Conservation
Sustainable resources
- A sustainable resource is produced as fast as it is used, so it never runs out.
- Forests and fish stocks can both be managed this way.
- (Supplement) Forests: education, protected areas, quotas (limits), replanting. Fish: closed seasons, protected areas, controlled net mesh size (young fish escape), quotas and monitoring.
Practice
A sustainable resource is one that is:
Sustainable use balances production with consumption, so the resource lasts.
Practice
How can fish stocks be conserved? (Choose all that apply.)
Closed seasons, quotas, mesh-size limits, protected areas and monitoring all conserve fish stocks.
Saving endangered species
- Species become endangered from climate change, habitat destruction, hunting, overharvesting, pollution and introduced species.
- They can be saved by:
- monitoring and protecting the species and its habitat,
- education,
- captive breeding in zoos (Supplement: may use AI or IVF),
- seed banks.
Why conserve (Supplement)
- Conservation keeps up biodiversity, reduces extinction, and keeps ecosystems working (recycling nutrients; providing food, drugs, fuel and useful genes).
- A population that becomes too small loses genetic variation, making it harder to survive future change.
Practice
A population that becomes too small loses genetic variation, making it harder to survive future change.
Low numbers reduce genetic variation, so the species is less able to adapt to new threats.
You've got it
Key idea
- sustainable = produced as fast as it is used; manage forests + fish with quotas, protected areas, etc.
- save endangered species by protection, education, captive breeding and seed banks
- (Supplement) small populations lose genetic variation → harder to survive change