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S MALL POPULATIONS OF MUSK OXEN LIVE IN ARCTIC REGIONS, IN SOME AREAS DUE TO REINTRODUCTION. THEY HUDDLE TOGETHER WHEN THREATENED, AN EFFECTIVE DEFENSE AGAINST PREDATORS SUCH AS WOLVES, BUT ONE THAT ALLOWED EASY SLAUGHTER OF WHOLE HERDS BY HUMANS IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES. There have been five previous episodes of mass extinction during the past 500 million years, the time in which large, complex organisms flourished in the seas and on the land. These occurred at intervals of 20 million to 140 million years, during brief periods when the equilibrium between species formation and species extinction was upset. The most recent occurred at the end of the Mesozoic Era, the Age of Dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. Scientists generally agree that some major physical event was responsible, most likely a giant meteorite strike or abnormally heavy volcanic activity. Life required more than 5 million years to restore its original diversity by additional evolution. We are now in the midst of a comparable extinction spasm, almost entirely by our own actions. If a remedy is not found, we could continue on to approach the greatest crisis of all, the Permian crash of 240 million years ago, when 77% to 96% of all marine animal species B i o l o g i c a l 26 D i v e r s i t y
perished. As the paleontologist David Raup put it, at that time “global biology (for higher organisms, at least) had an extremely close call.” There is an additional, sinister note in the current extinction spasm. For the first time ever, plant species are dying in large numbers. The world’s flora survived the end of the Mesozoic Era more or less intact, but now it is being eroded swiftly—with eventual consequences impossible to predict. Let me now shift gears abruptly, by saying that catastrophe can be replaced by a bright future if the world’s fauna and flora are saved and put to use for the benefit of humanity. This new enterprise, which should command our attention as fully as biomedical science and space exploration, will require the revitalization of “classical biology” and the unification of the best efforts of scientists, political leaders and business entrepreneurs. Much of future biology, I predict, will focus on biodiversity studies, carried down to the level of species and genetic strains. The study of biodiversity comprises several levels, each of which must be understood to protect and make full use of species and genetic strains. These levels correspond roughly to the conceptual levels of biological organization employed in basic research, which are used to illuminate pattern and process all the way from DNA replication to energy flow in ecosystems. The disciplines attending the levels are hierarchical. Starting with systematics, each feeds vital information to those up the line. In turn, the most comprehensive among them, community ecology and ecosystems studies, offer the broad vistas that guide biodiversity studies as a whole. T HE AMERICAN ALLIGATOR WAS ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION, BUT THROUGH A MAJOR REHABILITATION PROGRAM, ITS POPULATION HAS REBOUNDED. B i o l o g i c a l 27 D i v e r s i t y
Page 1: Biological Diversity: T H E O L D E
Page 4 and 5: THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW
Page 6 and 7: Copyright © 1999 by The New York S
Page 9 and 10: Preface This book is based on a man
Page 11 and 12: Additional information on the activ
Page 13 and 14: Biological Diversity: T H E O L D E
Page 15 and 16: some degree of potency. A much high
Page 17 and 18: Some groups of organisms, such as f
Page 19 and 20: to their environment and to one ano
Page 21 and 22: N EW YORK’S BIODIVERSITY IS THREA
Page 23 and 24: 12 10 Number of Butterflies Observe
Page 25 and 26: It is possible that the next hundre
Page 27 and 28: environment. For almost 3 billion y
Page 29 and 30: W ITH ITS WISPINESS AND LIGHT-AND-D
Page 31 and 32: sophisticated microscopic and bioch
Page 33 and 34: The tropical zones generally have a
Page 35 and 36: average as well as greater ecologic
Page 37: early extinction within the next 30
Page 41 and 42: collected in the stream in 1936 and
Page 43 and 44: Systematics, or taxonomy, is at the
Page 45 and 46: Community ecology addresses the man
Page 47 and 48: Biological field stations from four
Page 49 and 50: Biogeography 1 The scientific study
Page 51 and 52: Dispersal In biology, the way a spe
Page 53 and 54: Global warming An increase in the c
Page 55 and 56: Ozone A form of oxygen (O 3 ) that
Page 57 and 58: Termites A group of insects that is
Page 59 and 60: Grifo, Francesca, and J. Rosenthal
Page 61 and 62: diverse and why the threat to that
Page 63 and 64: Mitchell, Richard S., L. Danaher, a
Page 65 and 66: 9. Is an ecologist the same as a ta
Page 67 and 68: 31. Do you know of a biological res
Page 69 and 70: B i o l o g i c a l 57 D i v e r s
Page 72: THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM IS A PROG

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