Biodiversity and Species Extinction
 

    I. Introduction
        A. What is biodiversity?
        B. What is conservation biology?
        C. What is the biodiversity crisis?
        D. Plant and animal diversity is critical to habitat preservation.

    II. Biodiversity rates
        A. Rates of speciation
            1. Rapid
            2. Slow
        B. Significance of biodiversity

    III. What is a biodiversity hot spot?

    IV. Extinction and the biodiversity crisis
        A. Altering ecosystems results in an acceleration in the extinction of species
        B. Kinds of extinction
        C. Causes of mass extinction
        D. Threats to biodiversity

    V. Conservation efforts
        A. Conservation is critical to maintaining currently available biodiversity.
        B. Future of the biota:  if people can make decisions to destroy the environment, people can also make decisions to preserve the environment.

    VI. Questions
        A. Why should humans care about the loss of plant and animal biodiversity?
        B. Why is there any concern about the loss in biological diversity?
        C. What is the major cause of species diversity reduction and ultimately species extinction?