeptical about what you read or hear
o Look at the evidence and evaluate it
o Be open to many viewpoints and evaluate each
o Identify and evaluate your personal
assumptions
 Be sure to distinguish facts from
opinions
 Vital Tools in Science
o Imagination
o Creativity
o Intuition
 Developing Scientific Theories
o The goal of scientists is to develop theories
and laws based on facts and data that
explain how the physical world works
o A scientific theory:
 Has been widely tested
 Is supported by extensive evidence
 Is accepted as being a useful
explanation of some phenomenon by
most scientists in a particular field or
related fields of study
LESSON 3: ECOSYSTEM: WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW
DO THEY WORK?
 Earth’s Life Support System
o Earth’s life-support system has four spherical
components that interact with each other
o Life is sustained by the cycling of nutrients and
energy between and through these systems
 Four Major Components of the Earth
o Atmosphere (Air) – composed of the
troposphere and the stratosphere
o Hydrosphere (Water) – water at or near the
earth’s surface (ice, water, and water vapor)
o Geosphere (Earth) – composed of a hot core, a
thick, mostly rocky mantle and a thin outer
crust
o Biosphere (Life) – wherever life is found within
the other three spheres
 Three Factors that Sustain the Earth’s Life
o The one-way flow of high-quality energy
 Solar energy principle of sustainability
 Greenhouse effect
o The cycling of nutrients
 Chemical cycling principle
sustainability
o Gravity
 Major Components of an Ecosystem
o Organisms that:
 Produce their own nutrition
 Satisfy nutritional requirements by
consuming other organisms
 Decompose waste and remains of
organisms thereby recycling nutrients
o Ecology - organisms interact with each other
and with their non-living environment
o Biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) parts of
the environment exhibit sequential levels of
organization
 Five of these levels: organisms,
populations, communities, ecosystems,
and the biosphere
 Levels of the Organization of Matter in Nature
o Atom – Smallest unit of a chemical element that
exhibits its chemical properties
o Molecule - Chemical combination of two
or more atoms of the same or different
elements
o Cell - The fundamental structural and
functional unit of life
o Population - A group of individuals of the same
species living in a particular place
o Community – Populations of different species
living in a particular place and potentially
interacting with each other
o Ecosystem - A community of different species
interacting with one another and with their
nonliving environment of matter and energy
o Biosphere – Parts of the earth’s air, water, and
soil where life is found
 Producers and Consumers
o Organisms belong to feeding/tropic levels
depending on their source of nutrients
o Producers (autotrophs – plants) - use
photosynthesis to make nutrients
o Consumers (heterotrophs) - feed on other
organisms or their remains
 Can be herbivores (plant eaters),
carnivores (meat eaters) or omnivores
(eat both plants and meat)
 Natural Capital: The Main Components of an
Ecosystem
of
 What Happens To Energy in an Ecosystem?
o Energy flows through ecosystems via
movement between trophic levels through
food chains and food webs
 The quality of energy available to
organisms decreases as each successive
trophic level is reached, because so
much energy (heat) is lost moving from
one level to the next
 Energy Flows Through Ecosystems in Food Chains
and Food Webs
o Food chains - A sequence of organisms, each of
which serves as a nutritional source for the
next (big fish eat little fish)
o Food webs - A complex network of
interconnected food chains
o Pyramid of energy flow - Energy flow through
various trophic levels

 Generalized Pyramid of Energy Flow
 Some Ecosystems Produce Plant Matter Faster Than
Others Do
o Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)
 The rate that an ecosystem’s producers
convert energy into biomass
o Net Primary Productivity (NPP)
 The rate that producers use
photosynthesis to produce and store
chemical energy minus the rate at
which they use energy for aerobic
respiration
o Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems differ in
their NPP (net primary productivity)
 Despite low NNP, oceans produce most
of the world’s biomass because of their
vast size
 Tropical rainforests have high NPP –
much is lost through natural capital
degradation
o Only plant matter represented by NPP is
available as nutrients for consumers
 What Happens To Matter in an Ecosystem?
o Matter in the form of nutrients and energy are
naturally cycled and recycled through
ecosystems and the biosphere
 However, these chemical cycles are
being altered by human activities
 Nutrients Cycle Within and Among Ecosystems
o Biogeochemical cycling, driven by incoming
solar radiation and earth’s gravity continually,
moves nutrients and energy through air, water,
soils, rocks, and living organisms
 Supports the chemical cycling principle
of sustainability
 The Water Cycle
o Evaporation and Transpiration
 The hydrologic cycle or water cycle
collects, purifies, and distributes the
earth’s fixed supply of water
- The cycle of natural water quality
renewal
 Incoming solar radiation moves water
at the surface into the atmosphere
through evaporation
- Mainly via transpiration
(evaporation from the surface of
plants)
o Precipitation and Surface Run-off
 Condensation in the atmosphere and
effects of gravity create precipitation
which returns water to the earth’s
surface
- Surface runoff
- Aquifers and ground water
 Only a very small portion of earth’s
water is fresh water
- The rest is in oceans, stored as ice
or is too deep to access
 Altering Water Cycle
o By withdrawing fresh water resources faster
than natural processes replenish it
o By replacing forests/vegetation with urban
development – reducing transpiration and
increasing runoff
o By draining and filling in wetlands, which
disturbs the renewal abilities of the hydrologic
cycle
 The Carbon Cycle
o Atmospheric carbon dioxide, a key component
of the carbon cycle, has a significant
temperature effect (greenhouse effect)
o How does carbon cycle through the biosphere?
 Photosynthesis by producers
  Aerobic respiration by producers,
consumers and decomposers
 Altering Carbon Cycle
o By extracting and burning fossil fuels at a much
higher rate than they are naturally formed
 This adds carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere
o By clear cutting forests faster than they re-
grow
 This destroys carbon-absorbing
vegetation
 The Nitrogen Cycle: Bacteria in Action
o How does nitrogen cycle through the
biosphere?
 Atmospheric nitrogen cannot be
absorbed or used directly by most
organisms
 Bacteria convert the nitrogen into a
usable form so it becomes a useful
plant nutrient
 Consumers (herbivores) and
decomposers convert the nitrogen
back into nitrogen gas which is then
released into the atmosphere
 Altering Nitrogen Cycle
o By burning fossil fuels that adds nitric oxide to
the atmosphere
 Nitrogen dioxide gas/nitric acid vapor
causes acid rain
o By removing atmospheric nitrogen to make
fertilizer
 Agricultural runoff from fields into the
water supply leads to algal overgrowth
that disrupts the oxygen balance in
aquatic systems
 The Phosphorus Cycle
o How does phosphorus cycle through the
biosphere?
 Cycles through soils, rocks, water and
plants, but not through the
atmosphere
 Can be temporarily removed from
natural cycling when washed into
oceans and trapped in marine
sediments
 As with nitrogen, contributes to
agricultural runoff
 Altering Nitrogen Cycle
o By mining phosphorus deposits to make
fertilizer
o Through clearing of tropical forests, which
reduces phosphorus in the topsoil
o Through agricultural runoff and topsoil erosion,
which disturbs biogeochemical cycling
 The Sulfur Cycle
o How does sulfur cycle through the biosphere?
 Via mining of ore deposits/ocean
sediments
 From active volcanoes – as poisonous
hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide
gases
 Through decomposition of organic
matter in wetlands
 From sea spray, dust storms, and forest
fires
 Absorption by plant roots
 Altering Sulfur Cycle
o By releasing sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere
 Burning sulfur containing coal and oil in
power plants to generate electricity
 Refining sulfur containing oil to make
gasoline
 Mining and smelting metals from sulfur
deposits
o The key components of acid rain are nitrogen
dioxide and sulfuric acid
 Scientists learn about ecosystems by:
o Using field and laboratory research
o Designing controlled experiments
o Developing mathematical and statistical models
 Some Scientists Study Nature Directly
o Make direct observations and take
measurements of ecosystems in the field
o Fly over ecosystems to photograph them
o Carry out controlled experiments
o Use radio transmitters and remote sensing to
track organisms
o Run mathematical models for issues that
cannot be studied in the lab or field
 Some Ecologists Use Laboratory Experiments or
Modeling
o How do scientists model ecosystems in the lab?
 With culture tubes, aquariums,
greenhouses, and in indoor/outdoor
chambers with controlled variables
(light, temperature, etc.)
o Pros: small, controlled lab experiments save
money and are faster to carry out
 o Con: these experiments may not reflect reality
well enough
 The 2005 ecosystem assessment shows that more
baseline ecologic data is needed to:
o Evaluate the status of the world’s ecosystems
o Develop effective strategies for preventing and
slowing ecosystem degradation
o Identify planetary boundaries that lead to
irreversible changes if passed – and help us to
avoid reaching or passing them
 Ecosystems and Three Big Ideas
o Life is sustained by the flow of energy and
nutrients through ecosystems which are
continually recycled
o Ecosystems are characterized by producers,
consumers, and decomposers – All aid in the
cycling process
o Human activities impact ecosystem cycling,
sometimes negatively, sometimes positively
(e.g., Yellowstone)
LESSON 4: BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION
 Why Are Amphibians Vanishing?
o Amphibians (frogs, toads, and
salamanders) show great biodiversity
(more than 6,700 species)
 Many populations have declined
or vanished
 Sustaining life on the earth depends on the
biodiversity found in genes, species,
ecosystems, and ecosystem processes
 Biodiversity is the variety in:
o Species (species diversity)
 The number and abundance of
species present in different
communities
 Species diversity is the number
and variety of species in a
biological community
o The genes they contain (genetic
diversity)
 The variety of genetic material
within a species or a population
 Genetic diversity is the variety
of genes in a population or
species
o Ecosystems (ecological diversity)
 The variety of terrestrial and
aquatic ecosystems found in an
area or on the Earth.
o Ecosystem processes, such as energy
flow and nutrient cycling (functional
diversity)
 The biological and chemical
processes such as energy flow
and matter recycling needed for
the survival of species,
communities, and ecosystems.
 Species and Biomes
o Species
 Set of individuals that can mate and
produce fertile offspring – every
organism is a member of a certain
species
o Ecosystem diversity
 Deserts, grasslands, forests, mountains,
oceans, lakes, rivers, and wetlands
 Biomes are major habitations/large
ecosystems with distinct climates and
species
 Variety of Biomes
o Coastal chaparral and shrubs
o Coniferous forest
o Desert
o Prairie grassland
o Deciduous forest
 Niche
o Each species has a specific ecological role
o The role the species plays in an ecosystem and
everything that affects its survival and
reproduction
o Remember: Niche can overlap
 Habitat - The geographic location of the species
 Species
o May be generalists with broad niches, or
specialists with narrow niches
o Generalist species (broad niches)
 Can live in a wide range of
environments; less prone to extinction
 Example: Raccoon
o Specialist species (narrow niches)
 Live in only a few types of habitats;
more prone to extinction because of
their inability to tolerate
environmental change
 Example: Panda
 Remember: Specialization reduces competition
 Four important Roles of a Specie in an Ecosystem
o Native
 Live and thrive in a specific ecosystem
o Nonnative
 Immigrate into, or are deliberately or
accidentally introduced, into an
ecosystem
 Can threaten native species through
competition for resources, reducing the
number native species
 Can spread rapidly if they find a
favorable niche
o Indicator
 An indicator species is sensitive to
changes in an ecosystem
 Provide early warnings of community
and ecosystem change
 Some amphibian species are good
indicator species – their extinction in
Central and South American tropical
forests has been tied to climate change
 o Keystone
 Keystone species affect the type and
abundance of other species in an
ecosystem and can be responsible for:
- Pollination of flowering species
(butterflies, honeybees)
- Regulation of populations of
other species (wolves,
alligators)
- May cause population crashes
and extinction of dependent
species if drawn to extinction
itself
 Example: American Alligator, Sharks
 How Does the Earth’s Life Change over Time?
o The theory of evolution as demonstrated in the
process of natural selection
 Explains how life on the earth changes
over time due to changes in the genes
of populations
o Population evolution occurs through gene
mutation
 Gives individuals genetic traits that
enhance their ability to survive and
produce offspring
 Biological Evolution by Natural Selection Explains
How Life Changes Over Time
o Fossils reveal the history of life
o Biological evolution
 The expression of genetic variation over
time by succeeding generations
(natural selection)
 Through natural selection, species
evolve over time from earlier ancestral
ones
 Individuals with traits that increase
their survivability are more likely to
produce offspring and pass on these
traits
 Changes in Genetic Composition (DNA)
o Mutation - Some are random; others occur by
exposure to radioactivity, ultraviolet radiation,
and chemicals (mutagens)
o Heritable Traits - Genetic changes in
reproductive cells are inherited by offspring
o Adaptive Traits - Some heritable traits give
individuals advantages that improve their
ability to survive and reproduce
 Biological Evolution By Natural Selection Depends
on Genetic Diversity
o Genetic resistance
 The ability of one or more organisms in
a population to tolerate chemicals
designed to kill the population
 Develops in bacteria and insect species
because they rapidly produce large
numbers of offspring (antibiotic-
resistant bacteria)
 Evolution by Natural Selection
 Limiting factors for adaptation:
o Organisms can only adapt to a change in
environmental conditions if the necessary
genetic traits are already present in a
population’s gene pool
o Even if a beneficial heritable trait is present in a
population, the population’s ability to adapt
may be limited by its reproductive capacity
 Factors Affecting Biodiversity
o As environmental conditions change,
biodiversity is determined by the balance
between formation of new species and the
extinction of existing species
o Human activity has caused loss of biodiversity:
 By causing extinction of species
 Through degradation of habitats
needed for development of new
species
 Speciation
o Occurs when one species splits into two or
more different species
o Species are considered different when
individuals can no longer breed and reproduce
fertile offspring
 Geographic and Reproductive Isolation
o Geographic isolation
 Occurs when groups of the same
population become physically isolated
(by mountains, rivers, roads or
distance) from one another over time
o Reproductive isolation
 Occurs when mutation and change by
natural selection operate
independently in the gene pool of
geographically isolated populations
 o Remember: Geographic Isolation can lead to  When Will the Next Mass Extinction Occur?
Reproductive Isolation o Evidence suggests that speciation on average
 Example: Early fox population (Gray fox through time has kept ahead of extinction
and Arctic fox) o However, scientists now think we may be
 How do Humans Affect Biodiversity?
experiencing the beginning of a new mass
o By contributing to the rise of new species
extinction that is the result of human activity
through artificial selection
 Selectively breed or crossbreed
between genetic variations of the same
species
o By using genetic engineering to quickly
manipulate genes
 Alter segments of DNA for desired traits
 Transfer genes between different
species that would not interbreed in
nature
 Extinction
o Occurs when a species ceases to exist
(biological extinction)
o A species facing a crisis may:
 Adapt to the new changes in the
environment
 Migrate to a new geographic location
that is more suitable to their lifestyle
 Become extinct
o Background extinction – slower rate that
existed before human population became
significant
o Mass extinction – significant rise in extinction
over background extinction rate
 Often global events tied to major
widespread environmental change
 Have also occurred as a result of human
activity
 Fossil and geological evidence indicate
that there have probably been five
mass extinctions during the past 500
million years
 These mass extinctions have been
followed by an increase in species
diversity
- New species arise to fill
unoccupied niches or to exploit
newly available ones
 Endemic Species
o Found in only unique geographic areas –
making it difficult for them to migrate or adapt
during rapidly changing environmental
conditions
o Example: Amphibians