Ch-6 Writing Assignment: Conserving Populations And Species

Protection of the EcosystemNameInstitutional AffiliationDate
CHAPTER 6 QUESTIONS
1 How would you monitor a population of fish over time? Would your methods differ if it was a freshwater or marine species? Explain.
The best approach of measuring the fish species population is metapopulations. The population of fish is short-lived and they can migrate to other habitats freely if there is an alteration of their habitats. When weather conditions become unfavorable fish will move regardless of whether they stay in freshwater or in marine. Migration of fish can be controlled by protecting their natural habitats and restoring the lost species habitats. The biologists can monitor the population of the species by observing the number of mature fish and the fingerlings to determine the level of their productivity, their age, the population of each species, how fast they are growing, the number of the male and female fish and their mortality rate. The biologists can work with the fishermen to determine the type of fish they catch on a daily basis. Sampling can also be used where the biologists will catch the fish at random and record any data about the species that they catch. There are also other observation tools which can be used by the biologists to estimate the fish population. It can also be monitored through marking both the fingerlings and the big fish then release them into the habitat. This helps monitor the movement of the species within the ecosystem. If the species will also be caught in another ecosystem, this will indicate that there is free movement of the fish species. Meta population method is used in both freshwater and the marine species.
2 How can conservation biologists determine whether a specific plan to manage a species will succeed?
There are a number of strategies that can be used to determine the success or failure of a species management plan. Methods such as the Red List Index can be used to determine whether there is a decline in the population of the species once the species management procedures have been put in place. If there is a decline of the Red List Index, it will indicate that there is need for more species management strategies to be put in place while an incline of the index will indicate that the management strategies are working to preserve the specimen. Living planet index can also be used to evaluate the vulnerability of the s...