Question

Explain how the practice of biodiversity conservation can benefit from an understanding of (i)

the genetics of individuals within populations, (ii) the mechanisms of speciation, and (iii) the

major climatic changes of the past 65 million years. For each of (i), (ii) and (iii), give examples

to explain how and why knowledge in each area is important to conservation

Answer 1

1) the genetics of individuals in population : genetic diversity of individuals with in the population determines the potential fitness of a population and ultimately its long-time persistance.

example: in a population if nearly all individuals having the same genotype (lower genetic diversity) that exhibit a phenotype which sustain the specific environment event (only adapted to lower temparature but not to the higher temparatures). if suddenly new events occurs (environment disasters eg: sudden increase in the temparatures ) could cause an extinction of large number of individuals results in low-fitness of that particular population and leads to gradual extinction

in contrast if there is a genetic diversity (if some individuals could sustain at higher temparatures ) some good number of individuals could through that disastrous events and servive further in long-term (lower risks of extinction)

by improving genetic diversity we can conserve the species

2) the mechanisms of speciation:

speciation is an evolutionary process where isolated populations evolves into different distinct species.

the knowledge in understanding mechanisms of speciation is important in conservation

example: if we want to conserve an endangered species (which are likely to become extinct / present in low number) captive breeding may not help to conserve because at this stage the genetic diversity may be low leads to gradual loss in fitness leads to inevitable extinction. there comes this speciation

now scientists are simulating the speciation models in the laboratory example: one or two male-female pairs are selected then they bred and colonized for some time. then they will be introduced into new population where they allowed to breed randomly. this events gradually leads to genetic diversity will eventually increase the fitness in the population and helps in conservation

by simulating speciation models can sonserve the species

3) the major climatic changes of the past 65 million years:

undersatnding the climate change over the past 65 million years is all about acknowledging the global warming

"today's global temparature is 10 times faster than the temperature ago 65 M years due to the unprecedented rate of CO₂ release (which holds the heat more) "

global warming could leads to the extinction of species

example: increase in the global temparatures could gradually melt the polar ice leading to a threat for polar bears servival

the increase in temparatures disturbing the eco-systems : example the smaller increase in the temparature could be too higher for some fish to breed at this temparature leads to gradual extiction

by reducing the global warming we can conserve the species