Option C: Conservation of biodiversity

Understandings:
• An indicator species is an organism used to assess a specific environmental condition - such as a fish in a river, or butterflies with radiation from nuclear fallout

• Biogeographic factors affect species diversity.

• Richness and evenness are components of biodiversity.

• Relative numbers of indicator species can be used to calculate the value of a biotic index.  
  1. Biotic Index (also called "Family Biotic Index") is a scale for showing the quality of an environment by indicating the types of organisms present in it. It is often used to assess the quality of water in rivers.

In situ conservation

In situ conservation may require active management of nature reserves or national parks.







Aim 8: Scientists supported by governments are devoting relatively large amounts of effort to save particular animal species. Can criteria be established to justify a hierarchy of value of one species over another?

Ex situ conservation

Ex situ conservation is the preservation of species outside their natural habitats.
Application: Case study of the captive breeding and reintroduction of an endangered animal species.  Research the captive breeding program
of the California Condor.  How successful has its reintroduction been?
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Skill: Analysis of the biodiversity of two local communities using Simpson’s
reciprocal index of diversity.

Simpson's Diversity Index is a measure of diversity which takes into account the number of species present, as well as the relative abundance of each species. As species richness and evenness increase, so diversity increases
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Guidance:  The formula for Simpson’s reciprocal index of diversity is:






D = diversity index, N = total number of organisms of all species found and 
n = number of individuals of a particular species.
Application: Analysis of the impact of biogeographic factors on diversity limited to island size and edge effects.