Weather and Ecosystem Changes
Weather patterns everywhere are changing. The El Nino effect is not what it used to be. The tsunami seems to have changed microclimates in some places. There are numerous reports and studies on global warming and how it is taking its toll. Every now and then animal census reports from around the world mention species whose numbers are falling.
Global warming will reduce Bangladesh's landmass by almost 17%, thats a large area of mangrove forests and all the life that they support, including human dependence on the mangrove ecosystem. The phenomenon is causing large scale extinction of several species of frogs. Global warming seems to be triggering off epidemics that have already taking away almost half the known species of frogs in the world. Frog skin is thin, that exposes them to even minor changes in temperature and humidity, even excessive rainfall can be fatal. High temperatures usually are effective in keeping a check on the diseases, but now with temperature cycles being moderate, that does not seem to help any more.
And yet, inspite of the rates of extinction increasing due to pollution and climatic changes across the globe, new species get added every now and then. Like the civet-like animal that was discovered in Borneo recently. For these animals to survive should not the weater patterns be stable? The rise in temperature in the Artics is helping the natural comeback of some species of mussels in the Arctic Ocean. But then again, this will not bode well for the Arctic ecosystem as we know it today. It will definitely be disrupted if their growth is not checked.
Could this be the beginning of a new cycle? We are headed to the next ice age, that cycle will continue. Weather patterns have oscillated over the last 150,000 years and ecosystems have sustained themselves through the changing conditions. When dinosaurs flourished, mammals were a minor part of the world. In this current age of mammals, a large number of them will go extinct as weather patterns continue to change. With these changes new species will develop. Speciation will result in animals that we may not be able to imagine today. Some scientists have made predictions as to what the future animals and plants will be like, and the represenations of those are scenes straight out of a sci-fi movie.
The change is inevitable. If the human race survives the next cycle, then who knows, our decendents would be digging up fossils of the animals we know so well today.
Technorati tags:
weather, 
global warming, 
speciation, 
ecosystem changes,
Global warming will reduce Bangladesh's landmass by almost 17%, thats a large area of mangrove forests and all the life that they support, including human dependence on the mangrove ecosystem. The phenomenon is causing large scale extinction of several species of frogs. Global warming seems to be triggering off epidemics that have already taking away almost half the known species of frogs in the world. Frog skin is thin, that exposes them to even minor changes in temperature and humidity, even excessive rainfall can be fatal. High temperatures usually are effective in keeping a check on the diseases, but now with temperature cycles being moderate, that does not seem to help any more.
And yet, inspite of the rates of extinction increasing due to pollution and climatic changes across the globe, new species get added every now and then. Like the civet-like animal that was discovered in Borneo recently. For these animals to survive should not the weater patterns be stable? The rise in temperature in the Artics is helping the natural comeback of some species of mussels in the Arctic Ocean. But then again, this will not bode well for the Arctic ecosystem as we know it today. It will definitely be disrupted if their growth is not checked.
Could this be the beginning of a new cycle? We are headed to the next ice age, that cycle will continue. Weather patterns have oscillated over the last 150,000 years and ecosystems have sustained themselves through the changing conditions. When dinosaurs flourished, mammals were a minor part of the world. In this current age of mammals, a large number of them will go extinct as weather patterns continue to change. With these changes new species will develop. Speciation will result in animals that we may not be able to imagine today. Some scientists have made predictions as to what the future animals and plants will be like, and the represenations of those are scenes straight out of a sci-fi movie.
The change is inevitable. If the human race survives the next cycle, then who knows, our decendents would be digging up fossils of the animals we know so well today.
Technorati tags:
weather, global warming, speciation, ecosystem changes,
posted by Sharmishta at 4:59 PM
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