Biodiversity
PICKETT ET AL. (2012)- 15 PTS.
How can humans be considered to be part of the ecosystem? What research on urban biodiversity is being done in Baltimore, and what are the implications to Chicago? You will explore these questions by completing the homework below. Please make sure that the paper you read for this assignment is titled, “Understanding and Working with Urban Biodiversity: The Baltimore Ecosystem Study.”
This paper has five sections: Conceptual Frameworks, Sampling Biodiversity, Biodiversity Patterns in Baltimore, Designing with Ecology in Mind, and Design as Experiment. For each of those five sections, do the following:
Look up a term or concept that is discussed in that section that you are unfamiliar with or that you would like to understand better. Find information about that term or concept online and then i) summarize what you learned, and ii) explain why what you learned helps you better understand that section. (Be sure to give the weblink for your source of information.)
Choose what you think are two of the most important points or processes described in that section. For each, explain i) why you think that point is important, and ii) how it may relate to Chicago.
Ecosystem studies usually only include information about species and the ecological factors that affect them. Pickett et al. (2012) is different because it also considers culture and social systems as part of the ecosystem.
Review Figure 1 on the first page of this paper and do the following:
Choose two factors or terms listed under Biophysical Foundations that relate to an ecosystem service.* For each, explain how biodiversity contributes to that ecosystem service.
*Need to review what ecosystem services are? See https://www.earthwiseaware.org/what-are-ecosystem-services/).
Choose two factors or terms listed under Social Cultural Foundations. For each, explain why you think that factor needs to be considered if we want to save biodiversity.
Choose two factors or terms listed under Social System that you think are impacted by biodiversity. For each, explain why you think biodiversity affects that factor.
Review Table 1, which has data on plant species richness. Summarize what you feel are the major patterns shown in the table. Why do you think that the patterns you identified are important to consider when evaluating the urban ecosystem?
