Tag: Biology

Future of Conservation: Instrumental Value of Artifactualness

Nazli Turan

With concerns of the current climate change, I feel the urge to reevaluate our conservation attempts to act fast and reasonable while leaving no one behind. The definitions and attributed roles of nature and being natural have been formed in a way that saving modified organisms might become idle. I propose a conservation assessment of species based on their instrumental value without excluding genetically, physiologically, or naturally modified organisms. I redefined being artifactual as being shaped by humans directly or indirectly. Indirect effects are attributed to the recent human activities boosting global climate change. As a result, almost all species are sharing one more common thing in my view: being artifactual. Conservation strategies can be modified by evaluating species for their functionality in an ecosystem via their instrumental values regardless of being natural.

Continue reading “Future of Conservation: Instrumental Value of Artifactualness”

Seminar notes: The Evolution of Males and Females

Nazli Turan

Professor Judith Mank talked about variety of sexual evolutions and adaptations in living organisms, including humans, sea turtles, wild turkeys, gobies, clownfish and so on. The important point she made was that reproduction mechanisms can be extremely diverse for evolutionary advantages. Being larger and colorful or having many offspring can be good or bad. Moreover, sexes can be determined by environmental factors, such as temperature. As a result of the current climate change, some reptiles and sea turtles are having more male members, for example. This has totally changed the sex ratios and natural balance of some species. Now, conservation biologists are trying to preserve endangered species by keeping their eggs in incubators to simulate their fertilization conditions before the human-made climate change.

 

Here is the YouTube link: The Evolution of Males and Females – with Judith Mank