Firstly, the Everglades are an important ecosystem which reduces flooding and replenish aquifers but human actions are having a huge impact on the landscape. The rapid urban and agricultural development in the area has decreased the size of the wetlands dramatically which affects the organisms found there. This is especially important as it is home to several endangered species. Not only that, but invasive species that threaten existing wildlife by preying on or competing with them. According to Everglades.org, they’ve “contributed to nearly 70 percent of extinctions in the United States” and are the “primary cause of species endangerment.” The water itself is a major cause of decline to the area, firstly because of poor water management leading to water levels being too low or too high at the wrong times has caused a decline in many species.
(i) Description of Disasters: Hurricane Katrina is said to have been the most costly and deadliest hurricanes in U.S history, resulting in $81.2 billion dollars in damage and 1836 casualties6. The hurricane made landfall in New Orleans in the early morning of August 29th, 2005 as a Category 3 or 4 storm. The heavy rains that were produced as the hurricane moved inland, along with the poorly designed levees, caused all 56 levees in New Orleans to fail, resulting in freshwater flooding of 80% of the city15. Hurricane Katrina devastated an area over 160 km from the storm’s eye, which included parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and most importantly, Louisiana6. It originally formed off the Bahamas, on August 23rd, as a Tropical Depression and strengthened to a Category 1 storm once it made landfall in Florida on August 25th.
This complex ecosystem is both an extraordinary geological and ecological feature of Florida and encompasses a historic, social, economic, and environmental significance. The IRL is a network of people, places, and natural resources that are inter-dependent upon each other. Unfortunately, the primary threat to this unique ecosystem comes from human population growth as well as coast-line developers. The storm water and sewage run-offs pose significant pollution problems to the ecosystems survival. Today, scientists, and resource managers are concerned about the future of the lagoon, including declines in quality of the water, loss of habitat, biological diversity, invasive species, diminishing fisheries, and the declining of the ecosystem’s health.
This is a great loss to their habitat Which types of lemurs are adapting to the changes? Which types of lemurs are not adapting well? Why? A lemur that is not adapting very easy to the change is the Bamboo Lemur. When you cut down the bamboo, it takes away the food supply and they cease to exist.
Gulf Coast- The Gulf Coast stretches along the Gulf of Mexico for hundreds of miles. Cities such as Corpus Christi, Galveston, and Houston are in the Gulf Coast region. Near the gulf waters you can see marshes, barrier islands, estuaries (where salty sea water and fresh river water meet), and bays. As you travel west, you can see prairies and grasslands. The Gulf Coast is home to many wildlife and plants.
Recognized by many as the “smeltdown in the Delta,” the extinction trajectory of delta smelt, has left the once-abundant species in critical condition due to record-high water diversions, pollutants, and harmful nonnative species that thrive in the damaged delta habitat. The delta smelt is semelparous, living one year and dying after its first spawning. Delta smelt spawning occurs in spring in river channels and tidally influenced backwater sloughs upstream of the mixing zone where saltwater meets freshwater. This shift in the species center of abundance arises from the fact that while the delta smelt is a saltwater tolerant species, it is seldom found where sea
This would be terrible for the people and creatures that rely on this mighty river to live. Dams, diversions and evaporation losses from reservoirs also contribute to the lessening of water available from the river, causing ecological consequences to wildlife living in and along the river. The Colorado River used to carry up to 85 to 100 million tons of silt or sediment to the Gulf of California where it deposited into the sea. The sediment helped things along the river path grow and flourish. Over the years, the silt has been collecting in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, and it is predicted that over the next few hundred years this lake will fill up with silt.
Issues such as habitat loss, grazing, tourism, threatened native species, feral animals in the Mount Kosciuszko. The reasons for this dramatic decline in Human-induced modification and natural induced. Early generations of grazing and practices such as deforestation have also played a major role in the ecological disaster that is the Mount Kosciuszko. (Map of Mount Kosciuszko) Mount Kosciuszko is incredibly diverse weathering many different ecosystems, forests, , mountain ranges. The Mount Kosciuszko supports a significant portion of Australia’s biodiversity including species of flora and fauna found only within the Mount Kosciuszko; pygmy possum, broad tooth rat and the spotted tail quoll.
Lake Huron is one of the Great Lakes and a major part of our fresh water system, which contains many wildlife and species. The lake however, is in a real danger, adversely effecting habitats, fish, wildlife, and human lives. Lake Huron has become a dumping ground for many companies, dumping waste that contains many pollutants. Bacteria levels have increased in the lake which can cause serious illness. These pollutants have reduced water quality, contaminated soils, and damaged the Lake’s ecosystems.
The relentlessness of these effects on the larger economy depends on numerous issues, including the disaster itself, the pretentious area and the volume of national and regional institutions to provide relief and begin efforts to reestablish surroundings. When it came down to it, “Hurricane Katrina’s damage affected not only the U.S. Gulf Coast, but the national and global economy as well” (“The Effect of Natural Disasters on the Economy” 1). The disastrous storm restructured the movement of goods and service, the world prices for energy, food trade, building materials to rebuild what have been damaged, individual spending choices, and company incomes. Therefore, “natural disasters always alter the building blocks of economic productions” (“The Effect of Natural Disasters on the Economy” 1). Personal misfortune through injury or death decrease the size and eminence of work in the labor force.