Habitat Fragmentation

HABITAT FRAGMENTATION

By: Ferris Troy B. Yu Asensi

Habitat Fragmentation is a process of environmental change

essential in evolution and conservation Biology. As the name

implies, it describes the emergence of discontinuities

(fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment

(habitat).

Habitat Fragmentation affects biodiversity due to reduction in the

amount available habitat for plants and animals like rain forests,

forests, oceans, etc. Habitat Fragmentation invariably involves

some amount of habitat destruction. Plants and other sessile

organisms in these areas are usually directly destroyed. The

remaining habitat fragments are smaller than the original

habitat.

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Habitat Fragmentation eliminates habitats for those species

requiring large unbroken blocks of habitat. Additionally, the small

habitat patches resulting from fragmentation, often do not provide

the food and cover resources for many species that do attempt to

use them. This can result in an increased risk of death by

predation, if the animal has to venture beyond the cover of the

patch to find new resources, or starvation

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MY INSIGHTS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE:

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Habitat Fragmentation is an environmental issue we are

constantly encountering nowadays but us, humans are not

aware of it. Moreover,we are the culprit of this environmental

problem. Habitat Fragmentation is frequently caused by us, humans

when native vegetation is cleared for human activities such as

agriculture, rural development or urbanization.

Habitat Fragmentation isn't popular as global warming but

it's effects are as tremendous and dominant like global warming.

Many animals are threatened by this growing environmental

problem we all struggle to unravel. Many living organisms

experience starvation that increases competition among animals.

There are many management practices for the maintenance of

species which are threatened because of fragmentation. Some of

these practices include: reduction of inbreeding, preserving or

restoring habitat, meta populations, and facilitating dispersal,

migration, and breeding.

Habitat Fragmentation brought about by geological processes,

can be a major problem in the near future. When animals lose their

habitats, they may endanger their existence. Overcrowding and

increased population are the possible results. Providing synthetic

habitats for animals can be a way to prevent this phenomenon.

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BYE..!!

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HOPE YOU'D TAKE A STAND IN SAVING THE NATURE!

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Acid precipitation by Roylan Magtoto

Acid precipitation has been an important
environmental topic for many years, not only in
the United States, but in Europe as well. What is
acid precipitation?

Acids are an important group of chemicals. All acids contain chemicals that are
combined with hydrogen in a specific way. Acids are present in aspirin, carbonated
drinks, and your stomach.

Another group of chemicals is called bases. They contain oxygen and hydrogen that are
Combined with other chemicals. Chemicals containing bases are called alkaline.
Examples of alkaline substances are deodorants, ammonia cleaners, and the mortar
around bricks.

Acid precipitation occurs when water (rain, snow, sleet and fog) combines with
pollutants containing sulfur or nitrogen. This may bring the pH down to between 4 and
5.

Many laws and regulations have been created in United States and other countries to cut
down the amount of sulfur and nitrogen that is released into the air by human activity.
This seems to already be helping to raise the pH of precipitation back to normal. An
Illinois State Water Survey study has shown that the amount of sulfur in precipitation
has decreased the last few years over Illinois and much of the Northeastern United
States.

Toxic Waste by: Nixon Branda

Toxic waste is waste material, often in chemical form, that can cause death to people living in a certain place. It usually the product of industry or commerce, but comes also from residential use.
Toxic waste can be also released from air, land and especially in water.


As you will imagine if they will keep on continuing their bad works do you think we will have a good places to live and do you think all of us will live for a long time, of course not because that picture above are releasing toxic waste and if we inhale that toxic we will have a chance to be killed and have any injuries. That’s why before it might happen we must put an action to solve that , they must released it to its proper places.
Toxic waste can pollute the natural environment and contaminate groundwater. Love Canal is a famous incident in which homes and schools were built near an area where toxic waste had been dumped, causing epidemic health problems. A number of toxic substances that humans encounter regularly may pose serious health risks. Pesticide residues on vegetable crops, mercury in fish, and many industrially produced chemicals may cause cancer, birth defects, genetic mutations, or death. Many chemicals have been found to mimic estrogen, the hormone that controls the development of the female reproductive system in a large number of animal species. Preliminary results indicate that these chemicals, in trace amounts, may disrupt development and dick to a host of serious problems in both males and females. These range from infertility, increased mortality of offspring and disruptions of bodily functions (such as slowing heart rates, or breathing rates) to cold/flu like symptoms (such as vomiting, diarrhea and swelling) and behavioral changes (such as depression, tiredness and behavior confusion).

Ghost Net

`Ghost Net`
By: Mary Lloyd P. Lumalang

Sea Turtle caught in a ghost net

Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. These nets, nearly invisible in the dim light, can be left or tangled on a rocky reef or drifting in the open sea. Maybe they were lost in a storm, or simply forgotten. They entangle and kill fish, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, dugongs, crocodiles, penguins and various seabirds, crabs and other creatures, including the occasional human diver.

(Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_net)

Undoubtedly, ghost nets have negative effects on marine resources. The fact that they entangle and subsequently kill fish and other sea creatures, it means that they are obviously contributing to the determination of the marine life.

Some commercial fisherman use gillnets. These are anchored to the sea floor with floatation buoys along one edge. In this way they can form a vertical wall hundreds of metres long, where any fish within a certain size range can be caught. Normally these nets can continue to catch fish until the weight of the catch exceeds the buoyancy of the floats. The net then sinks, and the fish are devoured by bottom-dwelling crustaceans and the other fish. Then the floats pull the net up again and the cycle continues. Given the high-quality synthetics that are used today, the destruction can continue for a long time.

(Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_net)

It is unfortunate that there are people who do not give important to the world's marine resources. Their are those who exploit and abuse the sea, ocean and the like, because they want to earn more money. They employ means that affect not only the sea creatures and the bodies of the water but the entire environment as well.

As a youth of today, I hope that people will learn to love our natural resources. Through it they will also learn how to preserve so that the future generations can still benefit from the different riches of the mother earth.

Thank you for reading !!

Mary Lloyd P. Lumalang
II-B Gandhi

** ü BioLogy ü **







♥ ♥ [ [ til` my next pOst ] ] ♥ ♥

++ _mary**beauty**llOyd_ ++

Hazardous wastes..

By : Marinel Louise d. Lapada

In addition to releasing gases and particles into the atmosphere, humans produce waste that is dumped on the environment. Often, this waste is hazardous and dangerous to both nature and human life.

As a result, many people and industries are failing to prevent the creation of hazardous waste or to limit the negative effects it produces.

Individuals often throw out goods without realizing that they are headed for a landfill and could be dangerous for the environment. No matter where people put these hazardous waste materials, there is always a chance that they could find their way into the ground, and eventually into our bodies.

Corporations usually want to avoid the costs associated with having to limit creation of hazardous waste. Consequently, they build landfills on site and fill them with waste, or sometimes pay to have their waste removed. Often, hazardous materials are transported to areas that accept money to take the waste.

It may prove very difficult to reduce hazardous waste in the future. Unlike many other environmental problems, waste creation is something people do not often think about.

In the future, people may have to reduce not only their generation of hazardous waste, but also their consumption of many products that end up in landfills.

Causes..

Hazardous waste is produced both on a huge scale by major industries and on a relatively tiny scale by individuals.

One of the main causes of the abundance of hazardous waste is that people do not realize how large a problem it is. Because it can be simply removed and sent to a landfill, it is often assumed that the problem ends there.

Many industries and governments create crude landfills to store waste, and often just dump waste chemicals into nearby bodies of water.

Over 80,000 different chemicals are used in industries worldwide. Often, it is difficult and expensive to get rid of these chemicals and to store them in a way that does not endanger human life or the environment. Obviously, not all of these chemicals are dangerous, but many are and they do create serious problems.

Around the world, hundreds of millions of tons of hazardous waste are produced annually. Rather than cleaning up or storing waste more carefully, one method of reducing the hazardous waste problem may be to simply stop producing so much of it.

Effects

Every year, major health problems result from hazardous waste. Increasing amounts of hazardous waste have caused increasing health problems.

There are over 80,000 chemicals in existence, and many are used commonly in industrial processes. Often, these chemicals find themselves in places where they are able to harm human health.

Insufficient research has been done to provide data on the effects of every chemical. Because waste chemicals often mix together, it will also be necessary to learn how combinations of these chemicals affect human health.

To compound the problem created by a lack of knowledge, 1,500 new chemicals are invented every year and many are introduced into industrial processes.

In 1989, a school in New Jersey had to be closed because students there had suffered excessive exposure to chromium. It was later learned that large amounts of chromium had been dumped nearby, and had blown over to the school area.

Sadly, it is often only after someone has died or become seriously ill that governments will intervene and reduce levels of dumped hazardous waste.

Solutions..

Hazardous waste has created many problems and dangers that have not gone unnoticed. Despite the fact that the problem receives less attention than many other environmental threats, some successful solutions to the problem of hazardous have been suggested and used.

As with air pollution and many other environmental problems, hazardous waste can be controlled through input and output controls.

The government can increase regulations on the disposal of hazardous waste to ensure that problems do not occur. It could also limit the amount of waste industries are allowed to produce, or provide incentives to create less waste.

After hazardous waste has been created, there are several actions that can be taken. Industries can break down chemical compounds into less dangerous forms, or store waste in ways that protect the environment from being exposed to the waste.

Not only major industries but individuals as well must form part of the solution. They can choose not to buy those products which require the production of hazardous waste, attempt to influence policymakers, and produce less hazardous waste themselves.

Many scientists think that waste production can be cut. Experts say that waste can be reduced by at least one-third using existing technologies and methods.

"Water Depletion"

By Renato Deleon
¾ of the earth is composed of water and the remaining ¼ is composed of land where a couple of biotic factors live. These biotic factors such as people, animals and plants depend on water for survival. When we try to compare and contrast the ¾ water and ¼ lands, we can say that the water is definitely suitable for the biotic factors.

But surely, Not now-a-days. Population of biotic factors especially the people is really uncontrollably huge. And all of these depend on water for survival even without food. Simply because lots of people suffer poverty.

But the ¾ water can still satisfy the ¼ of the earth. It will continue to exist even after we drink it or use it on chores. Absolutely, because the water undergoes a cycle, which has no definite beginning nor a definite end. As it undergoes a cycle, the water will again, be clean.

If that’s how water behaves, how come there is still water depletion? Water depletion is seriously decrease of clean, uncontaminated water supply. It is also one of the effects of human activities on the balance of nature. So, that’s it, isn’t? When people interrupt the balance of nature by some human activities, the nature will definitely suffer unable to recover on its own. These human activities are oil leaks, throwing of garbage on rivers and alike, contaminating the water. By contaminating the water, we continuously suffer and die. It’s either we die from thirst or die because of possible diseases we can get from contaminated water.

Therefore, it is us who needed and yet it is us who contaminate and deplete it. And it is us who must help the nature to recover.

"Soil Erosion"

by Alyssa Mae O. Villamor

What is Erosion?

Erosion is displacement of solids (sediment, soil, rock and other particles) usually by the agents of currents such as, wind, water, or ice by downward or down-slope movement in response to gravity or by living organisms (in the case of bioerosion). There are two different types of erosion "mechanical erosion" and "chemical erosion" Each of these has a different effect on the environment. Mechanical erosion would include water, wind, sun, ice, natural disasters such as earthquakes and shoreline erosion. Chemical erosion would be acid rain, over use of fertilizer, human land use, deforestazation and overgrazing.
Erosion is distinguished from weathering, which is the process of chemical or physical breakdown of the minerals in the rocks, although the two processes may be concurrent.
Erosion is an intrinsic natural process but in many places it is increased by human land use. Poor land use practices include deforestation, overgrazing, unmanaged construction activity and road or trail building. Land that is used for the production of agricultural crops generally experiences a significant greater rate of erosion than that of land under natural vegetation. This is particularly true if tillage is used, which reduces vegetation cover on the surface of the soil and disturbs both soil structure and plant roots that would otherwise hold the soil in place. However, improved land use practices can limit erosion, using techniques like terrace-building, conservation tillage practices, and tree planting.
A certain amount of erosion is natural and, in fact, healthy for the ecosystem. For example, gravels continuously move downstream in watercourses. Excessive erosion, however, does cause problems, such as receiving water sedimentation, ecosystem damage and outright loss of soil.
Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.[1] In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

What causes Erosion to happen?

Because we are dealing about environmental problems caused by man, we will focus more on the chemical erosion which was said to be caused by human land use. There are many causes of erosion. First is deforestation. Deforestation means destruction of our forestlands. Deforestation results from removal of trees without sufficient replacement. As we all know, trees plays a very important role on the environment. It doesn’t only give us food, but protection also from calamities. How? It protects us from calamities like floods by absorbing the water that the rain is producing. When there are no trees, there’ll be difficulties in the absorption of water which causes the soil to soften and results to erosion. Just like what happened in the landslide in Aurora Quezon. They abused the usage of trees so Mother Nature gave revenge in the form of landslide. Second is illegal mining. Mining is known for digging precious gems and stones under the land. For example is diamond. Diamonds today are considered to have a great value to most people and are equivalent to thousands and thousands of money. Because of poverty, every one of us wants to be rich. Who doesn’t, right? So, miners, to be able to find more stones and gems, are digging so hard and so deep. Stones are said to be the foundation of soil. When stones under the soil are gone, it softens and results again to soil erosion.

What are the effects of soil erosion?

The removal by erosion of large amounts of rock from a particular region, and its deposition elsewhere, can result in a lightening of the load on the lower crust and mantle. This can cause tectonic or isostatic uplift in the region. Research undertaken since the early 1990s suggests that the spatial distribution of erosion at the surface of an orogen can exert a key influence on its growth and its final internal structure. Farms and seas are affected when soil erosion happens so people living there loses source of work and living. It also causes the sea to absorb the chemicals in the soil and results to death of some organisms in the sea. In farms, it results to death of plantcrops which happened to be a source of food. So it means erosion also results to food shortage. It also results loss of habitat not only for animals but also for us. The phosphorus in the soil may also mix with bodies of water in soil erosion. As we all know, phosphorus is a common constituent of agricultural fertilizers, manure, and organic wastes in sewage and industrial effluent. It is an essential element for plant life, but when there is too much of it in water, it can speed up eutrophication (a reduction in dissolved oxygen in water bodies caused by an increase of mineral and organic nutrients) of rivers and lakes. Soil erosion is a major contributor of phosphorus to streams. But the hardest part is, loss of loved ones specifically death of people.

Instinct and reflections:

The environment is really a wonderful gift to us from God. Almost all of the things we need in our everyday life come from it. But we abuse it for we want to sustain our needs. Because of this, we give Mother Nature a reason not in a literal way to send calamities that can lead to destruction of the earth and danger to the human beings and other life forms. Sensitivity and discipline. That’s the answer. The answer that may change the world’s unpleasing aura into a good one. The answer that will also change many people’s lives. We should be very thankful and grateful to our Creator for He gave us wonderful things. In return, we should appreciate it, love it and lastly, to take care of it for it may vanish in just one snap.

♀_♥.Thanks for reading. I hope you learned something. ♀_♥