1. BIODIVERSITY THREATS (extra / review)

2. Deforestation
Removal of a forest or a large group of trees from an area where the land is converted for non-forest use
Destroys ecosystems, nutrients, soil
Trees help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere less trees will mean more CO2
Video - Deforestation

3. Disturbing Soils
Deforestation removes topsoil because there are no plant roots to hold it in place
Increases frequency of erosion
Little to no re-growth without topsoil to provide nutrients

4. Wetlands Area of land covered by water for part or all of the year
6% of Earths surface is wetland
24% of worlds wetlands are in Canada
Video – What is a Wetland?

5. Importance: Store water – reduce flood risk
Home to thousands of organisms
30% of birds in North America stop in wetlands during migration
Plants filter sediment and pollution from the water

6. Protection:
Humans once thought wetlands to be useless because they could not be used for farming or building (development)
Were drained and filled in
Now their value is known and more efforts are being made to protect them

7. Video - Wetland drainage and flooding

8. Alien Invasive Species
Alien Species
Accidentally or deliberately introduced into a new ecosystem
Invasive Species
Take over habitat of native species
Human travels have been the main cause of alien invasive species

9. Example: European Green Crab
Travelled to Bay of Fundy
Prey on clam, oyster and scallop
Out-compete lobster
Severely damaged ecosystem
Example: Zebra Mussel
Found in the Great Lakes
Disturb ecosystem through feeding
Also cause trouble for boats, pipelines and power plants

10. Video – Making Invasive Species Work for Us
Video – Little Things, Big Problems – Invasive species (plants)

11. Overexploitation use or extraction of a resource until depletion
can lead to extremely low population numbers
examples include overhunting and overfishing

12. Overexploitation
Video - Over fishing

13. To Do:
p. 327, #’s 10 &11
p. 330, #’s 12 & 14
Answers

14. Video – Biodiversity and Health (~30 minutes)
Video - Human activities that threaten biodiversity (12 minutes)
Video – Biodiversity is us (13 minutes)