Assignment #2:
Learn about local biodiversity
Deadline: Second Midterm
• Find and photograph ten local wild species
• 1.5 points per species: five animal and five plant species from
any of these areas:
– UCI campus
– UCI Ecological Preserve
– San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh
– Upper Newport Bay
– Tide pools and beaches http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/
• Pets and cultivated plants don’t count
• Photos taken outside of this time frame (Mid-term 1 to Mid-
term 2) don’t count
• Identify the Order, Class, Family, Genus, Species and
common name of each one.
– Include locality and date, and at least one important fact
for each one
• Submit the reports in time for the deadline
• No credit for late reports!
• Common Name: Asian Ladybird Beetle
Example • Scientific binomial: Harmonia axyridis
• Location: San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary,
Irvine, Orange County, CA. 05/21/06.
• Fact 1: Both larvae and adults are predators Facts:
on aphids 0.5
• Fact 2: Exotic species introduced intentionally
to North America and Europe for control of
Picture: 0.5
aphids and scale insects
ID:
0.5
Values of Biodiversity
– OR –
What have we got to lose?
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
“Cultural Services”
Non-material benefits
“Ecosystem Services”
Sustainability
“Provisioning Services”
Food
Genetic Resources
Natural Products (next lecture)
“Cultural Services”
Non-material benefits obtained from
organisms and ecosystems
• Anthropocentric:
– Spiritual, religious and aesthetic values
– Knowledge systems
– Educational value
– Sense of place
– Recreation and ecotourism
– Future options
• Non-anthropocentric (Biocentric)
– Intrinsic value
“Ecosystem Services”
Benefits we obtain from wild plants,
animals, and micro-organisms -
natural ecosystem processes
• Air Quality (CO2 and O2)
• Climate
– Global (CO2 sequestration)
– Regional and local
• Water purification
– Filter feeders
– http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/crustacea/Cirripedia/Balanus.htm
– http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/Molluscs/Mussel.htm
• Soil structure
– http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/Apterygotes/index.htm
• Pollination
– http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/hymenopt/index.htm#Bees
• Biological pest control
– http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/hymenopt/Aphidius.htm
• Prevention of erosion
• Soil fertilizing
– Legumes that fix nitrogen
Faidherbia
A unique African tree that
could dramatically improve
the yield of crops planted
under its canopy by
providing natural, renewable
fertilizer
• Soil fertility is one of the major constraints to food production in Africa, South
America, and Asia
• Nitrogen is one of the most limiting elements
• Conventional agriculture provides nitrogen through nitrogen-containing, man-
made fertilizer, but this can be prohibitively expensive for subsistence farmers.
• Faidherbia is a nitrogen-fixing plant – it captures nitrogen from the air through
its roots and incorporates it into its leaves.
• What makes it unique is that it grows in the dry season and drops its leaves in
the rainy season, when crops start to grow – It does not compete with the
crops for sunlight or water or nutrients
• 3-4x increase in maize yields underneath the Faidherbia canopy compared with
crops outside the canopy
• Faidherbia also increased yields in sorghum, millet and cotton fields.
African tree acts as 'fertilizer factory' for crops
“Provisioning Services”
Food Supplies: Crops
~250,000 plant species exist
10,000 - 50,000 are edible
Only 150 in large-scale cultivation
90% of world's food from only 15 species
4 major carbohydrate crops
- wheat, corn, rice and potatoes
- feed more people than the next 26
crops combined
>10,000 species of
cereals, but no new
ones have been
brought into cultivation
during the past 2000
years.
Vavilov Centers of Plant Genetic Diversity:
Areas of High Crop Diversity and Origins of Food Crops
oats, rye apple, chickpeas, lentil
sunflower
barley, lentil, sorghum,
oats, wheat millet,
oats, olives, wheat
soybean
eggplant, rice, yam
millet, banana, coconut,
sorghum sugar cane
bean, corn, tomato barley,
coffee,
sorghum
Peanuts
bean, potato, squash
potato
New tropical fruits
At least 1650 known tropical
forest plants have potential
as food crops
Uvilla Guanabana
Acerola
(Barbados Cherry)
Naranjilla (Lulo)
Caribbean fruit - Caribbean
Pupunha (Brazil)
Food Supplies: Livestock
Animal protein from domesticated animals
100% from nine species:
cattle
pigs
sheep
turkeys
geese
ducks
chickens
water buffalo
goats
New domesticated animals?
Fish and Shrimp
Comparison of Aquaculture
Production from Major
Countries, by Quantity (a) and
Value (b) in 1996
Tridacna
clam (Palau)
Tilapia
(many countries)
• Total world production of farmed
Shrimp Aquaculture shrimp 2003: > 1.6 million tons.
Thailand, Ecuador, Indonesia, • Farmed shrimp makes up 50% of
international trade in shrimp
China, India, Honduras products
• Top producers: Thailand, Ecuador,
Indonesia, China, India.
• Top importer: United States, imports
~ half of the farmed shrimp traded
internationally
• Value of the international trade in
shrimp products:
~$7 billion (~ 20% of fish products).
World Shrimp Production and Consumption
http://archive.greenpeace.org/oceans/shrimpaquaculture/shrimpreport.html
1999
1987
Two false-color Landsat images showing the growth of the shrimp farming
industry in Honduras and the corresponding removal of mangrove swamps
Environmental Impacts of Shrimp Farming
• Estimated total area of shrimp farms: 11,000 sq. km.
• Many of them have replaced Mangrove Forests
• Is it a way to reduce pressure on wild fish stocks and
marine ecosystems? NO! It can take 3 tons of wild
marine fish ground up into fishmeal to produce 1 ton of
mature shrimp for the market.
• Farming requires artificial feed, chemical additives
including chlorine, pesticides including malathion,
parathion, and paraquat and several kinds of antibiotics
• Average life span of a shrimp farm: 3-10 years after
which the farm is abandoned (recovery time unknown).
• Shrimp farms have also displaced thousands of people
from traditionally occupied coastal areas. They have
degraded agricultural land and polluted water sources.
Oceans at risk - the real cost of a prawn sandwich
Values of Mangrove Forests
• Breeding grounds and nurseries for many fish, shellfish
and other wildlife.
• Stabilize the coast against erosion, protecting coral reefs
and seagrass beds that provide habitat for migrating birds,
sea turtles, dolphins, manatees, dugongs, otters, monitor
lizards, fishes, shrimps, mollusks and crustaceans.
Values of Biodiversity:
Genetic Resources
(i.e. Genes for Crop Improvement)
The Irish Potato Famine
• Potatoes introduced into Ireland from the New World in ~1600
• Most of the Irish people became dependent on this one crop.
• In 1845-1847, the wind-borne Potato blight fungus spread
throughout the country and caused almost complete failure of
the potato crop.
• ~ 1 million people died of starvation, cholera and typhoid.
• Eventually a blight-resistant variety was obtained by
hybridization with a wild species from Peru
Healthy Blighted
Genes from Related Species
Purdue University Horticulture courses
Genes for Scab Resistance
Purdue University Horticulture courses
Backcrossing for Introgression
Malus floribunda Malus domestica
BUT: they have small fruit!
Malus domestica
Purdue University Horticulture courses
Gene Introgression in other Crops
Purdue University Horticulture courses
Surprising tomato improvement using wild genes
Tomato cultivar
Tomato cultivar with
gene for increased
Wild tomato red pigment from L.
species L. hirsutum - effect
hirsutum from depends on genetic
Peru (does not background
redden)
Tomato cultivar
Wild tomato
species L. Tomato cultivar with
pimpinellifolium gene for increased
from Peru fruit size from L.
pimpinellifolium
Zea diploperennis,
Z. perennis
Untapped Genetic Variation
Wild
relatives
Wild
relatives
Seed Banks and Molecular Maps
The first “Green Revolution”
– Higher-yielding, disease-resistant varieties of
wheat, rice and corn produced by hybridization
and selective breeding (introgression)
(e.g. wheat 0.75 t/ha to 8 t/ha)
+ Chemical fertilizers
+ Farmer education
• Tripled yields between 1950 and 1990
• 1960s and 1970s:Transformed agriculture in Europe,
allowed Asia and Latin America to achieve agricultural
self-sufficiency
• 1991-1998 Ethiopia turned from starvation to exporting
food
Yields reaching a
plateau?
1950-1990 - +2.1% pa
1990-1997 - +0.5% pa
World grain stocks have
been depleted by half
Since about 1980 increases in world grain
production have not stayed ahead of population
numbers, and per capita grain production has
declined. Need for higher yields
The Next Green Revolution?
• Genes for crop improvement exist in wild populations, but their
effect on phenotype depends on genetic background
• New molecular genetic techniques make it possible to track
these genes by testing DNA, rather than phenotype
• Cloning of genes makes it possible to transfer them into more
distantly related species: Genetically Modified (GM) Crops
Pioneered at Monsanto by
Dr. Howard A. Schneiderman:
Dean, School of Biological Sciences
UCI
Then: Chief Scientific Officer
The Monsanto Company
Three “generations”
of Genetically Modified (GM) Crops
1. Enhanced agricultural properties (field tested in 1980’s, now widely
planted):
– Better ripening properties (Flavr-savr tomato)
– Insecticidal crops (Bt crops)
– Herbicide-tolerant (Roundup-ready) crops
– Enhanced drought tolerance
2. Enhanced nutritional qualities
– Nutrient enhancement for human diet
– Nutrient enhancement for animal feed
– Plants that taste better (e.g. nutty flavor in cereal)
3. Crops that produce pharmaceuticals
- Insulin
- Enzymes
- Monoclonal antibodies
- Vaccines – e.g. crops that produce a measles protein (works in
mice). Work proceeding on cholera, tuberculosis and hepatitis
Insecticidal Crops from
Monsanto
•Contain the Bt toxin gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus
thuringiensis – discovered to be insecticidal by
Dr. Ed Steinhaus – the first Dean of Biological Sciences, and
Director of the Center for Pathobiology at UCI (1963)
–Yieldgard corn: resistant to corn borers, corn earworm, fall
armyworm and stalk borer.
–Bollgard cotton: resistant to the cotton bollworm.
Ed Steinhaus
Herbicide-resistant crops
Roundup-ready (i.e. Roundup-resistant) Soybeans
(also canola, cotton, corn)
• The enzyme EPSPS (enolpyruvylshikimate-phosphate synthase), is
necessary to make proteins from sugars and other raw materials.
• Roundup herbicides kill plants and bacteria by inhibiting EPSPS
• Gene CP4-EPSPS from the soil bacterium Agrobacterium sp.
produces a Roundup-resistant EPSPS.
• A soybean plant with the added CP4-EPSPS gene is Roundup-
resistant
Roundup-resistant EPSPS
Golden Rice
DNA construct used to generate Golden Rice.
RB, T-DNA right border sequence; Glu, rice endosperm-specific glutelin promoter; tpSSU, pea ribulose bis-phosphate carboxylase small
subunit transit peptide for chloroplast localisation; nos, nopaline synthase terminator; Psy, phytoene synthase gene from Narcissus
pseudonarcissus (GR1) or Zea mays (GR2); Ubi1, maize polyubiquitin promoter; Pmi, phosphomannose isomerase gene from E. coli for
positive selection (GR2); LB, T-DNA left border sequence.
Vitamin A deficiency is responsible for
1-2 million deaths,
500,000 cases of irreversible blindness
millions of cases of xerophthalmia annually.
Pro-vitamin A (β-carotene) is converted into Vitamin A in
the gut
Normal rice plants synthesize β-carotene in vegetative
tissues but not in the grain
All but two steps of the biosynthetic pathway are present
in the grain.
By addition of two genes (brown and red in the construct),
http://www.goldenrice.org/Content2-How/how1_sci.html
β-carotene is accumulated in the grain.
GM Crops Under Development
• Virus-resistant Sweet potato
• Corn with enhanced levels of the essential nutrient lysine
which provides better quality protein for animal feeds
• Drought-, salt-, heat-, acid-resistant crops
• Transgenic rice producing the specialized milk proteins
lactoferrin and lysozyme - improves oral rehydration
therapy for diarrhea.
Genetically modified food
GM Crops
2006
61%
89%
83%
Genetically modified food
Howard Schneiderman
1970-1979: Dean of the School of Biological Sciences, UCI
1980-1990: Chief Scientist and Senior Vice-president for Research and Development, Monsanto Company
Made by Monsanto: the Corporate Shaping of GM Crops
as a Technology for the Poor
Possible Problems with GM Crops
• Health risks (allergies)
• More use of herbicides (i.e. Roundup)
– Depletion of wild plants
• Genetic contamination
– Herbicide-resistant weeds
• Poisoning of wildlife
– e.g. non-target insects including pollinators and
soil insects
• Reduced populations of birds and other insectivores
• Evolution of insecticide resistance in insects
• GM food, and food derived from GM feed, are not
labeled, so consumers cannot avoid it
Crop contamination: Starlink Corn
• StarLink, produced by Aventis
CropScience, is a GM corn that
produces the Bt toxin.
• Because the protein may be a food
allergen for some people, it was
barred from human food in 1998
(approved only for animal feed)
• September 2000: the altered corn
was detected in taco shells, corn
meal and corn flour being sold in
grocery stores.
• Aventis CropScience halted sale of
seeds for the 2001 growing season,
and withdrew the U.S. registration Dressed in 'biohazard' suits, Greenpeace
for StarLink members dump bags of StarLink corn on the
• U.S food industry began to recall driveway of the Environmental Protection
Agency in Washington, D.C.
foods that may have contained
StarLink.
• Aventis paid $9 million to
consumers, $9 million to farmers,
$60 million to Taco Bell franchises.
Opposition
• 65 plaintiffs (including Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and the
International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements) filed a
suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), demanding
that the agency withdraw approval of all Bt plants and stop
approving any new ones until it has done a complete assessment of
their environmental impact. Dismissed July 26th 2000
•2002: National Research Council report concluded that USDA needs
to strengthen its procedures for approving field tests and
commercialization of transgenic plants
• Green Party USA (2005): “Applying the Precautionary Principle to
genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we support a moratorium
until safety can be demonstrated by independent (non-corporate
funded), long-term tests for food safety, genetic drift, resistance, soil
health, effects on non-target organisms, and cumulative
interactions.”
Is this realistic? Is it an Irrational Fear????
2005: USDA approves Round-up Ready Alfalfa
• Forage for most farm animals
• 4th most widely grown plant behind corn, wheat, and soybean
• All the same problems as with other GM crops
• 2006: coalition of alfalfa producers and
family farm organizations filed a lawsuit
against USDA
• Called the department’s approval a threat to
farmers’ livelihoods and a risk to the
environment.
• First lawsuit to be filed in response to the
approval of a GM crop.
• Court ruled in favor of plaintiffs, and
ordered USDA to rescind its approval of RR
alfalfa and perform a full Environmental
Impact Statement.
2011 – GM crops deregulated
• June 21, 2010, the Supreme Court lifted a nationwide ban on
the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa seeds.
• December 16, 2010 – After 4 years of work, Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) on Roundup Ready Alfalfa (RRA)
published.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/biotechnology/downloads/alfalfa/gt_
alfalfa%20_feis.pdf
• January 27, 2011 – Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
announced the deregulation of Roundup Ready Alfalfa (RRA)
without conditions. USDA Decision Clears the Way for Forage
Genetics to Sell Seed for Spring Planting
• Alfalfa is grown for cattle feed on about 20 million acres in
almost every state in the U.S. and is the fourth-largest field
crop behind corn, soybeans and wheat.
MEATY FACTS ABOUT ANIMAL FOOD
Animal Plant
• The 7 billion livestock animals kcal of fossil 28 3.3
in the U.S. consume five times fuel energy for
every kcal of Beef: 54
as much grain as is consumed protein Lamb: 50
directly by the human produced. Turkey: 13
population. Chicken: 4
• It takes 6 kg of plant protein to Liters of water
produce 1kg of animal protein to produce 1kg
100,000 900 (Wheat)
(beef)
• U.S. agriculture accounts for 87 of food 500 (potatoes)
percent of all the fresh water
consumed each year.
– Livestock directly use only 1.3
percent of that water. But when
the water required for forage
and grain production is
included, livestock's water
usage rises dramatically.
• From "Livestock Production: Energy Inputs and the
Environment" By David Pimentel
European Union and GM crops
• European authorities imposed a moratorium on imports
of genetically modified food products in 1998
• US biotech companies claim that European
governments are imposing non-tariff trade barriers that
threaten to undermine the USA's $300 million a year
revenue from corn exports
• US planned to take its case to the World Trade
Organization – but now does not want to antagonize
European Union because of Iraq issue.
Relation to biodiversity
•Genetic engineering depends on genes that have
been isolated and analyzed at the molecular level
•The technology is still dependent on biological
diversity to get the genes (e.g. Bt toxin; RR) in the first
place
•All of the genetic variation present in wild populations
is potentially useful for producing GM animals and
plants, and therefore should be preserved.
Genetically Modified Insects
•Geneticists are trying to develop:
•Honeybees resistant to diseases and parasites. 36% of commercial
hives lost in 2007, mostly due to disease and parasites.
•Silkworms to produce pharmaceutical and industrial proteins, like those
used to create a strong spider silk that could be used to make bulletproof
vests, parachutes, and artificial ligaments.
Incapacitated Disease Vectors
– Kissing bugs unable to transmit Chagas’ disease, which
currently infects 16 - 18 million people and kills nearly 50,000
people annually .
– Mosquitoes incapable of transmitting malaria, which is
contracted by 3-500 million people and kills 1-3 million people
annually.
– Mosquitoes incapable of transmitting
of dengue fever, which is contracted
by 50 million people and kills about
20,000 people annually
(***UCI Professor Anthony James***)
– No agreement on how release of GM insects will be regulated –
their mobility raises new questions not addressed with GM
crops.
What have we got to lose?
1. Species for domestication
2. Genes
3. Biological Control Agents
4. Natural products:
• Insecticides and herbicides
• Medicines
• Materials
3. Biological Control Agents
-Herbivores (for plant pests), predators, parasites, and pathogens
- that feed on or antagonize plant or animal pests
Herbivore:
- Introduced into Australia in 1926
for control of Prickly Pear Cactus
(which was introduced earlier for animal food)
Predator:
Cottony Cushion Scale was introduced to California from Australia in
the 19th century and almost wiped out the California citrus industry.
Entomologists went to Australia and found a small beetle predator, the
Vedalia.
This was introduced and has kept the scale insect under control ever
since.
Predator:
Parasite:
Parasitic Wasp Aphidius:
- Lays eggs inside aphid bodies
Rose aphid
http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/hymenopt/Aphidius.htm
Parasite:
Cocoons of a wasp parasitic on tomato hornworm
Insect Diagnostic Laboratory
Pathogen:
Striga (witchweed):
A parasitic plant
Major cereal pest in Africa
Biological Control by the
fungus
Fusarium oxysporum
Spread of the
Gypsy Moth
Eurasian insect
introduced into
Massachusetts, 1900.
1900 1914
Defoliates oak,
crabapple, linden,
poplar, beech,
willow, birch, and
1965 1990
many other trees.
5 miles/year
13 miles/year
Possible Gypsy moth control
agents
• Fungus, Entomophaga maimaiga
• Bt Toxin
• Naturally occurring virus (“Gypchek”)
• Parasitic wasps and flies: