One of the most important results concluded from this article is the fact that hybrid movements are becoming a widespread concern that deserves more attention. Since 1985, 28 hybrid zones have been analyzed and found unstable, and at the time of the article, another 16 zones were displaying molecular markers that could be a result of a potential movement. With numbers like this, Buggs states that these areas deserve more ecological and evolutionary studies performed on them. The paper also shows how multiple factors (both natural and human-induced) usually influence a zone’s movement, yet a “disentanglement” of the influence of each individual’s impact remains under-studied. Although this paper asked more questions than answered, it highlighted the importance that we further examine these zone movements to truly understand what is going on. This literature dedicates a section entitled “Conservation implications” in order to relate the impacts the environment has on moving hybrid zones. The author states that it was concluded that human activity, to some extent, had played a role in 11 of the 39 hybrid zone movements researched. He also touched on how some of these movements could be possible …show more content…
It showed several ways to both identify hybrid zone movement along with the causes; thus allowing the reader to become knowledgeable about what a hybrid zone is and how we can evaluate them. Although this paper did not conduct an experiment, with the detailed accounts it gave about how scientists track movement, we could both walk away knowing the general ways in which they are studied. The one supplementary table the paper does have is clearly labeled and allows readers to see several examples of studied hybrid zone movements and their respective data. By doing this, Buggs provided proof that the topics he talks about are used in research that is being
[1] “Mixedwood Plains.” Canadian Ecozones. Toronto: n.p., n.d. N. pag. TDSB Online Library School Sites. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. .
Burton, Robert, ed. Nature's Last Strongholds. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. Print.
The next topic for discussion in this paper is ecology. This will include, preferred habitats and interactions with abiotic and biotic elements of the environment.
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.
affects the ecosystem. The land's incline prevents some areas to receive and maintain a water
The purpose of this lab report is to see if the upsurges and the diminutions on the invasive species populace along with the inferences that modifications of the ecosystem as one.
Global change is taking place every day; therefore, it is important to understand how human activities and behavior alters the biodiversity and functions of ecosystems. Alien species is a stimulator of major changes in ecosystems (Vila et al. 2011). An invasive species, is a non-native plant, animal, or fungus that moves to a new ecosystem in a foreign environment. Invasive ecology explores how the invasive species affect the economic, environmental, and human health on the new environment. For example, invasive ecology studies how an invasive species tends to crowd out and sometimes replace a native species (Richardson and Pysek 2008).
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.
Discerning the spatial patterns of biodiversity and understanding their ultimate (why) and proximate (how) causes is very dear to biogeography and is one of the key concepts of Macro ecology. Some places on earth contain more species as compared to others. All species occurring at a given space and time either originated (speciated) there or dispersed and arrived from another place and settled there. Biogeographers try to understand the past and current distributions of species by incorporating historical, evolutionary and ecological factors. Earlier biogeographers or the ‘naturalists’ in their sacred quest to serve ‘the creator’, travelled to various parts of the world and imparted valuable knowledge about the diverse patterns and processes of nature. Linnaeus (1743), on the one hand, hypothesized that early Earth was filled with water except for it’s highest mountain top i.e., Mount Ararat which was known to be the site of paradise and as the sea level dropped the exposed land was colonized by plants and animals that migrated down from high elevational zones of Mount Ararat whereas Willdenow (1805) hypothesized that within each geographical region of the earth, plants and animals were first placed and later survived the great flood on many mountain ranges (Lomolino,2001). Von Humboldt and Darwin in the South American Andes and Wallace Southeast Asian islands noticed the decreasing trend in elevational species richness patterns (McCain and Grytnes, 2010). Later work done by Grinnell (1917), Whittaker (1952), Terborgh (1977, 1985) on elevational species richness became accepted and set a established pattern for all species for more than two decades (McCain and Grytnes, 2010). However current researches on elevational gradients are...
The Western forests are drastically different from what they were like before the European settlement. In pre-European time, the forests were open and park-like with only 25-35 trees per acre surrounded by areas of open grasslands. One could easily ride a horse through the spacious forest. This, however, is not possible in today's forests. Today, for example the Ponderosa pine forests, have over 500 trees per acre, creating thick dense areas of trees, brush, and bushes (President Bush, 4). The pre-European forests were subject to frequent low inte...
in a habitat, changes in climate, the development or destruction of a mountain range, river
Rapidly changing human activity within the Stratford since 1867 to this present day puts huge pressures on the natural environment's ability to adapt and change. These may be further complicated by the influences of climate change, such as extremes in weather. These bar graphs above show the changes in land use over one hundred and forty seven years.
On the first level, when foreign, but previously non-invasive species is first introduced to a new area, the new species may play a role in a community that was previously unfulfilled; it may fill a vacant niche in the ecosystem. Originally this new species may be seen as a useful contributor to its new surroundings because it has only (temporarily) increased biodiversity in the area (Meinesz, 2003).
It has been noted that utilizing data and models derived from living populations may not be suitable for identifying movements of past populations. Conditions today are vastly different from earlier times. Many of the migrations studied that are undertaken on todays populations are among populations who are technically advanced compared to very early prehistoric populations. The fear is that because of the technologically advanced nature of these populations that migration patterns differ from those of prehistoric populations. Tendencies and preferences may not be the same as they once were. It may never be identified if modern migrations are similar or vastly different from prehistoric ones, but for the time being it is one of the only tools we can utilize to try and get a glimpse of what life was like in the past.
One of the reasons for loss in biodiversity is alteration of habitats. A habitat is the natural environment in which a species of living organism lives. If the habitat of a species is changed, it will cause the species to die or migrate to other places where it can find its natural habitat. There are many ways in which the habitat of plants and animals can be altered. One of them is land use changes. Since the beginning of human life, human beings have been changing land use for farming. Large areas of forests have been cleared by humans to increase the area of farming to satisfy their growing needs. Many biodiversity-rich landscape characteristics have been lost due to intensive farming (Young, Richards, Fischer, Halada, Kull, Kuzniar, Tartes, Uzunov & Watt, 2007). For example, traditional farming was replaced by private farms in Europe after the First World War causing an immense change in land use patterns. Another major proble...