On the Terminations of Species
Notes : # Eminent ecologists warn that humans are causing a mass extinction event of a severity not seen since the age of dinosaurs came to an end 65 million years ago. But paleontologists and statisticians have called such comparisons into doubt.
# It is hard to know how fast species are disappearing. Models based on the speed of tropical deforestation or on the growth of endangered species lists predict rising extinction rates. But biologists’ bias toward plants and vertebrates, which represent a minority of life, undermine these predictions. Because 90 percent of species do not yet have names, let alone censuses, they are impossible to verify. # In the face of uncertainty about the decline of biodiversity and its economic value, scientists are debating whether rare species should be the focus of conservation. Perhaps, some suggest, we should first try to save relatively pristine—and inexpensive—land where evolution can progress unaffected by human activity.
-According to his latest rough estimate, the extinction rate—the pace at which species vanish— accelerated during the past 100 years to roughly 1,000 times what it was before humans showed up. Various lines of argument, he explained, “suggest a speeding up by a further factor of 10 over the next century or so....And that puts us squarely on the breaking edge of the sixth great wave of extinction in the history of life on Earth.”
-To answer that question, we need to know three things: the natural (or “background”) extinction rate, the current rate and whether the pace of extinction is steady or changing
-But paleontologists estimate that fewer than 4 percent of all species that ever lived are preserved as fossils. “And the species we do see are the widespread, very successful ones,” Raup says. “The weak species confined to some hilltop or island all went extinct before they could be fossilized,”
-For every species falsely presumed absent, however, there may be hundreds or thousands that vanish unknown to science. “We are uncertain to a factor of 10 about how many species we share the planet with,” May points out. “My guess would be roughly seven million, but credible guesses range from five to 15 million,” excluding microorganisms.
-Taxonomists have named approximately 1.8 million species, but biologists know almost nothing about most of them, especially the insects, nematodes and crustaceans that dominate the animal kingdom.
-The species-area theory predicts that a 50 percent reduction should knock out 16 percent of the endemic species: in this case, four birds.
-He found that “in small populations, mutations tend to be mild enough that natural selection doesn't filter them out. That dramatically shortens the time to extinction.” So as habitats shrink and populations are wiped out—at a rate of perhaps 16 million a year, Daily has estimated—“this could be a time bomb, an extinction event occurring under the surface
-we may have more time than we fear to prevent future catastrophes in areas where humans have been part of the ecosystem for a while—and less time than we hope to avoid them in what little wilderness remains pristine.
-It may not be impossible: utterly undeveloped wilderness is relatively cheap, and the population of potential buyers has recently exploded.
-Biologists are divided, how- ever, on whether the few charismatic species now recognized as endangered should determine what gets pulled through the bottleneck.
# It is hard to know how fast species are disappearing. Models based on the speed of tropical deforestation or on the growth of endangered species lists predict rising extinction rates. But biologists’ bias toward plants and vertebrates, which represent a minority of life, undermine these predictions. Because 90 percent of species do not yet have names, let alone censuses, they are impossible to verify. # In the face of uncertainty about the decline of biodiversity and its economic value, scientists are debating whether rare species should be the focus of conservation. Perhaps, some suggest, we should first try to save relatively pristine—and inexpensive—land where evolution can progress unaffected by human activity.
-According to his latest rough estimate, the extinction rate—the pace at which species vanish— accelerated during the past 100 years to roughly 1,000 times what it was before humans showed up. Various lines of argument, he explained, “suggest a speeding up by a further factor of 10 over the next century or so....And that puts us squarely on the breaking edge of the sixth great wave of extinction in the history of life on Earth.”
-To answer that question, we need to know three things: the natural (or “background”) extinction rate, the current rate and whether the pace of extinction is steady or changing
-But paleontologists estimate that fewer than 4 percent of all species that ever lived are preserved as fossils. “And the species we do see are the widespread, very successful ones,” Raup says. “The weak species confined to some hilltop or island all went extinct before they could be fossilized,”
-For every species falsely presumed absent, however, there may be hundreds or thousands that vanish unknown to science. “We are uncertain to a factor of 10 about how many species we share the planet with,” May points out. “My guess would be roughly seven million, but credible guesses range from five to 15 million,” excluding microorganisms.
-Taxonomists have named approximately 1.8 million species, but biologists know almost nothing about most of them, especially the insects, nematodes and crustaceans that dominate the animal kingdom.
-The species-area theory predicts that a 50 percent reduction should knock out 16 percent of the endemic species: in this case, four birds.
-He found that “in small populations, mutations tend to be mild enough that natural selection doesn't filter them out. That dramatically shortens the time to extinction.” So as habitats shrink and populations are wiped out—at a rate of perhaps 16 million a year, Daily has estimated—“this could be a time bomb, an extinction event occurring under the surface
-we may have more time than we fear to prevent future catastrophes in areas where humans have been part of the ecosystem for a while—and less time than we hope to avoid them in what little wilderness remains pristine.
-It may not be impossible: utterly undeveloped wilderness is relatively cheap, and the population of potential buyers has recently exploded.
-Biologists are divided, how- ever, on whether the few charismatic species now recognized as endangered should determine what gets pulled through the bottleneck.
Summary
.The article focuses on the factor of extinction and how it has impacted us as a whole. The Ecologist studying this factor have warned that humans are the cause of most of our animals to go extinct. Many of our actions impact us as a whole but we are to focused on improving that behind the scenes we are causing more damage. The rate in which the animals are going extinct is too hard to predict but, the rate in which more animals are going into the extinction list kinda gives us the idea of the rate. Other biologist and scientist have said that this is no problem due to having much more animals that haven't even received names. The debate in this case is on rare species and is they should be the focus of conservation. On the other hand their those who want to focus on helping those animals in extinction and help them progress without the affect of human activity. Scientist have been so concerned about the rate in which animals are disapering and saying that we are in the breaking edge of the sixth great wave of extinction. To actually understand the process of extinction for this era we need to know three things, the background extinction rate, the currents rate and whether the pace of extinction is steady or changing. These are all very hard to predict and understand but so many feel like we are going t have a majority extinction without knowing all the animals that ever lived. Other depend on those who we haven't discovered and hope that those are the ones that can resist and have the strong genes that adapt rapidly.
.The article focuses on the factor of extinction and how it has impacted us as a whole. The Ecologist studying this factor have warned that humans are the cause of most of our animals to go extinct. Many of our actions impact us as a whole but we are to focused on improving that behind the scenes we are causing more damage. The rate in which the animals are going extinct is too hard to predict but, the rate in which more animals are going into the extinction list kinda gives us the idea of the rate. Other biologist and scientist have said that this is no problem due to having much more animals that haven't even received names. The debate in this case is on rare species and is they should be the focus of conservation. On the other hand their those who want to focus on helping those animals in extinction and help them progress without the affect of human activity. Scientist have been so concerned about the rate in which animals are disapering and saying that we are in the breaking edge of the sixth great wave of extinction. To actually understand the process of extinction for this era we need to know three things, the background extinction rate, the currents rate and whether the pace of extinction is steady or changing. These are all very hard to predict and understand but so many feel like we are going t have a majority extinction without knowing all the animals that ever lived. Other depend on those who we haven't discovered and hope that those are the ones that can resist and have the strong genes that adapt rapidly.
My opinion:
In my opinion I think that both sides are correct.We should focus on those animals that are endangered and be able to help them succeed. They are the most valuable and should be helped and nurtured. We should help them as much as possible but also not forget about the thousands of animals that we haven't discovered yet. It is important to keep in mind what such benefits these animals bring to us and how important they are to the environment. We aren't their creators we are just visitors in their environment and we should not destroy it. We should focus on finding those animals that can survive and learn to be adaptive but we should also focus on not destroying homes for these animals. The rate of extinction is high and we should be aware of how many animal are being added to that list every year. The list should be decreased and be show to every human being to prevent from such factors to happen.
In my opinion I think that both sides are correct.We should focus on those animals that are endangered and be able to help them succeed. They are the most valuable and should be helped and nurtured. We should help them as much as possible but also not forget about the thousands of animals that we haven't discovered yet. It is important to keep in mind what such benefits these animals bring to us and how important they are to the environment. We aren't their creators we are just visitors in their environment and we should not destroy it. We should focus on finding those animals that can survive and learn to be adaptive but we should also focus on not destroying homes for these animals. The rate of extinction is high and we should be aware of how many animal are being added to that list every year. The list should be decreased and be show to every human being to prevent from such factors to happen.
So what? Says who? What if...?What does this remind me of?
So what?
-The animals are a main factor of our product. We use them for almost everything and we need may animals since they are our food source. If we don't help them its like giving up on ourselves due to how much they provide for us. Says who? Many scientist have been warning us about this problem for a long time but we choose to ignore it because we focus too much on our "progression." The government and laws have been interacted due to those animals who are being added to the endangered species list. |
What if?
-If we let this problem go any further than we can lose a lot as a whole system and world. We can lose many of where our food comes from and the help we need and many of our products. What does this remind me of? This article reminds me of many articles before that I've read in this class because they all kind of have to do with one another and they all interact wit one another. |