Air Pollution and Biodiversity

Pollution affects our planet’s biodiversity through the air, the land, and the water. This article primarily focuses on air pollution, and its effects on our ecosystem.

canceer.gov

            The pollutants found in the Earth’s air come from two sources: natural sources and anthropogenic sources. Anthropogenic sources make up the sources in which humans are involved. Motor vehicle exhausts, wood burning stoves, coal powered plants, metal refineries, and battery manufacturers are all examples of the sources of air pollutants found in the United States. The compounds that result from these sources are harmful to the well-being of both humans and the environment including animals and plant life. The most commonly found outdoor air pollutants are: carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ground level ozone, and lead. Excess exposure to carbon dioxide may be responsible for severe headaches, heart attack, and fetal development abnormalities. Sulfur dioxide is responsible for eye irritation, coughing, and lung damage. Nitrogen dioxide can cause lung and other respiratory failures, and ground level ozone may cause asthma. Lastly, lead exposure has been linked to anemia, high blood pressure, kidney damage, and certain types of cancer.

ypte.org.uk

            While it is obvious that these air pollutants have been proven to negatively affect the well-being of humans, they have also affected the environment. Acid rain is the process of precipitation falling through the air pollutants mentioned above. This process brings down the pollutants onto lakes, ponds, trees, and animals who cannot find shelter. Acid rain is dangerous, and can severely damage and threaten what it touches.

            Air pollution is not just found outside. It is commonly found indoors, even in residential homes. One of the most common forms of indoor air pollution is asbestos, which affects the lungs through the disruption of tiny fibers found in building insulation. Other indoor air pollutants include the carbon monoxide released from wood stoves and radon leaking from cracks in pipes. In addition, formaldehyde is found in tobacco smoke, cabinets, plywood, particle board, new carpet, and many curtains. Lastly, air pollutants coming from fungi found in molds is a common home issue.

            What is being done to combat this pollution issue? In the matters of indoor air pollution, many residences and commercial buildings have installed high quality ventilation systems, they are attempting to control entry of pollutant sources, and are installing air-cleaning devices. Steps to reduce pollution outdoors proves more difficult. While policies are being adopted in the political realm, much of the responsibility to protect our planet and ecosystem is placed on ourselves. What can you do to reduce your carbon footprint?

Find out more at:

http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/

Biodiversity: Guardian of Your Health

Harvard biology professor Edward O. Wilson once said about ants, “We need them to survive, but they don’t need us at all.”

Biodiversity is the foundation for human life and we cannot imagine that we are independent from it. Without an environment that can support a healthy diverse mix of species, no human population can exist. If that’s not enough to impress the importance of preserving biodiversity, here are a just a few important ways that biodiversity stimulates and protects your health:

Nutrition 

A diet that includes a variety of nutrient-dense foods is fundamental to long term health. Biodiversity is crucial to ensure the sustainable productivity of soils that in turn support healthy crops. Excessive use of fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural practices that promote intensively growing single variety crops year after year have greatly affected plant and soil biodiversity and our access to a diet rich in varied nutrients. See Dangers of Monoculture for more.

Infectious Diseases 

Changes in the environment from human influence such as deforestation, uncontrolled urbanization, and climate change can impact both the evolution and the transmission infectious diseases. Outbreaks of SARS, Ebola, Bird Flu and Malaria can all be attributed to human impacts on biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity also affects the availability of medicines to treat diseases of all kinds.

Prevention/Mitigation of the Effects of Natural Disasters 

One need look no further than Hurricane Sandy to understand the protective effects that natural structures, such as the dunes in the case of the Jersey Shore, can have. The areas where development had encroached on the dunes suffered far more damage than the areas where the dunes were still intact. Natural, diverse habitats also provide protection against floods, droughts and landslides.  

To read more ways your health depends on biodiversity click here.

Arian Elsass

Biodiversity Research Institute

Biodiversity Research Institute and Contaminants in Mexican Resort Regions

A lot of Mexican resorts are facing many contamination issues within their beach resorts at many popular tourist locations. Beaches are becoming chemically polluted by plastic and marine debris. The state of Guerrero could be the concern for the plastic pollution around its beach resorts. They know of the issue and partnered with biodiversity research institute to better their environment and beaches. Also Tropical storm Manuel washed debris down from the highlands to the lower flood plain, out of the mouths of the rivers and into the coastline, the surf brought all the debris back into the coastline. In reaction many people would quickly clean up the debris and burn it, doing their best to separate the plastic.  This does work as a short-term plan; however; they are aiming towards a long-term plan to better improve their quality of their beaches. Mexicans and Americans have been focusing on three environmental contaminants: Plastic, petroleum and mercury.

 38 women of childbearing age were tested for mercury and 70% were above the minimum observable adverse effect level. This was a short-term study and they plan to do long term studies to increase research. Biodiversity Research Institute plan to work hard in Latin America, they educate by getting their information out to the public by scientific journals, school programs. Their goal is about effecting behavioral change so that long term they are doing a better job of relating to their environments.

The spread of oil from the Deepwater Horizon site overlapped spawning grounds of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. 

The spread of oil from the Deep water Horizon sire brings potential to help solve the bycatch problem caused by surface longlines, Oil spill restoration money could help pay for a gear transition program; Switching from surface longlines to selective fishing gears could protect rare and depleted ocean wildlife while keeping fishermen in business.  

Over-Exploitation

Many types of life forms from around the world are threatened because of over-exploitation. This is when our use of that species or resource renders it near extinction. Overpopulation has increased the “need” for over- exploitation, a “need” that cannot be sustained at our current rate of consumption.

Over-harvesting is a big problem with many of our natural resources. The harvesting of forests and the extraction of oil and gas are examples of non renewable resources whose over-use has severely impacted local environments and biodiversity.

Over-exploitation is also a huge problem for wildlife. Fish are a very good example of this as every year over 80 million fish are caught for human utilization. Sometimes the way that the fishing is done destroys marine habitats and catches many other marine animals by accident. These practices cause marine populations to shrink and have a huge impact on biodiversity.

Species trade is a very big problem in many countries. Thousands of plants and animals are taken from their natural habitats every day to be sold, traded or made into various products, including gifts (ivory from elephant tusks, coral, sea turtle shells and reptile skins are popular souvenirs that threaten species). Other products, like traditional Chinese medicines, can also be made using threatened and endangered animals.

Animals are often traded as well. But it’s not just the large animals that are trapped and traded. Insects like butterflies and rare coral fish are also illegally traded.

Over-exploitation seems to be swept under the rug as we continue to perpetuate the over consumptive attitude that fuels the over-exploitation of our natural resources. We as a people have to change our attitude one person at a time to help further the concept of biodiversity

Posted by David Ferguson

How Over-fishing Threatens The Longevity of Our Oceans

   

Unless you are Spongebob Squarepants living in Bikini Bottom, most of us do not regularly venture into the depths of our oceans, if ever at all. This can make it easy to disregard the impacts of our actions on the longevity of the planet’s underwater biodiversity. However, it is one of the most important.

For thousands of years, humans and many other species have thrived off of marine life for nourishment and functional materials. However, as our population grows and modern fishing methods make capturing large quantities of sea life more accessible, we pose a threat to their genetic, species, ecosystem, and functional diversity. In the face of environmental change, the loss of genetic diversity hinders a population’s ability to adapt; the loss of species diversity hinders a community’s ability to adapt; the loss of functional diversity hinders an ecosystem’s ability to adapt; and the loss of ecological diversity hinders the whole biosphere’s ability to adapt.

Genes are the driving force behind an organism’s defining characteristics and functions. Overfishing can act as a form of environmental change that selects for and alters certain physical and developmental traits, essentially causing evolution. One example of this selection pressure is the preferential exploitation of larger fish in a population. Obviously, a larger fish provides more nourishment for more people, and it also offers more in terms of marketable profit. However, if these larger fish are removed much more frequently, over time the survival of smaller fish is favored and they gain an evolutionary advantage. Individuals that mature earlier than others in their reproductive lives begin to flourish and do most of the reproducing. These fish are the ones that have a chance to consistently pass their genes on before being caught, and the genetic variability of the population begins to change in favor of the fish that begin reproducing at a younger age and/or smaller size.

One example of this effect has been observed in Pacific pink salmon. Over-fishing placed an uncustomary pressure on their species by catching nearly 80 percent of spawning fish; researchers examined the catch data and identified a steady decrease in the average weight per fish. Even after accounting for outside factors such as environmental woes, they concluded that our human inflicted fishing pressure was the sole cause of this miniaturization of Pacific pink salmon.

 In Part 2 of my series on over-fishing, I will be examining the effects we have on species diversity.

Predators and their Role in Ecosystem Preservation

The importance of terrestrial predators in maintaining healthy biodiversity seems counterintuitive. After all,

they kill things! It turns out that their role goes far beyond just keeping certain species of prey from overpopulating.

"The role of carnivores does not end with manipulating the densities of their prey and competitors – they provide a spate of other ecosystem services: from the obvious tourism dollars (watching lions, etc.), to the less well-appreciated increase in carbon sequestration by limiting herbivore abundance and thus enhancing plant growth, and the enhancement of nutrient cycling by supporting detrivore guilds (like scavengers). Large carnivores can even benefit the industry that persecutes them the most – pastoralism – by limiting the density of wild herbivores that compete for vegetation biomass eaten by commercial livestock. They can also potentially soften the impact of climate change on other species by limiting the advance of invasive species, and by promoting regeneration of degraded vegetation as it struggles to cope with new climate extremes." - Conservation Bytes.com

Hunters, livestock producers, politicians, and conservationists have some fairly strong opinions about how big of a role non-human predators should be allowed to play. It’s unclear how, if ever, such debates will be resolved. But one thing is clear. There’s a great deal of misunderstanding about carnivores, their impacts, and their ecological role. - Joe Scott, International Conservation Director 

Biodiversity and Pharmaceuticals

    Biodiversity is important to the ecosystem and the natural balance of life. That’s all well and good and should not be taken lightly but does it affect human life in a more direct way?

The truth is that much of our modern lifestyles rely on the functions of biodiversity. A good example of this is the medical field, specifically pharmaceuticals. While synthetic material has replaced much of what was originally plant and animal extracts, the basis for nearly 25% of all the drugs in your local pharmacy contained these ingredients.

    The medicines gained from biodiversity aren’t just multi-vitamins or holistic health substances, they are prescription-strength blood thinners and pain killers among other things. They come from mammals, snakes, lizards, fish, fungi, and  tree bark.
    Without the range and difference of life provided by biodiversity, plants and animals would not have developed such specific attributes that allow extracts to be beneficial to human health.

    Robert N. Young has written a detailed report on the past, current, and future of biodiversities effects on the modern pharmaceutical industry.
Rover N. Young "Importance of Biodiversity to the Modern Pharmaceutical Industry"
Here is a brief explanation from boundless.com on human health and biodiversity.