Extinction May Have Trickle-Down Effect

[villager]

although this falls in the "no shit" category, it's good to get this in the news so that homo sapiens will realize that they themselves live on an interconnected planet. And no, the Rapture may not come in time to save their asses...


Extinction May Have Trickle-Down Effect

WASHINGTON - Conservationists concerned about the extinction of plants and animals may be overlooking the danger to thousands of other species that depend on the threatened ones.

A team of researchers led by Lian Pin Koh of the National University of Singapore studied some 12,200 plants and animals considered threatened or endangered, and calculated that an additional 6,300 dependent insects, mites, fungi and other species could be considered endangered.

"What we found is that with the extinction of a bird, or a mammal or a plant, you aren't just necessarily wiping out just one, single species. We're also allowing all these unsung dependent species to be wiped out as well," one member of the team, Heather Proctor of Canada's University of Alberta, said in a statement.


<snip>

In many cases, species facing coextinction tend to be things like mites and lice. But some others are more likely to be missed by humans, such as a type of butterfly from Singapore that disappeared after the vines that had provided food for its larvae became extinct.


Overall, the researchers said, the loss of one species when a different one becomes extinct shows how interconnected the world is.
"What we wanted to learn was, if the host goes extinct, how many other species will go with it," Proctor said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=1&u=/ap/20040909/ap_on_sc/extinction_warning

[htuttle]

1. Welcome to the Food Chain

I honestly hope this wasn't news to anybody.

I suppose that considering how stupid we've become in this country, it was wise to make sure everyone had a chance for a refresher.

[phantom power]

2. LOL! This used to be grade-school biology.

[callous taoboy]

3. Superstition is playing a role

in wiping out millions of bats in Mexico. Caves are piled up with old tires which are then set on fire, wiping out bat colonies because the bat is considered to be bad ju ju. Thing is, the Mexican Free Tail bat is responsible for eliminating a certain moth which feeds on crop lands. Less bats, less crop production.

[hatrack]

4. Yes, let's hear it for those oh-so Bronze Age traditions & customs

Just like snake hunters in SE Asia. Much of the region is rapidly being denuded of snakes so that the snakes' blood can be sold as an aphrodisiac. You see, snakes are muscular and long and huhhuhhuhhuhhuh . . .

Result - a plague of rats and other rodents in agricultural areas because the snakes aren't there any more as a natural check. Duh.

[DemBones DemBones]

13. Or "rattlesnake round-ups" held in some

places in the U.S. and usually sponsored by the Jaycees for what they see as civic reasons. Those reasons are protecting people from terraist snakes and amusing the public with a community event/ sideshow featuring events like demonstrations of "milking" rattlesnakes' venom, concession stands selling rattler meat prepared by different methods, etc. To start with, screwing around with the natural size of the rattlesnake population has long-term ecological consequences.

Additionally, their preferred method for trapping the snakes they will exhibit and kill is pumping gasoline into "snake holes." Of course this doesn't smoke out (or kill) only the evildoers (rattlers) but impacts poplations of other wildlife like nonpoisonous snakes, tortoises and gophers that happen to be living in "snake holes," much as Saddam was living in a "spider hole." (Fuzzy use of language is another pet peeve of mine. What makes a large cement-lined underground bunker occupied by an Iraqi dictator a "spider hole"?)

[hatrack]

14. Yes, but they can wear big boots, fearlessly handle deadly terror snakes

And after all, since it's charitable, it's for the CHILDREN . . .

Redneck moronathons.

[DemoTex]

18. Insane! I have a big bat cave in an outcropping 100 meters behind my house

The wonderful bats buzz me in the evening as I cook out on my Texas rig. They eat the mosquitoes and no-see-ums. I know that they may be rabies carriers, but they were here first. And they will still be here when we are all dust in the wind.

[callous taoboy]

20. kick

[villager]

6. now, in Bush's America...

...it's "news."

[tom_paine]

7. "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act"

--George Orwell

My God, he prophesied 21st Century Amerika generally, if not specifically.

Though by 2050, the specifics may be in place.

[villager]

9. pretty specifically, I should think...

The weather, itself, is getting around to some of its own "truth-telling" on environmental matters, as we speak...

[Rose Siding]

5. This will confuse the swing voters

Trickle down: good in Amurka's economy, bad in ecology, good in economy, bad in econo..D'OH!

[The Stranger]

8. I'm sure that the Right Wing has already commissioned a think tank to

offer another "side" to this story, as they have with lies about global warming, and just about everything else.

[hatrack]

10. Yes, can't wait for the Cato/AEI/Frontiers Of Freedom to chime in . . .

Along with all the rest of the corpo-whores.

[Lindacooks]

11. That's what conservatives don't get

Environmentalists are concerned for human beings because, at the top of the food chain, everything, but EVERYTHING, that happens to more simple organisms will happen to us. It may show up as an increase in cancer or other disease rates, but it WILL happen.

Stupid cheneying repukes.

[villager]

12. but the "compassion" in "Compassionate Conservative"

...doesn't mean "compassion" for the earth. Why -- that'd be paganism! Never mind that we live on it!

[GliderGuider]

15. Actually, there's one extinction

that might have a positive trickle-down effect. It turns out I've been a supporter of this extinction for some years now, but I've never put a name to it.

Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

16. A little overkill, ain't it?

Downsize to a couple hundred million and it's gonna be OK.

[robcon]

17. It also works the other way....

If a species all of a sudden has no competitors, it tends to expand strongly. That's also part of evolution.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. kick