Pollinator decline. Yeah, I saw that in my previous reference to the defaunation article, but didn’t read through it in more detail. So now I’m investigating it more.
Wow, there has been quite a drastic decline in bees in the past few decades. Hive failure rates up to 50% in some regions? 6% decline of flying biomass a year? What are the causes of the drops?
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Pesticides
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Rapid transfer of pollinator species diseases around the world
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Loss of habitat and forage
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Air pollution
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Changes in seasonal behavior due to global warming
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Artificial lighting at night. Increased use of blue light at night in recent years is perhaps the most noteworthy aspect. The distinctive yellow orange color of sodium vapor street lighting of times past, besides looking curiously interesting to humans, was technically energy efficient, low luminosity (orange has a high perceptive brightness to humans), and interfered minimally with animal night life. Nowadays, the switchover to bluish-white LED street lighting was motivated primarily for energy efficiency purposes, to be even more energy efficient than the sodium vapor lights of times past. Only in hindsight are people realizing the negative effects of the switchover. But, by contrast, urban city centers have long been favoring whiter light upon the belief that it is brighter and safer for the human populance.
But, come on! Suffice it to say, many of the mitigations are quite simple to commence upon. Switching to pesticides that are not harmful to pollinators, for example. Also, another interesting one was planting wild flowers at the borders of grain farms that otherwise provide very little nectar that is essential to bumble bees.
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollinator_decline
Praries are also a great source of wild flowers and other habitat characteristics that are helpful to pollinators. Alas, much prarie land has been eliminated, and praries are now the subject of restoration.
Interestingly, Fermi Lab is an important area for one prairie restoration project. Wow, interesting visual here. In the midst of a highly modern, artificial, refined building for particle accelerator experiments, there is a throwback to older times past with an prairie restoration project.
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_restoration
Thinking about prarie restoration… “drain the swamp.” What about swamps? Nowadays after having been drained, flooded, eliminated, or otherwise attacked, they are on the game plan for restoration too.
Importantly, swamps are distinguished from marshes and bogs in that the tree cover is an important part of its definition.
Wow… quite nice looking photos of the swamps there.
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp
Ah, the good old times of swamps. Seeing natural light sources in swamps from mild natural gas combustions, fireflies, and so forth, and the folklore that came about from it.
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o%27-the-wisp
Bogs, marshes, wetlands. Again, quite nice looking photos.
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetland
Traditionally, humans have placed very little value on wetlands, purportedly because wetlands are not natively a very habitable climate to humans, and wetlands can feature plants, animals, diseases, and invertebrates that are dangerous to humans. Hence the motivation to drain or flood so many traditional wetlands, especially around Europe where they were traditionally highly abundant, but not so much in the name of one of the largest, densest, most highly developed human population centers of the world. Some areas lost 90% of their native wetlands. But, nowadays, people are now recognizing the natural water purification and other important biological functions that wetlands provide. Some wetlands are engineered deliberately as a means of wastewater treatment, in place of a more industrial-style sewage treatment plant. Of course, in both cases, the goal is to speed up sewage treatment faster than is the case without a modified environment.
Bobcats are no longer endangered, for the most part. Endangerment status for the Bobcat is generally only in localized areas, not globally.
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobcat
The golden toad, extinct. Very rapid and sharp decline around 1987 associated with the El Nino weather phenomenon. But, still today, there is a rapid and sharp decline in amphibian populations. Amphibians are thought to be more vulnerable to climate change as they depend on both aquatic and terrestrial climates. That being said, not to mention that wetlands sound like a great area for amphibians.
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_toad
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bufo_periglenes2.jpg
20181208/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_amphibian_populations