I promised to
talk about animal rights but this is a theory that I thought about while
studying for my Conservation Biology course and so I thought I'd share it
before it escapes my mind . Are we indeed approaching a globalised ecosystem
due to our influence?
A lot of
changes are occurring on our ecosystems. Animals go extinct, habitats are lost
and invasive species seem to out compete native species. Most of this due to
human interference. Some conservationists argue that humans are keystone
species as they shape their environments. Others argue that we have distanced
ourselves too much from nature and thus we aren't shaping nature but rather
destroying it. For the sake of this article we shall assume that humans are
shaping nature. Human actions contribute to global warming which in fact
results to habitat loss for arctic species. Animals such as polar bears in
North America are now recently seen to migrate further down into grizzly territory
and vice versa since the climate is not as cold for grizzlies now. This results
in hybridization, with the two species producing hybrids. This is also apparent
with whale species , bird species and so forth. With human interference, nature
is removing an individual habitat and merge the wildlife there, with other
wildlife in other habitats adopting a "merge or die" ideal. So plants
which are more efficient but wouldn't survive in arctic habitats now may climb
up on latitude and out compete the natives
there and hence resulting to that plant being more predominant in those areas
where it wasn't before.
In addition
to that humans have moved wildlife around for a variety of reasons such as
hunting, food source etc. This wildlife
may be more efficient and hence
outcompete native animals or predate on them. That wildlife is not and wouldn't
probably be in those areas. For example
the American mink in the United Kingdom would never be here if it wasn't for the
fur trade. The American mink is causing major problems by preying on water
voles and other native animals. Also the
grey squirrel is outcompeting the red squirrel which may be driven to
extinction. All of this due to human
interference in the past. In the future
these animals may be all that we see being as they are the most efficient at
resource gathering, at avoiding each other and will not have any other animals
which could out compete them.
Finally
with deforestation, overfishing and human development some habitats are lost
forever and replaced with others. Those are either towns, farms, sustainable
forestry etc but they won't be the habitat they were before. Not all of those
animals are likely to survive in their new habitats and hence may die out. In
the long run all these new habitats will consist of all the same animals such
as urban foxes, crows, pigeons etc.
So we are
looking at the creation of globally similar ecosystems. Think about it.
Grizzles will merge with polar bears, wolf subspecies are likely to mingle, gray squirrels will be more widespread and so forth. Basically if humans are
part of nature then we are facing ourselves with ecosystems that may be purely
based on latitude and climate rather than other factors which may affect
biodiversity.
Allow me to
elaborate. Three hypothetical animals, all live in the same habitat and feed
the on the same resource. Deer 1, Deer 2, Deer 3. Deer 1 is found only in the
U.S.A, Deer 2 in Eastern Europe and Deer 3 in Japan. Deer 2 is the most
efficient deer and would out compete all the others. Explorers and
conquerors took Deer 2 from Eastern
Europe to Japan and from there to the U.S.A. Unless conservation managements
occur,Deer 2 will take over all those habitats. Also wolf 1 lives in the arctic and wolf 2
in the boreal areas. Normally wolf 2 would be too cold, or would not be able to
efficiently hunt animals in wolf's 1 habitat. Wolf 2 is more adapted to his
habitat so he doesn't venture into wolf's 1 habitat. With global warming wolf 2
is losing his habitat and is forced into wolf 1 habitat to find more food and
habitat. Same wolf 1 now has a wider habitat to explore and exploit. Those two
meet and breed producing hybrids. These hybrids may be better than wolf 1 and
wolf 2 and so natural selection will lead to the rise of these wolf 1 and 2 hybrids.
All of
these mechanizations will lead to a more streamlined ecosystem where the same animals will be common in most
regions and biodiversity will suffer. Being as we are the drivers behind this,
is this an intentional act of nature or we simply messing things up? Bear in
mind though that this will take years to happen and may be reversible as
habitats begin to form again and natural selection takes its course again.
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