causes and effects of wetland destruction

Change. To learn more, visit. This means that urgent description of these causes is needed to . Manag. Status and trends of wetlands in the conterminous United States 2004 to 2009. Singapore, Yuhas, R.H. 2013. Landfills increase the risk of hazardous materials getting into the food chain which causes biomagnification and the ultimate risk of developing chronic diseases. The Campaign for Nature calls upon world leaders to take action in helping to protect 30 percent of the Earths land and ocean by 2030, on the way to 50 percent of the planet in a natural state by 2050. 0000003086 00000 n We also have thousands of examples of restored wetlands. Restoring the Mississippi River Delta. 0000051201 00000 n What are 3 major causes of degradation and loss of wetlands? For instance, air pollution can lead to the formation of acid rain which can in turn reduce the quality of natural water systems by making them acidic. Types of coastal wetlands include: Salt marshes With sufficient funding and political will, the loss of wetlands due to man can be restored. Science. Approximately 15 billion trees are cut down each year. 2014. Nature. FLOW (For Love of Water) Ensuring the waters of the Great Lakes Basin are healthy, public, and protected for all. When does seepage of groundwater cause soil erosion? Dams on the Mekong: cumulative sediment starvation. Comparative analysis of modeled nitrogen removal by shellfish farms. Social-economic effects must also be fully considered for successful restoration of coastal wetlands in the future. Mangrove Threats and Solutions | AMNH Proposed state laws spread misinformation about wildlife, are ignorant of the effects predators have on prey, and show an overall lack of understanding about the complexity of natural environments . 0000001433 00000 n 2007. 0000060575 00000 n Their dense vegetation, algal activity . Environmental degradation can alters some of the natural process such as the water cycle and the normal processes of animal and plant activities. Mining and oil exploration, for instance, renders land unusable for habitation and causes other forms of environmental degradation by releasing toxic materials into the environment. Ecol. Howard J., Sutton-Grier A., Herr D., Kleypas J., Landis E., Mcleod E., et al. Wetlands destruction has increased flood and drought damage, nutrient runoff and water pollution, and shoreline erosion, and triggered a decline in wildlife populations. , restoration of the Great Lakes will create economic benefits of at least $50 billion and create thousands of jobs. Serious consequences have already been caused by the coastal wetland loss, such as coastal flooding, erosion, and biodiversity decrease. Manag. Wetlands. Methane emissions along a salt-marsh salinity gradient. Landsc. They provide refuge and stopover sites for millions of migratory birds such as cranes and storks. However, the global coastal wetlands have diminished rapidly during the past century, especially in the last 50 years, at a rate of 0.5%1.5% per year (, Mangroves faced a global loss of about 50% in the last decades (, Land reclamation has been the main reason of coastal wetland loss in China in the last decades. Why Does Wetland Loss Cause These Negative Impacts? In the majority of developing countries, poverty is attributed to poor crop harvests and lack of quality natural resources that are needed to satisfy basic survival needs. First, the reduced flooding prevents deposition of overbank sediments that are vital to land-surface aggradation and wetlands maintenance. Complex ecology of Chinas seawall. 30 40 Island Press, Washington, D.C., USA. Bruno J.F. Improve the health of wetlands by planting a buffer strip of native plants. Carefully managed and renewed, the wetlands can act in the future as a vital carbon sink and a sponge-like shock absorber for increased water flows. Yang S.L., Li H., Ysebaert T., Zhang W.X., Wang Y.Y., Li P., et al. Biogeochemistry. And what can we do to prevent this? Habitat loss is primarily, though not always, human-caused. 2015. 2008. Ecol. Reduction in water quality is responsible for more than two million deaths and billions of illness annually across the globe. An effective strategy for protecting coastal wetlands includes a coastal marine spatial planning effort focused on the shared goal of identifying future competitive uses and impacts. Available from. Causes of Environmental Degradation. Once again, twentieth-century developmental plans wiped out biodiversity and the lagoon was drained in 1968 for agriculture. Wetland inventories and the assessments of wetland loss: a global review. Sonneville, B., and van der Spek, A.J.F. and Megonigal J.P. 2013. Sci. %%EOF Rooth J.E. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS 2010. Kirwan M.L. World wetland loss and degradation was accelerated in the last three decades, caused by both anthropogenic and natural factors, such as land reclamation, aquaculture, urbanization, harbor and navigation channel construction, decreased sediment input from the catchments, sea level rise, and erosion. Whittaker, R.H. 1975. Kirwan M.L., Murray A.B., Donnelly J.P., and Corbett D.R. Some research has estimated that 87% of the Earth's wetlands have disappeared since the 19th century. wetlands for agricultural purposes is significant, but declining, while development pressure is emerging as the largest cause of wetland loss. In the Bohai Bay of Northern China, a sharp decline of fishery resources has been witnessed as a result of wetland loss and pollution from inorganic nitrogen and phosphorous, oil, and heavy metals, which greatly decreases the food available to migratory birds (, Chinas coastal wetlands have an area of 5.8 million ha, supporting 230 waterbird species, which is about 25% of the global total. The ecology of Atlantic shorelines. Temmerman S., de Vries M.B., and Bouma T.J. 2012. Downstream sedimentary and geomorphic impacts of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. Shelf Sci. Official websites use .gov Coastal wetlands include all wetlands in coastal watershedsthe entire area from which tidal streams drain to the ocean or inland seas. Liu B.Q., Meng W.Q., Zhao J.H., Hu B.B., Liu L.D., and Zhang F.S. Martinez, L., OBrien, S., Bethel, M., Penland, S., and Kulp, M. 2009. Wetlands are able to filter sediments and nutrients before slowly returning water to the water cycle. Destruction of wetlands is a systemic problem that calls for cooperative planning among communities, nonprofit organizations, governments, and industry. The world coastal wetlands are faced with great pressure of being squeezed by human land use and sea-level rise. Intensive agricultural practices destroy fertile lands and nearby vegetation cover due to the accumulation of toxic substances like bad minerals and heavy metals which destroy the soils biological and chemical activities. The evolution of embryonic creek systems in a recently inundated large open coast managed realignment site, Coastal wetlands mainly include ecosystems of mangroves, coral reefs, salt marsh, and sea grass beds. xb`````AXf`8u2 MY9& "]3@Z@aVbu 8C50U0J2JqQ 2007. Temmerman S. and Kirwan M.L. In addition to the loss of habitat, deforestation reduces the ability of forests to provide the critical benefit of absorbing carbon, which helps to mitigate the effects of climate change. IUCN The World Conservation Union Pakistan Country Office, Karachi, Pakistan. Mitsch, W.J., and Gosselink, J.G. Mangroves among the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics. (from: www.epa.gov). The role of mangroves in attenuating storm surges. Destruction of wetlands is also detrimental to our region's economy: recreation like fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching generate more than $22 billion annually. 0000001857 00000 n Successful restoration requires both semi-natural vegetation structure and a high diversity of fauna groups, to ensure multi-functionality of the restored ecosystem. Climate change: protect the worlds deltas. Macmillan Publ. The habitats of living . Geomorphic units where coastal wetlands can develop are often complicated, from high tidal zones to low lands, lagoons, and tidal creeks. 2012. Today, more than 2 million square kilometers of wetlands are protected by this convention. Nat. NASA-Earth Observatory. Available from, Worldwatch Institute. For more than one hundrend years, the number of trees on the planet has plummeted, resulting in devastating consequences such as biodiversity loss, soil erosion, species extinction, global warming, and interference with the water cycle. The present extent of mangrove forests in Singapore. Environment-ecosystem dynamic processes of.

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