The Green Valley Ranch Incorporation is a major beef producer attempting to expand its pasture in Central Valley California. The area which they have chosen, Philip’s Creek, is a part of a wetland ecosystem susceptible to seasonal flooding. Therefore, a dike must be built to minimize the damage and ensure adequate grazing areas for the cattle. However, by building the dike, the company is threatening the Patrick’s Marsh Wren, a species dependent upon the wetland ecosystem the company plans to disrupt. The habitats are exemplified in Figure One.
Patrick’s Marsh Wrens feed on insects native to the water in Central Valley and use the water for protection against predators such as coyotes. The Wrens also migrate back to their original nesting locations, in this case Philip’s Creek, when they are ready to mate. Thus, the destruction may cause damage to the fecundity rate, or reproduction rate, of the Wrens. In addition, surrounding this subpopulation are three other populations, Three Mile Marsh, Castelton Creek, and Delinger Meadow, which supposedly depend on the health of one another. Therefore, if Philip’s Creek were to be removed, all the associated
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The comparison between the average extinction rate and average final abundance conclude that destroying Philip’s Creek and conserving the population through relocation and habitat maintenance provide the same effect. It also appears that the degradation of the population could be just as severe as the demise of the population due to Green Valley Ranch. Therefore, Green Valley Ranch should be able to expand their pasture; however, when observing the effects of conservation failure, the metapopulation suffers dramatically. If the conservation efforts fail, the final abundance is approximately the same as the severe degradation of the population. Thus, the uncertainty within the two possibilities is too high to decide which group is
Ever since 1973, when the Endangered Species Act came into being, conservationists and private landowners have been debating over whether to preserve the habitats of many endangered species found in unprotected areas (Ligon et al, 1986). Increasing levels of human development has led to the cutting of old-growth forests and construction of roads and other physical barriers to wildlife. These activities have greatly contributed to the fragmentation of wildlife habitat, which has had detrimental effects on the population structure and survivorship of the affected area’s indigenous species. One species that has been affected by habitat fragmentation is the red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis), a nonmigratory bird with a home range covering most of the southeastern United States (Roise et al, 1990). Habitat fragmentation has led to the loss of genetic variability, nesting sites, and suitable population sizes to support cooperative breeding requirements. These factors have been responsible for the precipitous decline of the red-cockaded woodpecker. Because the red-cockaded woodpecker provides important ecological and economic benefits to both humans and the environment, we should strongly consider enacting a conservation plan for this species.
The first mitigation banking guidance was released in 1995 by the EPA and Corps of Engineers. The most recent wetland mitigation banking guidance was released in 2008. The idea behind both wetland mitigation banking and conservation banking is to provide compensation for unavoidable impacts to resources prior to the environmental impact taking place (FWS, 2003). Based on the rules set forth in section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act and section 404 of the Clean Water Act, wetland impacts are reduced by using the following sequence of steps: avoiding impacts, minimizing impacts, and as a last resort, mitigating for impacts. Although the Corps has enforced a mitigation policy to reg...
Every day many species are slowly becoming either endangered or extinct and recently an endangered bird species called piping plovers, started nesting on Revere Beach. What would seem as a miraculous discovery, many are averse to their new inhabitants on the beach. Many Revere residents are complaining because the piping plovers now occupy parts of “their” beach. But in the article “Revere Beach should welcome the piping plover” The Editorial Board believes that the presence of the piping plover could be greatly beneficial to the city of Revere and I certainly agree. What led me to select this particular article is my concern for the many endangered species in the world like the piping plover. Human hands have led many species to become endangered
DUI’s vision is, “…wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever.” The site’s main focus stays true to DUI’s vision; protecting important waterfow...
A huge array of plants and animals surrounds you. You take a deep breath inhaling the magnificent scents of the blooming flowers and marshy wetland. Birds darken the sky as they fly overhead and crocodiles lay resting in the sawgrass. Animals live in harmony with each other everday.This place although seems like a fairytale is actually very similar to a well-known place called the Florida Everglades, a subtropical wetland ecosystem with an amazing biodiversity. However, this ecosystem is falling apart due to a variety of reasons. For example, snakes not native to this wetland are introduced threatening this ecosystem's food web. The Florida Everglades is a wetland worth preserving though, because it provides a habitat for wildlife, essentially supports the economy of the United States, and humans benefit from this ecosystem.
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.
...n, the Louisiana wetlands are an extremely valuable asset to the State of Louisiana and the United States. The continual loss of Louisiana wetlands has the potential to have an immensely negative effect on the economy at a state and national level. Over 2 million people live in the Louisiana coastal parishes (Field et al., 1991). The majority of people living on the Louisiana coast make their living from things that are directly related to the wetlands. The Louisiana wetlands make up the largest wetland community in America and is being lost at a rate greater than the other wetland communities in the country. The suggested strategies that are being taken into consideration could be helpful but it seems that the State of Louisiana is not as concerned as it should be given the future consequences and much like climate change coastal erosion is not being taken serious.
This paper introduces the environmental concerns of the loss of coastal wetlands. The paper will discuss the significance of wetlands and the devastation that is occurring because of human activity. Wetlands are an essential element of our environment both ecological and societal; conservation will be essential for the preservation of these precious ecosystems.
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!
...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.
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.
In this new age of technology and advances in every possible field of study, many people forget about the environment. Some will just throw their trash all over the place with no concern for the possible consequences. Of course, there are many consequences, but only one comes to my mind. That is the demolition of species’ homes or habitat destruction. Habitat destruction or habitat loss is the altering or elimination of the conditions that plants and animals need to survive. “The primary threat to the world’s biodiversity is habitat destruction” (Okey p.1). Prairies have been greatly affected. The “loss of prairie habitat ranges from 20 to >99 percent depending on the region” (Benedict, Freeman, & Genoways, p.161). Habitat destruction can be caused by many things. These include:
Wetlands are defined as areas of land that are saturated with water year round and take on characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. In China, northwest of Hong Kong, lies the Mai Po Nature Reserve (22°30′ N and 114°02 E′) (Cheung and Wong 2006). The entire Mai Po Nature Reserve (MPNR) encompasses about 2,700 hectares or about 6700 acres. It is home to some of the world’s most endangered water birds. The wetlands support a large number of migratory water birds every year. During the spring thousands of migratory shorebirds stop to rest before continuing north toward their breeding grounds. They return to MPNR during autumn as they fly south toward their traditional wintering ground. MPNR also hosts over 400 different species of insects, 90 species of invertebrates, and 50 different butterfly species (Cheung and Wong 2006).
The study area consisted of Latah and Benewoh in Idaho, USA. The research used a total of 105 sites to collect data; ranking the areas from lowest to highest elevation. The methods implemented in this research consisted of wetland sampling, mail survey and habitat modelling. The combined results allowed for better insight for the conservation of these species. The first section of the experiment consist...
Preen, A., & Marsh, H. (1995). Response of dugongs to large-scale loss of seagrass from Hervey Bay, Queensland Australia. Wildlife Research, 22(4), 507-519.