Habitat loss

Gallant, A.L., Klaver, R.W., and Casper, G.S. et al. (2007). Global rates of habitat loss and implications for amphibian conservation. Copeia 967-979. 

Coastal population is expected to double in the next 30 years, suggesting that pollutant loads and habitat loss will continue to increase unless we choose to develop and live in a dramatically different, and more sustainable way. The good news is that more and more effort is being directed at effecting such a change. As marine scientists, we have a moral responsibility to increase and apply our imderstanding of marine biogeochemistry to help this happen. 

Short, F.T., and Burdick, D.M. (1996) Quantifying eelgrass habitat loss in relation to housing development and nitrogen loading in Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts. Estuaries 19, 730-739. 

A Paleozoic oceanic impact at a time of widespread anoxia would instantaneously replace the surface ocean with anoxic, sulfidic, high pco deep waters. CO2 and H2S would degass to the atmosphere CO2 would equilibrate, and H2S would oxidize. However, an H2S-rich plume could last days to weeks, and spread across the land surface (A. Pavlov, personal communication). Such a scenario may explain the F-F and P-Tr extinction events if the impactor was a comet, a smaller iridium anomaly would result and may have escaped detection. If so, only the Late Ordovician extinction remains as a likely candidate for a purely terrestrial extinction mechanism (glacio-eustatic sea-level fall causing shallow-marine habitat loss). 

The extensive uses of macaques in biomedical research, along with habitat loss and other ecological pressures, have severely depleted the numbers of some species. Certain conservation measures have resulted in some recoveries of declining populations, however, especially of rhesus and Japanese monkeys. The rarer species of macaques, including the lion-tailed. Barbary, Formosan, Tibetan, and Celebes macaques, are seriously endangered, however, mainly because of habitat losses. Strong action on conservation protection is needed on these species, as well as on many other non-human primates. 

Many species of marsupial rats and mice have declined greatly in abundance due to habitat loss and the deadly effects of introduced placental mammalian predators, such as cats and foxes. Numerous species are now endangered, and special conservation measures must be taken if they are to survive. 

The requirement of stopover sites in addition to breeding and wintering sites makes migratory animals particularly susceptible to habitat loss, and thus many migrants are among our most endangered species. 

Due to unsustainable in-situ harvesting, human excessive interference, habitat loss and fragmentation and grazing pressure, it has become endangered in Northwest Himalaya (Khan et ah, 2005 Butola, 2009). Sastry and Chaterjee (2000) prioritized it among the species of high conservation concern. 

Reproductive success is certainly another measure of the health of an organism and is the principal indicator of the Darwinian fitness of an organism. In a laboratory situation it clearly is possible to measure fecundity and the success of offspring in their maturation. In nature these parameters may be very difficult to measure accurately. Many factors other than pollution can lead to poor reproductive success. Secondary effects, such as the impact of habitat loss on zooplankton populations essential for fry feeding, will be seen in the depression or elimination of the young age classes. 

Many factors other than pollution can lead to poor reproductive success. Secondary effects, such as the impact of habitat loss on zooplankton populations essential for fry feeding, will be seen in the depression or elimination of the young age classes. 

Increased interest in ecological issues such as global climate change, habitat loss, acid deposition, reduced biological diversity, and the ecological impacts of pesticides and toxic chemicals prompts this Framework Report. This report describes basic elements, or a framework, for evaluating scientific... 

Whereas these three tiends are all linked to eutrophication, a process described in Chapter 12 of this book in its abiotic details, there are two other kinds of anthropogenic impact on macrophytobenthos in the Baltic Sea, harvest of macrophytobenthos and habitat loss by stone extraction, whose effects are seldom discussed and therefore will be presented in the following as well. 

Figure 9. Spatial patterns of habitat expansion and loss between the current time period and 2050 for Bacillus anthracis from a GARP modeling experiment. Expanded habitat is present in 2050 but not in the current time period. No change indicates predicted presence in both the current and future model outputs. Not suitable indicates absence of B. anthracis habitat in both modeling experiments. Habitat loss indicates habitat that was predicted as present in the current scenario and excluded from the future scenario.

Goss-Custard JD, Burton NHK, Clark NA, Ferns PN, McGrorty S, Reading CJ, Rehfisch MM, Stillman RA, Townend I, West AD, Worrall DH. 2006. Test of a behavior-based individual-based model response of shorebird mortality to habitat loss. Ecol Appl 16 2215-2222. 

Management Plans) [4], should incorporate the effects of habitat loss, even if these are small in scale compared to the often large areas of military installations characterized by relatively intact vegetation communities. Therefore, a discussion of habitat disturbance on explosives-contaminated ranges is included in this volume on the ecotoxicology of explosives. 

Among other factors, an investigation of habitat loss requires consideration of the spatial extent of contamination from a field perspective. Potential habitat loss can be quantified if the sizes and shapes of contaminated areas and chemical concentrations available to plants are known, as well as the area of physical disturbance. Shapes of contaminated areas help to determine the connectivity of species-specific habitat (see discussion below). Chemical concentrations determine the likelihood and spatial extent of phytotoxicity and the time to recovery of vegetation. In addition, the depth of contamination, relative to that of plant roots, is a factor that determines the potential for plant uptake of explosives. 

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