Last week I came across a reference to the sheer number of acres currently used by our lawns and was pretty impressed at the full extent of the area we water, trim, and curate (around 128,000 square kilometers, which means it uses several times the space used by farmers to grow corn, according to Cristina […]
Archive for the ‘habitat fragmentation’ Tag
A nation of farmers?
There goes the neighborhood?
When I started looking into rodent conservation, what I had expected to find was a tail of two species groups: 1) invasive, introduced rodent species dominating the natives, and 2) disappearing native species and simplified ecosystems as a result of habitat loss to human activities. It would appear, however, that the global situation is a […]
Many endangered mice, see how their ranges contract
As I mentioned in my first post of the month, I’m interested in learning about the conservation status of rodent species. I think I may have overlooked the threats facing them because several species (notably the black and Norwegian rats) have been incredibly successful invasive species. When I started looking through the literature, I found […]
How does an endangered plant garden grow?
In my last post, I talked about some of the challenges facing endangered plant species as crucial elements of the ecosystems they inhabit, such as regular fires or insect pollinators, were lost. This may very well be the tip of the iceberg when you consider that imbalances within ecosystems can also result from too much […]
Slow and steady wins the race?
In my last post, I recounted some of the issues facing tortoises around the world: habitat loss, habitat degradation, disease, hunting, etc. Some of these problems have been impacting tortoises for a long time, while others are more recent in nature. The good news is that concerned individuals have been working to support tortoise populations […]
Life in the slow lane
In some ways tortoises represent an old conservation issue- as early as the 1800s, for example, people were concerned about overharvesting of giant tortoises on islands such as the Galapagos and Seychelles. Because they can be easy to approach (one study I read used the term ‘run’ with a special citation because none of these […]
Connecting the dots
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been looking at the issue of habitat fragmentation in respect to how it divides populations and presents barriers to animal movement which can limit reproductive success and gene flow. When I started gathering information on how to combat and mitigate habitat fragmentation, most of the resources I came across […]
Trapped by the matrix
In my last post, I looked at the consequences of habitat fragmentation when we build roads or dams or other physical structures- we construct barriers that are useful to us, but not so helpful to the plant and animal populations we isolate. And sometimes we create obstacles to movement even when we think we’re making […]
Why didn’t the beetle cross the road?
As I have mentioned before, habitat fragmentation is one of the primary issues facing species around the world today- while it is far too big a topic to tackle in its entirety during one month’s posts, I think that investigating a few of its manifestations is manageable. I also think it’s necessary, since we have […]
Can you get there from here?
This month I’ll be focusing on one part of a very big issue- habitat fragmentation, in all of its forms, is a huge problem for species around the world and the ecosystem services they provide. Some species require a certain amount of territory for their home ranges, and habitat fragmentation may leave them unable to […]