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Mutualisms And Conservation
Conservation is the maintenance of biological diversity. Conservation can focus on preserving diversity at genetic, species, community or whole ecosystem levels. This article will examine conservation at the species level, because mutualisms involve interactions between species. The ultimate goal of conservation at this level is to prevent the extinction of species. However, species conservation has the broader aim of maintaining the abundance and distribution of all species, not only those threatened with extinction (van Dyke 2008). Determining the value of conserving particular species can be done through the use of evolutionary significant units, which essentially attempt to prioritise the conservation of the species which are rarest, fastest declining, and most distinct genotypically and phenotypically (Moritz 1994, Fraser and Bernatchez 2001). Mutualisms can be defined as "interspecific interactions in which each of two partner species receives a net benefit" (Bronstein et ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservation (ethic)
Nature conservation is the ethic/moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values underlie conservation, which can be guided by biocentrism, anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, and sentientism, environmental ideologies that inform ecocultural practices and identities. There has recently been a movement towards evidence-based conservation which calls for greater use of scientific evidence to improve the effectiveness of conservation efforts. As of 2018 15% of land and 7.3% of the oceans were protected. Many environmentalists set a target of protecting 30% of land and marine territory by 2030. In 2021, 16.64% of land and 7.9% of the oceans were protected. The 2022 IPCC report on climate impacts and adaptation, underlines the need to conserve 30% to 50% of the Earth's land, freshwater and ocean areas – echoing the 30% ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fig Wasps
Fig wasps are wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea which spend their larval stage inside fig syconia. Some are pollinators but others simply feed off the plant. The non-pollinators belong to several groups within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, while the pollinators are in the family Agaonidae. Pollinating fig wasps are all gall-makers, while non-pollinating fig wasps either make their own galls or usurp the galls of other fig wasps. The lifestyles of these fig wasps rely on the fruit of fig trees to reproduce, with pollinating fig wasps acting as mutualists, and non-pollinating fig wasps as parasitoids. History Aristotle recorded in his ''History of Animals'' that the fruits of the wild fig (the caprifig) contain ''psenes'' (fig wasps); these begin life as grubs (larvae), and the adult ''psen'' splits its "skin" (pupa) and flies out of the fig to find and enter a cultivated fig, saving it from dropping. He believed that the ''psen'' was generated spontaneously; he did not r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservation Biology
Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on natural and social sciences, and the practice of natural resource management. The nature conservation, conservation ethic is based on the findings of conservation biology. Origins The term conservation biology and its conception as a new field originated with the convening of "The First International Conference on Research in Conservation Biology" held at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California, in 1978 led by American biologists Bruce A. Wilcox and Michael E. Soulé with a group of leading university and zoo researchers and conservationists including Kurt Benirschke, Sir Otto Frankel, Thomas Lovejoy, and Jared Diamond. The meeting was prompted due to concern over tropical de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Formerly called the Sandwich Islands by Europeans, the present name for the archipelago is derived from the name of its largest island, Hawaii. The archipelago sits on the Pacific Plate. The islands are exposed peaks of a great undersea mountain range known as the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain, formed by volcano, volcanic activity over the Hawaiian hotspot. The islands are about from the nearest continent and are part of the Polynesia subregion of Oceania. The U.S. state of Hawaii occupies the archipelago almost in its entirety (including the mostly uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands), with the sole exception of Midway Atoll (a United States Minor Outlying Island). Hawaii is the only U.S. state that is sit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White-eye
The white-eyes are a family, Zosteropidae, of small passerine birds native to tropical, subtropical and temperate Sub-Saharan Africa, southern and eastern Asia, and Australasia. White-eyes inhabit most tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, the western Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Guinea. Discounting some widespread members of the genus '' Zosterops'', most species are endemic to single islands or archipelagos. The silvereye, ''Zosterops lateralis'', naturally colonised New Zealand, where it is known as the "wax-eye" or ''tauhou'' ("stranger"), from 1855. The silvereye has also been introduced to the Society Islands in French Polynesia, while the Japanese white-eye has been introduced to Hawaii. Characteristics White-eyes are mostly of undistinguished appearance, the plumage being generally greenish olive above, and pale grey below. Some species have a white or bright yellow throat, breast, or lower parts, and several have buff flanks. As their common name implies, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daphne Rodriguezii
''Daphne rodriguezii'' is a shrub, of the family Thymelaeaceae. It is endemic to Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands that belongs to Spain. Description The shrub grows to about half a metre in height. It is evergreen. It grows small white flowers, and orange fruits. It grows at altitudes between 5 and 80 metres. Conservation In the European Union it has been designated as a 'priority species' under Annex II of the Habitats Directive since 1992, which means areas in which it occurs can be declared Special Areas of Conservation, ''if'' these areas belong to one of the number of habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...s listed in Annex I of the directive. References rodriguezii Habitats Directive species Endemic flora of the Balearic Islands Plants descri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Podarcis Lilfordi
Lilford's wall lizard (''Podarcis lilfordi)'' is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is endemic to the Gymnesian Islands, the easternmost of the Balearic Islands, Spain. There are 27 subspecies that are recognized as being valid. Its natural habitats are temperate Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, rocky areas, and rocky shores. Originally distributed throughout the Gymnesians, the introduction of alien species which started with the Romans has confined the species to the uninhabited islets around the major islands, on almost each of which a local subspecies has evolved. It is threatened by habitat loss. Etymology ''P. lilfordi'' is named in honour of Thomas Powys, 4th Baron Lilford, a British ornithologist who studied the fauna of the Balearics. Description Lilford's wall lizard grows to a maximum snout-to-vent length (SVL) of , but adults are usually a little smaller than this. The tail is about 1.8 times as long as the body. It is a robust streaml ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habitat Fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological processes that slowly alter the layout of the physical environment (suspected of being one of the major causes of speciation), and human activity such as land conversion, which can alter the environment much faster and causes the extinction of many species. More specifically, habitat fragmentation is a process by which large and contiguous habitats get divided into smaller, isolated patches of habitats. Definition The term habitat fragmentation includes five discrete phenomena: * Reduction in the total area of the habitat * Decrease of the interior: edge ratio * Isolation of one habitat fragment from other areas of habitat * Breaking up of one patch of habitat into several smaller patches * Decrease in the average size of each patch of habit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleistodontes Clavigar
''Pleistodontes '' is a genus of fig wasps native to Australia and New Guinea, with one species (''P. claviger'') from Java. Fig wasps have an obligate mutualism with the fig species they pollinate. ''Pleistodontes '' pollinates species in section ''Malvanthera'' of the ''Ficus'' subgenus '' Urostigma''. In their revision of the Australian members of the genus, Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde and coauthors expressed the opinion that ''P. claviger'' did not belong in the genus. Species The Natural History Museum lists: * '' Pleistodontes addicotti'' Wiebes * '' Pleistodontes achorus'' Lopez-Vaamonde, Dixon & Cook * '' Pleistodontes astrabocheilus'' Lopez-Vaamonde, Dixon & Cook * '' Pleistodontes athysanus'' Lopez-Vaamonde, Dixon & Cook * '' Pleistodontes blandus'' Wiebes * '' Pleistodontes claviger'' (Mayr) * '' Pleistodontes cuneatus'' Wiebes * '' Pleistodontes deuterus'' Lopez-Vaamonde, Dixon & Cook * '' Pleistodontes froggatti'' Mayr * '' Pleistodontes galbinus'' Wiebes * '' Pleisto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Rubber Tree
''Ficus elastica'', the rubber fig, rubber bush, rubber tree, rubber plant, or Indian rubber bush, Indian rubber tree, or rambung is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae, native to eastern parts of South and Southeast Asia. It has become naturalized in Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and the US state of Florida. Its common names reflect its historical use as a source of rubber within its native range, but it is not used in the modern commercial-scale production of natural rubber. Description It is a large tree in the banyan group of figs, growing to – rarely up to – tall, with a stout trunk up to in diameter. The trunk develops aerial and buttressing roots to anchor it in the soil and help support heavy branches. It has broad shiny oval leaves long and broad; leaf size is largest on young plants (occasionally to long), much smaller on old trees (typically long). The leaves develop inside a sheath at the apical meristem, which grows larger as the new lea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fig Tree
''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family (biology), family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The common fig (''F. carica'') is a temperate species native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region (from Afghanistan to Portugal), which has been widely cultivated from ancient times for its fruit, also referred to as figs. The fruit of most other species are also edible though they are usually of only local economic importance or eaten as bushfood. However, they are extremely important food resources for wildlife. Figs are also of considerable cultural importance throughout the tropics, both as objects of worship and for their many practical uses. Description ''Ficus'' is a pantropical genus of trees, shrubs, and vines occupying a wide variety of ecological niches; most a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligolectic
The term oligolecty is used in pollination ecology to refer to bees that exhibit a narrow, specialized preference for pollen sources, typically to a single family or genus of flowering plants. The preference may occasionally extend broadly to multiple genera within a single plant family, or be as narrow as a single plant species. When the choice is very narrow, the term ''monolecty'' is sometimes used, originally meaning a single plant species but recently broadened to include examples where the host plants are related members of a single genus. The opposite term is ''polylectic'' and refers to species that collect pollen from a wide range of species. The most familiar example of a polylectic species is the domestic honey bee. Oligolectic pollinators are often called oligoleges or simply specialist pollinators, and this behavior is especially common in the bee families Andrenidae and Halictidae, though there are thousands of species in hundreds of genera, in essentially all know ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
