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The impact of human activities on the environment
The impact of human activities on the environment
The impact of human activities on the environment
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As explained in the movie "Jurassic Park", contained within the coils of DNA is one of the mightiest powers on earth. Coded with a simple alphabet of A, T, G, and C is the power to kill billions of organisms, change the gas concentration of the atmosphere, and yes even destroy the whole earth with a nuclear Winter. By carelessly shifting around organisms, with their awesome genetic potential, we have caused major ecological disasters. Gone is the most important tree in the Northeast, the American Chestnut, our premier landscaping tree, the American Elm, and gone are huge tracts of productive fresh water marsh. Now these marshes contain only monocultures (only one species present) of purple loosestrife. Cornell ecologist David Pimentel has …show more content…
Native plants in any given area have adapted to all the other organisms in a given area and genetically diverse ecosystems are generally maintained. A different scenario takes place when an alien species is transported to a new area. Although direct competition with similar species is still a problem, the new kid in the block may have no natural pests and diseases. Thus, large stands of monocultures can occur. It is generally accepted that one plant species will support 10 species of animals. If one species takes over 99% of a given habitat dozens if not hundreds of species are lost from that area and some populations are stressed enough that extinction is possible. Humans are responsible for almost all of the invasive plant and animal problems. Many of our problem invasives were (and often still are) planted as landscape plants in New Jersey. These include: Norway Maple, Japanese Barberry, Asian Bittersweet, English Ivy, Mimosa, Wisteria, Japanese Honeysuckle, Bugleweed, Bamboo, Day Lily, Purple Loosestrife, Tansy, and Dame's
As if there weren’t enough problems for scientists trying to save the Great Lakes Eco System. Many non-native species have entered the eco system and many of them are harmful. Every species in itself has played a role in the eco system. These non-native species make it increasingly difficult for the Great Lakes Eco System to be regulated.
“Chaos theory proves that unpredictability is built into our daily lives.”(Crichton 313). Ian Malcolm’s words resolve the book, Jurassic Park, in a very absolute way. Throughout the book, Malcolm, spoke about chaos theory and his self proclaimed “Malcolm Effect” to explain his reasoning in his predictions. Ian Malcolm had predicted the demise of Jurassic Park even before its opening, as well as its multiple problems and difficulties. Malcolm’s theory is evidenced countless times throughout the story of Jurassic Park; dinosaurs are breeding, dinosaurs are escaping, and systems fail.
The story Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton, starts off with Mike Bowman taking a vacation with his family on the coast of Costa Rica. As they cruise on their Land Rover, Tina, Bowman’s daughter, runs off after spotting three-toed bird tracks. Tina then encounters a big lizard that makes chirping sounds, and is attacked by it. She is later sent to the hospital, where Dr. Gutierrez is intrigued to find out about the lizard that bit her left arm. Gutierrez goes back to the beach where Tina was attacked, and finds the carcass of a brown-striped lizard. The carcass is sent to the Tropical Diseases Laboratory of Columbia University Medical Center, where it is examined and analyzed. Despite the efforts made, no one is able to identify the lizard’s species, so the carcass is later sent to the Museum of Natural History for further analysis.
Landscape fragmentation contributes to loss of migratory corridors, loss of connectivity and natural communities, which all lead to a loss of biodiversity for a region. Conservation of biodiversity must include all levels of diversity: genetic, species, community, and landscape (CNHP 1995). Each complex level is dependent upon and linked to the other levels. In addition, humans are linked to all levels of this hierarchy. A healthy natural and human environment go hand in hand (CNHP 1995). An important step in conservation planning, in order to guarantee both a healthy natural environment as well as a healthy human environment, is recognizing the most endangered elements.
Long-term survival of a species depends on its ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Murphy, 1994). Genetic diversity within a species, which has taken 3.5 billion years to evolve, makes adaptations to these changing environments possible. Unfortunately, the rate of extinction of genetically diverse organisms is rapidly increasing, thus reducing this needed biodiversity, largely due to the human impacts of development and expansion. What was an average of one extinction per year before is now one extinction per hour and extinct species numbers are expected to reach approximately one million by the year 2000 (WWW site, Bio 65). As a result governmental and societal action must be taken immediately!
Invasive species only started to show up in the United States when the Europeans started to arrive. Beforehand, very limited contact was made in this particular region of the world, so very few invasive species came into North America. When the Europeans arrived in 1492, after Columbus discovered North America, they brought their own culture and essential food and animals with them. At first, it was just the basics of maize, wheat, pumpkins, and squash, but later on it also included cows, chickens, and horses . As more Europeans flocked into the country, non-native species began to appear in the area. Often, as non-native species appeared it led to unintended consequences of destroying gra...
Purple loosestrifes reduce biodiversity by degrading natural habitats such as wetlands and replaces native vegetation rapidly. They blocks native plants to grow by forming dense mats with their roots. If native vegetation being replaced with purple loosestrifes, it will impact animals, too. In wetlands, hundreds of species rely on native vegetation for their shelter, food source, and breeding to survive. They will lose their habitat by purple loosestrifes’ invasion since none of them solely depends on purple loosestrifes as their food source or shelter. Since they change many factors of the invaded ecosystem, most of flora and fauna will be affected and it will lead to the reduction of the b...
New Jersey, also known as “The Garden State”, is a small state located in the northeast region of the United States. It contains a variety of land ranging from mountains and ridges to beaches. There are multiple types of ecosystems that inhabit these areas such as forests and wetlands. These ecosystems provide vital economic and ecosystem services to the state and its environment.
Two scientists, Dr. Grant and Sattler, are offered to go to a park off the coast of Costa Rica by Dr. Hammond. This place is known as Jurassic Park. In the park dinosaurs are cloned by using preserved blood from a mosquito that fed on a dinosaur. As Nedry, a worker for the company, attempts to steal embryos for cash, he shuts off all electricity to the fences in the park making it unsafe. Now everyone is trapped at Jurassic Park without power. Within the beginning moments of the electricity off, Donald and Nedry are killed. Although the dinos were all “female” the DNA of a frog can change sex, allowing the raptors to breed. After getting the power back on, Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, Hammond, and Ian are reunited. While this is happening the kids
of species due to a variety of causes. Included is out competition, depletion of resources
With invasive species there are a number of ways they can dominate their new location. With this sudden control over the new ecosystem they can cause problems for the native inhabitants. Just in the case of the fire ant invasion to North America in the 1930’s there are a number of factors that could of cause success. Invasive species cause a number of problem and can even cause extinction of other spices.
Invasive species, (also known as invasive alien species or simply alien species) are defined as any organism (plant, animal, pathogen, or other living thing) that is alien (non-native) to an ecosystem, which can cause adverse economical, ecological, or health effects to native species and/or humans. The roots of these problems all stem from the massive negative ecological impact these organisms are having on the environment (CBD, 2009). For all animal extinctions where the cause is known since the 1600’s, invasive alien species have been a contributing factor 40% of the time (CBD, 2006); the second most contributing factor to extinctions after loss of habitat (GC, 2013). By eliminating native species through competition for resources, predation, and transmittal of disease, invasive species continue to reduce biodiversity in almost all ecosystems around the world (CBD, 2009). In the future, this problem may worsen, and if no action is taken, could lead to a cascading ecological problem so large that whole communities or even ecosystems could collapse.
According to World WildLife Fund, many ecosystems around the world are being destroyed, eliminating many plant and animal species that inhabit them (“Pollution”).
Take forest as an example, in Guangdong China, one type of bush was shifting in the land. After few month, this types bush was reproduced extremely fast, which cost several local plats’ extinction. For the water resources, water hyacinth was being introduced in China to use to make water clean. However, because the water hyacinth grow so fast, which directly cause local water plats and fish’s death. Moreover, for the agriculture, the shifting flora will caused nutrition in the ground disappear and made cops weaker than it usually
The introduction of an exotic species into an environment will furthermore cause the endangerment of a species. Native species are those plants and animals that are part of one specific geographic area, and have been a part of that particular biological landscape for a long period of time (Ehrlich p37). The species is well adapted to the environment and accustomed to the presence of other native species within the habitat. When an exotic species is introduced usually by way of human activities or accidentally, they cause a very serious disruption in the delicate ecological balances and may produce a plethora of unintended yet harmful consequences. The introduced species may severely agitate the delicate food chain by preying on species, and growing to outrages numbers. This happens because none of the native species will recognize the exotic as a threat or even a source of food.