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Human Impact on the Oceans is Growing - and Climate Change is the Biggest Culprit

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Human Impact on the Oceans is Growing - and Climate Change is the Biggest Culprit

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In this article, it explains the reasons why the oceans are getting damaged. Humans are over fishing, polluting, and causing climate change. The biggest cause of the damage is climate change. Climate change is warming the waters and causing fish to migrate. Iit also changes the composition of the waters and even causing species to die. There was a study done on water that is heavily damaged and water that is not. Scientists believe that if we change what we're doing and do what the people with not damaged water, we can help the ocean.
Eva Ng
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/14/human-impacts-on-the-oceans-are-growing-and-climate-change-is-the-worst-of-all/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.31897cd5d2e5

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Oil depletion in the United States and the World

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Oil depletion in the United States and the World

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About 40% of our primary energy is accounted for oil. Oil and other fossil fuels has made it possible for human expansion , but now everyone uses it in eveyday life. The amount of oil in the country is at a terminal decline and is going down rapidly. It is difficult manage oil in states and areas where there is lots of people . Overpopulation plays a big role in this cause because as the world grows more resources are needed for others. Since fossil fuels were discovered they have been going down quickly because of the amount of people being born each year. (Christian Carrillo)

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2007-07-21/oil-and-natural-gas-depletion-and-our-future/#

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Humans are dominating the world leaving barely any room for wildlife. For many years, humans have been hunting down innocent animals, leaving many species extinct. Even animals that haven't been directly impacted by humans still end up getting hurt. According to the article, "Among the victims were whole groups of mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed tigers, giant ground sloths, and big beavers. Many vanished in just a 4,000 year span that ended about 11,000 years ago. By then, Australia had lost roughly 88 per cent of its big mammal groups, South America 83 per cent, and North America 72 per cent." Many species are slowly becoming extinct because of human activity

https://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/human-activity-is-causing-wildlife-to-shrink.html

ava ngo

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The great Barrier Reef The great barrier reef is affected in many ways by human activity. It is the world's largest natural reef system. 25% of global reef systems have been destroyed by human activities and another 60% are getting threatened greatly. The first big issue that is killing the great barrier reef is poor water quality. This is a result of dredged material being dumped into the sea. Coral requires clean water so dumping  this caused the reef damage. Additionally, another issue was pollution. The pollution would get caught in water molecules and eventually make its way down to the ocean. This again causes harm to the reef. A third problem that humans created was global warming. Coral needs stable water temperatures so the water being heated by global warming caused damage to the coral polyps. Tourism and invasive species is another reason the Great Barrier Reef is dying. Tourism causes too much of a demand in natural products, causing the ecosystem to be disrupt and it is also disrupted when other non-native and invasive organisms are brought in by humans.
Allie Barrett p.6
http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-57_u-464_t-1263_c-4815/qld/sose-geography/the-great-barrier-reef/the-great-barrier-reef/human-threats-to-the-reef

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According to National Geographics, an extinct species of Tasmanian Tigres have been sighted and alive.

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Industrial agriculture is one the world's largest reasons for bees-decline. Much of the food we eat is significantly dependent of pollination. Bees are starving because of industrial agriculture. Pesticides such as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides used on agriculture are reaching bees most commonly through pollen and nectar. Although insecticides are not used to intentionally poison bees, they are a large cause in the decline. Humans can support bees and other pollinators by discontinuing to use bee-harming pesticides, enhancing the health, and farming with high biodiversity and without agrochemicals. -Sofia Suarez
http://sos-bees.org/causes/

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Tigers are quickly losing most of their population due to poaching and enviroment losses. There are only about 3,800 tigers left in the wild. Tigers are native to the colder regions of Asia, but have been transported all over the world and into zoos. There are only about 5 or 6 tiger subspecies left on Earth. When first counted, there were 9.

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The Endangered Tiger

Tigers are native to much of Asia, from some of the coldest regions to the steamy rainforests of the Indonesian Islands. They are the top predator in every ecosystem they inhabit.

Until the 20th Century there were nine tiger subspecies that probably numbered over 100,000 animals. They included the giant 660-pound, or 300 kilo, Siberian ( Pantera tigris altaica) and Caspian ( Pantera tigris virgata; now extinct) tigers as well as the relatively small-and now also extinct-200-pound (90 kilo) Balinese tiger. Depending on whether there are any remaining South China tigers-nobody has seen one in years-there are either 5 or 6 tiger subspecies remaining in existence; all are endangered. All tiger subspecies put together currently amount to fewer than 3,000 endangered tigers remaining in the wild.

See A Range Map Of All The Endangered Tiger Species

See Our Latest Update On The Endangered Tiger's Status

The main reasons tigers are endangered-in most cases cases, critically endangered-are illegal hunting for their pelts, meat and body parts (used in folk medicines) as well as habitat loss that results from logging and other forms of forest destruction.

Fewer than 500 endangered Siberian, or Amur, tigers remain in the wild, all of of them in a small area of coastal Far-Eastern Russia. Although the population has appeared stable until recently, these tigers are threatened by poaching, habitat loss due to logging, road-building and development, as well as by the problem of inbreeding that has resulted from the fact that, before conservation measures were implemented in the 1930's, the entire population had collapsed to around 40 individuals. Read more about endangered Siberian tigers.

The Bengal tiger ( Pantera tigris tigris) is the most numerous of the endangered tiger subspecies, with probably fewer than 2,000 remaining at large in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

There are fewer than 500 each of the endangered Malayan tiger ( Pantera tigris jacksoni), native to the Malay Peninsula, and the endangered Sumatran tiger ( Pantera tigris sumatrae) which is found only on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra.

The Indochinese tiger ( Pantera tigris corbetti) of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) probably numbers fewer than 500.

No critically endangered South China tiger ( Pantera tigris amoyensis) has been sighted for a number of years, and the species may be extinct.

Along with the Balinese tiger, formerly found on the Indonesian Island of Bali and known to be extinct since the 1930's, the Javan tiger ( Pantera tigris sondaica), another Indonesia Island species, was also hunted to extinction, with the last one spotted in 1979.

The Caspian tiger-a huge, cold-climate species similar to the Siberian tiger, which once roamed the vast mountains of western Asia-has been extinct since the 1950's.

Populations of all endangered tiger species continue to decline.

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Tigers are native to much of Asia, from some of the coldest regions to the steamy rainforests of the Indonesian Islands. They are the top predator in every ecosystem they inhabit. Until the 20th Century there were nine tiger subspecies that probably numbered over 100,000 animals.

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Human overpopulation is a factor in many ways the earth is loosing resources. According to the article, by the year 2025, over half of the world will be facing water shortages.  Also, the more people there are, the less room for growth there will be for people and wildlife. When humans have to expand into more wildlife, they will be cutting down more trees. The less trees, the less oxygen that will be made for all living animals.
Jake Haro
http://www.everythingconnects.org/overpopulation-effects.html

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Sea turtles are largly affected by humans, and many species of sea turtle, such as the hawksbill sea turtle are endangered species. Sea turtles are hunted for their meat, eggs, and shells, and this has depleted sea turtle populations by large amounts in recent years. Many sea turtles are also caught in fishing nets, and thousands of sea turtles have been severely injured ot killed from being trapped in fishing nets. Sea turtles are also killed by plastic pollution in the ocean, and sea turtles, such as the leatherback, mistake plastic for jellyfish, which is a major part of their diet. Other types of pollution such as chemicals can contaminate the turtles food and the turtles, and the disease, fibropapillomas, has been found to be caused by water pollution.
Turtles lay their eggs on a beach, and the baby turtles htch on the sand and go into the water. These beaches, however, could be blocked off by sea walls, or other forms of coastal armoring. These beaches could also be eroded away because of human activity, and humans' presence on beaches coul also stop turtles from laying their eggs. When the eggs do hatch, turtles follow the light of the moon to the ocean, burpt artificial lights from humans attract the baby turtles in the opposite direction, where they could be run over, or be trapped in storm drains. Invasive species introduced by humans also eat the baby turtles or the eggs. Climate change causes rising ocean levels, which can disrupt the beaches that turtles use for laying their eggs, and storms caused by climate change can negatively affect the turtles. Rising ocean temperatures can also disrupt the population balance of the sea turtles.

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Each year thousands of hatchling turtles emerge from their nests along the southeast U.S. coast and enter the Atlantic Ocean. Sadly, only an estimated one in 1,000 to 10,000 will survive to adulthood. The natural obstacles faced by young and adult sea turtles are staggering, but it is the increasing threats caused by humans that are driving them to extinction. Today, all sea turtles found in U.S. waters are federally listed as endangered, except for the loggerhead which is listed as threatened.

Natural Predators

In nature, sea turtles face a host of life and death obstacles to their survival. Predators such as raccoons, crabs and ants raid eggs and hatchlings still in the nest. Once they emerge, hatchlings make bite-sized meals for birds, crabs and a host of predators in the ocean. After reaching adulthood, sea turtles are relatively immune to predation, except for the occasional shark attack. These natural threats, however, are not the reasons sea turtle populations have plummeted toward extinction. To understand what really threatens sea turtle survival, we must look at the actions of humans.

Human-Caused Threats

Although sea turtles have spiritual or mythological importance in many cultures around the world, this has not prevented humans from consuming their eggs or meat. In many coastal communities, especially in Central America and Asia, sea turtles have provided a source of food. During the nesting season, turtle hunters comb the beaches at night looking for nesting females. Often, they will wait until the female has deposited her eggs to kill her. Then, they take both the eggs and the meat. Additionally, people may use other parts of the turtle for products, including the oil, cartilage, skin and shell. Many countries forbid the taking of eggs, but enforcement is lax, illagal harvest is rampant, and the eggs can often be found for sale in local markets. Learn more...

Hawksbill sea turtles, recognized for their beautiful gold and brown shells, have been hunted for centuries to create jewelry and other luxury items. As a result, these turtles are now listed as critically endangered. Scientists estimate that hawksbill populations have declined by 90 percent during the past 100 years. While illegal trade is the primary cause of this decline, the demand for shells continues today on the black market. The lack of information about sea turtles leads many tourists to unwittingly support the international trade in these endangered species. Buying, selling or importing any sea any sea turtle products in the U.S., as in many countries around the world, is strictly prohibited by law. Learn more...

Each year hundreds of thousands of adult and immature sea turtles are accidentally captured in fisheries ranging from highly mechanized operations to small-scale fishermen around the world. Global estimates of annual capture, injury and mortality are staggering - 150,000 turtles of all species killed in shrimp trawls, more than 200,000 loggerheads and 50,000 leatherbacks captured, injured or killed by longlines, and large numbers of all species drowned in gill nets. The extent of gill net mortality is unknown, but sea turtle capture is significant where studied, and the drowning of sea turtles in gill nets may be comparable to trawl and longline mortality. Deaths in gill nets are particularly hard to quantify because these nets are set by uncounted numbers of local fishermen in tropical waters around the world. Other fisheries that accidentally take turtles include dredges, trawls, pound nets, pot fisheries, and hand lines. Learn more about longline fisheries...

In the United States, the federal government worked with the commercial shrimp trawl industry to develop Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs). TEDs are a grid of bars with an opening either at the top or the bottom of the trawl net. The grid is fitted into the neck of a shrimp trawl. Small animals such as shrimp pass through the bars and are caught in the bag end of the trawl. When larger animals, such as marine turtles and sharks are captured in the trawl they strike the grid bars and are ejected through the opening. Today, all U.S. shrimpers are required to put TEDs in their trawl nets. Unfortunately, not all fishermen comply with the law, and sea turtles continue to drown in shrimp nets. Learn more about trawl fisheries...

Over 1 million marine animals (including mammals, fish, sharks, turtles, and birds) are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean. More than 80% of this plastic comes from land. It washes out from our beaches and streets. It travels through storm drains into streams and rivers. It flies away from landfills into our seas. As a result, thousands of sea turtles accidentally swallow these plastics, mistaking them for food. Leatherbacks especially, cannot distinguish between floating jellyfish - a main component of their diet - and floating plastic bags. Most of the debris is recognizable: plastic bags, balloons, bottles, degraded buoys, plastic packaging, and food wrappers. Some plastics aren't so easy to see, so small, in fact, that it is invisible to the naked eye. If sea turtles ingest these particles, they can become sick or even starve. Turtles are affected to an unknown, but potentially significant degree, by entanglement in persistent marine debris, including discarded or lost fishing gear including steel and monofilament line, synthetic and natural rope, plastic onion sacks and discarded plastic netting materials. Monofilament line appears to be the principal source of entanglement for sea turtles in US waters. Learn more...

Nesting turtles depend on dark, quite beaches to reproduce successfully. Today, these turtles are endangered, in part, because they must compete with tourists, businesses and coastal residents to use the beach. This man-made, coastal development results in artificial lighting on the beach that discourages female sea turtles from nesting. Instead, turtles will choose a less-than-optimal nesting spot, which affects the chances of producing a successful nest. Also, near-shore lighting can cause sea turtle hatchlings to become disoriented when they are born. Instead, they will wander inland where they often die of dehydration, predation, or even from being run over on busy coastal streets. Learn more...

Sea turtle nesting beaches everywhere have been substantially altered by urbanization and development. To protect this prime real estate, many coastal property owners have built coastal armoring structures such as sea walls, rock revetments and sandbags to help protect their property from natural erosion. These man-made structures threaten sea turtles nesting habitat by interrupt the natural nesting process through a reduction of nesting habitat and displacement of turtles to less optimal nesting areas. Florida's beaches, for example, host approximately 90% of all the sea turtle nesting in the U.S. But sadly, over 40% of Florida's beaches are classified as critically eroding due to changes in the natural landscape of these beaches. Learn more...

One way to address beach erosion is through beach nourishment. This consists of pumping, trucking or otherwise depositing sand on a beach to replace what has been lost to erosion. While beach nourishment is often preferable to armoring, if it is not done correctly, it can negatively impact sea turtles. Dredging for the sand to nourish a beach can cause direct threats to sea turtles and their nearshore marine habitats. Hopper dredges have been directly responsible for the incidental capture and death of hundreds, if not thousands, of sea turtles in the US. Learn more...

Human use of nesting beaches can result in negative impacts to nesting turtles, incubating egg clutches and hatchlings. The most serious threat caused by increased human presence on the beach is the disturbance to nesting females. Night-time human activity can prevent sea turtles from emerging on the beach or even cause females to stop nesting and return to the ocean.

Beach Furniture and other recreational equipment (e.g., cabanas, umbrellas, hobie cats, canoes, small boats and beach cycles) can reduce nesting success and increase false crawls on nesting beaches. There is also increasing documentation of nesting females becoming entrapped in beach furniture.

Beach Driving, either at night or during the daytime, can negatively impact sea turtles. Night time driving can disturb nesting females, disorient emerging hatchlings, and crush hatchlings attempting to reach the ocean. Tire ruts left by vehicles can extend the time it takes a hatchling to reach the ocean and increase their chance of being caught by a predator. Driving during the day can cause sand compaction above nests resulting in lower nest success. Additionally, beach driving contributes to erosion, especially during high tides or on narrow beaches. Learn more...

Around the globe, sea turtles and hatchlings alike are victim to natural predators. Crabs, raccoons, boars, birds, fish and sharks all play their role in the natural food chain. However, urban development along coast lines has introduced many non-native species that have become invasive predators for sea turtles and other coastal wildlife. Florida itself has one of the most severe invasive species problems in the United States. Domesticated dogs and cats will devour eggs and hatchlings and even attack nesting turtles. In many areas, trash left behind by humans encourages inland animals to migrate to beaches for food, further increasing sea turtle predators. Learn more...

Marine pollution can have serious impacts on both sea turtles and the food they eat. New research suggests that a disease now killing many sea turtles (fibropapillomas) may be linked to pollution in the oceans and in near-shore waters. When pollution enters the water, it contaminates and kills aquatic plant and animal life that is often food for sea turtles. Oil spills, urban runoff from chemicals, fertilizers and petroleum all contribute to water pollution. Because the ocean is so large, many incorrectly assume that pollutants will be diluted and dispersed to safe levels, but in reality, the toxins released from these pollutants become more concentrated as they break down in size. As a result, these smaller, more toxic particles become food for many links in the food chain, including sea turtles. Learn more...

Marine pollution can have serious impacts on both sea turtles and the food they eat. New research suggests that a disease now killing many sea turtles (fibropapillomas) may be linked to pollution in the oceans and in near-shore waters. When pollution enters the water, it contaminates and kills aquatic plant and animal life that is often food for sea turtles. Oil spills, urban runoff from chemicals, fertilizers and petroleum all contribute to water pollution. Because the ocean is so large, many incorrectly assume that pollutants will be diluted and dispersed to safe levels, but in reality, the toxins released from these pollutants become more concentrated as they break down in size. As a result, these smaller, more toxic particles become food for many links in the food chain, including sea turtles. Learn more...

Because sea turtles use both marine and terrestrial habits during their life cycles, the affects of climate change are likely to have a devastating impact on these endangered species. Climate change affects nesting beaches. With melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels, beaches are starting to disappear. As the water level begins to rise, the size of nesting beaches decrease. Stronger storms, predicted as a result of increasing temperatures, will continue to erode coastal habitats. Higher temperatures can adversely affect sea turtle gender ratio. Increasing incubation temperatures could result in more female sea turtles, which reduces reproductive opportunities and decreases genetic diversity. Learn more...
Although these threats to sea turtles and destruction of their habitats seem almost too big to overcome, there are many things within our control that can be changed. Greater public awareness and support for sea turtle conservation is the first priority. By learning more about sea turtles and the threats they face, you can help by alerting decision-makers when various issues need to be addressed.

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Information About Sea Turtles: Threats to Sea Turtles - Sea Turtle Conservancy

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Each year thousands of hatchling turtles emerge from their nests along the southeast U.S. coast and enter the Atlantic Ocean. Sadly, only an estimated one in 1,000 to 10,000 will survive to adulthood. The natural obstacles faced by young and adult sea turtles are staggering, but it is the increasing threats caused by humans that are driving them to extinction.

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Human Impact on the Oceans is Growing - and Climate Change is the Biggest Culprit

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Human Impact on the Oceans is Growing - and Climate Change is the Biggest Culprit

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In this article, it explains the reasons why the oceans are getting damaged. Humans are over fishing, polluting, and causing climate change. The biggest cause of the damage is climate change. Climate change is warming the waters and causing fish to migrate. Iit also changes the composition of the waters and even causing species to die. There was a study done on water that is heavily damaged and water that is not. Scientists believe that if we change what we're doing and do what the people with not damaged water, we can help the ocean.
Eva Ng
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/14/human-impacts-on-the-oceans-are-growing-and-climate-change-is-the-worst-of-all/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.31897cd5d2e5

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Even The Bottom Of The World’s Deepest Ocean Trench Is Not Safe From Plastic Bags

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Even The Bottom Of The World’s Deepest Ocean Trench Is Not Safe From Plastic Bags

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Almost 36,000 feet underwater, near the very bottom of the world’s deepest ocean trench/Mariana Trench, scientists came across and found a plastic bag lying in the sand in darkness. The article said that recent studies on deep-sea pollution identified the bag, found in 1998 by a robotic submersible at the depth of 35,756 feet in the Mariana Trench, as the deepest known piece of plastic trash. Scientists say that this goes to show how troubling and worryingly plastic pollution has become after finding the bag in one the deepest and most remote environments. Researchers from Japan along with scientists from the United Nations Environment’s World conservation Monitoring Center found a disturbing amount of trash in deep-sea environments including the Japan Trench, the Mariana Trench, and many other deep-sea areas in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. In the database of plastic pollution, it was found that most trash in ocean environments are half plastic debris. Ivan Gutierrez

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/plastic-bag-deepest-ocean-mariana-trench-deep-sea-pollution_us_5af95668e4b032b10bfc4664

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How Do We Know that Humans Are the Major Cause of Global Warming?

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How Do We Know that Humans Are the Major Cause of Global Warming?

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The following article discusses how humans have affected the climate and what the results of those changes could be. The article focuses on how the amount of greenhouse gases has risen since the begining of the industrial revolution and how since then, tempetures have been rising as well. According to the article, the amount of carbon dioxide has increased dramatically since the 1800's and that is most likely the main reason for the record high tempetures and the melting of the artic. Anthropogenic drivers or human impacts are responsible for about two thirds of recent atmospheric changes. This article provides multiple sources and statistics showing how humans are to blame for many recent changes on Earth.
Jesse Massey

https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/human-contribution-to-gw-faq.html#.Wvnp9tFlChA

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Between 2007 and 2014, the elephant population of Africa had decreased by 30%. The elephant population of Africa is continuing to decrese. This decrease is caused by people hunting elephants for thier tusks. According to the article, tens of thousands of elephanfs are being killed each year. Many governments in Africa have tried to protect these elephants by laws and national parks, but not much as helped. The main problem is that poachers will go to great lengths to kill elephants for thier ivory. Humans have caused the elephant population to decrease by ivory consumption.The article takes this problem into greater depth.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/31/492124724/african-elephant-population-declines-by-30-percent

Alex Haro

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In the Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and California, there is a huge mass of floating plastic. This "island" was caused by the accumulation of plastic. This island posts many threats to sea animals. Sea animals mistake some of the plastic for food and ingest dangerous toxins that get passed down the food chain. Consequently, other animals, including us, that eat these animals also get the toxins. Plastic is effecting the whole world's health indirectly. This article explains the plastic island and its effects.

Meghana Raj

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch2.htm

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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These whales will be extinct in 25 years, scientists say - unless we act now to save them

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These whales will be extinct in 25 years, scientists say - unless we act now to save them

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In the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the population of the right whale is quickly decreasing. Its name comes from fishermen dubbing them the "right" whales to hunt centuries ago, because they were "docile and rich in oils." After being driven nearly to extinction in 1935, down to a population of only 60, the whales were protected by the Endangered Species Act and the marine Mammal Protection Act. However, once again their population is dropping, falling to about 430, the lowest its been in a decade. They are dying off due to entanglements with fishing rope, buoys, and other things. Scientists are doing the best they can to track those remaining and reduce the risk of their death. However, it seems like drastic action must be taken.
Karla Camacho
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/these-whales-will-be-extinct-in-25-years-scientists-say--unless-we-act-now-to-save-them/2018/04/20/57bf89b2-4320-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html?utm_term=.1c6559ab1067

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Pollen shows how humans have reveresed global cooling

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Pollen shows how humans have reveresed global cooling

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Due to global warming the Earth has been heating up much faster than ever in human history. Many scientests use pollen as a way to see how heated the Earth is. The way that this works is because pollen is like a temperature recorder, plants need specific temperature ranges, scientests use pollen from multiple flowers to see the temperature from each and compare it.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/feb/19/pollen-data-shows-humans-reversed-natural-global-cooling
Sara Tlahuel

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"Loss of Monkeys and Birds in Tropical Forests Driving up Carbon Emissions"

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"Loss of Monkeys and Birds in Tropical Forests Driving up Carbon Emissions"

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Due to over-hunting, there has been a decrease in the mokeys and tropical birds in the amazon rainforest area. Monkeys and birds have an important role in distributing the seeds of trees. Because of the decrease in seed spreading, there is a loss of trees. The trees in the rainforest take in the carbon. The larger trees store more carbon. However, the seeds for the large trees can only be spread by the larger animals. With less trees from a combination of reduced seeds and deforestation, there has been an increase in carbon.
Link:https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/18/carbon-emissions-loss-of-monkeys-and-birds-in-tropical-forests
Sophia Dudley

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Emily Ollendorff
The following article describes how seahorses around the world are being used in cures for all types of diseases. This large use of seahorses is causing the population to drop rapidly. Scientists are saying that in the next 20-30 years seahorses will have gone extinct. Humans and the medicine trade have drastically affected the seahorse population and are driving it into extinction.

http://www.saveourseahorses.org/the-seahorse-dilemma.php

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How Human Activities Have A Negative Impact On The Ocean

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How Human Activities Have A Negative Impact On The Ocean

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This article explains the negative impacts caused by human actvities that affect the oceans and the species that live in them. The article discusses how oceans are renowned for providing homes for thousands of species on Earth and are also essential for human life. Consequently, many organisms rely on the ocean for its capability of creating food and oxygen, however, over time, human activities have been negatively impacting the ocean and its wildlife. Additionally, the article lists various activities that have been impacting the ocean. The activities that negatively impact our envionment include overfishing of species, pollution and dumping, greenhouse gas emissions, and organic waste flows into oceans.

By: Mary Brodell

Link- https://sciencing.com/human-activities-negative-impact-ocean-17206.html

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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This acticle is about how GMO can hurt our enviroment. GMO stand for genetically modified organism. When an organism is exposed to chemical pesticides amd herbicides, it will change non- naturally and may hurt the animal. The organism might not adopt to it new features and will die, thus ending the species. Or GMO feature helps the animal and then produce more. If it produce more, it will over populate and causing more problems. GMO plants are unhealthy for animal and human. It is not natural to eat somthing with pesticides and herbicibe is bad for the body and may cause cancer or disease.
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/the-environmental-impact-of-gmos/

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The elephant population of Africa hasdecreased by 30

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How Humans are Causing Evolutionary Changes 

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How Humans are Causing Evolutionary Changes 

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Humans are causing evolutionary changes in animals and food. This is caused by, hunting animals, fishing, using pesticides/antibiotics, envirnment changes, etc. The artical explains what natural selection is, and what artificial selection is, which is what humans are causing. We are contributing to animals and plants in a negative way. We are supposed to let nature have it's own affect, without the help of humans. Jacqueline Montoya. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35462335

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Human's Production of Carbon Dioxide is Rasing The Acidity Level in our Oceans.

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Human's Production of Carbon Dioxide is Rasing The Acidity Level in our Oceans.

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During the industrial revolution humans used the ocean as a vacuum to get ride of all of the carbon dioxide that we produced. All these years of the ocean taking in carbon dioxide has made a large effect. The ocean as a whole has lowered its pH by 30%. This is making the ocean more acidic. When there is not a balance in the pH, coral reefs are decaying because corals cannot make exoskeletons with the increased acidity. 25% of all ocean life lives in coral reefs. This will effect ocean life greatly.
Joshua Lange
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/16-ocean-acidification-a-global-case-of-osteoporosis

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New Study Shows Populations Relying on Colorado River Water Growing Much Faster than Their Demand for Water

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New Study Shows Populations Relying on Colorado River Water Growing Much Faster than Their Demand for Water

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This article by the Pacific Institute explains that the rate at which people that use the Colorado River as their main source of water are being born faster than the water supply can keep up. It explains that the number of people using the Colorado River has increased since 1990 by more than 10 million, but water usage per person has only decreased by 1%. It also explains that some water agencies are concerned with this problem, and are working to fix the problem. Caleb Dufour. http://pacinst.org/news/new-study-shows-populations-relying-on-colorado-river-water-growing-much-faster-than-their-demand-for-water/

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The Snow Leapord Population is Suffering

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The Snow Leapord Population is Suffering

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This is article is regarding the number of snow leapords which is quickly declining because of "habitat loss and degradation, declines in prey, competition with livestock, persecution, and poaching for illegal wildlife trade." Even though their status has been moved up to vulnerable, this species is having resources taken away incredibly fast. Humans are the reason behind all of the previously listed reasons for the snow leapord's endangerment.
Shrishti Dalal

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Snow leopards no longer 'endangered,' but still in decline and in need of urgent conservation measures

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The latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species had bad news about the conservation status of many species, including some that were previously so abundant that their...

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Humans are polluting the air which is warming up the earth and destroying their habitat. Humans have also hunted the bears to near extinction. Oil spills have affected the bears by nullifying their insulating properties. Natives hut polar bears for clothing and food.
Wiley Worland
https://www.polarbear-world.com/humans-and-polar-bears/

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According to the article, "Earth's Atmospheric Oxygen Levels Continue Long Slide", our oxygen levels from the atmosphere is slowly decreasing, researchers have discovered. There are many hypothesis to why this had occured, such as rising global erosion rates, which is caused by humans and their consumptions. Overall, it is not one cause that is leading to the due of less oxygen but to many other reasons that converge.
Alyssa Agarie

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Researchers analyzed samples from ice core drilling stations in Antarctica and Greenland to evaluate the planet's atmospheric oxygen levels throughout history.

Credit: Michael Bender

Atmospheric oxygen levels have declined over the past 1 million years, although not nearly enough to trigger any major problems for life on Earth, a new study finds.

The research behind this new finding could help shed light on what controls atmospheric oxygen levels over long spans of time, the researchers said.

Atmospheric oxygen levels are fundamentally linked to the evolution of life on Earth, as well as changes in geochemical cycles related to climate variations. As such, scientists have long sought to reconstruct how atmospheric oxygen levels fluctuated in the past, and what might control these shifts. [Photo Timeline: How the Earth Formed]

However, models of past atmospheric oxygen levels often markedly disagree, differing by as much as about 20 percent of Earth's atmosphere, which is oxygen's present-day concentration, the researchers said. 1 It is not even known if atmospheric oxygen levels varied or remained steady over the past 1 million years.

"There was no consensus on whether the oxygen cycle before humankind began burning fossil fuels was in or out of balance and, if so, whether it was increasing or decreasing," said study lead author Daniel Stolper, a geochemistat Princeton University in New Jersey.

In the new study, researchers calculated past atmospheric oxygen levels by looking at air trapped inside ancient polar ice samples. Specifically, they looked at samples from Greenland and Antarctica.

The new estimates suggest that atmospheric oxygen levels have fallen by 0.7 percent over the past 800,000 years. The scientists concluded that oxygen sinks - processes that removed oxygen from the air - were about 1.7 percent larger than oxygen sources during this time.

Although a drop in atmospheric oxygen levels might sound alarming, the decrease the researchers found "is trivial in regard to ecosystems," Stolper told Live Science. "To put it in perspective, the pressure in the atmosphere declines with elevation. A 0.7 percent decline in the atmospheric pressure of oxygen occurs at about 100 meters (330 feet) above sea level - that is, about the 30th floor of a tall building."

There are two hypotheses that may help explain this oxygen decline over the past million years, Stolper said.

"The first is that global erosion rates may have increased over the past few to tens of millions of years due to, among other things, the growth of glaciers - glaciers grind rock, thereby increasing erosion rates," Stolper said.

Rising erosion rates would have exposed more pyrite and organic carbon to the atmosphere. Pyrite is better known as fool's gold, and organic carbon consists of the remains of organisms, mostly land plants and aquatic photosynthetic microorganisms such as algae. Previous research found that both pyrite and organic carbon can react with oxygen and remove it from the atmosphere. [ Infographic: Earth's Atmosphere Top to Bottom]

"Alternatively, when the ocean cools, as it has done over the past 15 million years, before fossil fuel burning, the solubility of oxygen in the ocean increases. That is, the oceans can store more oxygen at colder temperatures for a given concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere," Stolper said. Oxygen-dependent microbes in the ocean and in sediments can then become more active and consume this oxygen, leaving less of the element in the atmosphere, he added.

Future research can identify what geological processes are consistent with these findings "and thus help to identify the major processes that control atmospheric oxygen levels," Stolper said.

These findings also reveal what might be a strange contradiction, because it could be assumed that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels should rise as oxygen levels fall - "for example, right now we are consuming oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide," said study senior author John Higgins, a geochemistat Princeton.

However, previous research has found that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have not, on average, changed over the past 800,000 years, Higgins noted. "At first glance, these two sets of observations, both from gases trapped in ice cores, are paradoxical," he said.

One way out of this conundrum is a well-known but relatively untested concept that suggests "that on timescales longer than a few hundred thousand years, atmospheric carbon dioxide and Earth's temperature are regulated via a 'silicate weathering thermostat,'" Higgins said.

Basically, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will boost the rates at which volcanic rocks wear down and their components wash into the seas, which can then go on to trap atmospheric carbon dioxide in ocean minerals. This means that "one can have a change in atmospheric oxygen with no observable change in average carbon dioxide," Higgins said. "Importantly, this silicate weathering thermostat is one reason why Earth is thought to have remained habitable for billions of years despite changes in solar luminosity."

The scientists detailed their findings online today (Sept. 22) in the journal Science.

Original article on Live Science.

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Earth's Atmospheric Oxygen Levels Continue Long Slide

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Atmospheric oxygen levels have declined over the past 1 million years, although not nearly enough to trigger any major problems for life on Earth, a new study finds. The research behind this new finding could help shed light on what controls atmospheric oxygen levels over long spans of time, the researchers said.

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African Congo Deforestation may be on the decline...

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African Congo Deforestation may be on the decline...

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This article describes the decline of deforestation and rainforest clear-cutting since 2000. Mr. Isaacson.

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Deforestation has fallen in Congo Basin countries over the past decade despite a sharp increase in the rate of forest clearing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a new study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B as part of a set of 18 papers on the region's tropical forests.

The special issue, which was put together by Yadvinder Malhi, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Rebecca Asare, Simon Lewis and Philippe Mayaux, covers a range of issues relating to the rainforests of the Congo Basin, including deforestation, the impacts of global change, the history and key characteristics of the region's forests, and resource extraction, among others.

With 178 million hectares of rainforests, the Congo Basin is second only to the Amazon in terms of tropical forest cover. Overall the region accounts for 89 percent of Africa's tropical rainforests and stores 39 billion tons of carbon, accounting for 79 percent of the continent's terrestrial carbon.
Congo deforestation on the decline
Analysis of satellite data by Philippe Mayaux and colleagues shows the Congo Basin - at 0.3 percent annual forest loss - has the lowest deforestation rate of the planet's major tropical forest regions, both in proportional and absolute terms. The region's deforestation rate is also declining, falling 36 percent from 285,400 hectares a year in the 1990s to 181,500 ha per year in the 2000s. Africa's overall rate of rainforest loss is outpacing that of the Congo, falling more than half from 592,000 ha in the 1990s to 288,000 ha per year during the past decade.

The special issue notes that Africa's relative low rate of forest loss is a product of its circumstances, including "the almost complete absence of agro-industrial scale clearing", which globally accounts for more than half of tropical forest loss. Thomas Rudel of Rutgers University analyses drivers of deforestation in the region and finds that oil and mineral wealth seem to be acting as a deterrent to deforestation by triggering urban migration away from forest areas. But at the same time, this shift appears to weakening food security by increasing countries' dependence on food importance.

"The wetter Congo basin countries had lower rates of deforestation, in part because tax receipts from oil and mineral industries in this region spurred rural to urban migration, declines in agriculture and increased imports of cereals from abroad," writes Rudel. "In this respect, the Congo basin countries may be experiencing an oil and mineral fueled forest transition."

The research found most deforestation is "found around transport networks and close to cities, including areas suitable for agriculture within 5 hours travel time to major markets, and wood fuel and charcoal provisioning within 12 hours from a city."

But unlike other parts of the world, research published in the special issue suggests that commercial logging does not appear to be a major driver of deforestation in the Congo Basin. Instead it drives forest degradation and is associated with the burgeoning bushmeat trade by granting access via logging roads to hunters.

"In the high diversity African tropics, there are typically only one to two timber trees harvested per hectare, and it makes little economic sense to clear cut forests remote from markets," write Malhi and colleagues. "This contrasts with Southeast Asia, where the dipterocarp-rich forests yield many more timber species, and are much more intensively logged (around 10-20 trees per hectare) and heavily damaged by logging."

"Mayaux et al and Rudel explore the possible linkages between logging and subsequent deforestation. They find little evidence of logging leading to deforestation, either at national or local scales. One key difference from Amazonia is the lack of an active colonization frontier with pressure to clear logged forest. The loose network of logging tracks, owing to the light exploitation density, combined with the low population density, does not provoke the critical conditions for deforestation, except around a few concessions in the DRC."

Another paper in the special issue looks specifically at the effects of logging on the structure and dynamics of the forest. Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury and colleagues found that while biomass and forest function rebounds quickly from logging within 25 years, commercial trees take "much longer" to recovery. Meanwhile, a review by Kate Abernethy reveals that "defaunation" from unsustainable hunting can have persistent, long-term impacts on forest structure by reducing the abundance of key seed dispersers and "forest architects" like elephants.
Elephants may have an outsized role in Congo Basin forests. As noted by Simon Lewis and others, elephants may be partly responsible for the region's tall trees and high biomass, by crushing and eating small trees.

"The extremely low stem density in African forests may relate to the very high large animal biomass: elephants ( Loxodonta africana cyclotis), gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and other large herbivores such as bongos ( Tragelaphus eurycerus) may keep the density of small trees very low," Lewis and colleagues write. "This view is reinforced by a recent paper from Southeast Asia showing a large increase in sapling density when the large animal fauna is extirpated."

Lewis and co-authors note that, on average, Congo forests are taller and less diverse than Asia or the Amazon. But they store nearly as much carbon as the great Dipterocarp forests of Borneo.
The great unknown for Congo forests: climate change
While Congo Basin forests appear to be absorbing more carbon at present, the science on the impact of climate change in the region is far from settled. Climate models agree that the Congo basin will see a sharp rise in temperatures - up to 4°C this century, but it is uncertain how vegetation and wildlife will respond to the new conditions. Furthermore, parts of the basin may see shifts in precipitation patterns, including "wetting of the eastern regions" and "intensified dry seasons in the western Congo Basin". Reconstructions of past vegetation cover in the region shows that Congo forests have waxed and waned with climate change, including a "substantial" retreat 3,000 years ago.

Richard Washington and colleagues note that part of the problem in predicting the effects of climate change in the Congo Basin is lack of understanding of current conditions.

"The Congo Basin is poorly studied because of the dearth of available ground-based climate observations from the region, particularly in the past few decades," write Malhi and colleagues. "This deficiency is of global significance, because the Congo Basin is the second most important convective 'engine' of the global atmospheric circulation after the Maritime Continent (insular Southeast Asia and the surrounding waters) and is also the region of highest lightning strike frequencies on the planet [57]. In transition seasons (March-May and September-November), the Congo Basin dominates global tropical rainfall."

Comparison of the satellite images and forest-cover maps over the region of Lisala-Bumba (DR Congo). (a) MODIS color composite; (b) Landsat color composite; (c) MODIS-derived map (Mayaux et al 2013 study); (d ) Landsat-derived map; (e) GlobCover map and ( f ) synthesis map.

Planning for the future
Given the importance of Congo forests, the special issue includes papers on conservation options in the region. Unsurprisingly, a big focus is the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) mechanism, a program that aims to provide performance-based compensation to tropical countries for protecting their forests. REDD+ could potentially trigger the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars a year to Congo Basin countries, but has yet to overcome significant technical, economic, and political challenges. Nonetheless, some $550 million has already been committed to REDD+ in the region, which the issue suggests "may already be having an impact on slowing down deforestation and degradation activities in the region."

Malhi and colleagues note that there may be a limited window for consolidating conservation gains in the region given rising interest in industrial agriculture, especially oil palm plantations.

"A major threat to the forest biome is the potential of a shift to commercial agro-plantations, the write. "If poorly planned, then these industrial croplands could lead to extensive loss of forests as witnessed in Southeast Asia, and in soya bean regions of Amazonia, especially when combined with poor governance."

Rainforest logs in Gabon
Need for more research
The special section ends with a call to better understand Congo Basin forests.

"This short synthesis has highlighted many surprising aspects of the African rainforest biome, and how different it is in many aspects from other, perhaps better understood, rainforest regions. It has also highlighted how little we know and how much there is still to discover," write Malhi and colleagues. "There are reasons for concern, such has the heavy levels of defaunation and the potential impacts of climate change, and reasons for hope, such as the low rates of deforestation and the possible resilience of rainforest species to climate change."

"We call on the research and policy communities to redouble efforts to give this fascinating rainforest continent the attention it so richly deserves."

Young gorilla in Gabon

PAPERS IN THE SPECIAL ISSUE:

Malhi, Yadvinder; Adu-Bredu, Stephen; Asare, Rebecca; Lewis, Simon; Mayaux, Philippe. Introduction: The past, present and future of Africa's rainforests

Mayaux, Philippe; Pekel, Jean-François; Desclée, Baudouin; Donnay, François; Lupi, Andrea; Achard, Frédéric; Clerici, Marco; Bodart, Catherine; Brink, Andreas; Nasi, Robert; Belward, Alan. State and evolution of the African rainforests between 1990 and 2010

Lewis, Simon et al. Aboveground biomass and structure of 260 African tropical forests

Mitchard, Edward; Flintrop, Clara. Assessing the relative magnitude of woody encroachment and deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa's woodlands and savannas 1982-2006

Rudel, Thomas. The National Determinants of Deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Oslisly, Richard; White, Lee; Bentaleb, Ilham; Favier, Charly; Fontugne, Michel; Gillet, Jean François; Sebag, David. Climatic and cultural changes in the West Congo Basin forests over the past 5000 years

Willis, Katherine; Bennett, Keith; Burrough, Sallie; Macias-Fauria, Marc; Tovar, Carolina. Determining the response of African biota to climate change: using the past to model the future

Abernethy, Kate; Coad, Lauren; Taylor, Gemma; Lee, Michelle; Maisels, Fiona. Extent and ecological consequences of hunting in Central African rainforests in the 21st Century

Gourlet-Fleury, Sylvie; Mortier, Frédéric; Fayolle, Adeline; Baya, Fidèle; Ouedraogo, Dakis; Benedet, Fabrice; Picard, Nicolas. Tropical forest recovery from logging: a 24 year silvicultural experiment from Central Africa

Fisher, Joshua; Sikka, Munish; Sitch, Stephen; Ciais, Philippe; Poulter, Benjamin; Galbraith, David; Lee, Jung-Eun; Huntingford, Chris; Viovy, Nicolas; Zeng, Ning; Ahlström, Anders; Lomas, Mark; Levy, Peter; Frankenberg, Christian; Saatchi, Sassan; Malhi, Yadvinder. African tropical rainforest net CO2 fluxes in the 20th century
James, Rachel; Washington, Richard; Rowell, David. Implications of global warming for the climate of African rainforests

Washington, Richard; James, Rachel; Pearce, Helen; Pokam, Wilfried; Moufouma-Okia, Wilfran. Congo Basin rainfall climatology: can we believe the climate models?

Otto, Friederike; Jones, Richard; Halladay, Kate; Allen, Myles. Attribution of changes in precipitation patterns in African rainforests

Asefi-Najafabady, Salvi; Saatchi, Sassan. Response of African humid tropical forests to recent rainfall anomalies

Maniatis, Danae; Gaugris, Jerome; Mollicone, Danilo; Scriven, Joel; Corblin, Alexis; Ndikumagenge, Cleto; Aquino, André; Crete, Philippe; Sanz-Sanchez, Maria-José. Financing and current capacity for REDD+ readiness and monitoring, measurement, reporting and verification in the Congo Basin

Asare, Rebecca. The Community Resource Management Area Mechanism: A strategy to manage African forest resources for REDD+

Gond, Valery; Fayolle, Adeline; Pennec, Alexandre; Cornu, Guillaume; Mayaux, Philippe; Camberlin, Pierre; Doumenge, Charles; Fauvet, Nicolas; Gourlet-Fleury, Sylvie. Vegetation structure and greenness in central Africa from modis multi-temporal data

Malhi, Yadvinder; Adu-Bredu, Stephen; Asare, Rebecca; Lewis, Simon; Mayaux, Philippe. African rainforests: past, presents and future

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Deforestation rate falls in Congo Basin countries

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Deforestation has fallen in Congo Basin countries over the past decade despite a sharp increase in the rate of forest clearing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a new study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B as part of a set of 18 papers on the region's tropical forests.