Saturday 2 February 2013

Are we approaching a globalised ecosystem?




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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