Melting Glaciers: Great News for Titanic, Devastating for Wetlands
Overview
This essay is dedicated to the importance of wetlands and the impending danger of rising sea levels due to global warming. Historically we humans have taken for granted the numerous vital roles played by wetlands in our ecosystem and viewed them only as unpleasant and undesirable. So we have destroyed much of our wetlands, and now that we finally see how important they are we are going to lose what little wetlands remain to rising sea levels.
What are wetlands?
Wetlands are, quite simply wet lands. The word “wetlands” is the collective term for marshes, swamps, bogs, and similar areas. Here in Florida, wetlands are quite abundant. They can also be found in nearly every county and climactic zone in the United States. However, more than half of America's wetlands have been destroyed by man and his historically negative view of the vital waters.
In general, wetlands are not very pleasant to humans to be around. Not only do they lack the beauty and grandeur of lakes, oceans and waterfalls, but they are also home to mosquitoes, flies, unpleasant odors and disease. Furthermore, wetlands tend to cover a large area that would be desirable to developers and farmers. Thus, wetlands were popularly and quickly drained and converted to farmlands or filled for housing developments and industrial facilities. Also, flood control levees and navigation channels have prevented fresh water, nutrients and sediment from reaching wetlands. This has converted many to open water. Some wetlands were even used as dumping sites for the disposal of household and industrial wastes!
Today, both scientists and the government recognize the ma...
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..., enhanced sedimentation, and enhanced peat formation. These measures must be taken seriously and immediately before we and our animals are paying the horrible price for our own irresponsibility!
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Resources
Information from the following articles and web sites was used in writing this site:
EPA Global Warming Site http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/
Facts About Wetlands http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/wetlands/
facts.html
GLY 1073 Electronic Tutor http://ess.geology.ufl.edu/
NASA Fact Sheets http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/service/gallery/
fact_sheets/earthsci/green.htm
Titus, J.G., Sea Level Rise and Wetland Loss: An Overview http://
www.epa.gov/oppeoee1/globalwarming/reports/pubs/
sealevel/index.html
Wetland Processes and Values http://h2osparc.wq.ncsu.edu/info/
wetlands/funval.html
...nks distinguish between preserved, restored, or created credits, conservation banks currently do not. The FWS’s federal guidance and California’s guidance do not state a preference for restored, enhanced, created, or preserved habitat, but approximately 94% of conservation bank credits are derived from preservation. Regulatory agencies often struggle with awarding credits for created wetland habitat due to performance risks and doubt about ecological value. Habitat creation for conservation banking has yet to be tested. Another issue of concern to conservation banking and preservation habitat is long-term management. Unless there is active management on areas where the ecosystem relies on it (e.g., controlled burning, invasive species control), using preservation for mitigation could lead to a net loss of habitat for a particular species. (Fox and Nino-Murcia, 2005)
Perhaps the most devastating disregard of the Fraser Valley’s biodiversity was the draining of Sumas Lake to create farmland, resulting in the loss of habitat and the extirpation of endemic species. As it was originally intended to be, the Fraser Valley was a “perhaps unparalleled ecosystem” (Rosenau, p. 55), with bountiful wetlands and remarkable biodiversity. The European settlers 150 years ago considered it to be “wasteland” (Thom, p. 172), certainly uninhabitable and a breeding ground for mosquitoes, so the most logical thing to do would be to drain the body of water once known as Sumas Lake...
Westfields, a medium sized wetland region, is located on the outskirts of Limerick city and within the floodplain of the River Shannon (CAAS (Environmental Services) Ltd., 1999). Wetland regions are broadly defined within the Ramsar Convention (1971, 1), as, “areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt including areas of marine water, the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres.” Identified as some of the most diverse habitats on earth, wetlands are also under severe threat, with a “10% decrease in their area occurring worldwide between the years 1990 and 2006” (CORINE, 2006). Westfields is no exception. Known worldwide for the diverse flora and fauna, in particular avifauna, that are present, the area has seen a dramatic decrease in size from its traditional expansive domain to a present area of twenty-six hectares. Thus, this essay aims to examine in detail the biogeographic merits of these declining wetland regions in particular Westfields, record the current condition of this particular wetland, and explore potential ideas for future conservation.
Today, with our understanding of how fragile the coastal areas are, there are many study and restoration projects underway. Since the implementation of the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in 1990, there have been 151 coastal restorat...
The Everglades, classified as a wetland or a "transition zone" can support plant and animal life unlike any other place. Wetlands are an important resource for endangered species and "that more than one third of the United States' threatened and endangered species live only in wetlands." Says Elaine Mao, the author of Wetlands and Habitat Loss. People have started to notice the importance and the role of wetlands like the Everglades and how they are valuable and essential for ecosystems to live. Wetlands provide so many kinds of plants, mammals, reptiles, birds, and
People are responsible for higher carbon dioxide atmosphere emissions, while the Earth is now into the Little Ice Age, or just behind it. These factors together cause many years discussions of the main sources of climate changes and the temperature increasing as a result of human been or natural changes and its consequences; even if its lead to the global warming, or to the Earth’s cooling. In their articles, “Global Warming Is Eroding Glacial Ice” by Andrew C. Revkin and “Global Warming Is Not a Threat to Polar Ice” by Philip Stott, both authors discuss these two theories (Revkin 340; Stott 344). Revkin is right that global warming is taking place. Significant increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is due to human activities combined with natural factors such as volcanic emissions and solar radiation – all together they lead to climate changes and temperatures rising. At the same time, other factors such as deforestation contribute to environmental changes for some glaciers not less than air pollution. However, during global warming not all regions of the planet are affected in the same way, local warming and cooling are both possible during these changes.
To begin with, the Florida Everglades provides a place for different species to live. According to Wetlands and Habitat Loss, wetlands can support a wide diversity of plants, fish, reptiles, mammals, and birds due to their special qualities (Mao 2). For example, the Florida Everglades contain populations of opossums,
With the dramatic appeal that it has, you probably heard the name, Florida's Everglades. Nicknamed as "Nurseries of Life" for their many rare and endangered animals. But over the years, Florida's Everglades has been losing much of its' value. What with wetlands being historically regarded as wastelands and centers of disease and insect infestation, more than half of the original wetlands in the United States have been degraded or destroyed. Florida's Everglades are one of the few wetlands that have government protection, though that hasn't stopped pet owners from dumping their previous pets into this diversity of life. In fact, there are now invasive pythons going around the Everglades and ruining the food cycle. How about that as a storyline for a comic book series?
...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.
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...
Founded in 1990, the Little River Wetlands Project is a nonprofit land trust with the goal of restoring and preserving the wetlands in the watershed of the Little ...
The potential impacts of climate change on wetlands are of great concern. Increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by human activities are generally expected to warm the Earth a few degrees (C) in the next century by a mechanism known as the "greenhouse effect." Such warming could raise sea level by expanding ocean water, melting mountain glaciers, and eventually causing polar ice sheets to side into the oceans. Among the coastal areas of greatest risk in the United States are those low-lying coastal habitats that are easily eroded and which occur along the northern Gulf of Mexico and southern Atlantic coasts of the U.S. These coastal wetlands are especially vulnerable to direct, large-scale impacts of climate change, primarily because of their sensitivity to sea-level rise.
Agriculture is the major farming activity. Agriculture's scale means not only that large area is directly affected, but that local and even regional climates can be affected. The draining of water from rivers and watersheds for irrigation leads to drier natural habitats. Those rivers that receive runoff from farmland are often poisoned by excessive nutrients and pesticides.
In many parts of the world, ecosystems’ temperatures begin to rise and fall to extreme levels making it very difficult for animals and plants to adapt in time to survive. Climate has never been stable here on Earth. Climate is an important environmental influence on ecosystems. Climate changes the impacts of climate change, and affects ecosystems in a variety of ways. For instance, warming could force species to migrate to higher latitudes or higher elevations where temperatures are more conducive to their survival. Similarly, as sea level rises, saltwater intrusion into a freshwater sys...