56 Conservation Biology Conservation biology is about conserving biodiversity not just saving rare species Species are going extinct at a relatively high rate today 3 levels of biodiversity conservation 1 conserving variation or genetic diversity conserving all genes within a species 2 protecting different species within a community 3 preserving a range of environments Biodiversity Hotspots to be a hotspot it must have Fairly large number of different species lost of endemic species species that only occur in one area and nowhere else and areas that are under a fair amount of threat Humans have increased rate at which species move around the world by bringing them into new areas or traveling with them Inbreeding and genetic drift can be a serious problem to conserving genetic diversity if there is only one type of individual they could only mate with themselves causing a loss of alleles and loss of variation in the population Need to mix genes up to restore diversity and variation which can be done by introducing a new species for the individuals to mate with Also sometimes it is necessary to remove non native species out of an environment because the native species were being threatened
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