Extinction

Extinction in Biology and Ecology: A Problem that Keeps Getting Worse

By Charles L Harmon

Extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of organisms, reducing biodiversity. The death of the last individual of that species is generally considered to be the moment of extinction. Since a species’ potential range may be quite large, determining this moment is difficult. In biology and ecology species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or compete against superior competition.

A coalition of leading conservation groups, called a report “the most comprehensive evaluation ever undertaken of the status of the world’s biodiversity.” That was in response to a report in 2004 by the World Conservation Union. it was based on current extinction rates being at least 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural rates found in the fossil record, the report stated. Fossil records are often used to determine when some species became extinct.

The data in the report was released as 3,500 delegates gathered three years ago in Bangkok, Thailand, for a World Conservation Union conference. The conference was focused on halting what’s considered an extinction crisis. They indicated that there were 3,330 more species threatened by extinction.

The report concluded that humans are the main reason for most species’ declines. Personally I would expect the extinction rate to explode when looking at the long history of humans. We normally do little to save the environment we live in. It seems that only recently there is any significant action taken to help preserve the natural environment. Significant in the least sense of the word since there is so very much to be done worldwide.

“Habitat destruction and degradation are the leading threats,” the union said in a statement, “but other significant pressures include over-exploitation (for food, pets, and medicine), introduced species, pollution, and disease. Climate change is increasingly recognized as a serious threat.”

A typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years of its first appearance, although some species, called living fossils, survive virtually unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. Only one in a thousand species that have existed remain today.

Prior to the dispersion of humans across the earth, extinction generally occurred at a continuous low rate, mass extinctions being relatively rare events. Starting approximately 100,000 years ago, and coinciding with an increase in the numbers and range of humans, species extinctions have increased to an unprecedented rate. Some experts have estimated that up to half of presently existing species may become extinct by 2100.

Governments sometimes see the loss of native species as a loss to ecotourism, and can enact laws with severe punishment against the trade in native species in an effort to prevent extinction in the wild. Nature preserves are sometimes created by governments as a means to provide continuing habitats to species crowded by human expansion.

People who live close to nature can be dependent on the survival of all the species in their environment and might be considered some of the people who should be most concerned about extinction risks.

We usually think of extinction as all bad. But there is another side of the story, depending on what’s being driven to extinction, and why. Some extinctions are planned. Before you start thinking what earth am I living on read further. Humans have aggressively worked towards the extinction of many species of virus in the cause of disease eradication. For example, the smallpox virus is now essentially extinct in the wild, although some samples are retained in controlled laboratory settings for research use. Another example, the polio virus is now confined to small parts of the world as a result of mankind’s efforts to cure this terrible disease.

Extinction is an important research topic in the field of zoology, and biology in general, and has also become an area of concern outside the scientific community. A number of organizations, such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature, have been created with the goal of preserving species from extinction. Governments have attempted, through enacting laws, to avoid human over harvesting or habitat destruction. It looks like the topic of extinction will always be with us in one form or another.

Portions of this article were taken from Wikipedia

Charles is a software developer. He is also interested in stock and financial investing. Self-esteem and self-improvement also is a priority with Charles. Although he hasn’t traveled much, he is interested in world travel destinations.