...The east part of North America has beat the estimates of 5000 - 10,000 to fewer than 1500 harlequin ducks. The main threat for the harlequin duck is not known, but most endangered species biologists say that it is likely due to over-hunting, this happens because the ducks frequently eat close to shore and nearby hunters can take an easy kill. There habitats have been contaminated, altered, and destroyed. They used to hang out in fast flowing streams that were booming with food and life. Now, those streams have been destroyed and changed to mining and hydro projects that affect the food and breeding grounds in the winter, completely collapsing the ecosystem that it once was. The biomes of the harlequin duck consist of coastal marine biomes. This is where they build...
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...Climate Change and the IPCC o What is the IPCC? - Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, created in 1988, first assessment report in 1990 launched global awareness of climate change issue. How the IPCC works - Thousands of scientists contribute to writing and reviewing reports. Does not carry out new research or monitor climate related data. There are 3 working groups and a special tasks force. Terminology – 99%-100% (Virtually Certain) 90%-100% (Very Likely) 66%-100 (Likely) 33%-60% (About as likely as not) 0%-33% (Unlikely) 0%-10% (Very Unlikely) 0%-1% (Exceptionally Unlikely) o Causes of climate change Relative forcing components – Long-live greenhouse gases (Global), Ozone (Continental to Global), Stratospheric water vapor from methane (Global), Surface albedo, Aerosol (Direct Affect, Cloud Albedo Affect, Surface to Continental), Linear Contrails (Continental) , Solar irradiance (Global) Earth’s energy budget & human use Quadrillion BTU 100% Incoming Solar Energy Wood 64% - Radiated to space Coal 51% - Absorbed by land and oceans Oil &Gas 23% - Carried to clouds Hydropower &Nuclear (1900-) 20% - Reflected by clouds 16% - Absorbed by atmosphere 15% - Radiation absorbed by atmosphere 7% - Conduction and rising air 6% - Reflected by atmosphere 6% - Radiated directly into space 4% - Reflected from Earth’s surface 3% - Absorbed by clouds Greenhouse gases (types and impact)...
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...negatively, for instance, the United States. A crying shame how most countries on Earth seem in continuing spiraling towards ecological harm in an abundance of forms, regarding ocean garbage, coral reefs and oil spills over a twenty-five year period have caused our oceans’ ecology suffering to escalate. Incidents regarding a floating garbage patch in the Pacific, even cruise ships repeating sewage and garbage dumping are atrocious. The problem is, most people do not pay attention and take situations such as these as non-existent. Evidence documented over decades suggest our oceans’ trouble will continue unless change happens sooner rather than later. Change in how we respond to problems should not take years for resolution, because some of the damage may be minute and builds up over time, while some comes in big bunches that there is not time to waste in resolving. In some of these cases, years elapsed before any significant progress had been made, resulting in more damage than first observed. The problems have similarities and differences, while causes are mostly humans deciding to abuse the ecosystem, and solutions do not come easy. However, we must come together in order to create solutions for fixing oceans and other waterways more quickly than ever to save them, such as our precious coral reefs and the underwater wildlife that they call home.. Less then 0.1 % of the ocean’s surface provides a home...
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...Lionfish Invasion Threatens Coral Reefs in the Atlantic and Caribbean Submitted by Richard Waite on August 29, 2011 Lionfish on a coral reef in The Bahamas. Photo credit: Richard Carey, www.richardcareyphotos.com. Recent news reports from Texas to Jamaica to the Bahamas have documented the rapid spread of the lionfish—an invasive marine species. Lionfish have quickly become established across the waters of the southeastern U.S. and the Caribbean. New sightings abound—earlier this month lionfish reached the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Because of their role in upsetting the ecological balance of coral reef ecosystems, the rapid growth in the populations of these fish poses a grave threat to the region’s coral reefs. Consequently, the region’s fishing and tourism industries, which depend on coral reefs, may also be at risk. Governments across the region are trying to respond to the lionfish invasion by developing new campaigns and cooperation strategies that could pose important lessons for how to deal with invasive marine species in the future. Two species of lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) are responsible for this recent and growing threat to Atlantic and Caribbean reefs. Native to the Indo-Pacific, these species’ colorful and dramatic appearance make them popular ornamental fishes in saltwater aquariums (see photo above). Though no one is certain how or when the lionfish invasion began, strong evidence suggests...
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...prevalent in the South Pacific, causing harm to not only the marine life that is targeted, but their habitats as well. Many people in South East Asian countries rely solely on this fishing practice for income, in which they chase these tropical marine species and spray them with a cyanide solution to stun them and aid in their capture. These fish are then put into bags and exported to places like North America and Europe where they are sold for premium prices. However, many of these fish are harmed by the cyanide solution and do not even survive the trip, making the mortality rates very high, nearly forty percent (Pflug, 66.) The process of cyanide fishing is used to capture fish and invertebrates, but is damaging to many corals and juvenile reef species. This practice is becoming much more common in the Philippines, which was the first country to use the cyanide technique, where much of the reefs are destroyed from harvesting corals and cyanide fishing. Over three thousand tropical fishermen in the Philippines expose miles of coral reefs to cyanide, killing the coral polyps and bleaching the reef. Until strict regulations are put in place to protect the reefs and their inhabitants, cyanide fishing will continue to devastate reefs and kill marine life the world over. The new trend in Hong Kong and other major Asian cities are restaurants that have large fish tanks where the customers can pick the fish they want to eat and have it prepared however they would like. The new demand for...
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...Causes of global warming For a long time people on our Earth didn't think a lot about greenhouse gases. The situation changed when people started using more and more energy in the form of fossil fuels, like oil, gas and coal. We burn fossil fuels to power factories, run cars, produce electricity and heat houses. As fossil fuels burn they let carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. During the last few decades people have also cut down many forests. Trees use carbon dioxide when they make their own food. Fewer trees mean that less carbon dioxide is taken out of the atmosphere. Possible effects of global warming Scientists have different opinions on how warm the Earth's surface will really get. The increase may be between 1.5° C and 6° C by the year 2100. Warmer weather will make ice caps and glaciers melt. Sea levels could rise dramatically. Plants, animals and people living in coastal areas all could be in danger. The weather may change in many areas of the world. Floods, droughts and damaging storms could be the result. People in colder regions might welcome warmer weather but those who live in regions that are already hot may suffer from new diseases. At the same time some animals may not survive because they cannot adapt to the new environment. They could move to other places in order to live there. Reducing global warming Finding a solution to solve the world's biggest environmental problem is not an easy task. Although we need energy to make our economy grow there are things that...
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...elections since America has been the biggest contributors to global warming. However, Americans have not yet realized then how global warming could bring abrupt changes worldwide. All they were after was reform in their government. Global warming, as described in the film An Inconvenient Truth, is the trapping of green house grasses causing the earth to be hot and is bound to get worse over the years. It is because of the thinning of the ozone layer, which guards every living individual in the planet from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. It is also mentioned that the more carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere, the more heat is trapped in the earth. According to the researches in the film, 40% of the world is dependent with their drinking water from the rivers and springs of Himalayas. Antarctica, Patagonia and other parts of the world covered with ice are gradually melting. Dry lands, on the other hand, get parched, thus making it unsuitable for vegetation. The comparison of carbon dioxide composition in the atmosphere for the past 600,000 years has been shown in the film and for the graph for year 2005 was way shoddier to the previous years. This year had the highest carbon dioxide composition in the atmosphere. With global warming, there will also be a relocation of precipitation, which means that some places experience a lot of typhoons and rain showers while others drought. The hurricane Katrina is the strongest one that has stricken North America, and is a proof...
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...acidity has disrupted the larvae's ability to develop their sense of smell to the max, leaving many clownfish unable to clearly smell their predator awaiting their next meal, or tell which is their specific host Sea Anemone, as well as their food, they experience this disruption in the larvae stage, when they are developing and do not fully develop their sense of smell. Ultimately, their sense of smell deterioration makes clownfish quite susceptible to the 30% increase in the acidic levels in the ocean. The acidification has also been tested to mess with their mental health. No, clownfish don't need to start seeing a therapist however, it has been seen that clownfish are starting to stray a little far from home. Clownfish are a tropical coral reef species, therefore they are very rarely seen straying far from their host Anemone however, lately it has been studied that they have been leaving the reef to go further and further, which isn't necessarily a problem however it is dangerous for they are prey to larger fish who normally swim in the open ocean, as well as they lose the protection of their host Sea Anemone. It has been tested that the Ocean...
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...GLOBAL WARMING NAME INSTITUTION GLOBAL WARMING The gradual increase of temperatures within the earth surface has raised concerns off late. Global warming; which is the gradual heating up of the earth surface, has posed threats to the survival of flora and fauna and to some extreme extent resulted to the extinction of some species. Scientists have documented the statistics on the world changing temperatures since 1800. It is evident from the data collected that the earth surface temperatures have risen by 0.8 degrees Celsius over the past century. The Environmental Protection Agency has predicted that if the trend continues the in the next 100 years the temperatures are bound to rise from 1.33 to 6.42 degrees Celsius (Revkin, 2005). In this paper, I will exclusively look at some of the cause of global warming, effects and how the situation can be brought under control. Global warming is a human-caused state. This occurs when man releases too much of certain types of gasses in the atmosphere. These gasses commonly known as greenhouse gasses have resulted in depletion of the ozone layer hence the global warming effect. Increased emission of the gasses implies increased warming of the earth surface. Such gasses include water vapor, Methane, Carbon dioxide and Nitrous Oxide. Some levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are considered natural. For instance, before the industrial revolution, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was estimated to be about 280...
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...habitat or ecosystem. It provides sufficient redundancy for organisms to adapt to the evolution in their environment and sufficient variety to avoid inbreeding within isolated populations (Bender, Leone, Stalcup 81). There are three levels of biodiversity: variety of ecosystems, variety of species, and genetic variety in species. When those three levels are at decent amounts, the environment is balanced. The variety of ecosystems are specific to regions and the world. The degradation of whole ecosystems plays a major role in the loss of biodiversity and is an important factor behind the mass extinction of species (Bender, Leone, Stalcup 35). Examples of ecosystems that have been destroyed are the tall grass prairies of North America and the cedar groves of Lebanon (Bender, Leone, Stalcup 35). The variety of species is important because it keeps the ecosystem they are in balanced. The imbalance of predatory species will cause an abnormal growth of prey population. For example, killing snakes that live in fields can cause an increase of the rat population because there would be a decrease of the killing of rats. Causes of imbalances in species include pollution, climate change, hunting, and the depletion on natural resources. Genetic variety arrives from mutation in the DNA. It may also be caused by gene flow. Genetic variation allows for species to survive in other climates and environments. These changes happen so that the species adapts better to...
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...Global Warming And Its Effects On The Coastal Areas of Bangladesh [pic] [pic][pic] GLOBAL WARMING: Global Warming is the rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere, including the surface air and oceans. In simple words global warming is when the Earth heats up. It is caused mainly due to increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. The greenhouse gases, include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, water vapor, traps heat and light in the Earth’s atmosphere, which increases the temperature. Today global warming is considered as one of the major environmental issues, which threatens to disrupt the basic balance of the environment and cause large scale destruction. The Greenhouse Effect: [pic] There are certain gases that raise the temperature by trapping the sun’s heat and energy. The Earth’s average temperature would have been about 60Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. colder if it weren’t for these gases. These gases are referred to as “greenhouse effect” because of the way they help to keep the Earth warm. The greenhouse effect makes the Earth suitable for all living things. The Earth might have been freezing or it might also have been burning hot if the greenhouse effect did not occur. However, the presence of too many such gases can cause the Earth to get unusually warmer. The plants would not be able to take such heat and eventually they would have died. The scarcity of plants would cause animals to die...
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...“The longer you live the longer you should live” –Wiley “Evolution’s a bitch” –Wiley “Suckers are good to eat” –Wiley WHAT HAS EVOLUTION DONE FOR ME What has evolution done for me • Agricultural crops and animal breeding for the past 8,000 years • With the discovery of methods to reconstruct evolutionary relationships there is been a vast increase in the relevance of evolutionary biology to human society. Reconstructing Phylogenies • 1859-1950- No coherent empirical methods • 1950-1966- Emergence of Phylogenetic Systematics • Phylogeny by discovery of the order of evolutionary innovation Ribotyping • Fingerprinting or sequencing RNA • Many diseases have unknown causes • However, diseased tissues can be ribotyped. (Wiley Death Fish) • This process involves extracting DNA from diseased tissues and then sequencing the DNA that codes for rRNA. • If a disease agent such as a bacteria is present, then we will get ribosomal DNA sequences from the host (you) and the bacteria (the infection agent). Ribotyping: Phylogeny matching • Once we have the rDNA sequences, we can plug them into a sequence matrix of all life and see where our unknowns appear on the tree of life. Our Food Chain • Some products are easy to identify, but others are not. • A slab of fish fillet from a sea bass looks like a slab of sih fillet from a farmed Asian catfish. • But the sea bass costs $10/pound while the Asian catfish...
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...Biology 2F03: Lecture 1 Chapter 2: Life on Land • • • • • • • • Labs start on the Sept 17 Why horses and cattle help restore Guanacaste forest of Costa Rica? o This forest was in decline for thousands of years, when Indians colonized central America, it caused its decline. o Its regenerated when the Europeans came with the cattle o The trees only produce a new plant after processes: the fallen fruit has to be eaten by a larger animal (mule, or horse or cow) à it has to pass through the body and ends up in a pile of fertilizer only then it can regenerate and produce a tree o Why did it evolve to be depended to this process? § There must be animals there in the past, in the past it was a camel (llama, alpaca). When the Indians came from asia (50000 years ago) these animals went extinct and the tree lost its major dispersal system What is the most obvious foundation of life on land? o Is landà soil Climate defines biomes, the ‘shapes’ of vegetation o Defines the major types of land on earth o Temperature and precipitation to be specific Soils in turn greatly affect the aspects (roots, water, nutrient) à rentention, root attachment, etc. Soil typically form layers (horizontal) retaining a range of physical and chemical layers: o Classification of soil: O= organic, A, B, C Soil horizons: description o O: organic, litter on top, fine litter deeper (gets broken down, hence fine), pollen, dead organisms o A: mineral soil, some organic matter...
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...AS GEOGRAPHY UNIT 1 WORLD AT RISK WORLD AT RISK GLOBAL HAZARDS Hazard – Potential threat to human life or property Natural Hazards – Caused by natural processes e.g. lava flow from volcanic eruption Hydro-meteorological Hazards – Caused by climatic processes (droughts, floods, tropical cyclones and storms Geophysical Hazards – Caused by land processes (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes) Disaster – When a hazard seriously affects humans Risk – Likelihood that humans will be seriously affected by a hazard Vulnerability – How susceptible a population is to the damage caused by a hazard. Disaster Risk Equation Risk (R) – Hazards (H) * Vulnerability (V) / Capacity to Cope (C) Risk increases if: * Frequency or severity of hazards increase * People vulnerability increase * Capacity to cope decreases (Capacity to cope is the ability to deal with the consequences of a hazard) e.g. people in remote areas are further from help in central areas, so have lower capacity to cope) * Global Warming – greatest global hazard * Recent increase in average global temp – climate change * Causes other types of climate change * Context hazard – global in scale (affects all parts of environment) – potential to trigger other hazards or make them worse * Chronic Hazard (Long term) * People who aren’t causing the problem are mostly affected * Difficult to find solutions * Hydro-meteorological hazards becoming more frequent ...
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...Sustainable Development and Planetary Boundaries BACKGROUND RESEARCH PAPER Johan Rockström and Jeffrey D. Sachs with Marcus C. Öhman and Guido Schmidt-Traub Submitted to the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda This paper reflects the views of the author and does not represent the views of the Panel. It is provided as background research for the HLP Report, one of many inputs to the process. May 2013 Draft for Discussion Sustainable Development and Planetary Boundaries Draft for Discussion Background paper for the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda Prepared by the co-chairs of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Thematic Group on Macroeconomics, Population Dynamics, and Planetary Boundaries: Johan Rockström Executive Director, Stockholm Resilience Centre Professor of Environmental Science, Stockholm University Jeffrey D. Sachs Director, The Earth Institute, Columbia University Director, The Sustainable Development Solutions Network Special Advisor to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on the Millennium Development Goals with Marcus C. Öhman Associate Professor and Senior Researcher in Ecology and Environmental Science, Stockholm Resilience Centre Guido Schmidt-Traub Executive Director, The Sustainable Development Solutions Network 15 March 2013 1 Draft for Discussion The world faces a serious challenge, indeed one that is unique to our age. Developing countries rightly...
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