Canadian Biodiversity

[Gloria]

Interesting look at patterns in biodiversity.

http://canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.ca/english/patterns/index.htm

Biodiversity shows many patterns in space and time. These patterns form due to climate, interactions between species, geology, local history, and many other factors. Theory can tell us what to expect, but the actual patterns of nature are what it seeks to explain. This section has four parts. This page briefly covers some techniques and factors that affect biodiversity patterns. The second part examines patterns in space, while the third covers patterns in time. The final part looks at biodiversity patterns in Canada.
Page 2 Surveys
Page 3 Patterns in Space
Page 4 Patterns in Time
Page 5 Canadian Patterns

"Hotspots" are areas that are of exceptional interest. There are different types of hotspots; although high diversity is certainly enough to make a region a hotspot, the number of rare species or the number of scientifically unusual species that are found there would also be enough. Most global hotspots lie near the equator, but Canada has hotspots as well: for example, the Pacific coast is rich in seaweed species, while the southern Atlantic coast has more stickleback fish species than anywhere else in the world. Why an area is a hotspot depends upon any number of circumstances, including any of the factors given above. Hotspots are often singled out for conservation, since many species can be protected at once.

Canadian Biodiversity Web Site

[Equilibrium]

Quick and easy read that did a good job outlining the basics... at least from the standpoint of the surveying method I was taught. 1 thing though that wasn't mentioned would be the loss of biodiversity due to petsicides and invasives which.... have a pattern of their own. Their distribution follows the pattern of population and trade.

[Gloria]

Did you read the section on biodiversity theory? I think the whole site is well put together and a real educational tool.

Canadian Biodiversity: Theory

This section consists of four parts. The first introduces the three levels of biodiversity that are studied, the second looks at how diversity can be gained or lost, the third examines the composition of diversity in more depth, and the fourth looks at how biodiversity affects the functioning of ecosystems. Each of these only scrapes the surface of the research available; the References section of this site lists more detailed resources.
As one would expect, theory is a complex issue, full of new concepts and terms. This is the most difficult section of the site, and much of the complexity is unavoidable.

Page 2 The three levels of biodiversity

Page 3 Gaining and losing biodiversity

Page 4 Composition and abundance

Page 5 Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

Does Diversity lead to Stability?
Although it is a key question, the relationship between diversity and stability is still being resolved. As with many topics in biodiversity, there are different ways of expressing stability. One way is to define it as the ability of a system to return to its original state after being disturbed, so how quickly it can return and how large a disturbance it can return from are key variables. Another definition is how resistant to change the system is in the first place. No matter what the definition used, however, there are definite trends that appear.
If either the redundancy or rivet theories (see above) are correct, then more species means more stability. Current consensus is that greater diversity does lead to greater stability, for three general reasons:

Insurance Effect: Different species do better under different conditions. As the number of species increases, the range of conditions that at least some species do well in also increases. When perturbations do occur, it's more likely that some of the species present will be able to do well, and these species will protect the community as a whole.

Averaging Effect: Stability is measured as variability relative to community abundance. As diversity increases, the value of the variability will naturally decrease. One problem with this is that the impact of additional species can be confused with the effect of larger numbers of individuals (see Doak et al. 1998 and Tilman et al. 1998 for examples of this debate).

Negative Covariance Effect: Since species are competing for resources such as space and food, any gains that one species makes will be to some extent at the expense of the other. This means that as a species does more poorly its competitors will do better. The result is that disturbances aren't as detrimental to the entire system as they could be, as the losses in one species are offset by the gains of another.

[Equilibrium]

Sorry so long in getting back to you.... I screwed myself downloading updates from Microsoft then updated my firefox and found out the new version disabled some add ons and extensions by default a little bit too late to save myself and... my computer God was out of town!!! I went through withdrawals I tell you but.... I did get a chance to read all your links and "explore"" more of the site and would have to say they… like everyone else and their brother…. nailed the major challenge confronting us. Problem is….I’m in the roll up our sleeves and “do something meaningful right now” in our own backyards camp not the “seek out and get access to $$$ for even more grants so we can dole out even more research $$$ for another study” camp then have another “global” meeting to discuss the crisis du jour while everyone stands around wringing their hands waiting for a silver bullet to manifest itself via “research” and “legislation”, Canadian Biodiversity: Legislation: Canadian organizations and Canadian Biodiversity : Legislation: International organizations. Everyone knows what the underlying problem is… too many people left increasingly more dependent on industrialized agricultural practices and technologies benefitting the elite. Right now at 7B people over 70% of our terrestrial land is disturbed. At 8B people how much more of our terrestrial land will have been degraded, cleared, modified, fragmented, or covered? How about what’ll be left when we hit the 9B mark which is projected by the middle of this century…. yet…. we’re still collectively subsidizing worldwide breeding to the tune of trillions while each new human brought into this world is consuming even more precious resources>>>? And….. we wonder why there’s no money available to do something…. anything… meaningful to get ourselves off their treadmill>>>?
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Money spent funding endless research is money that isn’t being spent locally tackling our conservation issues traditionally. Another conference with delegates from 200 nations isn’t gonna work and neither is enforcing “required” legislation and I think most of us are coming to that conclusion. Me personally…. I just don’t think we need another website subliminally working us over so we’re more accepting of UNCED’s Agenda 21 as the answer to our problems… there is no cooperation at an international level…. there never has been …. it’s been every country for itself whether we want to believe that or not. Americans would be so much farther along if we’d break loose and go it on our own. This is totally doable. We lead by example. We the people…. become the change we want to see in the people of other nations and we start in our own backyards and communities. Here’s a good starting point for this fine fix we’re in, pollinators-welcome.... next… we ask that tried and true practices be applied at a state then a national level.

[NEWisc]

... We the people…. become the change we want to see in the people of other nations and we start in our own backyards and communities. ...

I couldn't agree more. We control our own choices, and we can realize our own successes. Being successful in our own sphere of influence can be very gratifying; and it is eminently more desirable than living in frustration over events/actions which are beyond our control.

I'm not suggesting that we should ignore what is going on in distant places, but I don't think that should distract us from being successful in our own realm.