Date:
February 5th , 2015
Source:
Yale University
Summary:
Current ecological conservation tries to save as many avian species as
possible, which is part of their job. However, there was not enough research
done to see the effect of saving the more isolated avian species that are more
evolutionarily diverse. The research shown in this research paper shows that
prioritizing saving avian species based on their ecological uniqueness, rather
than attempting to save as many species as possible, is the more effective
strategy to preserve total evolutionary information across all avian species.
Post:
When
one thinks of the words “Ecological Conservation”, one might think of security
officers restraining elephant poachers, or a zoologist examining a giant panda.
However, extinction and the struggle to prevent it range across a plethora of
species that are not nearly as exotic. Many species of birds are heading
towards extinction, and ecologists have limited resources to stem the tide of
extinction. A natural debate arises when these factors are taken into
consideration: which species and locations should be given conservation
priority? The conventional answer to this question is to simply concentrate
resources into locations that have the most endangered species, thus saving as
many species as possible. A study conducted at Yale university attempts to offer
an alternate solution; to concentrate resources on species with the most
ecological uniqueness.
Why
is every extinction a tragedy? For every species that will never again walk on
this Earth, not only is their ecological niche forever lost, but also their
evolutionary information. One reason for ecological conservation is that these
species may survive to pass on this evolutionary information. No two species
have the same evolutionary uniqueness. Some species are relatively isolated on
the phylogenic tree, and it is these species that the researchers at Yale
University suggest resources are used to preserve.
There
are almost ten thousand species of birds on Earth, and there has not been
enough time nor resources to study them all, phylogenically and ecologically.
However, phylogenetic information about these bird species have been
accumulating at a much faster pace than ecological information. This fact was
an inspiration for the Yale research group, as this phylogenic information was
then cross referenced with that of other bird species. This allowed for the
ranking of birds based on their evolutionary uniqueness. They then located the
most evolutionary distinct species, and found that they were generally isolated
from other avian species. This means that conventional conservation strategies
would not protect these species as well, despite their obvious importance to
phylogenetic research.
In conclusion, these researchers
recommend that current conservation priorities be reworked, to consider the
evolutionary uniqueness of the species to some capacity.
Citation:
Walter Jetz, Gavin
H. Thomas, Jeffrey B. Joy, David W. Redding, Klaas Hartmann, and Arne O. Mooer.
2014. Global distribution and conservation of evolutionary distinctness in
birds. Current Biology 24, 919–930
Late submission due to problems with accessing the blog, email sent to Professor Wisner with proof of completion before the due date.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you put th term Ecological Conservation in a more realistic way and showed that there is more to it than meets the eye. What I found interesting was the idea to put more resources towards places with more diversity instead of deciding which animals to rpeserve based on our own wants and benefits.
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