Turkey's Rich Biodiversity in Crisis, Scientists Say
Author: Jennifer Hattam
Publisher: Treehugger
Date: Sunday, March 04, 2012
Link: http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/turkeys-rich-biodiversity-crisis-scientists-say.html
Summary: The environmental situation of Turkey has been worse than ever before, while people are not realizing just how bad the situation really is. To sum it up, more than half of the country's area of forest has reduced along with some of its populations of birds, fish, and mammals nearing extinction. The main cause of this problem, is most likely from the large amounts of urbanization and dam construction occurring. Without all of the poaching, over fishing, excessive irrigation, and pollution, Turkey would not be in this situation. Conservation biologist Çağan Şekercioğlu has been gathering material since 2003, and has recently made the crisis of Turkey world wide. He also came to a great point that despite the country's mineral wealth, it's ecosystem will become unstable the without appropriate funds it needs.
This a picture of Turkey's mountain habitat which is undergoing a severe conservation crisis. It could all easily be destroyed unless we become more consistent with monitoring its biodiversity.
Opinion: The fact that Turkey is facing a conservation crisis surprises me, because of its many biodiversity hotspots found there. I think it should be more of an importance to the government to try and protect these hotspots, considering that 20 million rural people are benefiting from them in multiple ways. If Turkey continues to loose high levels of biodiversity, not only the country itself but the rest of the world would suffer in some way from the loss.
Questions:
1. How important is biodiversity?
2. Give another example of an area facing a conservation crisis such as Turkey.
3. What are some ways to find a solution to Turkey's crisis?
4. When an area decreases its amount of biodiversity, what happens? Who is affected?
I think that that is really sad how Turkey is going through such a low biodiversity because it will hurt so many plants and animals, they will have less medicine and they will have less food recourses. If too many more species go extinct then many many many ecosystems will collapse and their environment will be hurt badly and it can even interfere with humans lives in Turkey.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 3:
To help solve their biodiversity crisis Turkey had a few options, but they have to decide fast because if they wait it might be too late. One option is to make many many conservatories and keep species there that can and will reproduce and promote a healthy future biodiversity. They could also make laws and acts to prevent any more damage being done, similar to our Endangered Species Act. The act would help save the species they have left while they find other solutions to gaining other species back. They could also try to import species that they believe would help the environment, but that could be risky considering what we learned about exotic species. Turkey has to make a decision to save ther biodiversity, or they can say goodbye to their natural habitats and native species.
Question 1: Biodiversity is extremely important in order to maintain a steady equilibrium and when there is more biodiversity there is a greater chance that an ecosystem could rebound from a disaster. Biodiversity also allows a wide variety of supplies for humans such as, medicine, things to eat, and more to discover. I Think that the Turkestan's need to look at this area with a wider perspective and look at all the organisms they are affecting. They need to realize also that humans are among those being negatively affected.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2:This scenario is much like the problems in the tropical rain forest.Due to humans knocking down ecosystems for their own benefit. People need to be more considerate and think before they act because that kitchen table you have had to come from a tree which had to be cut down. The tree that was cut down houses many different organism which now have to move to a new place, adapt, or will die. Humans need to take more precaution in clearing out areas for themselves.
It's terrible that Turkey is going through a lack of biodiversity. It will end up effecting everything. I agree with Kasey that the government should pay more attention to it and try and fix the problem right away. They must not realize how important it is now but soon the effects will start to show up and get worse and worse.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: Biodiversity is very important! The biodiversity of an area can either make or break an ecosystem. It keeps everything going smoothly and when problems start to happen with biodiversity everything is effected.