Community | September 03, 2010 | 42 comments

Mass Extinction Threat: Earth on Verge of Huge Reset Button?

source: http://www.livescience.com/animals/mass-extinctions-threat-earth-animal-diversity-100902.html

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JanforGore
Mass extinctions have served as huge reset buttons that dramatically changed the diversity of species found in oceans all over the world, according to a comprehensive study of fossil records. The findings suggest humans will live in a very different future if they drive animals to extinction, because the loss of each species can alter entire ecosystems.

Some scientists have speculated that effects of humans — from hunting to climate change — are fueling another great mass extinction. A few go so far as to say we are entering a new geologic epoch, leaving the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch behind and entering the Anthropocene Epoch, marked by major changes to global temperatures and ocean chemistry, increased sediment erosion, and changes in biology that range from altered flowering times to shifts in migration patterns of birds and mammals and potential die-offs of tiny organisms that support the entire marine food chain.

Scientists had once thought species diversity could help buffer a group of animals from such die-offs, either keeping them from heading toward extinction or helping them to bounce back. But having many diverse species also proved no guarantee of future success for any one group of animals, given that mass extinctions more or less wiped the slate clean, according to studies such as the latest one.

Looking back in time, the diversity of large taxonomic groups (which include lots of species), such as snails or corals, mostly hovered around a certain equilibrium point that represented a diversity limit of species' numbers. But that diversity limit also appears to have changed spontaneously throughout Earth's history about every 200 million years.

How today's extinction crisis — species today go extinct at a rate that may range from 10 to 100 times the so-called background extinction rate — may change the face of the planet and its species goes beyond what humans can predict, the researchers say.

"The main implication is that we're really rolling the dice," said John Alroy, a paleobiologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. "We don't know which groups will suffer the most, which groups will rebound the most quickly, or which ones will end up with higher or lower long-term equilibrium diversity levels."

What seems certain is that the fate of each animal group will differ greatly, Alroy said.

His analysis, detailed in the Sept. 3 issue of the journal Science, is based on almost 100,000 fossil collections in the Paleobiology Database (PaleoDB).

The findings revealed various examples of diversity shifts, including one that took place in a group of ocean bottom-dwelling bivalves called brachiopods, which are similar to clams and oysters. They dominated the Paleozoic era from 540 million to 250 million years ago, and branched out into new species during two huge adaptive spurts of growth in diversity – each time followed by a big crash.

The brachiopods then reached a low, but steady, equilibrium over the past 250 million years in which there wasn't a surge or a crash in species' numbers, and still live on today as a rare group of marine animals.

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42 comments // Mass Extinction Threat: Earth on Verge of Huge Reset Button?

  • captainplanet71
    • +1
      captainplanet71  

    • The comparison to a roll of the dice is something I often make as well to climate change skeptics and deniers----are they really willing to risk the fate of the planet by believing in a worldwide conspiracy led by scientists?

    • 1 year ago
  • mikem0487
    • +2
      mikem0487  

    • We have to find a equilibrium between the needs of humans and the needs of the earth and all its beautiful inhabitants. Until that day comes, we are headed towards a new epoch where the vast majority of plants and animals(which we rely on for our existence) will become extinct followed by the fall of the human species.

    • 1 year ago
  • DogBoy
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  

    • It makes perfect sense to destroy many species because when other new species fills in the void haven't they PROVED EVOLUTION? What more needs said? The eggheads want to prove Evolution! plus with Earth zero Moon = Won. Touchdown Politicians yeah ba-bee.

    • 1 year ago
  • theblackguy
  • DogBoy
  • NiceN
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • "Some scientists have speculated that effects of humans — from hunting to climate change — are fueling another great mass extinction. A few go so far as to say we are entering a new geologic epoch, leaving the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch behind and entering the Anthropocene Epoch, marked by major changes to global temperatures and ocean chemistry, increased sediment erosion, and changes in biology that range from altered flowering times to shifts in migration patterns of birds and mammals and potential die-offs of tiny organisms that support the entire marine food chain."

      Epic in and of itself. To actually be bringing civilization into a new geologic epoch through our actions yet as a whole being unable to deal with it. Amazing too that civlizations that have gone before have followed the same path we are now following. I actually find that sad and fascinating at the same time. Evolution seems to have stalled.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • I weep for the apathy of certain humans who think that we can do whatever we want and it all just corrects itself. Great way to absolve yourself from guilt, but it doesn't help the planet we are destroying at a rapacious pace in our zeal to create a place where only our selfish needs and desires are fulfilled. The world our children will live in will look starkly different from the one we knew should these trends continue. As a human being and a parent, that concerns me greatly. It is not being overly dramatic to state the obvious.There was a time when such actions were considered prescient. It speaks volumes about how far down we have gone as a species to now treat those who care as "environmental drama queens." I care for the survival of the human species and all others. I believe it is why we are here. Bash that all you wish. It changes nothing.

    • 1 year ago
  • ampersand
    • +1
      ampersand  

    • As James Lovelace, the author of the Gaia hypothesis noted the 'good news' is that the system feedback from the damage wrought by humans will now inevitably result in the loss of about 4/5ths of the current global human population. I guess we are already familiar with the 'bad news'.

    • 1 year ago
  • csmonut
    • +3
      csmonut  
    • ampersand:

      As for the Gaia hypothesis...
      Research scientists have proven that bacteria communicate amoung themselves and with other bacteria.
      Communication has also been found amoung fungi and plants.
      Of course this is a type of communication that we, as humans, cannot hear/understand.
      Humans may be the only species that is not in communication with Earth. Hence we are the very ignorant and uncaring species on the planet. And as we change Mother Earth's composition, we are changing ourselves.
      Human presence may very well be on the way out.

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
  • csmonut
    • 0
      csmonut  
    • artemis6:

      And in a 100 years or so, some of our medical methods will appear morbid and crazy. I don't doubt some Shamans can/do communicate with the Earth. Learning to listen is a very hard concept in our industrialized world.

    • 1 year ago
  • ArchDruid
  • UtopianSky
  • ArchDruid
  • ArchDruid
  • JanforGore
    • +5
      JanforGore  
    • ArchDruid:

      It's not about us being important, it is about us being destructive and what that is doing to other species' ability as well as our own to live on this planet. It's called having a moral conscience. It's called being good stewards of the only home we have, regardless of what Steven Hawkings thinks about our ability to just whisk ourselves away to another planet to destroy after we have sucked the marrow out of this one. I personally don't think any one species is "important" over another, and actually I think it is because so many are arrogant to think they are important that they don't need to care about anything else. As humans we apparently are the species that has been given the ability to think rationally, lthough it doesn't seem we have the ability to do that when it comes to our survival. And surviving is important to me.

    • 1 year ago
  • Jennifer_Guinn
    • +3
      Jennifer_Guinn  
    • JanforGore:

      You know, I do think we are supposed to be good stewards and not ruin the planet for all or some of the other species on Earth, but I'm thinking that the planet would be better off with human life completely gone because we don't seem able to inhabit it without crapping in our own beds and the beds of our planet-mates too.

    • 1 year ago
  • UtopianSky
  • UtopianSky
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  
    • JanforGore:

      By that analogy, no one would ever move out of their parents house no matter how crowded or delapidated it got since they would want to be "good stewards" to it.

      Your parent's house doesn't cease to exist because you move out or the place you move move doesn't automatically get "the marrow sucked out of it" just because you're there.

      Just because the lessons were hard to learn where you grew up, doesn't mean that you have to repeat your mistakes when you have grown beyond them to start in a new place.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Argon18:

      Your analogy is weak. It is much easier to move out of a house than it is to find a liveable planet. And just because I can move doesn't mean I trash the one I'm in.

    • 1 year ago
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  
    • JanforGore:

      Then it looks like extinction is inevitable since the weak only stagnate and as ArchDruid said "The majority of people don't even care about our destruction"

      That apathy only leads to nihilism so that nothing will be done since not enough effort will be put into it.

      How is that for your hope of survival?

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Argon18:

      It does nothing to quell it. Those who are lazy and simply don't want to do anything will not do anything. Those who do, will. We shall see who are the successful ones. Hopefully it will be the latter.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • artemis6
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  

    • That's what happens when the fetus stays in the womb too long.

      As a species, the human race has a choice to transcend the limits of the planetary womb and be born or dissolve back into the DNA that formed it like the dinosaurs did.

      As they say "Think of it as evolution in action" and also "The Earth is too fragile a basket to keep all our eggs in"

    • 1 year ago
  • littlwarrior
  • ArchDruid
  • littlwarrior
  • H2O_4U
  • idealist
  • JanforGore
  • bking74
  • IceKat
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://current.com/technology/92562513_carbon-emissions-are-locking-in-our-futur...

      Species extinction is driven by natural factors, however, I do believe that our excessive human footprint regarding certain behaviors is now altering the pace and severity at which some species that might have lasted will not, and that definitely does impact the web of life and our part in it. We must decrease carbon emissions as one of the steps to preserving climate balance and species that will otherwise not survive. It is also suggested that species are dying off because of deforestation's huge toll on our rainforests and forests. We as human must be more cognizant of what our actions are doing to other species and understand how what happens to them happens to us down the line. This isn't about sitting on a website arguing with a FOX news junkie who will never understand this concept, this is about continued survival in years to come. A world warmed by four plus degrees will see our children and grandchildren living in a drastic cruel world. Anyone with a moral conscience will want to work to see governments of this world doing what scientists are saying we must do in order to keep the climate from tipping.

    • 1 year ago
  • versasrev
    • 0
      versasrev  
    • JanforGore:

      There was a pretty thorough study on extinction done years back, that has been an ongoing project. Essential they wiped out a small island of all the species that lived there insects mainly, some arachnids, etc. The test was to determine if the balance of the island would return to normal. So far the answer has been no. While, all the species that where there previously have the ability to reach the island some species have never returned, even decades latter.

      A new balance was made but sometimes with completely different species. The experiment while extreme does illustrate the resilience of life, and it's ability to balance itself out.

      It just makes me wonder ... in 500 years what different species are going to be eating.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • ArchDruid
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • ArchDruid:

      So I placed blame for the war on Obama as well as Bush in another thread so you are going to make sure to take it out on me here. Is that right? I didn't write this but I do agree with those scientists that are raising flags about this. If you don't give a damn about the biodiversity of this planet that sustains it as well as us and all other species, then fine. No need to attack me for something I find to be important.

      "Species extinction is driven by natural factors, however, I do believe that our excessive human footprint regarding certain behaviors is now altering the pace and severity at which some species that might have lasted will not, and that definitely does impact the web of life and our part in it."

      And where in this comment of mine do you see me discussing only the demise of the human race or stating we are important or more important than any other? Through our actions such as deforestation, polluting, creating dead zones in our oceans, burning fossil fuels at a pace that is now acidifying our oceans, species in the web of life we too depend on for life may well no longer exist, and that is something to be concerned about and take responsibility for.

    • 1 year ago
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