Ecology

Ecological design is a major part of our coming future and is necessary for the prosperity of our species as caretakers for the world. Sim Van Der Ryn and Stuart Cowan, in their book Ecological Design, address five principles in design that will help to move society in the right direction. These principles are: solutions from your place, ecological accounting, designing with nature, everyone is a designer, and making nature visible. It has been over the course of the last century that building…

Invasive species are easily comparable to the explorers of the old days. Explorers could be helpful by introducing new supplies, like horses, during the big Columbian Exchange. Explorers could also be largely negative, bringing disease and slavery into the nations they conquered. Explorers sometimes just set up trade relations and left well enough alone. Much like these explorers, invasive species have the propensity to help, hurt, or assimilate into their new surroundings. Experts on invasive…

Pope Francis is the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis’s birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio and he was born in Flores, Bueno Aires, Argentina on December 17, 1936. His papal name is in honor of St. Francis of Assisi of Italy. Before becoming a pope Bergoglio got his degree in chemistry and a Ph.D. in theology. In 1958, Bergoglio entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus. Bergoglio was also a teacher and he taught literature and psychology at Colegio del Salvatore and…

As in Gitanjali Tagore has shown his concern to describe the importance of the ecological substance similarly many eco-critics encourages to the humans to realise their connection to Mother Earth and advised them to maintain their interaction with her. In fact Tagore was the great devotee of nature, he considered the nature as his mother, and he urges that humans should create the holy bond to the Earth he says that God cannot be found through prayer in closed space. He says God is Omnipresent,…

Sustainability is concerned with the promoting of the most effective use of resources, the protection of the environment and ecosystems and the development of a more equitable world society. As sustainability includes different issues, is often difficult to define precise terms of it. Considering the Venn diagram, sustainability can be described as the intersection of three main issues as environmental, economic and social issues. Sustainability Venn diagram…

Wolves Clayton Hull-Crew wrote an editorial on the US-Represented website reflecting on the reintroduction of wolves into the Yellowstone National Park. Hull-Crew states that the wolves have been responsible for a major ecological shift beginning at the top of the food chain, slowly making its way to the bottom, effecting everything from beaver dams to river bed erosion. Hull-Crew claims that the wolves have created what is called a “Trophic Cascade” of events. A Trophic cascade is, “an…

Chapter Seven: The authors job as a Wildlife Conservation Department director changed his focus from extinct species to protecting the living ones. It reminded him of the species richness of the earth. Ecologists have three levels of this diversity. These measurements are the alpha, the beta and the gamma. The alpha diversity tells how many species are in an ecological community. The beta diversity compares that to the nearby communities that have different physical characteristics.…

Sustainable development refers not only to meeting the needs of modern society but also to not compromising the opportunities of future generation to meet and sustain development needs. It can be summarized as the improvement of economic, ecological, and social factors. Sustainable development and environmental protection work hand in hand but are not the same. Environmental protection is an important aspect of sustainable development as it plays a major role in protecting the finite resources…

The Red Lionfish, or Pterois volitans, is a subtropical fish species originating from Asia that has distinctive red, white, brown, and maroon stripes. Adult lionfish can grow up to around 17 inches long, with fan-like pectoral fins and many dorsal spines along their body, all of which are venomous (Raloff J. 2006). This peculiar fish is considered one of the most successful fish invader in the western Atlantic Ocean as it consumes a wide variety of prey. Several life history and behavioral…

Old growth is a term used in forest community ecology to convey a very late successional stage, where the dominant tree species in the location has attained a very old age. Ecologically, old growth forest is very important, therefore, measurements and indexes should be used to reflect the value these…