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II Semester Zoology

BIODIVERSITY

Genetic diversity refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a . It is distinguished from , which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary. Genetic diversity serves as a way for to adapt to changing environments. With more variation, it is more likely that some individuals in a will possess variations of alleles that are suited for the environment. Those individuals are more likely to survive to produce offspring bearing that allele. The population will continue for more generations because of the success of these individuals.

A hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under threat from . The concept of biodiversity hotspots was originated by Norman Myers in two articles in “The Environmentalist” (1988& 1990), revised after thorough analysis by Myers and others in “Hotspots: ’s Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions”. To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot on Myers 2000 edition of the hotspot-map, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 0.5% or 1,500 species of vascular as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70% of its primary vegetation. Around the world, at least 25 areas qualify under this definition, with nine others possible candidates. These sites support nearly 60% of the world's , , , , and species, with a very high share of endemic species.

An is a population of which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. The International Union for Conservation of (IUCN) has calculated the percentage of endangered species as 40 percent of all organisms based on the sample of species that have been evaluated through 2006.

Critically Endangered is the highest risk category assigned by the IUCN Red List for wild species. Critically Endangered means that a species' numbers have decreased, or will decrease, by 80% within three generations.

A Vulnerable species is one which has been categorised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as likely to become Endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and improve. Vulnerability is mainly caused by loss or destruction

A Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is an internationally recognized program addressing threatened species and and is designed to protect and restore biological systems. The original impetus for these plans derives from the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). As of 2009, 191 countries have ratified the CBD, but only a fraction of these have developed substantive Biodiversity Action Plan documents. The principal elements of a BAP typically include (a) preparing inventories of biological information for selected species or habitats; (b) assessing the conservation status of species within specified ; (c) creation of targets for conservation and restoration; and (d) establishing budgets, timelines and institutional partnerships for implementing the BAP.

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat , and found only there; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, Nilgiri Tahr endemic to Western ghats; none are found elsewhere. The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List), founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species. The IUCN Red List is set upon precise criteria to evaluate the risk of thousands of species and . These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world. The aim is to convey the urgency of conservation issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the international to try to reduce species extinction

Biodiversity Institutes and Regional Information Centres

ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) CIFOR (Centre for International Forestry Research) Conabio (Comisión nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad) European Centre for Nature Conservation IISD International Institute for Nature Conservation (ECNC) INBio - Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Costa Rica IPGRI (International Plant Resources Institute) NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA) Smithsonian Institute (Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity) South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama) The Natural Resources Institute (UK)

International Biodiversity Non-governmental Organizations

BirdLife International Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) Conservation International Earthwatch Institute and Flora International (FFI) Global Coral Reef Alliance IUCN - The World Conservation Union Plantlife Species Survival Commission TRAFFIC The Nature Conservancy Wetlands International World Resources Institute World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Conservation Society (WCS)

Intergovernmental Organizations and Programmes

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Tropical Timber Organization (IITO) International Whaling Commission South Asia Co-operative Environmental Programme

Biodiversity Information Networks

Canadian Biodiversity Information Network GBIF - Global Biodiversity Information Facility an initiative of the OECD Megascience Form Working Group on Biological Informatics NBII National Biodiversity Information Infrastructure ODINCARSA Ocean Data and Information Network for IOCARIBE and South America ODINAFRICA Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa Small Islands Information Network SIDSnet (Small Islands Developing States Network) GCRMN The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network ICRAN International Coral Reef Action Network ICRI International Coral Reef Initiative

A single-access key (Dichotomous key also called "sequential key", "analytical key", or "pathway key") is a key where the sequence and of identification steps is fixed by the author of the key. At each point in the decision process, multiple alternatives are offered, each leading to a result or a further choice. The alternatives are commonly called "leads", the set of leads at a given point a "couplet". Single-access keys may be presented in different styles. The two most frequently encountered styles are the:

Nested style in which all couplets immediately follow their lead, at the expense of separating the leads within a couplet Linked style: The leads within a couplet immediately follow each other, making polytomous keys easy to achieve.

Advantages and Disadvantages: A large amount of knowledge about reliable and efficient identification procedures may be incorporated in good single-access keys. Characteristics that are reliable and convenient to observe most of the time and for most species (or taxa), and which further provide a well-balanced key (the leads splitting number of species evenly) will be preferred at the start of the key. However, in practice it is difficult to achieve this goal for all taxa in all conditions. If the information for a given identification step is not available, several potential leads must be followed and identification becomes increasingly difficult.

A multi-access key is an identification key which overcomes the problem of the more traditional single-access keys (dichotomous or polytomous identification keys) of requiring a fixed sequence of identification steps. A multi-access key enables the user to freely choose the set and characteristics that are convenient to evaluate for the item to be identified.

A multi-access key lets the user adapt the key to the particular that is being identified and to the circumstances of identification (e.g. field or laboratory). Multi-access keys may be printed in various way (tabular, matrix, formula style, etc.) but are more commonly used as computer-aided, interactive keys.

Advantages and Disadvantages: Multi-access keys largely serve the same purpose as single-access (dichotomous or polytomous) keys, but have many advantages, especially in the form of computer-aided, interactive keys. The user of an interactive key may select or enter information about an unidentified specimen in any , allowing the computer to interactively rule out possible identifications of the entity and present the user with additional helpful information and guidance on what information to enter next. Full-featured interactive keys may readily be equipped with images, audio, video, supplemental text, much-simplified language in conjunction with technical language and hyperlinks to assist the user with understanding of both entities and features. The problem of language translations is made easier in interactive keys because characters and states frequently are simplified with less reliance on the intricate nuances of long strings of words.

Many different computer programs for interactive keys are currently available, with widely varying features, capacities, and sources. A popular full-featured commercial product is Lucid. Popular full-featured free software packages are DELTA and Discover . An example of an open-source package is SLIKS.

Gene banks help preserve genetic material, be it plant or animal. In plants, this could be by freezing cuts from the plant, or stocking the seeds. In , this is the freezing of sperm and eggs in zoological freezers until further need. With corals, fragments are taken which are stored in water tanks under controlled conditions. In an effort to conserve agricultural biodiversity, banks are used to store and conserve the plant genetic resources of major crop plants and their crop wild relatives. There are many gene banks all over the world, with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault being probably the most famous one.

DNA barcoding is a taxonomic method that uses a short genetic marker in an organism's DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species. It differs from molecular phylogeny in that the main goal is not to determine classification but to identify an unknown sample in terms of a known classification. DNA barcoding is based on a relatively simple concept. Most cells contain mitochondria, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has a relatively fast rate, which results in significant variation in mtDNA sequences between species and, in principle, a comparatively small variance within species. A 648-bp region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene was proposed as a potential 'barcode'

Protected Area A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated services and cultural values.(IUCN definition)

Wildlife sanctuariesWildlife sanctuaries are mainly intended to ensure natural conditions necessary to protect nationally significant species, biotic communities or physical features of the environment where these require specific manipulation for their perpetuation. Each sanctuary has separate management plan and the extent of the sanctuary has been divided into zones with specific management prescriptions. Buffer zone will have limited forestry activity, tourism zone will have tourist visit facilities and core zone will be the sanctum sanctorum and will not have activity except research and monitoring. The protection afforded to the sanctuaries has produced salutary effect on the increase of wild animal population.

National Parks National Parks are large natural or near natural areas set aside to protect large-scale ecological processes, along with the complement of species and ecosystems characteristic of the area, which also provide a foundation for environmentally and culturally compatible, spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational, and visitor opportunities. Reserve: Biosphere reserves are intended to provide in situ conservation of plants, animals and micro organisms, not in isolation but in their totality as part of the wider ecosystem. The major functions of the biosphere are conservation as an open system, sustainable utilization of resources, research and assessment of the impact of research through monitoring, awareness and training of the people, and cooperation between the national and international network.

Tiger reserve: Tiger reserves are constituted for giving special protection to the highly endangered tiger species which once abounded the forests in the country. Since the population has started dwindling it was found necessary to afford special protection to this species. Accordingly many protected areas, where tiger population was found satisfactory, were brought under the 'Project Tiger’. In Kerala Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary and Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary has been selected and declared as 'Tiger Reserves’.

Community Reserve: An area is declared as community reserve by the State Government for protecting flora and fauna, traditional or cultural heritage or values in the interests of an individual or society, in areas where there is no wildlife protection centre.

Species richness is the number of different species in a given area. It is represented in equation form as S. Species richness is the fundamental unit in which to assess the homogeneity of an environment. Typically, species richness is used in conservation studies to determine the sensitivity of ecosystems and their resident species.

A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionate effect on its environment relative to its biomass. Such species plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community.

Umbrella species are species selected for making conservation related decisions, typically because protecting these species indirectly protects the many other species that make up the ecological community of its habitat. Umbrella species can be used to help select the locations of potential reserves, find the minimum size of these conservation areas or reserves, and to determine the composition, structure and processes of ecosystems.

A flagship species is a species chosen to represent an environmental cause, such as an ecosystem in need of conservation. These species are chosen for their vulnerability, attractiveness or distinctiveness in order to engender support and acknowledgment from the public at large. Thus, the concept of a flagship species holds that by giving publicity to a few key species, the support given to those species will successfully leverage conservation of entire ecosystems and all species contained therein. Examples of flagship species include the Asiatic lion and the Bengal tiger of India, the giant panda of China, the golden lion tamarin of Brazil, the African elephant, the mountain gorilla of central Africa, the polar bear of Canada, and the orangutan of southeast Asia

Population density (in agriculture standing stock and standing crop) is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans.

Abundance is an ecological concept referring to the relative representation of a species in a particular ecosystem. It is usually measured as the large number of individuals found per sample. How species abundances are distributed within an ecosystem is referred to as relative species abundances

Wildlife protection act 1972

It was enacted in 1972, Objectives are- To protect the wild animals, and plants (rare and fast disappearing sps.) Provides restrictions in trade of animals and animal products like horns, skins, hides and so on. Salient features 9 of the Act prohibits hunting of all wild life specified in schedules I,II,III and IV of the Act Hereafter hunting, trapping, licences cannot be issued for any of these species, where already issued, such licences are to be cancelled Bans commercial felling and exploitation of wildlife in sanctuaries and national parks Fresh fire arm licences will not be isued to persons residing within ten kiometers of a sanctuary without the concurrence of the CWW of the state. Regional offices of the wild life directorate (Mumbai, Kolkatha, New Delhi and Chennai)are responsible for the enforcement of the Act. The vehicles, vessels, weapons etc. used for commiting an offence under the Act will be seized and will become Govt property. Trade in imported ivory and products carved from it are banned with effect from 2 April 1992. Transportation of wild life or products are banned except those with permission of the CWW or authorized officers. Setting up of a Authority of India-will monitor and make improvements in the condition of Indian . The Act was amended in 1991 so as to make it more effective and free from loopholes with effect from 2 October. As per the amendment Act, non officials can directly take instances of violation of this Act to the court. Earlier they would report the matter to the officials. Any person or NGO can give a notice to the CWW of the state or the Central Govt. and if action is not taken within 60 days, a case can be filed in a competent court of law.

Water Act 1974

1969 a bill, the prevention of water pollution was introduced in the parliament. After Stockholm conference in June 1972, the Govt of India drafted a modified version of the Act and passed the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) act in March 1974. Enacted to prevent and control of water pollution. Established the Pollution Control Boards at the Central and state levels. Salient features Consists of 8 chapters Chapter I describes the definitions and other preliminaries Chapter II and III are concerned with the constitution of pollution control board Chapter IV and V deals with powers and functions of the PCBs. Chapter hapter VI deals with the funds, accounts and audit of PCBs. Chapter VII deals with penalties Chapter VIII provides for the setting up of laboratories for testing and analysis of water quality. Pollution Control Boards:Chairman and five members with agriculture, fisheries and government owned industry all having representation. The legislation sets out specific penalties (prison sentence and fines) for violation of the Act. The Act was amended in 1978 and 1988 The water (prevention and control of pollution)cess Act 1977 PCBs with the authority to levy and collect tax on industries using water. Collect fees from the users and polluters of water. Amended in1991 and 1992

Forest Act 1980 The Indian forest Act of 1927 was adopted to consolidate the law relating to forests, including reserved forests, village forests, protected forests and Non governmental forests. With a view to strengthen the protection measures, the forest (Conservation) ordinance of 1980 was adopted which required prior approval of the central govt. for dereservation of forests and use of forests land for nonforest purpose. Provision for the constitution of an advisory committee. The ordinance was replaced by the forest (conservation) Act 1980 and is applicable to whole of India except Jammu and Kashmir. The entire power of diversion of forest land has been withdrawn from state authorities and vested in central authorities, only the forest management rests with the state government. it is directly helpful in maintaining the ecosystems and the biological diversity.

Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 Known as Air Act Came into force on 15 May 1981 Provide for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution Establishment of central and state boards to carry out the functions Chapter I definitions ( air pollutant, pollution, approved fuel, automobile, chimney, central board, state board etc. Chapter II deals with the establishment of PCBs Chapter II –powers and functions of PCbs Chapter IV –powers empowered to the State Govt for the prevention. Chapter V funding audit and accounts of PCbs Chapter VI –penalties, procedures, for the contravention of the Act Chapter VII –miscellaneous aspects and empowers the central and state Govt to make special rules, in respect of air pollution and abatement of pollution. Amendments Air (prevention and control of pollution) rules 1982 1987 amendment remove difficulties in implementing the Act- impose stringent penalties for the violation of the Act. Incorporated the noise pollution under the purview of the ACT

Environment (Protection) act 1986 Background: Bhopal Disaster in 1984 claiming over 3000 . Came into force in whole India on 19 November 1986 Section 3-the central govt shall have the power to take all such measures for purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing, controlling and abating environmental pollution. Only 11 pages with 26 sections, and four chapters Chapter I preliminary ChapterII general powers of central Govt. ChapterIII prevention, control and abatement of pollution

Chapter IV miscellaneous provisions and rule making power of Central govt. SECTION 3-Proteting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing, controlling and abating environment pollution. Environment means- water, air, land, exists between water, air, human beings, and property. May lay down standards for emission or discharge of environmental pollutants from various sources Section 5-issue directions in writing to any person, officer or authority and such authority is bound to comply with such directions. Power to direct the closure, prohibition or regulation of any industry operation or process or stoppage or regulation of the supply of electricity or water or any other service. Empowers the central govt to make rules necessary in respect of all or any of the matters relating to the protection of the environment. Section 9- imposes a duty on every person to take steps to prevent or minimize the environmental pollution Section 15- imposing penalties on the violation of any provision of the Act or the direction issued under the Act. The right to approach a court of law, in the event of the violation of any of the provisions in the Act. Amendments I amendment in 1987 (Rule 1) Manufacturers rules 1989 ( manufacture, storage, import of hazardous chemicals) Hazardous waster rules 1989 Rules for manufacture, use, import, export and storage of hazardous microorganisms or genetically modified organisms or cells 1989. The coastal zone regulation notification 1991 Environment audit/statement rule, 1993.