Trisha Atwood of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, studied the effect of removing predator fish from ponds and rivers in Canada and Costa Rica. Across a range of ecosystems, climates and predators, she found a consistent pattern: carbon dioxide emissions typically increased more than tenfold after the predators were removed."It looks like predators in many types of ecosystems – marine and terrestrial as well as freshwater – can play a very big role in global climate change," she told New Scientist.
When we start unbalancing the natural order, either out of ignorance or hubris, we can't always predict what will happen. Hence conservation is inherently a "safe bet" for humanity, it is for the good even if we can't predict exactly why.
By Fred Pearce
February 17, 2013 | New Scientist
No comments:
Post a Comment