A stude at the University of California, Davis has recently revelaed a fish that has evolved against water pollution. They are found in harbors in the East Coast where there has been a mixture of highly complex industrial pollutants since the 1950's. This species is known as the Atlantic Killifish. They have rapidly evolved to be 8,000 times more resistant to water pollutants than other fish. The reason they have been so quick to evolve is because of thier incredibly high genetic diversity. It is great than that of even humans. While this is intersting, we should not get our hopes up of evolution catching up to the sixth mass extinction we have brought because the majority of species do not have nearly as high of genetic diversity than these fish. While these fish have no commercial value, the serve as an important food source to fish that do have commercial value. This is a perfect example of the term, "Nature always finds a way." It is incredibly interesting that these fish have evolved in the last sixty years to become resistant of heavily polluted water. While we cannot expect species to evolve at such a rate, this should be a prime incentive to push for genetic diversity and restory endagered species populations so that they become more resistant to radical change brough to their environment by people. This research can also lead to further exploration of how gene pools can influence a populations resistance to change or ability to adapt to change. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161208143334.htm
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The Great Barrier Reed has suffered its worst coral dieoff on record as the new year apporaches. This can be largely attributed to raising in global and sea temperatures. The Northern Part of the reef suffered the most damage as roghly 67 percent of the shallow water corals in that region have died off in the last eight months, roughly a 700 kilometer stretch. This was examined by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. Researches claim that nearly all of the coral in some reefs in the Northern Region have died. The central and southern part of the reef has faired better than the Northern part as the center has lost six percent and the southern section has lost one percent since 2016.
Some of the researches attribute this to El Nino events. While this may (or may not), there is an undeniable fact that our oceans are warming and causing coral to be bleached as a result of human output. Research says corals can rebound if water temperatures cool down but as our rate of green house gas emissions, this does not seem plausible. Coral reefs are a primary area that endures direct effect of global warming as they rely so much on the temperature and chemical makeup of the water. It is unfortunate that such a prestine and beautiful area is being layed to waste as a result of human emissions. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38641-great-barrier-reef-suffered-worst-coral-die-off-on-record-in-2016-new-study |
Alex Garcia-Environmentalist Archives
December 2016
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