83-574: See text Unionida is a monophyletic order of freshwater mussels , aquatic bivalve molluscs . The order includes most of the larger freshwater mussels, including the freshwater pearl mussels . The most common families are the Unionidae and the Margaritiferidae . All have in common a larval stage that is temporarily parasitic on fish, nacreous shells, high in organic matter, that may crack upon drying out, and siphons too short to permit
166-477: A decline in marine habitats over the last 60 years. The rising sea levels and temperatures have caused soil erosion , coastal flooding , and loss of quality in the UK marine ecosystem . About one-fifth (20%) of marine coastal areas have been highly modified by humans. One-fifth of coral reefs have also been destroyed, and another fifth has been severely degraded by overfishing , pollution, and invasive species ; 90% of
249-721: A function of which species of freshwater mussel they were formed in, although various factors including position of the pearl nucleus in the shell, water quality, and species type all affect the color of the freshwater pearl. With the decline in the numbers of native freshwater mussels in North America people began to culture freshwater pearls; this became a big industry in Japan. Natural freshwater pearls are rarely perfectly round, more often than not freshwater pearls are naturally shaped as baroque, slug, or wing shaped. Round pearls are sought after as more desirable for use in jewelry. The shape of
332-498: A given area or country. This concept, along with many other results of tropical deforestation from the Geist and Lambin study, can easily be applied to habitat destruction in general. Shoreline erosion: Coastal erosion is a natural process as storms, waves, tides and other water level changes occur. Shoreline stabilization can be done by barriers between land and water such as seawalls and bulkheads. Living shorelines are gaining attention as
415-498: A growth in wood (logging) and food markets. Growth in these markets, in turn, progresses the commercialization of agriculture and logging industries. When these industries become commercialized, they must become more efficient by utilizing larger or more modern machinery that often has a worse effect on the habitat than traditional farming and logging methods. Either way, more land is cleared more rapidly for commercial markets. This common feedback example manifests just how closely related
498-431: A hostile environment/matrix. This process is generally due to pure habitat loss as well as fragmentation effects. Pure habitat loss refers to changes occurring in the composition of the landscape that causes a decrease in individuals. Fragmentation effects refer to an addition of effects occurring due to the habitat changes. Habitat loss can result in negative effects on the dynamic of species richness. The order Hymenoptera
581-424: A lesser extent. Only 10–20% of the world's drylands , which include temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands , scrub , and deciduous forests , have been somewhat degraded. But included in that 10–20% of land is the approximately 9 million square kilometers of seasonally dry-lands that humans have converted to deserts through the process of desertification . The tallgrass prairies of North America, on
664-594: A major source of habitat destruction. Commercial farmers are going to become desperate to produce more food from the same amount of land, so they will use more fertilizers and show less concern for the environment to meet the market demand. Others will seek out new land or will convert other land-uses to agriculture. Agricultural intensification will become widespread at the cost of the environment and its inhabitants. Species will be pushed out of their habitat either directly by habitat destruction or indirectly by fragmentation, degradation , or pollution . Any efforts to protect
747-893: A natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved to elsewhere or are dead, leading to a decrease in biodiversity and species numbers . Habitat destruction is in fact the leading cause of biodiversity loss and species extinction worldwide. Humans contribute to habitat destruction through the use of natural resources , agriculture, industrial production and urbanization ( urban sprawl ). Other activities include mining , logging and trawling . Environmental factors can contribute to habitat destruction more indirectly. Geological processes, climate change , introduction of invasive species , ecosystem nutrient depletion , water and noise pollution are some examples. Loss of habitat can be preceded by an initial habitat fragmentation . Fragmentation and loss of habitat have become one of
830-404: A new stabilization method. These can reduce damage and erosion while simultaneously providing ecosystem services such as food production, nutrient and sediment removal, and water quality improvement to society Preventing an area from losing its specialist species to generalist invasive species depends on the extent of the habitat destruction that has already taken place. In areas where the habitat
913-457: A polyphyletic grouping are not inherited from a common ancestor, but evolved independently. Monophyletic groups are typically characterised by shared derived characteristics ( synapomorphies ), which distinguish organisms in the clade from other organisms. An equivalent term is holophyly . The word "mono-phyly" means "one-tribe" in Greek. These definitions have taken some time to be accepted. When
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#1733084566973996-601: A reason for change to more sustainable practices. Education about the necessity of family planning to slow population growth is important as greater population leads to greater human caused habitat destruction. Habitat restoration can also take place through the following processes; extending habitats or repairing habitats. Extending habitats aims to counteract habitat loss and fragmentation whereas repairing habitats counteracts degradation. The preservation and creation of habitat corridors can link isolated populations and increase pollination. Corridors are also known to reduce
1079-540: A result of habitat destruction include watershed management , nitrogen fixation , oxygen production, pollination (see pollinator decline ), waste treatment (i.e., the breaking down and immobilization of toxic pollutants), and nutrient recycling of sewage or agricultural runoff . The loss of trees from tropical rainforests alone represents a substantial diminishing of Earth's ability to produce oxygen and to use up carbon dioxide. These services are becoming even more important as increasing carbon dioxide levels
1162-437: A shell consisting of two parts that are hinged together, which can be closed to protect the animal's soft body within. Like all mollusks, the freshwater mussels have a muscular "foot", which enables the mussel to move slowly and bury itself within the bottom substrate of its freshwater habitat. Unionida have a unique and complex life cycle involving parasitic larvae. This larval form used to be described as "parasitic worms" on
1245-616: A short period of time millions of freshwater mussels were collected in this manner. By 1899, there were sixty button factories in the river states of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin, employing 1,917 people. Millions of "pearl" buttons were made annually. This new button industry quickly placed a huge ecological demand on the freshwater mussels of the Midwestern United States. In 1899, clammers harvested over sixteen million pounds of freshwater mussel shells in Wisconsin alone, and
1328-411: A shortage of freshwater mussels and pushed many of the species close to extinction. The invention of plastic and its use in manufacturing buttons during World War II replaced shell "pearl" buttons as the most popular product, and foreshadowed the end of the pearl button manufacturing business. The superfamilies and families in the order Unionida, as listed by Bieler et al (2010), with later additions to
1411-458: A significant price. The art of "pollywogging" involves shuffling one's feet in the mud feeling around for freshwater mussels. Because this was relatively easy to do, and an easy way to make money from freshwater selling pearls, this period has been euphemistically called the "pearl rush", and some historians have compared it to the gold rush in California. A formal freshwater mussel fishing industry
1494-475: A sticky filament that allows it to adhere to the substrate so it is not washed away. There is also an even more specialized way of dispersal known as a super-conglutinate. The super-conglutinate resembles an aquatic fly larva or a fish egg, complete with a dark area that looks like an eyespot, and it is appetizing to fish. When a fish consumes it, it breaks up, releasing the glochidia. Mussels that produce conglutinates and super-conglutinates are often gill parasites,
1577-429: A universal policy for controlling tropical deforestation would not be able to address the unique combination of proximate and underlying causes of deforestation in each country. Before any local, national, or international deforestation policies are written and enforced, governmental leaders must acquire a detailed understanding of the complex combination of proximate causes and underlying driving forces of deforestation in
1660-605: Is a diverse group of plant pollinators who are highly susceptible to the negative effects of habitat loss, this could result in a domino effect between the plant-pollinator interactions leading to major conservation implications within this group. It is observed from the worlds longest running fragmentation experiment over 35 years that habitat fragmentation has caused a decrease in biodiversity from 13% to 75%. Habitat destruction can vastly increase an area's vulnerability to natural disasters like flood and drought , crop failure , spread of disease , and water contamination . On
1743-488: Is becoming better understood is climate regulation . On a local scale, trees provide windbreaks and shade; on a regional scale, plant transpiration recycles rainwater and maintains constant annual rainfall; on a global scale, plants (especially trees in tropical rainforests) around the world counter the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by sequestering carbon dioxide through photosynthesis . Other ecosystem services that are diminished or lost altogether as
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#17330845669731826-513: Is contrasted with paraphyly and polyphyly as shown in the second diagram. A paraphyletic grouping meets 1. but not 2., thus consisting of the descendants of a common ancestor, excepting one or more monophyletic subgroups. A polyphyletic grouping meets neither criterion, and instead serves to characterize convergent relationships of biological features rather than genetic relationships – for example, night-active primates, fruit trees, or aquatic insects. As such, these characteristic features of
1909-1177: Is directly correlated to the poverty status of the local people, most of whom lacking an education and family planning. According to the Geist and Lambin (2002) study, the underlying driving forces were prioritized as follows (with the percent of the 152 cases the factor played a significant role in): economic factors (81%), institutional or policy factors (78%), technological factors (70%), cultural or socio-political factors (66%), and demographic factors (61%). The main economic factors included commercialization and growth of timber markets (68%), which are driven by national and international demands; urban industrial growth (38%); low domestic costs for land, labor, fuel, and timber (32%); and increases in product prices mainly for cash crops (25%). Institutional and policy factors included formal pro- deforestation policies on land development (40%), economic growth including colonization and infrastructure improvement (34%), and subsidies for land-based activities (26%); property rights and land-tenure insecurity (44%); and policy failures such as corruption , lawlessness, or mismanagement (42%). The main technological factor
1992-711: Is lost, a catastrophic event such as an earthquake, flood, or volcanic eruption could cause an ecosystem to crash, and humans would obviously suffer from that. Loss of biodiversity also means that humans are losing animals that could have served as biological-control agents and plants that could potentially provide higher-yielding crop varieties, pharmaceutical drugs to cure existing or future diseases (such as cancer), and new resistant crop-varieties for agricultural species susceptible to pesticide-resistant insects or virulent strains of fungi , viruses , and bacteria . The negative effects of habitat destruction usually impact rural populations more directly than urban populations. Across
2075-488: Is one of the main contributors to global climate change . The loss of biodiversity may not directly affect humans, but the indirect effects of losing many species as well as the diversity of ecosystems in general are enormous. When biodiversity is lost, the environment loses many species that perform valuable and unique roles in the ecosystem. The environment and all its inhabitants rely on biodiversity to recover from extreme environmental conditions. When too much biodiversity
2158-536: Is one such example, with irreversible reclamation proceeding prior to environmental impact assessments and approvals. Other such areas include the eastern coasts of Asia and Africa, northern coasts of South America , and the Caribbean Sea and its associated islands . Regions of un sustainable agriculture or unstable governments, which may go hand-in-hand, typically experience high rates of habitat destruction. South Asia , Central America , Sub-Saharan Africa , and
2241-401: Is relatively undisturbed, halting further habitat destruction may be enough. In areas where habitat destruction is more extreme ( fragmentation or patch loss), restoration ecology may be needed. Education of the general public is possibly the best way to prevent further human habitat destruction. Changing the dull creep of environmental impacts from being viewed as acceptable to being seen
2324-564: Is that shifting cultivation is not the primary cause of deforestation in all world regions, while transport extension (including the construction of new roads ) is the largest single proximate factor responsible for deforestation. Habitat size and numbers of species are systematically related. Physically larger species and those living at lower latitudes or in forests or oceans are more sensitive to reduction in habitat area. Conversion to "trivial" standardized ecosystems (e.g., monoculture following deforestation) effectively destroys habitat for
2407-588: The Amazonian tropical rainforest areas of South America are the main regions with unsustainable agricultural practices and/or government mismanagement. Areas of high agricultural output tend to have the highest extent of habitat destruction. In the U.S., less than 25% of native vegetation remains in many parts of the East and Midwest . Only 15% of land area remains unmodified by human activities in all of Europe. Currently, changes occurring in different environments around
2490-573: The Philippines , and Japan . South and East Asia—especially China , India , Malaysia , Indonesia , and Japan—and many areas in West Africa have extremely dense human populations that allow little room for natural habitat. Marine areas close to highly populated coastal cities also face degradation of their coral reefs or other marine habitat. Forest City , a township in southern Malaysia built on Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) Rank 1 wetland
2573-473: The expanding human population ; rate of population increase over time; spatial distribution of people in a given area ( urban versus rural), ecosystem type, and country; and the combined effects of poverty, age, family planning, gender, and education status of people in certain areas. Most of the exponential human population growth worldwide is occurring in or close to biodiversity hotspots . This may explain why human population density accounts for 87.9% of
Unionida - Misplaced Pages Continue
2656-473: The freshwater pearl industry , and for the nacre of their shells, which was used in button manufacturing. Of the North American Unionida about 70% are either extinct (21 species), endangered (77 species), threatened (43 species) or are listed as species of special concern (72 species). These bivalve mollusks were heavily exploited for freshwater pearls , and for their nacre which was used in
2739-445: The "seed" or nucleus of the freshwater pearl, and the position of the "seed" in the mussel determines the ultimate shape the cultured pearl will take, hence with careful advanced planning cultured pearls can be made round. Cultured pearls have a similar color to natural pearls as the nacre is laid down by the mantle of the freshwater mussel, and thus the color of the pearl may be species specific. Exportation of freshwater mussels for
2822-592: The Middle Triassic of Tanzania and Zambia. Families, genera, and species in the order Unionida are found on six continents, where they are restricted exclusively to freshwater rivers, streams, creeks and some lakes. There are approximately 900 species worldwide. Around 300 species of these freshwater mussels are endemic to North America. Unlike other bivalve orders, Unionida has no marine species, although one species ( Glebula rotundata ) tolerates brackish water. This widespread trait and its global distribution suggests
2905-549: The Philippines' coral reefs alone have been destroyed. Finally, over 35% of the mangrove ecosystems worldwide have been destroyed. Habitat destruction through natural processes such as volcanism, fire , and climate change is well documented in the fossil record. One study shows that habitat fragmentation of tropical rainforests in Euramerica 300 million years ago led to a great loss of amphibian diversity, but simultaneously
2988-473: The U.S. Bureau of Fisheries established a mussel propagation program at the Fairport Biological Station. The purpose of this program was to regulate the overharvesting of freshwater mussels. Freshwater mussels are slow growing sessile organisms, and their reproduction is complex. The button industry in North America was in trouble because years of overharvesting the freshwater mussels had caused
3071-540: The United States in 1887 and found that there were vast beds of thick freshwater mussel shells in Muscatine, Iowa, which he determined were perfect for making "pearl buttons". By 1891, Boepple had set up a shop and was in business as a craftsman making buttons. John Boepple's buttons became popular locally and to ward off competition he was very protective of the secrets of his trade. Since freshwater mussels were so common and
3154-503: The animal to live deeply buried in sediment. The shells of these mussels are variable in shape, but usually equivalve and elongate. They have solid, nacreous valves with a pearly interior, radial sculpture, and an entire pallial line. Although some fossil freshwater bivalves from the Carboniferous and Permian periods have been suggested to be unionids, other authors have suggested that they are likely to be unrelated, due to lacking
3237-448: The annual revenue of freshwater mussel exportation to Japan had dropped to $ 35 million. By 1993 in the United States 31 different states were still reporting production of freshwater pearls and export of freshwater mussel shells, including: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. To this date
3320-1174: The attention concerning the destruction of habitat. From the approximately 16 million square kilometers of tropical rainforest habitat that originally existed worldwide, less than 9 million square kilometers remain today. The current rate of deforestation is 160,000 square kilometers per year, which equates to a loss of approximately 1% of original forest habitat each year. Other forest ecosystems have suffered as much or more destruction as tropical rainforests . Deforestation for farming and logging have severely disturbed at least 94% of temperate broadleaf forests ; many old growth forest stands have lost more than 98% of their previous area because of human activities. Tropical deciduous dry forests are easier to clear and burn and are more suitable for agriculture and cattle ranching than tropical rainforests; consequently, less than 0.1% of dry forests in Central America's Pacific Coast and less than 8% in Madagascar remain from their original extents. Plains and desert areas have been degraded to
3403-515: The balance of species keeping up with the extinction threshold leading to a higher likelihood of extinction. Habitat loss is one of the main environmental causes of the decline of biodiversity on local, regional, and global scales. Many believe that habitat fragmentation is also a threat to biodiversity however some believe that it is secondary to habitat loss. The reduction of the amount of habitat available results in specific landscapes that are made of isolated patches of suitable habitat throughout
Unionida - Misplaced Pages Continue
3486-517: The bulk of the freshwater mussel shell and freshwater pearl production comes from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee. In 1963 the first experimental United States freshwater mussel cultured pearl farm was established in Tennessee by John Latendresse , who is widely proclaimed as "the father of the U.S. cultured freshwater pearl industry." Over the course of nearly 30 years, John Latendresse devoted his money, time and effort to research and develop
3569-420: The butterfly, ebony, elephant ear, heelsplitter, mapleleaf, three-ridge pigtoe, pimple back, pistol grip, and washboard. While white is the most common color, freshwater pearls are valued in part for their wide range of lustrous colors, including: blue, bronze, brown, copper, cream, green, lavender, pink, purple, red, salmon, silvery white, white, and yellow. The different colors of freshwater pearls are primarily
3652-461: The button manufacturing industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The effects of heavy fishing for freshwater mussels in North America in for use in manufacturing buttons put many of these species close to extinction. The "pearl rush" in North America occurred in the mid to late 1800s as people could easily find freshwater mussels in rivers and streams by "pollywogging" for mussels, some of which had freshwater pearls which they could sell for
3735-404: The cladistics school of thought became mainstream in the 1960s, several alternative definitions were in use. Indeed, taxonomists sometimes used terms without defining them, leading to confusion in the early literature, a confusion which persists. The first diagram shows a phylogenetic tree with two monophyletic groups. The several groups and subgroups are particularly situated as branches of
3818-408: The cold light of history it was relatively minor compared to the over fishing that took place just a few years later with the "pearl" button industry. Freshwater pearls from North America come from freshwater mussels primarily in the family Unionidae . About 20 different species of Unionidae are commercially harvested for pearls. The common names of the most prolific pearl-bearing species include:
3901-556: The complexity of the natural world and express concern at the loss of natural habitats and of animal or plant species worldwide. Probably the most profound impact that habitat destruction has on people is the loss of many valuable ecosystem services . Habitat destruction has altered nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and carbon cycles , which has increased the frequency and severity of acid rain , algal blooms , and fish kills in rivers and oceans and contributed tremendously to global climate change . One ecosystem service whose significance
3984-430: The country, as a result of widespread deforestation in the 20th century. As habitat destruction of an area occurs, the species diversity offsets from a combination of habitat generalists and specialists to a population primarily consisting of generalist species . Invasive species are frequently generalists that are able to survive in much more diverse habitats. Habitat destruction leading to climate change offsets
4067-456: The cultured freshwater pearl industry in the United States. There are currently six freshwater cultured pearl farms in Tennessee and one in California to support the increasing popularity and demand of freshwater pearl jewelry with consumers in the United States. The North American button industry began with a German craftsman named John Boepple, who had made buttons from seashells, horns and antlers in his native country. John Boepple immigrated to
4150-538: The destruction of the surrounding landscape. Over the past 50 years, the destruction of habitat surrounding agricultural land has degraded approximately 40% of agricultural land worldwide via erosion , salinization , compaction , nutrient depletion , pollution , and urbanization . Humans also lose direct uses of natural habitat when habitat is destroyed. Aesthetic uses such as birdwatching , recreational uses like hunting and fishing , and ecotourism usually rely upon relatively undisturbed habitat. Many people value
4233-898: The drier climate spurred on a burst of diversity among reptiles. Habitat destruction caused by humans includes land conversion from forests, etc. to arable land , urban sprawl , infrastructure development , and other anthropogenic changes to the characteristics of land. Habitat degradation, fragmentation, and pollution are aspects of habitat destruction caused by humans that do not necessarily involve over destruction of habitat, yet result in habitat collapse. Desertification , deforestation , and coral reef degradation are specific types of habitat destruction for those areas ( deserts , forests , coral reefs ). The forces that cause humans to destroy habitat are known as drivers of habitat destruction. Demographic , economic, sociopolitical, scientific and technological, and cultural drivers all contribute to habitat destruction. Demographic drivers include
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#17330845669734316-413: The fact that a monophyletic group includes organisms (e.g., genera, species) consisting of all the descendants of a unique common ancestor. Conversely, the term polyphyly , or polyphyletic , builds on the ancient Greek prefix πολύς ( polús ), meaning "many, a lot of", and refers to the fact that a polyphyletic group includes organisms arising from multiple ancestral sources. By comparison,
4399-413: The first factor—in those areas (25%). Geist and Lambin (2002) assessed 152 case studies of net losses of tropical forest cover to determine any patterns in the proximate and underlying causes of tropical deforestation. Their results, yielded as percentages of the case studies in which each parameter was a significant factor, provide a quantitative prioritization of which proximate and underlying causes were
4482-432: The fish host, however, the larvae are not "worms" and do not harm fish under normal circumstances. Most of these freshwater mussel species have separate sexes (although some species, such as Elliptio complanata , are known to be hermaphroditic). The sperm is ejected from the mantle cavity through the male's excurrent aperture and taken into the female's mantle cavity through the incurrent aperture. Fertilised eggs move from
4565-411: The freshwater mussels. The process was simple: several of these "brail hooks" were attached to a long wooden bar with lengths of rope and the entire assembly was lowered into the river and dragged behind a boat along the river bottom. When the tips of these hooks came in contact with an "open" freshwater mussel, the mussel clamped its valves shut around the hooks and could be lifted from the bottom. Within
4648-463: The globe, poor people suffer the most when natural habitat is destroyed, because less natural habitat means fewer natural resources per capita , yet wealthier people and countries can simply pay more to continue to receive more than their per capita share of natural resources. Another way to view the negative effects of habitat destruction is to look at the opportunity cost of destroying a given habitat. In other words, what do people lose out on with
4731-532: The glochidia attaching to the fish gills to continue their development into juveniles. A cyst is quickly formed around the glochidia, and they stay on the fish for several weeks or months before they fall off as juvenile freshwater mussels which then bury themselves in the sediment. This unique life cycle allows Unionida freshwater mussels to move upstream with the fish host species. Many of these freshwater mussel species face conservation issues due to habitat degradation and in some cases due to over-exploitation for
4814-453: The gonads to the gills (marsupia) where they further ripen and metamorph into glochidia , the first larval stage. Mature glochidia are released by the female and then attach to the gills, fins or skin of a host fish. Typically, the freshwater mussel larvae (glochidia) have hooks, which enable the individual to attach itself to fish. Some freshwater mussels release their glochidia in mucilaginous packets called conglutinates. The conglutinate has
4897-440: The group has inhabited freshwater throughout its geologic history. Unionida burrow into the substrate in clean, fast flowing freshwater rivers, streams and creeks, with their posterior margins exposed. They pump water through the incurrent aperture , obtaining oxygen and filtering food from the water column. Freshwater mussels are some of the longest-living invertebrates in existence. These clams have, like all bivalve mollusks,
4980-400: The harvest of freshwater mussels in the late 1890s numbered in the tens of millions of pounds per year. Freshwater mussel beds which had previously been so dense as to virtually "carpet" miles of river bottom were almost completely harvested, leaving just a few living freshwater mussels per mile. In 1908, in what was deemed a drastic response to the rapidly declining freshwater mussel population,
5063-588: The internal nacreous layer thought to have been present in the last common ancestor of all unionids and present in their closest marine relatives, the Trigoniida . The oldest unambiguous unionids are known from the Triassic period, with the oldest commonly cited examples being from the Late Triassic Chinle Formation and Newark Supergroup of North America, though possibly older examples are known from
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#17330845669735146-524: The more diverse species. Even the simplest forms of agriculture affect diversity – through clearing or draining the land, discouraging weeds and pests , and encouraging just a limited set of domesticated plant and animal species. There are also feedbacks and interactions among the proximate and underlying causes of deforestation that can amplify the process. Road construction has the largest feedback effect, because it interacts with—and leads to—the establishment of new settlements and more people, which causes
5229-597: The most important topics of research in ecology as they are major threats to the survival of endangered species . Biodiversity hotspots are chiefly tropical regions that feature high concentrations of endemic species and, when all hotspots are combined, may contain over half of the world's terrestrial species. These hotspots are suffering from habitat loss and destruction. Most of the natural habitat on islands and in areas of high human population density has already been destroyed (WRI, 2003). Islands suffering extreme habitat destruction include New Zealand , Madagascar ,
5312-678: The most significant. The proximate causes were clustered into broad categories of agricultural expansion (96%), infrastructure expansion (72%), and wood extraction (67%). Therefore, according to this study, forest conversion to agriculture is the main land use change responsible for tropical deforestation. The specific categories reveal further insight into the specific causes of tropical deforestation: transport extension (64%), commercial wood extraction (52%), permanent cultivation (48%), cattle ranching (46%), shifting ( slash and burn ) cultivation (41%), subsistence agriculture (40%), and fuel wood extraction for domestic use (28%). One result
5395-438: The negative impacts of habitat destruction. The biggest potential to solving the issue of habitat destruction comes from solving the political, economical and social problems that go along with it such as, individual and commercial material consumption, sustainable extraction of resources, conservation areas , restoration of degraded land and addressing climate change. Governmental leaders need to take action by addressing
5478-482: The other hand, a healthy ecosystem with good management practices can reduce the chance of these events happening, or will at least mitigate adverse impacts. Eliminating swamps—the habitat of pests such as mosquitoes —has contributed to the prevention of diseases such as malaria . Completely depriving an infectious agent (such as a virus) of its habitat—by vaccination , for example—can result in eradicating that infectious agent. Agricultural land can suffer from
5561-510: The other hand, have less than 3% of natural habitat remaining that has not been converted to farmland. Wetlands and marine areas have endured high levels of habitat destruction. More than 50% of wetlands in the U.S. have been destroyed in just the last 200 years. Between 60% and 70% of European wetlands have been completely destroyed. In the United Kingdom, there has been an increase in demand for coastal housing and tourism which has caused
5644-647: The profit potential in making "pearl" buttons was so high, some of Boepple's staff who knew his techniques were "recruited" by other businessmen to start competing businesses. Within a few years there were button factories along the length of the Mississippi River. The need to "catch" freshwater mussels for the "pearl" button industry spurred the invention of tools to make the job easier than "pollywogging" with bare feet. In 1897 inventive mussel fishermen bent steel bars into wide open hooks which they called "brail hooks" or "crow foots" and used them to try to catch or trap
5727-814: The proximate and underlying causes are to each other. Climate change contributes to destruction of some habitats, endangering various species. For example: When a habitat is destroyed, the carrying capacity for indigenous plants, animals, and other organisms is reduced so that populations decline , sometimes up to the level of extinction . Habitat loss is perhaps the greatest threat to organisms and biodiversity. Temple (1986) found that 82% of endangered bird species were significantly threatened by habitat loss. Most amphibian species are also threatened by native habitat loss, and some species are now only breeding in modified habitat. Endemic organisms with limited ranges are most affected by habitat destruction, mainly because these organisms are not found anywhere else in
5810-404: The reduction of genetic diversity and perhaps the production of infertile youths, as these organisms would have a higher possibility of mating with related organisms within their population, or different species. One of the most famous examples is the impact upon China's giant panda , once found in many areas of Sichuan . Now it is only found in fragmented and isolated regions in the southwest of
5893-492: The removal of a given habitat? A country may increase its food supply by converting forest land to row-crop agriculture, but the value of the same land may be much larger when it can supply natural resources or services such as clean water, timber, ecotourism, or flood regulation and drought control. The rapid expansion of the global human population is increasing the world's food requirement substantially. Simple logic dictates that more people will require more food. In fact, as
5976-408: The taxonomy also shown. The use of † indicate families and superfamilies that are extinct. Unionida are important creatures and are endangered by climate change. Unionida Monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms , monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of taxa which meets these criteria: Monophyly
6059-670: The term paraphyly , or paraphyletic , uses the ancient Greek prefix παρά ( pará ), meaning "beside, near", and refers to the situation in which one or several monophyletic subgroups are left apart from all other descendants of a unique common ancestor. That is, a paraphyletic group is nearly monophyletic, hence the prefix pará . On the broadest scale, definitions fall into two groups. The concepts of monophyly, paraphyly , and polyphyly have been used in deducing key genes for barcoding of diverse group of species. Habitat degradation Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction ) occurs when
6142-493: The tree to indicate ordered lineal relationships between all the organisms shown. Further, any group may (or may not) be considered a taxon by modern systematics , depending upon the selection of its members in relation to their common ancestor(s); see second and third diagrams. The term monophyly , or monophyletic , derives from the two Ancient Greek words μόνος ( mónos ), meaning "alone, only, unique", and φῦλον ( phûlon ), meaning "genus, species", and refers to
6225-413: The underlying driving forces, rather than merely regulating the proximate causes. In a broader sense, governmental bodies at a local, national, and international scale need to emphasize: It is argued that the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation can be counteracted by including spatial processes in potential restoration management plans. However, even though spatial dynamics are incredibly important in
6308-549: The use in the Japanese cultured pearl industry has supported the North American freshwater mussel fisheries since the late 1950s. The mother of pearl (or nacre) from exported freshwater mussels are used to make a bead nucleus which is placed in a living animal to form a pearl. In the 1990s, the United States exported $ 50 million worth of freshwater mussel shells to Japan. Exports of freshwater mussel shells declined so that by 2002
6391-416: The variation in numbers of threatened species across 114 countries, providing indisputable evidence that people play the largest role in decreasing biodiversity . The boom in human population and migration of people into such species-rich regions are making conservation efforts not only more urgent but also more likely to conflict with local human interests. The high local population density in such areas
6474-436: The world are changing the specific geographical habitats that are suitable for plants to grow. Therefore, the ability for plants to migrate to suitable environment areas will have a strong impact on the distribution of plant diversity. However, at the moment, the rates of plant migration that are influenced by habitat loss and fragmentation are not as well understood as they could be. Tropical rainforests have received most of
6557-449: The world's population increases dramatically, agricultural output will need to increase by at least 50%, over the next 30 years. In the past, continually moving to new land and soils provided a boost in food production to meet the global food demand. That easy fix will no longer be available, however, as more than 98% of all land suitable for agriculture is already in use or degraded beyond repair. The impending global food crisis will be
6640-803: The world's remaining natural habitat and biodiversity will compete directly with humans' growing demand for natural resources, especially new agricultural lands. Attempts to address habitat destruction are in international policy commitments embodied by Sustainable Development Goal 15 "Life on Land" and Sustainable Development Goal 14 "Life Below Water". However, the United Nations Environment Programme report on "Making Peace with Nature" released in 2021 found that most of these efforts had failed to meet their internationally agreed upon goals. Tropical deforestation: In most cases of tropical deforestation , three to four underlying causes are driving two to three proximate causes. This means that
6723-423: The world, and thus have less chance of recovering. Many endemic organisms have very specific requirements for their survival that can only be found within a certain ecosystem, resulting in their extinction. Extinction may also take place very long after the destruction of habitat, a phenomenon known as extinction debt . Habitat destruction can also decrease the range of certain organism populations. This can result in
6806-405: Was established in the mid-1850s to take advantage of this natural resource. The "pearl rush" to find freshwater pearls became so intense in some rivers that millions of freshwater mussels were killed in a few years. In some rivers and streams entire freshwater mussel beds were completely eliminated. Although the negative impact of the "pearl rush" on freshwater mussel populations was significant, in
6889-519: Was the poor application of technology in the wood industry (45%), which leads to wasteful logging practices. Within the broad category of cultural and sociopolitical factors are public attitudes and values (63%), individual/household behavior (53%), public unconcern toward forest environments (43%), missing basic values (36%), and unconcern by individuals (32%). Demographic factors were the in-migration of colonizing settlers into sparsely populated forest areas (38%) and growing population density—a result of
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