How has biodiversity been damaged and how can individuals and ecologists restore it to a sustainable level in?
Question by Harvey Thomas: How has biodiversity been damaged and how can individuals and ecologists restore it to a sustainable level in?
How has biodiversity been damaged and how can individuals and ecologists restore it to a sustainable level in earth’s forests and grassland?
What do you think? Answer below!
One Response to How has biodiversity been damaged and how can individuals and ecologists restore it to a sustainable level in?
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Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation have greatly damaged biodiversity. In both forests and grasslands, the various habitat patches, corridors, and patch size greatly determine what can live in that habitat. For instance, ovenbirds need large, large patches of deciduous forest. On the prairie, prairie chickens need fairly large patches of undisturbed tallgrass or shortgrass native species in an area devoid of vertical structure (due to raptor predation). Even in places with very low human populations, like rural Kansas, there is very little actual native habitat. We tend to squeeze every penny out of land we can however we can, whether it be from ranching, farming, residential development, etc.
An example, this is the historical range of prairies:
http://www.smscland.org/images/OriginalPrairieExtentMap.gif
If you were to see a map reflecting current prairies, it would be specks scattered here and there, similar to this map of historical/current prairie in Iowa:
http://www.uiowa.edu/~c019229/images/prairiemap.gif
When given so little to work with, maintaining biodiversity isn’t an easy task.
Preserving the remaining areas of natural habitat should be the first priority. Restoring is the second option, but it is expensive and difficult. Preservation is always cheaper and more effective than restoration. Restoration is difficult due to agriculture, ranching, and suburban sprawl gobbling up pristine or relatively undisturbed land. Converting from a wheat back to tallgrass prairie isn’t so simple because it’s likely most of the topsoil has eroded, taking the native seedbank with it. Also, the soil has been plowed, which breaks down the natural structure of the topsoil, leading to compaction and erosion. So, the first step to restoring a prairie is to plant the native grasses that grew there. One would then have to control for invasive/nuisance species and monitor erosion. Then, a burn plan would need to be implemented to keep out trees and replicate the native species historical environment.
Another factor regarding biodiversity is landuse practice. Allowing or prescribing burn regimes on prairie or forests is required for many species. Obviously, this clashes with humans because a house may get burned up if an accident occurs. Simply setting aside a chunk of land isn’t enough if the natural processes aren’t allowed to occur or replicated by humans if they can’t occur.
A sustainable level of biodiversity is a large task, and would require a lot of effort. Native Americans shaped the environment to a large extent, and since our restoration goals are usually aimed somewhere around 1491, we have to replicate their land use practices as well. We would have to do this on larger areas that really aren’t realistically available because they’re privately owned. Restoration is a political hot topic as well, if you have the time and interest check out the hubbub caused on the Platte River in Nebraska. They’re trying to restore the river to historical conditions, but it tends to clash with the corn farmers. Ecologists want one thing, farmers want another, and it takes mutual respect and cooperation to meet in the middle. Conflicts like this would prevent any truly large-scale restoration project.
JT
February 28, 2013 at 7:09 am