Episode 3: Extinction and its consequences

Dragonfly team members and instructors Ramana Callan, Kendra Cipollini, and Kevin Matteson discuss the following required readings for this discussion as well as their personal feelings about extinctions.

We start off discussing extinct and endangered species including American Chestnut (functionally extinct), the Passenger Pigeon, and the Thylacine (Tasmanian Wolf; see this video for footage of last known thylacine before it went extinct). Enjoy!

Notable quotes:

“I always love the name of the Metatron study (long-term fragmentation study) in France… of course, it makes me think of Transformers.”  -Kevin

The title of this discussion was Extinction and its Consequences. The first two articles are really about Extinction and its Causes (Brook et al. 2008 and Haddad et al. 2015) and this last one is really about consequences (referring to Brashares et al. 2014 article about social conflict).” – Ramana 

“Lag times totally freak me out…” -Kevin

“That was the perfect segue … speaking of bleak! We know all about all these things that are causing extinctions. We know the four big players … The “evil quartet.” (talking about Brook et al. article) – Kendra 

“2+2 = 6” – Kendra (When referring to non-additive effects habitat loss, fragmentation, climate change and more) 

“Acorns and beechnuts have taken over that ecological role (American Chestnut) but they don’t produce as consistent food so the wildlife is different because you had this constant massive crop of nuts every year. So, yeah, I would have liked to see mature, old-growth American Chestnut dominated forest.” Ramana (talking about functionally extinct American Chestnut)

Readings Discussed

• Brook, B. W., Sodhi, N. S., & Bradshaw, C. J. (2008). Synergies among extinction drivers under global change. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 23(8), 453-460.

• Brashares, J. S., Abrahms, B., Fiorella, K. J., Golden, C. D., Hojnowski, C. E., Marsh, R. A., & … Withey, L. (2014). Wildlife decline and social conflict. Science, 345(6195), 376. doi:10.1126/science.1256734

• Haddad, N. M., Brudvig, L. A., Clobert, J., Davies, K. F., Gonzalez, A., Holt, R. D., … & Cook, W. M. (2015). Habitat fragmentation and its lasting impact on Earth’s ecosystems. Science Advances, 1(2), e1500052.
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TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO