Knowledge+Saturation

**General**
1. http://biology.about.com/od/ecology/a/aa102408a.htm

Plants and animals are capable of many things, such as being able to filter out our air, control weather and water conditions and can provide control over pests and diseases. These organisms also provide a genetic library, from which we can withdraw many useful items.

If a species become extinct, it could possibly mean that we had lost a cure for cancer, a new antibiotic drug, or a disease-resistant strain of wheat. Different values might be discovered within each living plant or animal. By estimating, scientists think that there are 30 to 40 million species on earth which we know very little about.We often do not even know when an organism becomes extinct. Game animals and a few insects are studied. Other species need attention too. Perhaps in them may be found a cure for the common cold or a new organism that will prevent millions of dollars of loss to farmers in their constant fight against crop diseases.

Examples of a species' value to society: 1. An antibiotic was discovered in the soils of the threatened New Jersey Pine Barrens Natural Area. 2. A species of perennial corn was found in Mexico; it is resistant to several diseases of corn. An insect was discovered that when frightened produces an excellent insect-repelling chemical.

Animal endangerment can be caused by many factors. This include: habitat lost, exploitation and disturbance. If the animal cannot adapt fast enough to the changes of its environment, it will probably become extinct.

Habitat lost All animals and plants require food, water, shelter and sunlight to survive. Some animals, like the piping plovers are highly specialised to their habitat requirements. The piping plovers are small birds found in North Dakota. They nest only on bare sand or gravel on islands of rivers or shorelines of alkali lakes. Compared to the mourning doves, which can nest on the ground or in the trees in country or cities, they are much more likely to become endangered through habitat loss.

Exploitation Many animals were hunted to extinction, such as Audubon's sheep and Moa.

Disturbance The presence of human and their machines might cause certain animals, like the golden eagle to abandon their native habitat even if it’s not destroyed. Disturbance during the eagles’ nesting period is especially harmful. If you combined disturbance with exploitation it will be even worse.

2. http://www2.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=kids_ri_endangered_whyendangered

 Climate Change Related

http://www.climateandweather.net/global_warming/effects_on_animals.htm

It is certain that climate change and global warming is having a huge impact on all sorts of living organisms on the earth, such as animals, plants and birds.

Climate Change is slowly affecting the behaviour of birds and animals. Birds are beginning to lay eggs a year earlier than they are meant too and hibernating animals begin to wake from their hibernation sooner.

Birds are beginning to migrate out to their "meeting grounds" earlier than before, however some birds do not move due to the temperature being suitable all year round, therefore not mating.

If the climate was to get any warmer, sea levels would rise thus wiping some of the mating places for sea turtles, therefore they have become an "endangered species."

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1849698,00.html

Notes:

Every year, the human population increases by 3% therefore consuming more natural resources and hunting more animals in order to feed us.

If the climate changes, animal may be forced to move out of their natural habitats.

When an animal's habitat is destroyed, or changed dramatically such as rain forests drying up or cool mountains in tropical zones warming up. Animals cannot adapt to this change quick enough, therefore can or will die.

http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/aboutcc/problems/impacts/

Notes:

Polars Bears in Hudson Bay, Canada, are becoming less fat due to the ice breaking up two weeks earlier, therefore they lose two weeks of hunting.

The change of seasons can affect animals too, such as a short winter which can impact on birds "feeding season." This impacts on the bird's feeding session by the availability of food that the birds eats, such as worms and insects.

The change of seasons can affect us humans too, such as the farmer's growing season.

If the average tempature was to keep increasing, animals would be forced to move higher up a mountain, or closer towards the North & South Pole.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/

 **CLONING?** http://www.extinctanimal.com/cloning.htm

Pollution: http://www.chenowith.k12.or.us/ces/staff/ewald/ocean/essays/leticia.html http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/ocean_pollution.htm

Notes: Toxic waste are poisonous matters which are being dumped into the ocean. This waste is harmful to sea life along with humans. If a fish was to become contaminated and is eaten by another fish, that fish becomes contaminated too.

Garbage dumping is another sort of pollution which affects sea life severely.

The biggest threat to the ocean, is the usage of cars, due to the smoke which comes out of the car. The smoke does not threaten the ocean, but it does when pollution is mixed with regular rain, which becomes acid rain. When it rains acid rain, it pollutes the ocean and kills many fish.

90% of fish live in the "Sunlight Zone." The Sunlight Zone is only 600 feet below ocean level, therefore the plants can grow because the sunlight can reach it.

**Scientists using animals for experiments:** http://the-aps.org/pa/animals/quest1.html

Notes: Animals are biologically the same as humans.

Scientist do not test on humans because it would be wrong to expose threats to human beings to find a cure.

Animals are tested in order to develop cures for diseases and to see whether or not the cure is "safe" on humans, or if it is deadly.

When studying the chicken, they came up with a model of how cancer grows and spreads.

http://www.pro-test.org.uk/2006/04/why-animal-research-is-important-and.html

Global warming http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_animals_are_now_extinct_from_Global_Warming

NOTES: The first mammal believed extinct directly due to global warming is the White Possum, a species native to Australia. It is difficult to attribute an extinction specifically to global warming as the problem is usually concurrent with other factors that may damage or destroy a species, including deforestation, pollution, poaching, out-competition by invasive species, or even natural causes like disease and excessive predation. A great many species are threatened by the changes global warming will cause and by some projections, we could lose as much as 10% of all species on the planet by 2050, and 30% of all bird species by 2100.

Rice fields produce 15% of the total global methane gas emissions in the world. Microbes in the wet soil, absorb carbon released by the rice plant and turn it into methane, which then seeps into the atmosphere.

Climate Change, by Eyewitness.

Some forms of air pollution create clouds of small particles known as aerosols. These can reflect or absorb sunlight and reduce its powers. This has reduced the impact of the human-enhanced greenhouse effect over recent decades. But aerosols do not stay airborne for long, so reducing air pollution could actually accelerate warming.

Nitrous oxide, is 300 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. It is produced by bacteria in the soil and from artificial fertilizer the farmers use.

Deforestation is caused from cutting trees down for cattle ranching, over-logging, the need of palm oil and for land.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/endangered-animals/

**Wildlife Extinctions:** If the average global temperature continues to rise as predicted by scientists, 15 to 37 percent of the world's wild animal an d plant species could face extinction by 2050. These will include many specialized organism, such as polar bears, reef corals, and rare flowers like this clamshell orchid from the Florida Everglades in the USA. By contrast, more adaptable living things such as rats and cockroaches may flourish.

**How animals adapt: ( Greenfiles: Wildlife in danger - book.) ** Some wildlife adapts to humans. Storks usually nest in high trees, but nowadays, they also nest on electricity poles and chimneys. Organisations: eco-tourisms like safaris on Africa.

Climbers conquer mountain-tops, rally drivers cross remote deserts, and polluting chemicals find their way into frozen polar ice-caps and deep oceans. And nowhere can escape the problem of climate change due to global warming.

Rainforest: The world's rainforests are being destroyed at a dramatic rate, even though they contain the richest wildlife and could yield important substances such as new medicine.

More than half of the original rainforests were destroyed in the past century.

Farmers use herbicides in order to kill weeds and insects this causes the wildlife which inhabits this area to die.

Harmful chemical like PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) which are released by dumping and birning, are used in plastics and electrical equipment. Harmful chemicals like pesticide get into crops. When small animals eat the crops the chemicals are gathered inside their bodies. When other animals eat these smaller animals, the chemicals with a higher concentration will be in their bodies. This food chain carries on and harms the top predator. This process is called "bio-amplification".

http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

Vincristine, extracted from the rainforest plant, [|periwinkle], is one of the world's most powerful anticancer drugs. It has dramatically increased the survival rate for acute childhood leukemia since its discovery.  Scientists estimate that we are losing more than 137 species of plants and animals every single day because of rainforest deforestation.

If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80 to 90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years.

Scientists estimated that nearly half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter-century due to rainforest deforestation. Edward O. Wilson estimates that we are losing 137 plant and animal species every single day. That's 50,000 species a year! Rainforest plants store complex chemical that may contain many undiscovered biodynamic compounds with undicovered potential for use in modern medicine. We can gain access to these materials only if we study and conserve the species that contain them.

Currently, rainforests provide sources for a quarter of today's medicines and 70 percent of the plants found to have anticancer properties that are found only in the rainforest.

Two drugs, Madagascar periwinkle, obtained from a rainforest plant, now extinct in the wild due to deforestation of the Madagascar rainforest. They have increased the chances of survival for children with leukemia from 20 percent to 80 percent.

http://www.annieappleseedproject.org/an1.html

In human terms, research with animals has led to vaccinations against smallpox, measles, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus; development of anesthesia, antibiotics, and insulin; use of cardiac pacemakers and heart bypass surgery; surgical advancements for organ transplants, hip replacements, and cataract surgery; and treatments for a host of diseases, including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and children's leukemia.

Animal Testing

http://www.aboutanimaltesting.co.uk/benefitscategory.html

Quick notes: Animals are researched in order to study the human brain and how the brain functions. In order to learn about evolution, animals are studied. Xenotransplantation is the process of which organs and cells of a different animal is implanted into another animal, this benefits humans because we can use animal internal organs to replace ours if we were to need an extra heart or something. Animals are researched because they can develop the same sickness as humans, such as cats being able to have type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance - a type of diabetes which has no cure currently. Animals are researched in order to develop treatments to illness. Animals are also used in order to test military weapons, this is to see what sort of effects the weapon has against humans, to see how much damage a bomb has on a human and etc. Hemorrhaging is one of the major causes of death in war and the improvement of surgical techniques and other methods to stop bleeding are vital to preserving the life of the military. The downside to this type of animal testing, however, is that it is indeed a macabre one to imagine and also one that angers the public. Much of the military testing is done on live animals although whenever possible and appropriate, pain relievers and anaesthetics are used. (CBB, REWORDING THIS.)

Toxicology testing is where animals are tested with drugs to see if the drug is "safe" or not, a type of toxicology testing which has risen animal-related issues among the public, is the "Draize test" this test is where a substance is dropped or applied to the animals eyes. The rabbit, is an animal which is commonly used for this test.

Another type of toxicology testing is LD50, otherwise known as the "lethal dose testing" or the fifty percent test. This test is where the animal is given a substance to eat or drink to determine if the substance is poisonous to humans or not.

When we spray pesticides, we are destroying the food chain. By breaking one link on the chain means all of the organisms above that link are in threat of extinction. By hunting animals nearly to extinction, everything above the animal in the food chain is put in danger. A 'chain reaction' in the food chain can be perilous! Since the food chain provides energy that all living things must have in order to survive, it is imperitive that we protect it.
 * How have humans affected the food chain?**

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http://www.tropical-rainforest-animals.com/Animal-Extinction.html

The most dangerous are predatory invasive species that are doing great damage to food chains and damaging habitats of native species. The more invasive species there are the better chances are for some native species to go extinct. Invasive species problem is actually big ecological problem but not many people around the globe are aware of that. Since world is still largely ignorant to this problem number of invasive species is constantly rising causing even bigger environmental and economic damage.

http://endangeredanimalsarticles.blogspot.com/2009/07/invasive-species-problem-largely.html