Biodiversity Importance

Module 6 Lesson 9

LESSON #9: THE IMPORTANCE OF BIODIVERSITY OVERVIEW:

The goal of this lesson is to engage students in exploring why biodiversity is important and explore the different ways to answer this question. The lesson begins by having students brainstorm reasons for why biodiversity is important. Next, they watch a 10minute video that explains some of the possible reasons for saving biodiversity. Then students are asked to take a position on which of seven different reasons they believe is most important for saving biodiversity. Students work in groups to come up with ways to support their position, which they then present to the class.

SUB-QUESTION:
Why is biodiversity important?

Ways of Knowing Urban Ecology:

Understand
Students will Understand different reasons for the importance of biodiversity from different ecological services perspectives: agriculture, medicine, ecotourism, resistance to catastrophe, ethical, and recreational and creativity. (ecosystem change, ecosystem state and structure, forces and drivers, human impact) Justify claims made about the importance of biodiversity from different ecological services perspectives. Make claims concerning the importance of biodiversity from a particular ecological services perspective. No specific goals connected with acting on urban ecology in this lesson.

Talk Do Act

SAFETY GUIDELINES:
None

PREPARATION:
Time: 1 Class periods Day 1: Activity 9.1 Activity 9.2 Materials: Activity 9.1 Computer with projector Call of Life Video clip from YouTube (http://bit.ly/IMD-Call_of_Life) Printouts of the PowerPoint slides on the importance of biodiversity for placing on the walls of the classroom

Activity 9.2

Biodiversity Importance

Module 6 Lesson 9

INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE:
Activity 9.1: Discussion and video 1. Begin class by asking students to reflect on the following question: Why should we care about biodiversity? Why should anyone care about biodiversity? This question can either be answered as a group discussion or as a Do Now warm up writing activity. o You may want to push students to think about why biodiversity is important to them personally compared to why it might be important for someone living in a different area (e.g. rural area) or someone with a different background, job or experiences (e.g. farmer or person with a rare disease). o You may provide a follow-up focus remark or question around the ecological services that a biologically-diverse urban landscape would provide. o The purpose of this discussion is to get students to brainstorm and think about the different possibilities. 2. Tell students that you are going to have them choose a position for what they believe is the most important reason to protect biodiversity. Before you have them choose their position, you are going to first show them a quick 10 minute video so they hear what some other people believe are important reasons to protect biodiversity. 3. Show students the Call of Life Mass Extinction video. After watching the video, ask students: o Do you think that most people are concerned about biodiversity? Why or why not? How do you think you could convince someone that biodiversity is important? Teaching Background Knowledge Countdown 2010 provides a complete and easy-to-read report entitled Managing green spaces for urban biodiversity at: http://bit.ly/IMD-urban-biodiversity The report provides many of the same public health and land use reasons listed above and provides examples of urban biodiversity in practice.

Activity 9.2: Debate different positions for why biodiversity is important 1. Tell students that at the current rate of extinction 1/3 to 1/2 of all of the species on the planet are expected to be lost in the next 100 years due to the cutting down of rainforests, development, pollution, and the introduction of invasive or non-native species. This is thousands of times faster than the rate species were going extinct before humans and industrialization. The question is why is this important? 2. Tell students that they are going to pick 1 of 7 statements that they will argue is the most important reason to save biodiversity. They will work with their group to come up with a list of justifications for why their position is the most important. They will have 3 minutes to present their justification to the class. After all of the presentations, the class will vote for which position they think is

Biodiversity Importance

Module 6 Lesson 9

most convincing (you may want to tell students that they cannot vote for their original position). Teaching Alternative Instead of having students choose their position, you might instead want to assign students to different positions. You might decide to do this if you are concerned about group dynamics of self-selected groups or that all of the students will pick the same position to support. 3. Provide the students with the seven reasons (agriculture, medical, ecological services, ecotourism, resistance to catastrophe, ethical, recreation & creativity). You can either post these around the room on the wall or distribute them at different tables. Have students brainstorm with their group members and prepare for their 3-minute presentation. 4. Have each group present why they view their position as the most important. After each presentation, you may want to allow the other groups to ask questions of the presenters. 5. After each group has presented, have the class vote on which reason is most important. You may want to tell the class that they cannot vote for their own position. Teaching Alternative Another way to structure the voting is to have the students vote from the position of different stakeholders. For example, you could have them vote from the perspective of a politician in their city, someone who owns a restaurant in an area with a lot of ecotourism, or from the perspective of one of their neighbors in their neighborhood.

Concluding the Lesson 1. In the next lesson, students will be returning to their field site to collect their last set of biodiversity data. Ask students what they think the most important reason is for their field site to have a high biodiversity. Do some of the reasons they have discussed make more sense for their particular field site? If yes, what are they and why? o Students responses here will vary. The main purpose is to have them to start thinking about how what they have been learning about applies to their field site.

Biodiversity Importance Name: _________________________________ Date: _________

Module 6 Lesson 9 Class/Period:________

Activity 9.4: Biodiversity and Street Trees The City of Boston Street Trees The urban forest plays an important role in any citys landscape. The urban forest consists not only of all the trees in the city (streets, yards, urban wilds, cemeteries, and parks) but also shrubs, grasses, ground cover, soil, and waterways. In this lesson you are going to focus on urban street trees in the city of Boston. Urban street trees are those growing in or near sidewalks. How many urban street trees do you think are in your neighborhood or in the entire city? Would you say 1000 or perhaps as many as 10,000? In 2005 and 2006 the Boston Urban Greater Forest Inventory project identified 390 different tree species and 34,494 street trees. You might be wondering how many of each species of tree are there in the city. Figure 1 shows a graphic of the percentage of each species of tree in relation to the entire citys population of street trees. Note the Norway Maple is a rather dominate tree in the city.

Figure 1: Percentage of tree species in the city of Boston Like other cities, the city of Boston is spending significant effort, time, and resources to improve the quality and number of urban street trees. This effort is based upon the belief that street trees add value to a city. The question then becomes, What value do trees add to a city in terms of both economic value and to citizens health?

Biodiversity Importance

Module 6 Lesson 9

South Bostons Tree Biodiversity Lets explore a particularly high-density residential area in the city of Boston, South Boston. Within a mile radius around South Boston High School there is the following distribution of trees. Tree Species American Sycamore Apple Green Ash American Linden Honey Locust Norway Maple Bradford Pear Total Number of Species The biodiversity of the area around South Boston is: Simpsons index Shannon-Weaver index 0.79 1.66 Number 1 28 8 33 54 37 11 172 7

So as you can see the area around South Boston has a higher level of tree biodiversity. The trees around South Boston are also mostly mature and in good condition. Urban Foresters use a program called CITYgreen to model the economic of value of trees in urban areas. CITYgreen can determine how much carbon is stored in trees, how much pollution they remove from the air, and how much energy city trees can save a homeowner. Scientists have used CITYgreen to evaluate the value of street trees in the city of Boston and you are going to use their results to determine whether biodiversity impacts the economic value of street trees to a neighborhood. Examine the results from the CITYgreen analysis of South Boston. 1. What is the current total annual savings provided by the variety of trees in South Boston?

2. What are some of the ecological benefits that CITYgreen takes into account when calculating that number?

Biodiversity Importance Reducing South Boston biodiversity

Module 6 Lesson 9

What do you think will happen to the economic value if you change the biodiversity of the trees in South Boston? Lets imagine that the biodiversity of trees went way down. Lets imagine that the city of Boston has decided that Green Ash trees would be a better choice of street tree in South Boston. Prediction What do you think would be the economic impact if all of the different species of trees in South Boston were replaced with Green Ash trees of the same size, age, and condition? Why?

Reflection 1. Were you surprised by the result? Why or why not?

2.

What are some potential drawbacks of having only Green Ash trees in South Boston? Think back to Lesson 6 when you played the biodiversity game. What were the consequences of having fewer tree species?

Biodiversity Importance Name: ____Teacher Version_______________ Date: _________

Module 6 Lesson 9 Class/Period:________

Activity 9.4: Biodiversity and Street Trees The City of Boston Street Trees The urban forest plays an important role in any citys landscape. The urban forest consists not only of all the trees in the city (streets, yards, urban wilds, cemeteries, and parks) but also shrubs, grasses, ground cover, soil, and waterways. In this lesson you are going to focus on urban street trees in the city of Boston. Urban street trees are those growing in or near sidewalks. How many urban street trees do you think are in your neighborhood or in the entire city? Would you say 1000 or perhaps as many as 10,000? In 2005 and 2006 the Boston Urban Greater Forest Inventory project indentified 390 different tree species and 34,494 street trees. You might be wondering how many of each species of tree are there in the city. Figure 1 shows a graphic of the percentage of each species of tree in relation to the entire citys population of street trees. Note the Norway Maple is a rather dominate tree in the city.

Figure 1: Percentage of tree species in the city of Boston Like other cities, the city of Boston is spending significant effort, time, and resources to improve the quality and number of urban street trees. This effort is based upon the belief that street trees add value to a city. The question then becomes, What value do trees add to a city in terms of both economic value and to citizens health?

Biodiversity Importance

Module 6 Lesson 9

South Bostons Tree Biodiversity Lets explore a particularly high-density residential area in the city of Boston, South Boston. Within a mile radius around South Boston High School there is the following distribution of trees. Tree Species American Sycamore Apple Green Ash American Linden Honey Locust Norway Maple Bradford Pear Total Number of Species The biodiversity of the area around South Boston is: Simpsons index Shannon-Weaver index 0.79 1.66 Number 1 28 8 33 54 37 11 172 7

So as you can see the area around South Boston has a higher level of tree biodiversity. The trees around South Boston are also mostly mature and in good condition. Urban Foresters use a program called CITYgreen to model the economic of value of trees in urban areas. CITYgreen can determine how much carbon is stored in trees, how much pollution they remove from the air, and how much energy city trees can save a homeowner. Scientists have used CITYgreen to evaluate the value of street trees in the city of Boston and you are going to use their results to determine whether biodiversity impacts the economic value of street trees to a neighborhood. Examine the results from the CITYgreen analysis of South Boston. 1. What is the current total annual savings provided by the variety of trees in South Boston? The total economic value of street trees ($4,799).

2. What are some of the ecological benefits that CITYgreen takes into account when calculating that number? The four ecological benefits that CITYgreen considers in calculating the dollar value 1. air pollution removal, 2. carbon storage and sequestration, 3. residential cooling effects, and 4. stormwater control.

Biodiversity Importance Reducing South Boston biodiversity

Module 6 Lesson 9

What do you think will happen to the economic value if you change the biodiversity of the trees in South Boston? Lets imagine that the biodiversity of trees went way down. Lets imagine that the city of Boston has decided that Green Ash trees would be a better choice of street tree in South Boston. Prediction 1. What do you think would be the economic impact if all of the different species of trees in South Boston were replaced with Green Ash trees of the same size, age, and condition? Why? Students responses will vary. They will probably predict that decreasing the biodiversity will lower the economic value, because one species of tree will not be as good at accomplishing all 4 of the ecological benefits.

Reflection 1. Were you surprised by the result? Why or why not? Students responses will vary. Reflection question 1 is just to help make students thinking visible. There is no correct answer to the question. You may find that students thought the amount would go down, but were surprised that it did not go down further (only to $4,316). The economic value did not decrease more, because the Ash trees were all of the same health, size and location.

2.

What are some potential drawbacks of having only Green Ash trees in South Boston? Think back to Lesson 6 when you played the biodiversity game. What were the consequences of having fewer tree species?

Example response - In the game we found that lower biodiversity resulted in less community stability. With fewer species of trees, the trees are more likely to be severely impacted or wiped out by an environmental change. In the game, we saw that the emerald ash borer, which is a beetle, injured half of the elm trees. Either the emerald ash borer or another disease could destroy all of the trees if there is only one species.