I will admit before reading Chapter 3 and 4 of our textbook, I never would have linked biodiversity with biological evolution and definitely not with natural selection or what I always thought of as survival of the fittest. However, it does make sense. Biological evolution is the genetic change in a given species over time that leads to modifications in appearance, functioning, or behavior that enable the species to thrive in its natural ecosystem. Such evolution is usually brought on through natural selection whereby organisms that have these beneficial traits have a better chance of surviving to adulthood in our hostile world where organisms are constantly competing with not only others of their species who live in the same area but also
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( Withgott, J. H., & Laposata, M. (2014)). I love the real life example of this given in the overview for this module of the peppered moth in London where before the industrial revolution, those peppered moths who were light colored were the most dominant moth in London since they could blend in with the light colored birch trees and thereby be more likely to escape predation and thus survive to reproduce. However, when the industrial revolution brought soot to London, it was the dark colored peppered moth that was able to hide better from predators on the soot-covered birch trees and so they over time became the dominant moth since more dark colored moths survived long enough to reproduce. How amazing the adaptive qualities of nature! (Southern New Hampshire University, Env 101 Module 2 …show more content…
I do have two thoughts that I believe need to be a part of the discussion in each case. The first is that wherever possible we need to prevent the damage where we can. This was very much brought home to me both in the Lionfish video in our lab for this module and the statement on page 85 of our textbook that some communities will never recover back to their original state once a disturbance has occurred. So if we did not remove the wolves (a keystone species) from the Yellowstone in the first place, then the beaver population would have continued to thrive (thankfully returning with the return of the wolves (see http://www.yellowstonepark.com/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/ ). If we didn 't put a non-native organism such as the Eurasian boar into New York, the resulting habitat destruction would not have happened (http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/70843.html). So we need to think carefully about our actions on the environment, before we make them. Do we really need to use that particular pesticide or is there a non-pesticide method to control the pests or a less toxic pesticide that will do the trick so we don 't inadvertently hurt birds of prey
( Withgott, J. H., & Laposata, M. (2014)). I love the real life example of this given in the overview for this module of the peppered moth in London where before the industrial revolution, those peppered moths who were light colored were the most dominant moth in London since they could blend in with the light colored birch trees and thereby be more likely to escape predation and thus survive to reproduce. However, when the industrial revolution brought soot to London, it was the dark colored peppered moth that was able to hide better from predators on the soot-covered birch trees and so they over time became the dominant moth since more dark colored moths survived long enough to reproduce. How amazing the adaptive qualities of nature! (Southern New Hampshire University, Env 101 Module 2 …show more content…
I do have two thoughts that I believe need to be a part of the discussion in each case. The first is that wherever possible we need to prevent the damage where we can. This was very much brought home to me both in the Lionfish video in our lab for this module and the statement on page 85 of our textbook that some communities will never recover back to their original state once a disturbance has occurred. So if we did not remove the wolves (a keystone species) from the Yellowstone in the first place, then the beaver population would have continued to thrive (thankfully returning with the return of the wolves (see http://www.yellowstonepark.com/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/ ). If we didn 't put a non-native organism such as the Eurasian boar into New York, the resulting habitat destruction would not have happened (http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/70843.html). So we need to think carefully about our actions on the environment, before we make them. Do we really need to use that particular pesticide or is there a non-pesticide method to control the pests or a less toxic pesticide that will do the trick so we don 't inadvertently hurt birds of prey