Global Biodiversity patterns and processes

( 全球生物多樣性的類型與過程 )

鄭先祐 (Ayo)國立台南大學 環境與生態學院 院長

Japalura@hotmail.com

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Contents What is biodiversity and why is it important?

Component of biodiversity How many species are there? Diversity of higher taxa Diversity of biological communities Ecosystem and biome diversity, and the world’s ecoregion

s Species richness over geological time Patterns of endemism Latitudinal gradients in species richness Species richness-Energy relationships Disturbance and species richness The future of biodiversity studies

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Essay 2.1 Hierachical indicators for monitoring changes in biodiversity

Genetic ( 基因 ) Population-species

( 族群 ) Community-ecosyste

m ( 群落 - 生態體系 ) Landscape ( 地景 )

Composition ( 組成 ) Structure ( 構造 ) Function ( 功能 )

Fig A. compositional, structural, and functional attributes of biodiversity at four levels of organization.

Table A. Hierarchical indicators for monitoring biodiversity

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Components of Biodiversity

Genetic diversity ( 基因多樣性 ) Population-level diversity ( 族群的多樣性 )

Plasticity ( 可塑性 ) Human cultural diversity ( 人類文化的多樣性 )

6,526 distinct spoken languages, with the greatest diversity concentrated in tropical regions. (Fig. 2.1)

Diversity of species ( 物種的多樣性 )

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Fig. 2.1 Linguistic diversity across the world.

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How many species

現生物種約有 175 種，以及 30 萬種化石物種 Table 2.1 Number of living species in major phyla.

植物類約有 29 萬種 (50-55%) ，估計有 53 萬種。

真菌類約有 8 萬種 (5%) ，估計有 150 萬種。 動物類約有 130 萬種 (<11%) ，估計至少有 1,1

54 種。 (Table 2.1)

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Table 2.1 Number of Living species in Major phyla

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Diversity of higher taxa

Five kingdoms Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, and Moner

a (prokaryotes) Monera: Archaea and bacteria (Fig. 2.2)

11Fig. 2.2 (A) domains of biodiversity

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Fig. 2.2 (B) Major groups of plants.

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Biome diversity, eco-regions Diversity

Fig. 2.8 species richness (A) and endemism (B) of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles is greatest in tropical moist forests, and lowest in deserts.

α-richness refers to the number of species found in a small, homogeneous area.

β-richness refer to the rate of change in species composition across habitats or among communities.

γ-richness refers to changes across larger landscape gradients.

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Fig. 2.3 Large marine ecosystems of the world and their associated major water sheds.

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Fig. 2.4 Biomes and climate.

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地質年代 Species richness over geological time

Fig 2.5 Diversity of marine families from Cambrian to the present,

Fig. 2.6 Terrestrial plant species richness. Fig. 2.7 Extinctions of families through geological

time.

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Table 2.2 Earth’s geological history

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Table 2.2 Earth’s Geological history

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Diversity of marine families,with five major mass extinction events

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23Fig. 2.8 specie’s richness (A)

TMF: 熱帶亞熱帶潮濕闊葉林

TDF: 熱帶亞熱帶闊葉林

TG: 熱帶亞熱帶草原

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(B) endemism

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Box 2.1 The importance of β-diversity

RWRI (rarity-weighted richness index)

RWRI = Σ 1/hi

hi is the number of grid cells occupied by species I N is the number of species found in that particular cell.

i=1

N

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The indo-west Pacific is a marine diversity hotspot.

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哺乳類鳥類

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Disturbance and species richness

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Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

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The importance of biodiversity

Table 2.4 Examples of ecosystem services Supporting services ( 支持的服務 )

Provisioning services ( 生活的服務 )

Regulating services ( 調節的服務 )

Cultural services ( 文化的服務 )

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Fig. 2.20 Ecosystem function can be influenced by the functional diversity among species in a community via several mechanisms.

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Fig. 2.20 Ecosystem function can be influenced by the functional diversity among species in a community via several mechanisms.

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The future of biodiversity studies

The incomplete state of our knowledge of the identities, taxonomic relationships, and distributions of the vast majority of the world’s organisms means that the primary work of cataloging biodiversity is yet to be done.

Today relatively few scientists are being trained as taxonomists.

Therefore, increasing the cadre of competent taxonomists, particularly in tropical nations, is an important goal.

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E. O. Wilson(1992)’s strategy

A rapid assessment program (RAP) that would investigate within a few years.

The next stage would be to establish research station in areas believed to major hotspots of diversity.

The third stage, with a time frame of 50 years, would combine the inventories from RAP and the intensive studies at a small number of research stations with monographic studies of many groups of organisms to provide a more complete picture of global biodiversity and its distribution.

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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)千禧 生態體系 評估

A large coalition of international development and conservation organizations, governments, and scientists has come together to assess the status of Earth’s ecosystems, the goods and services they provide, and the likely effects of potential pathways of human economic development on the future provisioning of these services and human well-being (Fig. 2.22)

The MA focuses both globally, and on subglobal regions of particular concern due to the difficulty of human existence or potential for serious declines in human welfare in these regions.

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Millennium Ecosystem assessment千禧 生態體系 評估 (MA)

(Fig. 2.22) Biodiversity ( 生物多樣性 ) → Ecosystem serv

ices → human well-being Human well-being ( 人類的幸福 )

Security ( 安全 ) Basic material for a good life ( 好生活的基本物質 ) Health ( 健康 ) Good social relations ( 好的社會關係 )

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Fig. 2.22 Guiding framework for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)

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Questions for discussion

The history of life has been punctuated by five episodes during which extinction rates were very high.

If extinction is a normal process, and if life has rediversified after each mass extinction, why should we be worried about the prospects of high extinction rates during this century?

How does the current extinction spasm differ from previous ones?

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Questions for discussion

Given that millions of species are yet to be described and named, how should the limited human and financial resources available for taxonomic research be allocated?

Should efforts be directed to ward areas threatened with habitat destruction so that species can be collected before they are eliminated?

Should major efforts be directed to obtain complete “all taxa” surveys of selected areas?

How and by whom should these decisions be made?

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