Introduction to Wildlife & Fisheries ConservationWFSC 304

Lecture 12: Threats IIIMining Continued… and now a word of alternative thought

Fronting only the essentials in life?$24,000 per pound. Really humans?Mercury involved in gold processingSmithsonian Magazine details the issues.

Environmental groups are calling for boycott of dirty gold Present rules for extraction sensitive to human rights and the environment

A succinct article on point here acid mine drainage:

o iron sulfides create sulfuric acideo 3-200 times more acidic than acid raino acid leaches other minerals (arsenic, cyanide, etc.) into drainage stream

Desertification

“desertification is the footprint of man”—some guy

Each year, over 100 million people suffer the impact of desertification

Each year, and another 2,500 km2 of land turn to desert.

Overcultivation and overgrazing are the main causes

China is trying desparately to halt progression of the Gobi Desert toward Beijing

All citizens expected to plant trees Over a billion trees planted Seems to be working (article) Worked for the US Dust Bowl

Over-exploitation, Habitat destruction, Seafood

Trawling involves pulling a large fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. Midwater trawling has problem of bycatch and overcatchBottom trawling has same problems but since the net is towed along or close to the sea floor it Creates serious incidental damage to the sea bottom and deep water coral reefs, analogous to a tornado’s path

Pollution as a form of habitat degradationChemical PollutionAir Pollution/Water PollutionExcessive Nitrogen InputsEutrophicationSolid Waste and PlasticsLight PollutionPharma wasteMarine life and plastics

All washed ashore (not the woman) on a beautiful, desolate, sea-turtle nesting beach. A quarter mile walk yields - single-use plastic beverage bottles, single-use plastic containers, plastic straws, plastic caps, plastic utensils, lots of melted plastic, styrofoam cups & containers, rope, fishing line, debris from Cuba, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Venezuela, & Turkey. Much bit up by sea turtles & fish. 17 balloons - 10 latex & 7 mylar.

Recycling is not the solution We must reduce our use of plastic & single-use products

Pharma pollution—case of the Indian vulture crisisFrom Wikipedia (accessed 6/15/2016)

Nine species of vulture can be found living in India Today, most are in danger of extinction, but such

has not always been the case In the 1980s there were as many as 80 million

white-rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis) in India, when it was the most numerous species of raptor in the world

Today, however, its population numbers only several thousand, the fastest population collapse of any bird species in recorded history, including the Dodo

Vultures previously played an important role in public sanitation in India

Their disappearance resulted in an explosion of rats and wild dogs and the spread of diseases resulting in an estimated costs of up to US$25 billion as of 2015

The cause of the vulture collapse was traced to cattle carcasses contain

highly bioactive medicines like diclofenac (an NSAID).

Pesticide pollution and amphibian conbioTyrone Hayes seminar (58:26; start at 2:00)Some highlights of the top of my head:

Atrazine (2nd ranked herbicide) causes developmental defects (male feminization) in frogs

Disrupts aromatase activityo Aromatase converts estrogen to testosteroneo Atrazine therefore classed as an endocrine disruptor

Found that muliple toxins interact in complex synergies Found that ecological costs may be severe Regulations set without ever assessing the level established Hayes recognized the need for scientists to reach the public Politization: recognized need for scientists to “cross the line” into advocacy