# data[].attributes.body
Tornados

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tornadoes effect the environment by destroying buildings and trees. Tornadoes also kill animals, which effects the food chain and disrupts the whole environment. Tornadoes destroy our farms, which means there will be food shortages around the surrounding area. After everything is destroyed, humans have to rebuild. Tornadoes can cause water contamination, which poses a serious problem, as plants, animals and humans are effected by this. Debris can be very dangerous, as it could kill plants and animals very easily. Some trees take over 100 years to grow, so if they are destroyed, they will be hard to replace. Fires may occur after a tornado due to damaged power lines and gas leaks. Fire contributes to global warming by giving off carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Because of man-made global warming, scientists believe that there will be an increases in tornadoes and other severe weather. What do you think?

Here is an example of how much damage a tornado can do:

Previous Home Next

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tornadoes effect the environment by destroying buildings and trees. Tornadoes also kill animals, which effects the food chain and disrupts the whole environment. Tornadoes destroy our farms, which means there will be food shortages around the surrounding area. After everything is destroyed, humans have to rebuild.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
tsunamis effects destruction death environmental impacts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
video earthquake tsunamis 2011 japan destruction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tsunami | Effects, large destruction of property and loss of life

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tsunamis: The effects. Introduction of the devastating tsunamis effects. Watch the complete video of the destructive tsunami in Japan 2011

# data[].attributes.body
Flooding

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Effects of flooding

Floods can have devastating consequences and can have effects on the economy, environment and people.

Economic
During floods (especially flash floods), roads, bridges, farms, houses and automobiles are destroyed. People become homeless. Additionally, the government deploys firemen, police and other emergency apparatuses to help the affected. All these come at a heavy cost to people and the government. It usually takes years for affected communities to be re-built and business to come back to normalcy.
Did you know that the cost of all floodings in the USA in 2011 was $8,640,031,956 (approx 8.5B USD) - http://www.nws.noaa.gov/hic/

Environment
The environment also suffers when floods happen. Chemicals and other hazardous substances end up in the water and eventually contaminate the water bodies that floods end up in. In 2011, a huge tsunami hit Japan, and sea water flooded a part of the coastline. The flooding caused massive leakage in nuclear plants and has since caused high radiation in that area. Authorities in Japan fear that Fukushima radiation levels are 18 times higher than even thought.

Additionally, flooding causes kills animals, and others insects are introduced to affected areas, distorting the natural balance of the ecosystem.

People and animals
Many people and animals have died in flash floods. Many more are injured and others made homeless. Water supply and electricity are disrupted and people struggle and suffer as a result. In addition to this, flooding brings a lot of diseases and infections including military fever, pneumonic plague, dermatopathia and dysentery. Sometimes insects and snakes make their ways to the area and cause a lot of havoc.

But...
There is also something good about floods, especially those that occur in floodplains and farm fields. Floodwaters carry lots of nutrients that are deposited in the plains. Farmers love such soils, as they are perfect for cultivating some kinds of crops.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Effects of flooding Floods can have devastating consequences and can have effects on the economy, environment and people. Economic During floods (especially flash floods), roads, bridges, farms, houses and automobiles are destroyed. People become homeless. Additionally, the government deploys firemen, police and other emergency apparatuses to help the affected.

# data[].attributes.body
Wildfires

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Many plants easily grow back and there is usually good recovery after a fire. Some plants have their seeds opened up and exposed to ash-enriched soils. Examples include serotinus cones, from a tree species such as jackpine. Species like white pine and yellow birch also benefit from forest fires in a similar way.

What are the effects of wildfires? Econmic cost:
If you have ever seen firefighters battling a wildfire and the images they show on TV, it will give you an idea of the immediate damage it can do to wildlife and vegetation. Fires also destroy houses and almost anything in its way. Additionally, the city spends millions of money to fight them with chemicals, logistics, aircrafts and trucks, time and personnel. The economic loss can be huge.

Soils and organic matter:
Take forest soils for example. Forest soils are rich in decaying debris and nutrients, and are composed of many natural features that support a myriad of life forms and organic activities. Wildfires raise the temperatures of these soils to over 900°C and this potentially wipes away almost all the organic value of the soil.

Watershed:
The effect on watershed is also key. Burned organic matter in the soil (volatized organic compounds) also affect the natural layering of the soils. This negatively affects infiltration and percolation, making the soil surfaces water repellent. Water therefore is unable to drain into water tables and the run-offs on the surfaces cause erosion.

Researchers believe that forest fires are not all that bad, as they have some benefits too. In fact, they believe that even though young animals and birds may die, many animals are able to escape or move away from fires. Birds fly away, dear and other reptiles find their own escape routes and so on.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many plants easily grow back and there is usually good recovery after a fire. Some plants have their seeds opened up and exposed to ash-enriched soils. Examples include serotinus cones, from a tree species such as jackpine. Species like white pine and yellow birch also benefit from forest fires in a similar way.

# data[].attributes.body
Droughts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How do droughts impact us environmentally?

# data[].attributes.body
Pollution

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about air pollution and how it effects the environment and health. Study causes, pollutants, and facts including acid rain and smog.

# data[].attributes.body
Animal over population

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Animal overpopulation occurs when an ecosystem is unable to support the existing wildlife because there are too many of a given species. The environment suffers due to the strain from the natural activities of the overpopulated species.

# data[].attributes.body
Human overpopulation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Human overpopulation is among the most pressing environmental issues, silently aggravating the forces behind global warming, environmental pollution, habitat loss, the sixth mass extinction, intensive farming practices and the consumption of finite natura

# data[].attributes.body
Highways

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Roads are increasingly common in today's world as human development expands and people increasingly rely on cars for transportation on a daily basis. The United States contains over 4 million miles of roadways and an estimated 20% of land in the country is impacted by the presence of roads. This large network of roads has dramatically altered the landscape and can impact wildlife in a number of deleterious ways. In addition to causing mortality, roads can also shift population demographics and be a source of pollution into the environment. Studying the ecological impacts of roads is an important area of study in conservation biology and environmental science, as the impacts often extend far beyond the surface of the road itself.

Mortality & Population Declines

When animals cross roads, mortality is often the result. In fact, road mortality is the leading source of mortality to many wildlife populations and an estimated 1 million vertebrates die on roads every day in the United States. This rate of mortality can severely threaten animals and has been identified as a leading cause of decline in some populations.

Some animals are prone to road mortality due to their natural defense mechanisms, which although effective when dealing with natural predation, are often poorly equipped to handle the dangers posed by cars. Turtles often perceive cars as a threat and draw into their shell to protect themselves, which can put them at risk for getting struck by a car because they stay on the road longer. Snakes may also become immobilized when approached by a car and may remain immobilized for a minute after a car passes. Venomous snakes may be less inclined to flee from a perceived threat because they typically use venom for defense. Turkey vultures that normally fly away from predators may be unable to initiate flight quickly enough when approached by a fast-moving vehicle. The way in which animals naturally respond to threats may increase their risk of being stuck by cars.

Animals may also be attracted to the road surface. Reptiles like snakes and turtles sometimes bask on the warm asphalt of the road to regulate their body temperatures. Many scavengers prey on the carcasses of animals that have been killed on the road. These kinds of behavior increase the risk of mortality as they cause animals to spend more time around the road.

Rates of mortality are closely linked with movement patterns, as more movement generally incurs a greater chance of coming into contact with a road. Animals with large home ranges, such as Florida panthers with ranges of up to 630 km ², have a high chance of encountering roads as they traverse such large distances. Movement during particular life stages can also result in peaks in mortality. These patterns are often associated with reproduction, as when gravid turtles undergo migrations to seek out a site to nest. In some snake species, the male can increase its home range up to 6 times as it searches for a mate. Many reptiles begin dispersing immediately after hatching, which also results in mortality peaks. In red foxes, the female repeatedly visits cubs at breeding sites, sometimes up to 10 times in a single night, which increases the chance for mortality. Some studies have reported movement rates as the single greatest factor influencing the risk of road mortality.

Habitat Fragmentation & Alteration

Pollution

Roads can also be a conduit for pollutants into the environment. The debris from tires on the road can decrease the time to metamorphosis of wood frogs. Deicing salts that run off from roads into adjacent ponds can decrease survivorship of wood frogs and spotted salamanders. Frogs have been shown to have higher skeletal abnormalities closer to roads, possibly as a result of contamination. In addition to causing mortality, deicing salts can alter the behavior of frogs and decrease locomotor performance. This can impact fitness, as they may be less adept at catching prey or eluding predators. Roads also carry oils from cars that travel across them, which have the potential to harm wildlife when they enter the environment.

Mitigation

A number of mitigation strategies have been developed to decrease the harmful impacts of roads on wildlife. In cases where patterns of mortality are predictable during certain times of the year, road closures or speed limit reductions during these times may decrease mortality rates. Road closures during breeding migrations have been used to successfully decrease mortality of the Jefferson's salamander in Ontario. Since many gravid reptiles are killed while trying to find a nesting site, the construction of artificial nesting sites may prohibit them from needing to cross the road. For snakes, artificial hibernacula can also be constructed to reduce distance traveled and the chances of road mortality.

Decreasing traffic volume is not likely to be effective when animals avoid the physical surface of the road. In such cases, constructing alternative ways of crossing the road can be more successful. For smaller animals, culverts that pass under roads can allow for safe passage. Barriers along the road are also constructed to guide animals to the culverts. This has shown to be extremely effective in reducing road mortality in some cases. A drawback of culverts is that they primarily facilitate crossing by smaller animals. For larger animals, wildlife overpasses have been used to allow crossing. They sometimes have vegetation planted over them to mimic the natural habitat. Studies have shown that red deer and wild boar will use such structures to cross the road and usage may increase over time as animals become accustomed to them.
Sources

1. Forman, R.T., Estimate of the area affected ecologically by the road system in the United States. Conservation biology, 2000. 14(1): p. 31-35.

2. Forman, R.T. and L.E. Alexander, Roads and their major ecological effects. Annual review of ecology and systematics, 1998: p. 207-C2.

3. Aresco, M.J., Mitigation measures to reduce highway mortality of turtles and other herpetofauna at a north Florida lake. Journal of Wildlife Management, 2005. 69(2): p. 549-560.

4. Glista, D.J., T.L. DeVault, and J.A. DeWoody, Vertebrate road mortality predominantly impacts amphibians. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 2008. 3(1): p. 77-87.

5. Gooley, A.C., Testing the behavioral responses of West Virginia Turtles to roads and vehicles. 2010.

6. Andrews, K.M., J.W. Gibbons, and T. Reeder, How do highways influence snake movement? Behavioral responses to roads and vehicles. Copeia, 2005. 2005(4): p. 772-782.

7. DeVault, T.L., et al., Effects of vehicle speed on flight initiation by turkey vultures: implications for bird-vehicle collisions. PloS one, 2014. 9(2): p. e87944.

8. Schwab, A.C. and P.A. Zandbergen, Vehicle-related mortality and road crossing behavior of the Florida panther. Applied Geography, 2011. 31(2): p. 859-870.

9. Gibbs, J.P. and D.A. Steen, Trends in sex ratios of turtles in the United States: implications of road mortality. Conservation Biology, 2005. 19(2): p. 552-556.

10. DeGregorio, B.A., et al., Patterns of Snake Road Mortality on an Isolated Barrier Island. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 2010. 5(3): p. 441-448.

11. Grilo, C., J.A. Bissonette, and M. Santos-Reis, Spatial-temporal patterns in Mediterranean carnivore road casualties: Consequences for mitigation. Biological Conservation, 2009. 142(2): p. 301-313.

12. Clark, R.W., et al., Roads, interrupted dispersal, and genetic diversity in timber rattlesnakes. Conservation Biology, 2010. 24(4): p. 1059-1069.

13. Laurance, S.G., P.C. Stouffer, and W.F. Laurance, Effects of road clearings on movement patterns of understory rainforest birds in central Amazonia. Conservation Biology, 2004. 18(4): p. 1099-1109.

14. Shine, R., et al., Why Did the Snake Cross the Road? Effects of Roads on Movement and Location of Mates by Garter Snakes(Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis). Ecology and Society, 2004. 9(1): p. 9.

15. Aresco, M.J., Highway mortality of turtles and other herpetofauna at Lake Jackson, Florida, USA, and the efficacy of a temporary fence/culvert system to reduce roadkills. Road Ecology Center, 2003.

16. Baldwin, E.A., M.N. Marchand, and J.A. Litvaitis, Terrestrial habitat use by nesting painted turtles in landscapes with different levels of fragmentation. Northeastern Naturalist, 2004. 11(1): p. 41-48.

17. Wilcove, D.S., Nest predation in forest tracts and the decline of migratory songbirds. Ecology, 1985. 66(4): p. 1211-1214.

18. Szerlag, S. and S. McRobert, Road occurrence and mortality of the northern diamondback terrapin. Applied Herpetology, 2005. 3(1): p. 27.

19. Reeves, M.K., et al., Road proximity increases risk of skeletal abnormalities in wood frogs from National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska. Environmental health perspectives, 2008. 116(8): p. 1009-1014.

20. Camponelli, K.M., et al., Impacts of weathered tire debris on the development of< i> Rana sylvatica</i> larvae. Chemosphere, 2009. 74(5): p. 717-722.

21. Karraker, N.E., J.P. Gibbs, and J.R. Vonesh, Impacts of road deicing salt on the demography of vernal pool-breeding amphibians. Ecological Applications, 2008. 18(3): p. 724-734.

22. Denoël, M., et al., Cumulative effects of road de-icing salt on amphibian behavior. Aquatic Toxicology, 2010. 99(2): p. 275-280.

23. Rheindt, F.E., The impact of roads on birds: does song frequency play a role in determining susceptibility to noise pollution? Journal für Ornithologie, 2003. 144(3): p. 295-306.

24. Francis, C.D., C.P. Ortega, and A. Cruz, Noise pollution changes avian communities and species interactions. Current biology, 2009. 19(16): p. 1415-1419.

25. Bee, M.A. and E.M. Swanson, Auditory masking of anuran advertisement calls by road traffic noise. Animal Behaviour, 2007. 74(6): p. 1765-1776.

26. Miller, M.W., Apparent effects of light pollution on singing behavior of American robins. The Condor, 2006. 108(1): p. 130-139.

27. Wise, S., Studying the ecological impacts of light pollution on wildlife: amphibians as models. StarLight: a Common Heritage, C. Marın and J. Jafari, eds.(Canary Islands, Spain: StarLight Initiative La Palma Biosphere Reserve, Instituto De Astrofısica De Canarias, Government of The Canary Islands, Spanish Ministry of The Environment, UNESCO-MaB.), 2007: p. 107-116.

28. Salmon, M., et al., Behavior of loggerhead sea turtles on an urban beach. II. Hatchling orientation. Journal of Herpetology, 1995: p. 568-576.

29. Brown, G.P., et al., Toad on the road: Use of roads as dispersal corridors by cane toads (< i> Bufo marinus</i>) at an invasion front in tropical Australia. Biological conservation, 2006. 133(1): p. 88-94.

30. Stiles, J.H. and R.H. Jones, Distribution of the red imported fire ant, shape Solenopsis invicta, in road and powerline habitats. Landscape Ecology, 1998. 13(6): p. 335-346.

31. Glista, D.J., T.L. DeVault, and J.A. DeWoody, A review of mitigation measures for reducing wildlife mortality on roadways. Landscape and Urban Planning, 2009. 91(1): p. 1-7.

32. Clevenger, A.P., B. Chruszcz, and K. Gunson, Drainage culverts as habitat linkages and factors affecting passage by mammals. Journal of Applied Ecology, 2001. 38(6): p. 1340-1349.

33. Woltz, H.W., J.P. Gibbs, and P.K. Ducey, Road crossing structures for amphibians and reptiles: informing design through behavioral analysis. Biological Conservation, 2008. 141(11): p. 2745-2750.

Climate Science and GIS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Roads: Their Environmental Impact | EnvironmentalScience.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Roads are increasingly common in today's world as human development expands and people increasingly rely on cars for transportation on a daily basis. The United States contains over 4 million miles of roadways and an estimated 20% of land in the country is impacted by the presence of roads.

# data[].attributes.body
Hurricanes

# data[].attributes.body
Oil Spill

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, owned by BP, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to killing 11 crew members, it unleashed about 3.19 million barrels of oil a mile below the ocean surface over the course of 87 days before the leak could be contained.

Five years later, BP agreed to pay the US federal government and state governments of Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas a total of $18.7 billion for damages. They paid billions more in criminal charge penalties (including for 12 felonies for negligence and failure to disclose information to Congress) and payouts to private individuals. It was the largest settlement ever for a corporation, and perhaps rightly so for a disaster that has left the Gulf marine and coastline ecosystems in disarray.

But there is one silver lining: After the spill, BP executives recognized that they didn't have enough information about the environment in which they were extracting oil.

Never before had there been a spill of that magnitude in the Gulf of Mexico (the 1979 Ixtoc 1 spill only released about half as much oil), which made it difficult to truly assess how bad the damage was. So, in 2010 BP voluntarily committed to giving $500 million to a board of 20 independent researchers over the course of 10 years to provide BP with unbiased answers to all of their questions about the Gulf's marine environment. The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) was formed. (In similar fashion, ExxonMobil contracted scientists after their oil tanker crashed and spewed millions of gallons of oil off the coast of Alaska in 1989, although the effort wasn't as organized.)

Over the past seven years, GoMRI, chaired by oceanographer Rita Colwell (who is affiliated with both Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland and once directed the National Science Foundation) has allocated resources to projects ranging from understanding the physics of oil droplets spewing out of wells to figuring out how chemicals in oil change fish sex hormones. It also set aside some funding to figure out just what creatures live in the Gulf of Mexico anyway.

"So far we have identified over 60 species of fishes that have not been previously found in the Gulf, and of these at least seven are undescribed species," Tracey Sutton, an oceanographer at Nova Southeastern University working on GoMRI, said in an email. An "undescribed species" is one that's never been seen before, anywhere.

Scientists working on the project, called the Deepend Consortium, are sending nets down up to 1,500 meters (almost a mile) into the ocean and collecting the animals that get caught in them.

Heather Judkins, a biological oceanographer at the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg also working on the project, says they've found at least two entirely new species of squid, and another cephalopod previously thought only to live in other parts of the Atlantic ocean. She and her team still need to compare DNA sequences of the animals to existing animal genome databases to confirm that these animals are, in fact, novel. Although they look unique, they could be examples of previously known species with different physical characteristics.

Judkins points out that in some ways these discoveries are unsurprising, since 95% of the world's oceans are still unexplored. If scientists want to understand the damages the oil industry may cause to the deep ocean, they're going to have to get a baseline reading of life there first.

Although scientists are uncovering some new forms of life, even massive populations of these 60 new species would barely put a dent in all the marine life the oil spill definitively killed. Estimates suggest that 80,000 birds, 35,000 hatchling sea turtles, and over 500 million pounds of oysters were lost.

Most Popular

Read full story

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The BP oil spill led scientists to discover 60 new animal species living in the Gulf of Mexico

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, owned by BP, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to killing 11 crew members, it unleashed about 3.19 million barrels of oil a mile below the ocean surface over the course of 87 days before the leak could be contained.