Are We Really in a 6th Mass Extinction? Here's The Science

Lili Weinstein

Species multiply and change every year, even every month. For 3.5 billion years, we as humans have calculated organisms have been adapting to their environment and ecosystem. Throughout the years, new species have formed, however mass extinction has also occurred, both of these processes come hand in hand. There have been five recorded mass extinctions throughout Earth's history, it is called “the Big Five”, these five mass extinctions are the only ones that check off all of the main principles in being a mass extinction.  These mass extinctions can be caused by large changes in the species environment, for example a volcano, the ever more toxic spreading pollution, or elevated CO2 levels. In recent events there has been talk in the scientific world that there is a sixth mass extinction coming soon. This mass extinction is said to be caused mostly by humans, and their treatment of earth, through the footprint the general population is leaving on the environment it will not be long we lose the battle and have another mass extinction. This relates to our ecology class because we have been learning about different types of species, and different issues regarding human beings slowly polluting the world until there is not much of it left anymore. After learning about the footprint we as humans leave on this earth, it is amazing to realize that much of earth's problems could be solved just through our society conserving energy, giving up a few basic everyday “wants” not “needs”, and just caring about the world we live in. It also relates to class because the definition of ecology is “organisms and how they interact with their environment” this has everything to do with why species are going extinct, and why we might have a sixth mass extinction. Personally to me, this topic is extremely sad because we as humans know a lot about how to save the environment, however the mass population is doing nowhere near enough to conserve and save our planet.

Citations

https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-how-biodiversity-experts-recognise-that-we-re-midst-a-mass-extinction

http://news.mit.edu/2017/mathematics-predicts-sixth-mass-extinction-0920

Los Angeles Wildlife Bridge

Rachel Stanley

In Los Angeles, California, the biggest wildlife ridge is being built across a 10 lane highway on the U.S Highway 101 to the north-west of the city. The bridge is going to cost $87 million and will be completed by 2023. The bridge is going to be 165 feet long and blend into the mountain so animals will not be able to tell they are on a bridge. Engineers are able to make the bridge blend into the mountain by having trees and grass on it do it looks like regular land. Its main purpose is  to connect to different parts of the Santa Monica Mountain so mountain lions and other animals are able to safely cross the highway. This is crucial because currently animals aren't able to interact with other species because they are confined in their own section of the mountain.as a result of the highway. This mainly affects mountain lions because they are not able ti interact with other mountain lions in the area. Additionally, mountain lions will go extinct in the next half century of they are not able to genetically diversify. This relates to class because biodiversity is an important aspect to the ecosystem. Without mountain lions, the food chain would be out of balance and their would be a surplus of animals that mountain lions prey on. The wildlife bridge in California will help decrease the likelihood of mountain lions going extinct. This is an important thing to do because in every state (except California), it is legal to poach mountain lions which is making their population decrease. I think the bridge is necessary to save mountain lions amongst other species, It will also be safer for humans because there will be less animals trying to cross the highway. I think it is necessary for other states to take initiative and build bridges similar to this one. The bridge was also a good choice because another alternative would have been tunnels. While tunnels would have allowed animals to safely cross the highway, not all animals would use them so it is important to have a system that works for every species.
Article  and image: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/21/los-angeles-wildlife-bridge-mountain-lions

Melting Ice is Bad Business for Sea Life

As the polar ice caps melt they are releasing toxins and aquatic diseases that many species do not have the ability to fight off or overcome. A place where this is occuring at the highest rates is off the coast of Alaska. The species affected the greatest is the sea otter, who has been afflicted with, “phocine distemper virus (PDV) ...the pathogen in the Morbillivirus genus that contains viruses like measles had then only been found in Europe and on the eastern coast of North America” (Gibbens). This is alarming because this virus has never been in that region of the world until its discovery in 2004. The fear associated with PDV is that its rate of infection is very high and travels from population to population. As polar ice melts, it releases more of these toxins back into the food chain and we as humans are likely to be ingesting them the further we push up global temperatures. 

As we have learned in class, the sea otter is a keystone species which in recent years is becoming more and more threatened by human activities in their environments around the world. The exposure of sea otters to toxins like PDV are the direct result of humans burning fossil fuels and melting the ice that had once helped to trap deadly prehistoric diseases. As our work with ecological footprints suggests that as our footprints grow so does the number of species impacted by our activities. It boils down to what are we will to give up so that others may life.

As this becomes a greater issue on not just sea life but to us human beings, we need to start to evaluate how far we are willing to let other species die so that we can over consume the resources the Earth has to offer. As a result of our overconsumption we have decimated and plagued numerous populations of wildlife on this planet.  In time, it will come down to us having to make a choice between our lifestyles and our want to preserve the life of not just sea life but of all wildlife for future generations. How many species must be lost before we as a species decide that the damage we have done is unacceptable. 

Citations 

Gibbens, Sarah. “Shrinking Arctic Ice Exposes Seals, Sea Lions, Otters to Deadly Virus.” 

Shrinking Arctic Ice Exposes Seals, Sea Lions, Otters to Deadly Virus, National 

Geographic, 7 Nov. 2019, 

https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/science/2019/11/dead

ly-virus-spreading-marine-mammals-as-arctic-ice-disappears. 

Image Source: “Sea Otter Survey Released.” Adventure Sports Journal, 3 Oct. 2016, 

adventuresportsjournal.com/seaottersurvey/.

Global Fisheries Deprive Local Communities of Key Nutrients

A new study is examining the nutritional values of more than 350 species of fish, finds fish in tropical regions have higher concentrations of calcium, iron and zinc which is critical for human health than fish in colder waters. This research shows the fish caught just off the shores of tropical countries has the potential to easily provide micronutrients such as: calcium, iron, zinc and vitamin A, for people who live within 60 miles of the coast. Half the world's coastal countries have severe nutrient deficiencies so when a main source of their nutrients are taken away,  a problem is created. 

Fishing fleets from East Asia, Russia and the EU catch vast quantities of fish inside West African territorial waters in exchange for nominal fees. However, poorer people and countries like Africa have to rely on free fish to catch otherwise their diet contains only maize and rice. Since these foreign fisheries are depriving local people of the amount of fish they can catch, the price of fish meals have increased in the countries themselves. People can't afford to pay for these fish meals so they end up being malnourished.

The amount of fish we have in our oceans doesn't only affect the ocean ecosystem and terrestrial animals but it affects humans too on a large scale. People who can't afford to pay for food is one problem, but to take away the only free food that they have to make a profit depletes their nutrition levels and makes people negligent and ignorant. Just like animals, if the fish population continues to dwindle and dwindle, it will get to the point where there are no more fish and many populations humans and animals will suffer. I think foreign fisheries need to take a step back and realize that their money is not worth more than peoples' lives. If there are no more fish, then for some there could be no more people. Is that a risk we are willing to take?

Image and Article: https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/global-fisheries-deprive-local-communities-of-key-nutrients-study-finds/ 

Improving Ethiopia’s Land Restoration Projects

Ethiopia has suffered some of the worst land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa. The major source of Ethiopia’s deteriorating landscape is rapid population increase that has contributed to deforestation, soil erosion, and wide-scale agriculture. Land degradation in Ethiopia has severely reduced the productive capacity of the land an its economic value. It has been estimated that Ethiopia loses $4.3B worth of productivity annually due to the declining biocapacity of its land. However, efforts have been underway for decades now to restore the land and protect vulnerable communities. Over the last 10 years, Ethiopia has spent $1.2B per year in land rehabilitation projects focused on reducing soil erosion and runoff throughout the country. Recently the International Center of Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has examined the impact of Ethiopia’s ecological efforts.

Researchers at CIAT have noted Ethiopia’s efforts as being beneficial for the natural ecosystems but remain critical that each ecosystem requires different solutions. Ethiopia has been primarily focused on agricultural conservation and stone structures to protect the soil and thus resulting in higher crop yields. It has been discovered that these techniques used separately have little effect on land restoration leading to the conclusion that agricultural conservation and intervening stone structures need to be used together to substantially improve the land. The Ethiopian Strategic Investment Framework has been dedicated to using these methods in tandem while millions of trees have also been planted by communities over the last several decades. Various efforts have cut soil loss and runoff in half in some cases, but they have failed to closely monitor their efforts which results in lack of information when enacting new initiatives to restore other ecosystems.

            Despite improvement in decreased runoff in restored landscapes, Ethiopia’s water runoff on a national scale has worsened over the years. A useful measure in determining the level of a landscape’s degradation is to determine the amount runoff that is occurring. If more runoff is occurring in one landscape over another, this means that soil in one landscape has a lower ability to store water than the other. Conclusively, the landscape with more runoff has a higher need for vegetation and should take priority. Ethiopia has shown significant commitment to restoring its landscape but the environmental and economic benefits could be even greater.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191030132656.htm

New Insight on Evolution of Plant Origin

By: Antonio Grande

   The present world has over 500,000 plant species, which have all evolved from a common ancestor. The question that still has to be answered is how this leap in biodiversity actually happened? Using genetic data from over 1,147 plant species, a group of researchers and scientists, created the most detailed and comprehensive evolutionary tree of plant species to date. Plant species go back about one billion years ago, with Algae being the first multi-celled organism to perform photosynthesis. Knowing how this process came to be is important and technology has played a critical role in this study, as described by a professor at MLU "today we have the tools to look back and see what happened at that time." The team started off this project by collecting 1,147 plant species to to analyze the genome-wide gene expression pattern, where they would use the data to reconstruct the evolutionary growth and emergence of plant species. This research has shown that previous concepts of thought that the greatest genetic expression occurs during the transition of flowering plants seems inaccurate. However, "The transition from aquatic to terrestrial plants was the starting point for all further genetic development," which required more genetic variation. Researchers concluded that they found an increased amount of genetic diversity during this time period, which led them to believe that this genetic material was able drive the evolutionary process and generate biodiversity. 

   This relates to our course because the processes and events in the growth of genetic variation and biodiversity are important to the future of Earth. Genetic variation is critical to a progressing future, since it allows the use of more vaccines to fight bacteria that are resistant to many common vaccines in use today. Also, an increase in biodiversity helps preserve and protect many species, resources and ecosystems, which helps the Earth adapt to human activities and challenges. Biodiversity even allows for economic growth, poverty reduction, and decreased levels of carbon. All in all, this study has provided necessary information for the advancement of genetic variation and biodiversity for future life on Earth. 

   By studying the process of plant evolution and deeper understanding of the species genetic variation patterns, I believe that this study was very useful in using past events to help fill in the pieces of missing information that can be used in future processes of increasing genetic variation and biodiversity. By knowing this information allows for people to do their best in protecting vital species to help better preserve their ecosystem. This study should make people think more about their lifestyles and how they can better the environment for future use. However, I believe the group should have used a wider range of plant species in their study to obtain a more reliable and accurate answer. Finally, I believe that this study offers new and intuitive insights on the evolution of plant processes that affect the world around us. 

(Plant Evolution can be traced back about one billion years ago)

Article Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191023132249.htm

Picture Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2019/10/191023132249_1_540x360.jpg

Special Protection of Emperor Penguins

One of the most iconic species in the Antarctic is the emperor penguin. A study that was recently published in the journal entitled Biological Conservation called for additional protection and conservation for the species. The researchers from this study looked at over 150 studies on the iconic species. More specifically, they focused on the emperor penguin’s environment and how they behave in terms of their breeding biology. It was found that one of the major negative impacts on the species is climate change and its projections. The breeding sites of emperor penguins will be negatively affected by rising temperatures and changes in wind patterns. It is projected that emperor penguin populations will decrease by more than 50% over the century.  

One of the main factors in this article that relates to the course is climate change. We’ve seen an increasing number of negative impacts that climate change has directly on ecosystems, one of which being the emperor penguin. Humans are a key contributor to climate change and yet, most are barely aware of the impacts they have on the environment. Our inability to seek cleaner resources and reduce our carbon footprint is causing the extinction of many species and putting others at risk of extinction.

Emperor penguins are endemic to Antarctica, meaning this species is particularly

vulnerable to changes in the environment since they require specific factors for the survival of their species. Their ability to breed in the most inhospitable region on earth speaks volumes of its incredible adaptation skills. Currently, the emperor penguins are dealing with periods of irregular weather patterns, with periods of cooling and warming that are unprecedented. It’s a shame that humans have put so many species at risk, and I hate to think about the irreversibility of this problem. Colonies of emperor penguins may be lost because of their inability to survive these changes in warming. I agree in moving up the emperor penguin’s status from ‘near threatened’ to ‘vulnerable’ in hopes of bringing more attention to this situation, but it’s difficult to think about how conservation efforts might not be enough or efforts might be too late.

Article link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191008212132.htm

Image link: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Aptenodytes_forsteri_-Snow_Hill_Island%2C_Antarctica_-adults_and_juvenile-8.jpg