Here’s an article to share with those who doubt environmental concerns are worth activist efforts: A new study reveals that the world’s forests are more fragmented than ever.
Researchers from North Carolina State University discovered that if someone were to be taken randomly into one of the world’s many forests, there would be a 70% chance of being within a half-mile of the forest edge.
What does this mean? Basically that no forest on Earth, except for those in the Amazon and Congo, can be considered wilderness.
This depressing news can be blamed on urban, suburban, and agricultural development for cutting down forests, as well as other vital habitats, such as fields, wetlands, and ecosystems.
Stated Nick Haddad, one of the co-authors of the study and a biologist at N.C. State, “It’s no secret that the world’s forests are shrinking, so this study asked about the effects of this habitat loss and fragmentation on the remaining forests.”
Concerning the continuously-diminishing biodiversity of the planet, such findings are definitely not good news. As UPI shares, earlier studies have demonstrated that ecological fracturing reduces the diversity of plants and animal species by anywhere from 13 to 75%.
The initial negative effects were unsurprising,” Haddad said. “But I was blown away by the fact that these negative effects became even more negative with time. Some results showed a 50 percent or higher decline in plant and animals species over an average of just 20 years, for example. And the trajectory is still spiraling downward.”
Haddad suggested that preserving chunks of land and installing wildlife corridors are mitigation options. He additionally cautioned that humans have to act quickly before some species are lost forever.
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