Title : 7 Signs We Are Heading for a Mass Extinction
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7 Signs We Are Heading for a Mass Extinction
Today many scientists believe we are on the cusp of a sixth mass extinction that could end most life on Earth as we know it. Here are seven signs that might be suitable.Image bushfires Australia from space by NASA
A mass extinction occurs when more than 75 percent of all species on the planet they die within less than two million years. That may seem a long time for you, but it's the blink of an eye in geologic time. There have been five mass extinctions on Earth over the past 540 million years, sometimes caused by catastrophic disasters, and sometimes quiet, insidious events such as invasive species taking over the planet.
7. Earth is bubbling with Super Volcanoes
Yellowstone park in the United States is actually a caldera volcano, a thin cork of land that is on top of a massive cache broiling magma. And this super-volcano could erupt at any time . The last time the Earth witnessed an explosion of this size was in 1812, when Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted so profusely that the Earth's climate cooled for several years after. Even more alarming is the possibility that another class of super volcano, called a large igneous province (LIP), could become active at some point in the future.
A LIP-now inactive, he called the Siberian traps, erupted 250 million years ago. He vomited a lot of sulfur, carbon other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that the Earth experienced a change climate catastrophe, wildly vacillating between extreme heat and cold, up to 95 percent of all life had died. This mass extinction was so bad that has been nicknamed "the Great Dying" by geologists . Yellowstone is not a LIP, but if it explodes in a super-eruption damage will be amazing . super volcanoes are an ever-present threat that dogged the Earth for millions of years.
6. Invasive species are everywhere
On Earth, humans have aggressively invaded every continent except Antarctica, swelling our population of more than 7 billion people and eat everything in sight. As rats and cockroaches, which are invasive species ultimately pushing many creatures outside their natural habitat - which could ultimately kill these creatures on a large scale. Our population could grow much larger before humans are in danger, but that does not mean it would not harm other species. about 359 million years ago, 75 percent of all species on Earth died during the Late Devonian extinction. geologist Alicia Stigall has evidence that this horrible slaughter was the result of invasive species, such as sharks (yes, there were sharks hundreds of millions of years ago) who aggressively eat all the food in all environments - slowly hunger all creatures that depended on local sources of food and could not move to new supply regions.
5. Climate Change
the ice cap Arctic is shrinking . Temperatures are rising. Scientists across many disciplines and countries are united in their belief that the climate on Earth is warming. The good news is that human beings could not be the sole cause of this climate change - the world has undergone dramatic changes in temperature many times throughout its history. The bad news is that virtually every time that happens there is a mass extinction. The high mortality was caused by climate change. the first mass extinction 540 million years ago, called the Ordovician extinction was triggered by a rapid ice age followed by a period of rapid greenhouse effect. Another mass extinction at the end of the Triassic, was set in motion by a super volcano submarine and large forest fires (such as Australia, pictured the space in the image at the top of this post) that quelled the planet smoke and ashes. The meteorite that crashed into the planet before the dinosaurs were wiped out in a mass extinction? No, he did not kill those big men with fire. They were killed by throwing debris into the atmosphere so that the climate changed. Most geologists agree that when climate change, mass extinctions followed.
4. ocean acidification
acid levels in the Earth's oceans are rising , which is what is killing all these reefs and make life more difficult for seafood . Ocean acidification is also a major reason why the Great Dying was well, well, well. It was also an important part of the Triassic mass extinction 200 million years ago, which ended with 80 percent of the planet's species - especially in the oceans. When the water is too acidic, calcium levels fall. That means shelled creatures simply can not build shells and die even before they have the chance to fight. When shelled creatures die, predators that feed on them also die. And the more bodies you have in the ocean, everything gets more acidic. If Earth's oceans are becoming more acidic, the mass extinction could be next.
3. The extinctions are happening at very high Rate
The extinctions are normal. In fact, statisticians studying extinction have discovered a "background extinction rate," which is typical normal number of creatures are dying at a given time. So that a mass extinction is like a large peak statistic death protruding more than the background rate. And unfortunately, there is a lot of evidence that the extinction rate we have experienced in the past 500 years is above the typical rate. No, this rate is far from the levels of mass extinction. But it goes up. That is exactly what you would expect to see the beginning of a mass extinction.
2. All megafauna are dead
One way scientists determine rates extinction is looking at the diversity of fossils. Based on this evidence, we can calculate the number of creatures and plants they were alive at any given time, plus fast (or slow) disappeared from the fossil record. In recent fossil record, from the last 50,000 years, we can easily see a marked decrease in species diversity. Earth was recently home to many species of megafauna call, mastodons and giant kangaroos, giant sloths, and today it has gone away . When you see a whole category of wink creatures that quickly (in geological time), which suggests more than patterns simply typical extinction.
1. Amphibians are disappearing
Today, we are witnessing another giant group of species become extinct so quickly that we can actually measure it in human time, instead of geological time. amphibians, especially frogs are disappearing at such a rapid pace some have called the XXI century a time of "biodiversity crisis." Most have been felled by a rapid spread of fungi, which kills lethal entire communities of frogs in weeks. It is likely that the fungus has reached pandemic proportions because frogs are being forced out of their habitats, and contact with new species could never have seen otherwise. In the same way that human pandemics spread quickly due to travel, amphibians pandemics spread when frogs move into a new area and infect previously exposed communities. The more we lose our animal diversity, the closer we get to a world dominated by invasive species. And that scenario really did not end well in the Late Devonian extinction. Is probably not going to end well for us, whether
However, as I explain in my book, scatter, adapt, and remember. How can humans survive extinction in mass, there is hope . These are the first signs of a possible mass extinction, and we still have plenty of time to do something about it. We can reduce fossil fuel emissions to prevent climate change from getting worse, and we can preserve biodiversity by maintaining natural spaces where animals are not exceeded by human settlements. As for megavolcanos and meteorite impacts? Well, that's going to be a little more difficult. But it's not impossible. We can not bring back the mastodons, but we can still prevent most species around us (including humans) are extinct
Source:. io9.com
"7 Signs We Are Heading for a Mass Extinction", article source: riseearth.com
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