Chapter 6 - 2

02 Environmental Science

listen to a lecture in an environmental science class. fill in the diagram with the information that you hear.

M: So, we’ve been discussing the diversity of plant and animal species found around the world, and, um, we’ve also talked about how humans have benefited, and, uh, continue to benefit, from many of these species.

The problem we face is how to make sure the diversity of plants and animals is preserved.

After all, species are dying off, they are going extinct and disappearing every year.

And as they disappear, we lose some of the diversity of species on our planet.

We lose important biological resources.

What I’d like to talk about now is how we as humans can manage these precious biological resources.

The two methods we are going to talk about today both aim to preserve species so they don’t become extinct, and each method aims to protect both plant and animal species.

They just go about doing it in a different way, as you’ll see from the examples.

Now, traditionally we’ve managed biological resources through institutions like zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums, all of which are examples of what we call off-site management.

Off-site management is when we take animals and plants out of nature and let them live in a special place where scientists and caretakers can watch over them and protect them.

The other choice you have to preserve plants and animals is called on-site management.

That’s when you leave plants and animals in their natural environments, their habitats.

This is important: the two choices for biological resource management are on-site management and off-site management, clear so far? Good

Since it has been the most common throughout human history, let’s start off by talking about off-site management of plants and animals.

Usually, off-site management involves separating plants and animals that would otherwise be bound together in nature.

So, if you wanted to protect zebras, they would go to a zoo, whereas if you wanted to protect the species of grass that shares the same natural environment with zebras, the grass would be planted in a botanical garden.

There is no attempt to preserve the natural environment and off-site management.

The aim is to preserve the individual species.

Because of this focus on individual species, zoos and botanical gardens can be places that protect species from extinction and even allow them to be put into new natural environments later.

Now, on-site management, that’s a whole different game.

When you want to preserve biological resources in one place, you have a much harder job.

First of all, where do you draw the lines?

Well, that’s where national parks come in.

National parks are being created, as I speak, around the world to preserve biological resources in their natural environments, so those resources are not threatened by human distinction.

Unlike zoos and botanical gardens, however, natural parks face difficulties in terms of their size.

How big do you make it to protect everything in them?

One problem is when animals leave the park and get killed by hunters.

This doesn’t happen in zoos.

On the other hand, by making a park, you protect a larger number of species all at once.

You protect them as they live together, you protect the entire natural environment, and that means even preserving biological resources we haven’t yet discovered.

1) Based on information from the lecture, to which biological resource management type does each example relate? Place a checkmark in the correct box.