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Mass extinction and its consequences
Mass extinction and its consequences
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Thirteen years ago, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. Of two potential locations considered (Snowflake Springs and Butte Rock) they were placed in the low-risk prey Butte Rock for the purpose of encouraging the wolves to spread out and create packs. Before and during the reintroduction project, Oregon State University researchers measured the rate of willow growth along 2.6 miles of the Gallatin River, which ran through Butte Rock and Snowflake Springs. During their study from 1998 to 2002, the researchers discovered that Snowflake Springs, where the elk were and no wolves lived, the willow growth dropped from 92% to nothing (“How Wolves Help Willows,” 4).
What was going on? Where there were no wolves and the elk had free reign of the land, they ate away the plants before said plants had a chance to mature and release more seeds to keep the cycle going. When extinction occurs, we’re not just losing the endangered species. We’re also potentially losing every species from animal to plant that is connected to it. This is what makes extinction the most pressing environmental issue that we face today.
Extinction itself has been going on since there were living things to go extinct; it has been part of Earth’s history from the very beginning, starting from the Cambrian extinction that extinguished 92% of all life on Earth, through the more recent Mesozoic extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, and finally the pre-Cenozoic extinction that occurred at the end of the last Ice Age. Our planet has lost millions of unique species that will never be seen (outside of the imagination of artists and film special effects specialists) again. Extinction is a normal part of the natural world, and the Earth regularly purges pr...
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...tes, a unique vegetable variety every six hours, and an entire language every two weeks. Pieces of our own culture, of the very essence of humanity, are disappearing along with the animals and plants that used to dominate this world. (Glavin 3)
Extinction is no longer just a natural process. It is an enemy, slowly changing our world into a barren wasteland where life is as rare as a flower in the Arctic Circle's winter. The wolf, the tiger, the caribou, the elephant, the bison, the cheetah, the sequoia cactus, the redwood tree – all of these and so many more things are on the verge of disappearing from our planet forever. Extinction is the most pressing environmental issue of our time, because if it continues the way it is going without anything being done to counteract its causes and consequences, there will soon be no environment left for there to be debates about.
...leaving a little portion of land to the animals is not that bad. The reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone has been very beneficial to the ecosystem. We tried to eliminate this species but in the end, we need to ask ourselves the question, do we really need to eliminate another species based on our own biases and fears? We need to look past personal gain, and leave nature to take its course.
Wolves are a natural mean of controlling the number of deer, elk, and other large game in an environment. The larger populations of herbivores are a problem for farmers and ranchers. The herd's winter grounds could be the same ranchers use for their cattle. In 1983 the case of Allen Nelson, a rancher in Montana, came to the attention of the Forest Service. Nelson owned land about twenty miles north of Yellowstone National Park. During the winter, elk would eat the grass on his land that he needed to feed his cattle. After Nelson's efforts to persuade the National Park Service elk were migrating form Yellowstone National Park failed he turned to the Forest Service. The Forest Service owned land next Nelson and did not want the degradation of the grass in the forest. Partnering with the State of Montana, Nelson and the Forest Service placed radio collars on a dozen elk. After tracking the elk through the next ...
Gauss’ Law states that no two organisms can occupy the same ecological niche without excluding the other, but what happens when man gets involved with nature and tries to introduce a species where it doesn’t belong which in turn provides a second organism to fill the same niche as the first? The results of human intervention have often been disastrous for the organism that we’re supposedly helping. Humans often times do not understand the complexity of the implications that are caused directly through our intervention. In 1974, the gray wolf was listed on the Endangered Species List, and in an effort to reestablish their populations, wolves were re-introduced into Yellowstone National Park, affecting Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho (Wyoming Wolf Management Plan, 2003). Between 1995 and 1996 thirty one wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone and thirty five wolves into central Idaho. The wolf numbers exploded, leaving these western states with the problem of what to do with these wolves to prevent them from exceeding their carrying capacity and where to go from here.
Purvis, A., E., J. K., & Mace, G. M. (2000). Extinction. In BioEssays (pp. 1123-1133).
Could the world finally be ready for the scientific advancement that is the process of de-extinction? Do the risks outweigh the rewards? Would scientists even be able to successfully accomplish the task at hand? The restoration of species could severely benefit scientific advancements and also help develop the environment and rebuild the ecosystem. There have been many debates on whether the effects of de-extinction would do more harm than good, both scientifically and ethically.
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!
By definition, the word extinction means the state or process of a species, family, or larger group being or becoming extinct. This is a process that although occurs naturally, can be affected by humanity and can leave negative effects on the ecosystem and the world live in now and today. Several people step up to lead the fight to protect endangered species all the time, people have several ways of getting others to awake to the sincerity of the situation. One way this is done is of course by written word, Author Julia Whitty and Biologist Jeff Corwin both show their interests in protecting wildlife and preserving animals at risk of extinction in their own ways. Although their approaches to how they convince the people to stand alongside them
I recently watched a video called: “How wolves changed Yellowstone Park”. The video was about how the reintroduction of wolves into the park caused substantial changes in the entire ecosystem. The park’s plant life immediately began to regrow at a rapid pace, animals that were previously scarce began rising in population, the physical land began to change as rivers filled and started meandering less. All of this, caused by one small act.
De-extinction is a process that has been experimented with for many years, but has never been completely successful. The ethics and consequences of this idea have been questioned but, de-extinction has the potential to be truly helpful to humans and the environment, and many of the scenarios that people think could happen, are actually impossible. To actually revive a species, there are certain conditions that must be met, and the terrible situations that people think could happen, are unable to actually occur because of the lack of . Bringing species back that are beneficial to the environment could preserve biodiversity, restore diminished ecosystems, advance the science of preventing extinctions, and undo the harm that people have caused in the past. The true potential of the revival of species cannot be realized because people overdramatize the effects and possible outcomes. Once we realize and understand how beneficial the process of de-extinction can be we can better improve our world, our lives, and our ecosystems.
In the video, “The dawn of de-extinction. Are you Ready”, Stewart Brand, introduced us to term de-extinction, the process of creating an organism that is extinct, and the global benefits of this process. In addition, Mr. Brand mentioned how humankind didn’t realize the biological impact of extinction until 1914, when the last female passenger pigeon died at the Cincinnati zoo. Moreover, how the number of this specie went from five billion birds to zero in couple decades, because of the out of control commercial hunting and other human activities. On the other hand, this specific consequence of the commercial hunting made people realize that the extinction of other species, like the American bison, will happen and needs to stop. Subsequently,
Human beings are heavily reliant on nature’s biodiversity. This biodiversity, however, is threatened by accelerating extinction rates which are approaching past mass extinction levels. Human activities are largely responsible for this trend, and, while there has been some success in preserving select species, the scale of the impending extinction will necessitate the conservation of existing ecosystems if biodiversity is to be preserved. Fortunately, the relative geographical concentration of most biodiversity makes such efforts both possible and economically feasible.
The increase in extinction rates is documented in many different ways, Pearce (2015) gives insight on how the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, U.N Convention on Biological Diversity, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and various other scientists and institutes have contributed methods of counting and graphing extinction rates to the world. However, because of hazy calculations, these numbers are not precise (para. 1-3). Pearce (2015) gives further evidence to these bizarre counting methods
Today's endangered species are also dwindling away due to their homes being altered and destroyed for human activities. Forests are being cleared by loggers to sell timber, and to create road networks. Homes are being destroyed because of humans wanting to expand and take up even more space for their own benefit ("Tigers"
More and more species are becoming endangered every day and around 6000 are already endangered. Species endangerment is causing major issues, in our ecosystems and biosphere, as well as many other big problems that not many people realize and/or do anything to change. Even though there are many causes for extinction, the impact of habitat loss is the major reason that animals are becoming endangered and it is all our fault, the habitats being harvested for human consumption.
Because the CO2 levels are rising, the ice caps are melting and many more animals can become extinct. When pangea started splitting, there was a lot of volcanic activity, which cause the death of many dinosaurs. A meteor also hit earth and the mass extinction of many land and marine animals happened. There have been five mass extinctions in Earth’s history. The worst one wiped out ninety-six percent of marine life and seventy percent of land organisms. This took millions of years to recover.