A new study has highlighted the impact humans are having on biodiversity decline in freshwater systems around the globeNASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens; NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service

It could take Earth’s freshwater ecosystems millions of years to recover from the damage inflicted upon them by humans, according to the results of a new study. The research also revealed that gastropods living in these environments are going extinct at a rate three orders of magnitude higher than occurred during the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Earth’s many ecosystems are incredibly complex and remarkably fragile. The expansion and industrialization of the human race has triggered mass habitat destruction, the introduction of pollution and invasive species, and has prompted a steady but dramatic shift in our planet’s climate.

These factors have led to countless species being listed as endangered, while others have been driven to complete extinction. The situation has become so dire that many members of the scientific community say we have entered a 6th mass extinction.

A new study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, sought to estimate how long it will take Earth’s freshwater ecosystems to recover from their current plight, and compares the modern day crisis with that of the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction that decimated the dinosaur population.

The international team of scientists behind the study, which was led by members from the Justus Liebig University Giessen, focused on the living and fossilized remains of freshwater gastropod species that inhabited Europe in the last 200 million years.

Gastropods, which include snails and slugs, are some of the most diverse groups of animals living in freshwater environments. They also have one of the best preserved fossil records, which makes them an excellent group to observe when examining extinction and recovery.

Data from a grand total of 3,387 living and fossil specimens was used by the team to estimate the emergence rate of new species during the last 200 million years – a value known as speciation – and the rate of extinction.

The researchers then went on to estimate how long it took for gastropods to recover from the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event that wiped out 76 percent of all animal species on Earth some 66 million years ago.

It was discovered that the asteroid strike that set in motion the downfall of the dinosaurs triggered a high rate of extinction in the 5.4 million years following the event. Furthermore, according to the study authors, it took a further 6.9 million years before the balance between speciation and extinction leveled out.

Disturbingly, the data also revealed that the rate of extinction for modern day freshwater snail species in Europe is around three orders of magnitude higher than was the case during the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. According to the study, a third of current freshwater species are forecast to have gone extinct by the year 2120.

“Even if our impact on the world’s biota stops today, the extinction rate will likely stay high for an extended period of time,” says Dr. Thomas A.Neubauer, lead author of the new study. “Considering that the current biodiversity crisis advances much faster than the mass extinction event 66 million years ago, the recovery period may be even longer. Despite our short existence on Earth, we have assured that the effects of our actions will outlast us by millions of years.”

The paper has been published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

https://newatlas.com/environment/freshwater-biodiversity-mass-extinction-human-impacts/

Not to take away from the seriousness of this

Something interesting in the David Brin Uplift books was environmental destruction was considered one of the worst crimes a species could undertake.

Intelligent species has a time limited lease on a planet and when it was up they had to leave take or dismantle as much of civilisation as possible as the planet was left fallow for tens of millions of years to recover

It is possible to claim that it’s already recovered.

eg. The number of extinct mammals in Australia is an almost perfect match for the the number of feral introduced mammal species in Australia (I mean since European arrival, it was not true during the era in which aborigines destroyed the megafauna). I once heard that something similar is true in Hawaii. And a huge number of new plant species have been created by gardeners. The anthropogenic separation of members of individual plant species by geographic isolation leads to separate evolutionary tracks and hence greater biodiversity.

The theory of “island biogeography” appears here. In general, for each old species that goes extinct, a geographically isolated bubble of some other species takes its place.

The next book I’m going to read is about ecology. So after reading that I’ll be able to comment more intelligently.

mollwollfumble said:

It is possible to claim that it’s already recovered.

eg. The number of extinct mammals in Australia is an almost perfect match for the the number of feral introduced mammal species in Australia (I mean since European arrival, it was not true during the era in which aborigines destroyed the megafauna). I once heard that something similar is true in Hawaii. And a huge number of new plant species have been created by gardeners. The anthropogenic separation of members of individual plant species by geographic isolation leads to separate evolutionary tracks and hence greater biodiversity.

The theory of “island biogeography” appears here. In general, for each old species that goes extinct, a geographically isolated bubble of some other species takes its place.

The next book I’m going to read is about ecology. So after reading that I’ll be able to comment more intelligently.

Diversity is somewhat different though as you are creating new populations of existing animals at the expense of local species probably not found elsewhere.

mollwollfumble said:

It is possible to claim that it’s already recovered.

eg. The number of extinct mammals in Australia is an almost perfect match for the the number of feral introduced mammal species in Australia (I mean since European arrival, it was not true during the era in which aborigines destroyed the megafauna). I once heard that something similar is true in Hawaii. And a huge number of new plant species have been created by gardeners. The anthropogenic separation of members of individual plant species by geographic isolation leads to separate evolutionary tracks and hence greater biodiversity.

The theory of “island biogeography” appears here. In general, for each old species that goes extinct, a geographically isolated bubble of some other species takes its place.

The next book I’m going to read is about ecology. So after reading that I’ll be able to comment more intelligently.

Did you actually read the above from an informed source, or it is your own opinion?

consider all the structure in, that is organic nature, happened over a long period of time, courtesy a lot of accidents really, all the time needed to happen upon whatever, in some ways it’s quite a different thing to the business of humans

Makes sense

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

It is possible to claim that it’s already recovered.

eg. The number of extinct mammals in Australia is an almost perfect match for the the number of feral introduced mammal species in Australia (I mean since European arrival, it was not true during the era in which aborigines destroyed the megafauna). I once heard that something similar is true in Hawaii. And a huge number of new plant species have been created by gardeners. The anthropogenic separation of members of individual plant species by geographic isolation leads to separate evolutionary tracks and hence greater biodiversity.

The theory of “island biogeography” appears here. In general, for each old species that goes extinct, a geographically isolated bubble of some other species takes its place.

The next book I’m going to read is about ecology. So after reading that I’ll be able to comment more intelligently.

Did you actually read the above from an informed source, or it is your own opinion?

My own opinion.

The first two words in the ecology textbook I’ve just started reading are exactly the words I need. “allopatric speciation”. Humans are marvels at inducing allopatric speciation.

I can immediately think of three examples of incipient allopatric speciation of animals in Australia:

• the dingo
• the cane toads of WA with their longer legs
• the bearded dragons of Brisbane (from the Barry Humphries wildlife documentary).

So add “anthropogenic allopatric speciation” to your vocabulary.

The koalas of Kangaroo Island and another example of incipient allopatric speciation. But not caused by humans.

It’s only taken 10,000 years to produce the distinct subspecies on King Island: Black Currawong, Yellow Wattlebird, Green Rosella, Dusky Robin, King Island Brown Thornbill and the King Island Scrub Tit.

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

It is possible to claim that it’s already recovered.

eg. The number of extinct mammals in Australia is an almost perfect match for the the number of feral introduced mammal species in Australia (I mean since European arrival, it was not true during the era in which aborigines destroyed the megafauna). I once heard that something similar is true in Hawaii. And a huge number of new plant species have been created by gardeners. The anthropogenic separation of members of individual plant species by geographic isolation leads to separate evolutionary tracks and hence greater biodiversity.

The theory of “island biogeography” appears here. In general, for each old species that goes extinct, a geographically isolated bubble of some other species takes its place.

The next book I’m going to read is about ecology. So after reading that I’ll be able to comment more intelligently.

Did you actually read the above from an informed source, or it is your own opinion?

My own opinion.

The first two words in the ecology textbook I’ve just started reading are exactly the words I need. “allopatric speciation”. Humans are marvels at inducing allopatric speciation.

I can immediately think of three examples of incipient allopatric speciation of animals in Australia:

• the dingo
• the cane toads of WA with their longer legs
• the bearded dragons of Brisbane (from the Barry Humphries wildlife documentary).

So add “anthropogenic allopatric speciation” to your vocabulary.

The koalas of Kangaroo Island and another example of incipient allopatric speciation. But not caused by humans.

It’s only taken 10,000 years to produce the distinct subspecies on King Island: Black Currawong, Yellow Wattlebird, Green Rosella, Dusky Robin, King Island Brown Thornbill and the King Island Scrub Tit.

But you miss the most important thing, those animals that have evolved over thousands or even millions of years in Australia have found their niche in the environment to become an integral part of it, and in so doing without generating biological damage as to threaten the entire ecosystem. Cats and foxes for example do not fit into Australia’s ecosystems and would eventually destroy them in order to survive.

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

Did you actually read the above from an informed source, or it is your own opinion?

My own opinion.

The first two words in the ecology textbook I’ve just started reading are exactly the words I need. “allopatric speciation”. Humans are marvels at inducing allopatric speciation.

I can immediately think of three examples of incipient allopatric speciation of animals in Australia:

• the dingo
• the cane toads of WA with their longer legs
• the bearded dragons of Brisbane (from the Barry Humphries wildlife documentary).

So add “anthropogenic allopatric speciation” to your vocabulary.

The koalas of Kangaroo Island and another example of incipient allopatric speciation. But not caused by humans.

It’s only taken 10,000 years to produce the distinct subspecies on King Island: Black Currawong, Yellow Wattlebird, Green Rosella, Dusky Robin, King Island Brown Thornbill and the King Island Scrub Tit.

But you miss the most important thing, those animals that have evolved over thousands or even millions of years in Australia have found their niche in the environment to become an integral part of it, and in so doing without generating biological damage as to threaten the entire ecosystem. Cats and foxes for example do not fit into Australia’s ecosystems and would eventually destroy them in order to survive.

Is it technically considered evolution, the fitter species survives, its human created for sure but what if they got here by themselves

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

My own opinion.

The first two words in the ecology textbook I’ve just started reading are exactly the words I need. “allopatric speciation”. Humans are marvels at inducing allopatric speciation.

I can immediately think of three examples of incipient allopatric speciation of animals in Australia:

• the dingo
• the cane toads of WA with their longer legs
• the bearded dragons of Brisbane (from the Barry Humphries wildlife documentary).

So add “anthropogenic allopatric speciation” to your vocabulary.

The koalas of Kangaroo Island and another example of incipient allopatric speciation. But not caused by humans.

It’s only taken 10,000 years to produce the distinct subspecies on King Island: Black Currawong, Yellow Wattlebird, Green Rosella, Dusky Robin, King Island Brown Thornbill and the King Island Scrub Tit.

But you miss the most important thing, those animals that have evolved over thousands or even millions of years in Australia have found their niche in the environment to become an integral part of it, and in so doing without generating biological damage as to threaten the entire ecosystem. Cats and foxes for example do not fit into Australia’s ecosystems and would eventually destroy them in order to survive.

Is it technically considered evolution, the fitter species survives, its human created for sure but what if they got here by themselves

If an alien species enters an environment like when North and South America joined up to permit the movement of wildlife and even plants in either direction. What happened was many species went extinct and when that happens it affects other life forms in the environment that interacted with them, often creating dramatic changes. In the American situation many of the invading species occupied a similar niche therefore if they had greater advantages they would replace the indigenous species, thereby having less impact on ecosystems.

Cats and foxes do not fit any niche and by their all consuming actions destroy environments beyond repair and by their hunting habits favour introduced species like rabbits, rats and mice that would come to dominate thus leading to major environmental adjustments quite unlike the Australia we know today.

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

Did you actually read the above from an informed source, or it is your own opinion?

My own opinion.

The first two words in the ecology textbook I’ve just started reading are exactly the words I need. “allopatric speciation”. Humans are marvels at inducing allopatric speciation.

I can immediately think of three examples of incipient allopatric speciation of animals in Australia:

• the dingo
• the cane toads of WA with their longer legs
• the bearded dragons of Brisbane (from the Barry Humphries wildlife documentary).

So add “anthropogenic allopatric speciation” to your vocabulary.

The koalas of Kangaroo Island and another example of incipient allopatric speciation. But not caused by humans.

It’s only taken 10,000 years to produce the distinct subspecies on King Island: Black Currawong, Yellow Wattlebird, Green Rosella, Dusky Robin, King Island Brown Thornbill and the King Island Scrub Tit.

But you miss the most important thing, those animals that have evolved over thousands or even millions of years in Australia have found their niche in the environment to become an integral part of it, and in so doing without generating biological damage as to threaten the entire ecosystem. Cats and foxes for example do not fit into Australia’s ecosystems and would eventually destroy them in order to survive.

Missing the obvious seems to be a standard problematic.