1.
Diademed sifaka
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The diademed sifaka, or diademed simpona, is an endangered species of sifaka, one of the lemurs endemic to certain rainforests in eastern Madagascar. This species is one of the worlds largest living lemurs, with an adult length of approximately 105 centimetres. Russell Mittermeier, one of the authorities on lemurs, describes the diademed sifaka as one of the most colorful and attractive of all the lemurs, having a long. P. diadema is also known by the Malagasy names simpona, simpony, the term diademed sifaka is also used as a group species designation formerly encompassing four distinct subspecies. P. diadema is readily distinguished from all the lemur species by its characteristic markings. Its entire coat is long, silky and luxuriant. The long white fur encircling his muzzle and covering its cheeks, forehead and chin and its eyes are a reddish brown, the muzzle is short, and the face is bare with colourisation of darkish gray to jet black. The crown fur is quite black and often extends to the nape of the neck. The upper back and shoulder fur are slate grayish, although the back is lighter in colour attaining a silvery quality. Flanks and tail are a gray, sometimes even white. Hands and feet are black, while arms, legs. Only the male is endowed with a large gland at the exterior center of the throat. The diademed sifaka is one of the widely distributed member of the Propithecus genus. Occurrence is at altitudes of 200 to 800 metres throughout much of the eastern Madagascar lowland forests and altitudes 800 to 1,550 metres and these two biomes have been designated as a Global 200 ecoregion, one of the worlds most significant regions for conservation. Geographically the range extends to at least the Mananara River in the north to the Onive, one set of researchers has recorded a clinal variation between Propithecus diadema and Propithecus edwardsi in the extreme southern portion of the range. As with all Indriidae, this species and its genus have evolved on the island of Madagascar independent of other mainland African species. DNA analyses have not resulted in consistent results as to whether this group of individuals should constitute a new species, scientists have decided to classify this outlier group as P. diadema until further research warrants designation of a separate species. Specific locations for sighting the diademed sifaka are Mantadia National Park, the diademed sifaka forms groups typically of two to ten individuals, which may include multiple male and female adults
2.
Endangered species
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An endangered species is a species which has been categorized as likely to become extinct. In 2012, the IUCN Red List featured 3079 animal and 2655 plant species as endangered worldwide, the figures for 1998 were, respectively,1102 and 1197. Many nations have laws that protect conservation-reliant species, for example, population numbers, trends and species conservation status can be found in the lists of organisms by population. The conservation status of a species indicates the likelihood that it will become extinct, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Over 40% of the species are estimated to be at risk of extinction. Internationally,199 countries have signed an accord to create Biodiversity Action Plans that will protect endangered, in the United States, such plans are usually called Species Recovery Plans. Those species of Near Threatened and Least Concern status have been assessed and found to have relatively robust and healthy populations, though these may be in decline. The IUCN categories, with examples of animals classified by them, include, Extinct Extinct in the wild Captive individuals survive, critically endangered Faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Endangered Faces a high risk of extinction in the near future, vulnerable Faces a high risk of endangerment in the medium term. Near-threatened May be considered threatened in the near future, Least concern No immediate threat to species survival. A population size reduction of ≥ 50%, projected or suspected to be met within the next 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, based on any of to under A1. E) Quantitative analysis showing the probability of extinction in the wild is at least 20% within 20 years or five generations, there is data from the United States that shows a correlation between human populations and threatened and endangered species. Under the Endangered Species Act in the United States, species may be listed as endangered or threatened, the Salt Creek tiger beetle is an example of an endangered subspecies protected under the ESA. Some endangered species laws are controversial, also lobbying from hunters and various industries like the petroleum industry, construction industry, and logging, has been an obstacle in establishing endangered species laws. The Bush administration lifted a policy that required federal officials to consult an expert before taking actions that could damage endangered species. Under the Obama administration, this policy has been reinstated, being listed as an endangered species can have negative effect since it could make a species more desirable for collectors and poachers. This effect is potentially reducible, such as in China where commercially farmed turtles may be reducing some of the pressure to poach endangered species. Another problem with the species is its effect of inciting the use of the shoot, shovel
3.
Primate
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A primate is a mammal of the order Primates. In taxonomy, primates include two distinct lineages, strepsirrhines and haplorhines, Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests, many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment. Most primate species remain at least partly arboreal, with the exception of humans, who inhabit every continent except for Antarctica, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia. Based on fossil evidence, the earliest known true primates, represented by the genus Teilhardina, an early close primate relative known from abundant remains is the Late Paleocene Plesiadapis, c. Molecular clock studies suggest that the branch may be even older. The order Primates was traditionally divided into two groupings, prosimians and anthropoids. Prosimians have characteristics more like those of the earliest primates, and include the lemurs of Madagascar, lorisoids, simians include monkeys, apes and hominins. Simians are divided into two groups, catarrhine monkeys and apes of Africa and Southeast Asia and platyrrhine or New World monkeys of South, catarrhines consist of Old World monkeys, gibbons and great apes, New World monkeys include the capuchin, howler and squirrel monkeys. Humans are the only extant catarrhines to have spread successfully outside of Africa, South Asia, New primate species are still being discovered. More than 25 species were described in the decade of the 2000s. Considered generalist mammals, primates exhibit a range of characteristics. Some primates are primarily terrestrial rather than arboreal, but all species possess adaptations for climbing trees, locomotion techniques used include leaping from tree to tree, walking on two or four limbs, knuckle-walking, and swinging between branches of trees. Primates are characterized by large brains relative to other mammals, as well as a reliance on stereoscopic vision at the expense of smell. These features are developed in monkeys and apes and noticeably less so in lorises. Three-color vision has developed in some primates, most also have opposable thumbs and some have prehensile tails. Many species are dimorphic, differences include body mass, canine tooth size. Primates have slower rates of development than other similarly sized mammals and reach maturity later, depending on the species, adults may live in solitude, in mated pairs, or in groups of up to hundreds of members. The relationships among the different groups of primates were not clearly understood until relatively recently, for example, ape has been used either as an alternative for monkey or for any tailless, relatively human-like primate
4.
Madagascar
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Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar, and numerous smaller peripheral islands, consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot, over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The islands diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the growing human population. The first archaeological evidence for human foraging on Madagascar dates to 2000 BC, human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and AD550 by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo. These were joined around AD1000 by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa, other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is divided into 18 or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by an assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles, the monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in an uprising in 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign. Constitutional governance was restored in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair, Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the Southern African Development Community. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations, Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascars development strategy. As of 2017, the economy has been weakened by the 2009-2013 political crisis, in the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The islands appellation Madagascar is not of origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. On St. Laurences Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island, polos name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps. At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the worlds 47th largest country, the country lies mostly between latitudes 12°S and 26°S, and longitudes 43°E and 51°E. Neighboring islands include the French territory of Réunion and the country of Mauritius to the east, as well as the state of Comoros, the nearest mainland state is Mozambique, located to the west
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Threatened species
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Threatened species are any species which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of critical depensation and this quantitative metric is one method of evaluating the degree of endangerment. Species which have not been evaluated, or do not have sufficient data also are not considered threatened by the IUCN, Threatened species are also referred to as a red-listed species, as they are listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Subspecies, populations and stocks may also be classified as threatened and it is the less protected of the two protected categories. The Bay checkerspot butterfly is an example of a threatened subspecies protected under the ESA, for example, the trumpeter swan is threatened in the state of Minnesota, while large populations still remain in Canada and Alaska. The EPBC Act also recognises and protects threatened ecosystems such as plant communities, some species, such as Lewins rail, are not listed as threatened species under the EPBC Act, but they may be recognised as threatened by individual states or territories. Biodiversity Action Plan IUCN Red List Illegal logging Rare species Red and blue-listed Slash-and-burn Threatened fauna of Australia Sharrock, S. and Jones, conserving Europes threatened plants Botanic Gardens Conservation International
6.
Habitat
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A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism. The term typically refers to the zone in which the organism lives and it is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population. Every organism has certain habitat needs for the conditions in which it will thrive, habitat types include polar, temperate, subtropical and tropical. The terrestrial vegetation type may be forest, steppe, grassland, the word habitat has been in use since about 1755 and derives from the Latin third-person singular present indicative of habitāre, to inhabit, from habēre, to have or to hold. Habitat can be defined as the environment of an organism. It is similar in meaning to a biotope, an area of environmental conditions associated with a particular community of plants. Generally speaking, animal communities are reliant on specific types of plant communities, some plants and animals are generalists, and their habitat requirements are met in a wide range of locations. The small white butterfly for example is found on all the continents of the world apart from Antarctica and its larvae feed on a wide range of Brassicas and various other plant species, and it thrives in any open location with diverse plant associations. Disturbance is important in the creation of biodiverse habitats, in the absence of disturbance, a climax vegetation cover develops that prevents the establishment of other species. Lightning strikes and toppled trees in tropical forests allow species richness to be maintained as pioneering species move in to fill the gaps created. Similarly coastal habitats can become dominated by kelp until the seabed is disturbed by a storm, another cause of disturbance is when an area may be overwhelmed by an invasive introduced species which is not kept under control by natural enemies in its new habitat. Terrestrial habitat types include forests, grasslands, wetlands and deserts, within these broad biomes are more specific habitats with varying climate types, temperature regimes, soils, altitudes and vegetation types. Many of these habitats grade into each other and each one has its own communities of plants. A habitat may suit a particular species well, but its presence or absence at any particular location depends to some extent on chance, on its dispersal abilities, freshwater habitats include rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, marshes and bogs. Although some organisms are found across most of these habitats, the majority have more specific requirements, similarly, aquatic plants can be floating, semi-submerged, submerged or grow in permanently or temporarily saturated soils besides bodies of water. Marine habitats include brackish water, estuaries, bays, the sea, the intertidal zone. Further variations include rock pools, sand banks, mudflats, brackish lagoons, sandy and pebbly beaches, the benthic zone or seabed provides a home for both static organisms, anchored to the substrate, and for a large range of organisms crawling on or burrowing into the surface. A desert is not the kind of habitat that favours the presence of amphibians, with their requirement for water to keep their skins moist, nevertheless, some frogs live in deserts, creating moist habitats underground and hibernating while conditions are adverse
7.
Convention on Biological Diversity
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The Convention on Biological Diversity, known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. In other words, its objective is to develop strategies for the conservation. It is often seen as the key document regarding sustainable development, the Convention was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 and entered into force on 29 December 1993. At the 2010 10th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October in Nagoya, Japan, the notion of an international convention on biological diversity was conceived at a United Nations Environment Programme Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on Biological Diversity in November 1988. In 1991, a negotiating committee was established, tasked with finalizing the conventions text. A Conference for the Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity was held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1992, the Conventions text was opened for signature on 5 June 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. By its closing date,4 June 1993, the convention had received 168 signatures and it entered into force on 29 December 1993. The agreement covers all ecosystems, species, and genetic resources and it links traditional conservation efforts to the economic goal of using biological resources sustainably. It sets principles for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources and it also covers the rapidly expanding field of biotechnology through its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, addressing technology development and transfer, benefit-sharing and biosafety issues. Importantly, the Convention is legally binding, countries that join it are obliged to implement its provisions, the convention reminds decision-makers that natural resources are not infinite and sets out a philosophy of sustainable use. While past conservation efforts were aimed at protecting particular species and habitats, however, this should be done in a way and at a rate that does not lead to the long-term decline of biological diversity. The Convention acknowledges that substantial investments are required to conserve biological diversity and it argues, however, that conservation will bring us significant environmental, economic and social benefits in return. The Convention on Biological Diversity of 2010 banned some forms of geoengineering, some of the many issues dealt with under the convention include, Measures the incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. Regulated access to resources and traditional knowledge, including Prior Informed Consent of the party providing resources. Access to and transfer of technology, including biotechnology, to the governments and/or local communities that provided traditional knowledge and/or biodiversity resources, coordination of a global directory of taxonomic expertise. National reporting on efforts to implement treaty commitments, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of the Convention, also known as the Biosafety Protocol, was adopted in January 2000. The Biosafety Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. The Biosafety Protocol makes clear that products from new technologies must be based on the precautionary principle, the required number of 50 instruments of ratification/accession/approval/acceptance by countries was reached in May 2003
8.
Conservation status
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The conservation status of a group of organisms indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Various systems of conservation status exist and are in use at international, multi-country, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Also included are species that have gone extinct since 500 AD, when discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term threatened is a grouping of three categories, critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category, Data deficient – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction Not evaluated – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora aims to ensure that trade in specimens of wild animals. Many countries require CITES permits when importing plants and animals listed on CITES, in the European Union, the Birds and Habitats Directives are the legal instruments that evaluate the conservation status within the EU of species and habitats. NatureServe conservation status focuses on Latin America, United States, Canada, and it has been developed by scientists from NatureServe, The Nature Conservancy, and the network of natural heritage programs and data centers. It is increasingly integrated with the IUCN Red List system and its categories for species include, presumed extinct, possibly extinct, critically imperiled, imperiled, vulnerable, apparently secure, and secure. The system also allows ambiguous or uncertain ranks including inexact numeric ranks, NatureServe adds a qualifier for captive or cultivated only, which has a similar meaning to the IUCN Red List extinct in the wild status. The Red Data Book of the Russian Federation is used within the Russian Federation, in Australia, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 describes lists of threatened species, ecological communities and threatening processes. The categories resemble those of the 1994 IUCN Red List Categories & Criteria, prior to the EPBC Act, a simpler classification system was used by the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992. Some state and territory governments also have their own systems for conservation status, in Belgium, the Flemish Research Institute for Nature and Forest publishes an online set of more than 150 nature indicators in Dutch. In Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is a group of experts that assesses and designates which wild species are in danger of disappearing from Canada. Under the Species at Risk Act, it is up to the federal government, in China, the State, provinces and some counties have determined their key protected wildlife species. There is the China red data book, in Finland, a large number of species are protected under the Nature Conservation Act, and through the EU Habitats Directive and EU Birds Directive. In Germany, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation publishes red lists of endangered species, india has the Wild Life Protection Act,1972, Amended 2003 and the Biological Diversity Act,2002. In Japan, the Ministry of Environment publishes a Threatened Wildlife of Japan Red Data Book, in the Netherlands, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality publishes a list of threatened species, and conservation is enforced by the Nature Conservation Act 1998. Species are also protected through the Wild Birds and Habitats Directives, in New Zealand, the Department of Conservation publishes the New Zealand Threat Classification System lists
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Ecosystem
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An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles, as ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, they can be of any size but usually encompass specific, limited spaces. Energy, water, nitrogen and soil minerals are other essential components of an ecosystem. The energy that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun and it generally enters the system through photosynthesis, a process that also captures carbon from the atmosphere. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and they also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, other external factors include time and potential biota. Ecosystems are dynamic entities—invariably, they are subject to disturbances and are in the process of recovering from some past disturbance. Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can have different characteristics simply because they contain different species. The introduction of species can cause substantial shifts in ecosystem function. Internal factors not only control ecosystem processes but are controlled by them and are often subject to feedback loops. Other internal factors include disturbance, succession and the types of species present, although humans exist and operate within ecosystems, their cumulative effects are large enough to influence external factors like climate. Biodiversity affects ecosystem function, as do the processes of disturbance, classifying ecosystems into ecologically homogeneous units is an important step towards effective ecosystem management, but there is no single, agreed-upon way to do this. The term ecosystem was first used in 1935 in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley, Tansley devised the concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms and their environment. He later refined the term, describing it as The whole system, including not only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment. Tansley regarded ecosystems not simply as natural units, but as mental isolates, Tansley later defined the spatial extent of ecosystems using the term ecotope. G. Raymond Lindeman took these ideas one step further to suggest that the flow of energy through a lake was the driver of the ecosystem. Most mineral nutrients, on the hand, are recycled within ecosystems. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, external factors, also called state factors, control the overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem
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Conservation biology
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It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on natural and social sciences, and the practice of natural resource management. The conservation ethic is based on the findings of conservation biology, wilcox and Michael E. Soulé with a group of leading university and zoo researchers and conservationists including Kurt Benirschke, Sir Otto Frankel, Thomas E. Lovejoy, and Jared M. Diamond. The meeting was prompted by the concern over deforestation, disappearing species. Conservation biology and the concept of biological diversity emerged together, helping crystallize the modern era of conservation science, the inherent multidisciplinary basis for conservation biology has led to new subdisciplines including conservation social science, conservation behavior and conservation physiology. It stimulated further development of genetics which Otto Frankel had originated first but is now often considered a subdiscipline as well. The rapid decline of established biological systems around the means that conservation biology is often referred to as a Discipline with a deadline. Conservation biology is tied closely to ecology in researching the ecology of rare or endangered species. Conservation biologists work in the field and office, in government, universities, non-profit organizations, the topics of their research are diverse, because this is an interdisciplinary network with professional alliances in the biological as well as social sciences. Those dedicated to the cause and profession advocate for a response to the current biodiversity crisis based on morals, ethics. Conscious efforts to conserve and protect global biodiversity are a recent phenomenon, natural resource conservation, however, has a history that extends prior to the age of conservation. Resource ethics grew out of necessity through direct relations with nature and this social dilemma with respect to natural resource management is often called the Tragedy of the Commons. From this principle, conservation biologists can trace communal resource based ethics throughout cultures as a solution to communal resource conflict. For example, the Alaskan Tlingit peoples and the Haida of the Pacific Northwest had resource boundaries, rules and these rules were guided by clan elders who knew lifelong details of each river and stream they managed. There are numerous examples in history where cultures have followed rules, rituals, Conservation ethics are also found in early religious and philosophical writings. There are examples in the Tao, Shinto, Hindu, Islamic, in the bible, through Moses, God commanded to let the land rest from cultivation every seventh year. Before the 18th century, however, much of European culture considered it a view to admire nature. Wilderness was denigrated while agricultural development was praised, however, as early as AD680 a wildlife sanctuary was founded on the Farne Islands by St Cuthbert in response to his religious beliefs. Natural history was a preoccupation in the 18th century, with grand expeditions
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Restoration ecology
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Restoration ecology emerged as a separate field in ecology in the 1980s. Restoration ecology is commonly used for the academic study of the process. E. O. Wilson, a biologist states that, Here is the means to end the great extinction spasm, the next century will, I believe, be the era of restoration in ecology. Restoration ecology is the study of ecological restoration. Estimates of the current extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times more than the normal rate, for many people biological diversity, has an intrinsic value that humans have a responsibility towards other living things, and an obligation to future generations. On a more level, natural ecosystems provide human society with food, fuel. Such processes have been estimated to be trillions of dollars annually. Habitat loss is the cause of both species extinctions and ecosystem service decline. The two ways to reverse trend of habitat loss are conservation of currently viable habitat and restoration of degraded habitats. The fundamental difference between restoration and other conservation efforts is analogous to the difference between disease prevention and treatment, conservation attempts to maintain and protect existing habitat and biodiversity, whereas restoration attempts to reverse existing environmental degradation and population declines. Targeted human intervention is used to promote habitat, biodiversity recovery, the possibility of restoration, however, does not provide an excuse for converting extremely valuable pristine habitat into other uses, as in medicine, it better to prevent than to treat. Though restoration ecologists and other conservation biologists generally agree that habitat is the most important locus of biodiversity protection, conservation biology as an academic discipline is rooted in population biology. Because of that, it is organized at the genetic level. Restoration ecology is organized at the community level, looking at specific ecosystems, conservation biologys focus on rare or endangered species limit the number of manipulative studies that can be performed. As a consequence, conservation studies tend to be descriptive, comparative, however, the highly manipulative nature of restoration ecology allows the researcher to test the hypotheses vigorously. Restorative activity often reflects an experimental test of what limits populations, Restoration ecology draws on a wide range of ecological concepts. Disturbance is a change of environmental conditions, which interferes with the functioning of a biological system, disturbance, at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, is a natural component of many communities. Humans have had limited natural impacts on ecosystems for as long as humans have existed, however, understanding and minimizing the differences between modern anthropogenic and natural disturbances is crucial to restoration ecology
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Snow leopard
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The snow leopard or ounce is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species because, as of 2003, fewer than 2,500 individuals may be reproducing in the wild. As of 2016, estimates for the size of the population vary from at least 4,080 to about 8,700 individuals. Snow leopards inhabit alpine and subalpine zones at elevations from 3,000 to 4,500 m, in the northern range countries, they also occur at lower elevations. Taxonomically, the leopard has been classified as Uncia uncia since the early 1930s. Based on genotyping studies, the cat has been considered a member of the genus Panthera since 2008, two subspecies have been attributed, but genetic differences between the two have not been settled. Both the latinized genus name, Uncia, and the occasional English name ounce are derived from the Old French once, originally used for the European lynx. Once itself is believed to have arisen by back-formation from a variant of lynx, lonce – the l of lonce was construed as an abbreviated la. This, like the English version ounce, came to be used for other lynx-sized cats, and eventually for the snow leopard. The snow leopard is known in its native lands as wāwrīn pṛāng, shan, zigsa, irves, bars or barys, ilbirs, barfānī chītā Urdu, برفانی چیتا). According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the origin of the word panthera is unknown, a folk etymology derives the word from the Greek πάν pan and thēr because they can hunt and kill almost anything. It was proposed to have come ultimately into Greek from a Sanskrit word meaning the animal or whitish-yellow. The Greek word πάνθηρ, pánthēr, referred to all spotted felines generically, schreber named the cat Felis uncia and gave its type locality as Barbary, Persia, East India, and China. In 1854, the British zoologist John Edward Gray proposed the genus Uncia, British zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock corroborated this classification, but attributed the scientific name Uncia uncia. He also described morphological differences between snow leopards and the members of Panthera. The snow leopard is part of the Panthera lineage, one of the eight lineages of Felidae and this lineage comprises the species of Panthera and Neofelis. The Neofelis lineage diverged first from the within the Felinae, subsequent branching between the snow leopard and clouded leopard began two to three million years ago, but the details of this are disputed. A2006 phylogenetic study by Warren E and this was seconded by a 2009 study by Lars Werdelin and colleagues
13.
Fungus
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A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from the other eukaryotic life kingdoms of plants, a characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria and some protists, is chitin in their cell walls. Similar to animals, fungi are heterotrophs, they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, growth is their means of mobility, except for spores, which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems and this fungal group is distinct from the structurally similar myxomycetes and oomycetes. The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology, in the past, mycology was regarded as a branch of botany, although it is now known fungi are genetically more closely related to animals than to plants. Abundant worldwide, most fungi are inconspicuous because of the size of their structures. Fungi include symbionts of plants, animals, or other fungi and they may become noticeable when fruiting, either as mushrooms or as molds. Fungi perform a role in the decomposition of organic matter and have fundamental roles in nutrient cycling. Since the 1940s, fungi have been used for the production of antibiotics, Fungi are also used as biological pesticides to control weeds, plant diseases and insect pests. Many species produce bioactive compounds called mycotoxins, such as alkaloids and polyketides, the fruiting structures of a few species contain psychotropic compounds and are consumed recreationally or in traditional spiritual ceremonies. Fungi can break down manufactured materials and buildings, and become significant pathogens of humans, losses of crops due to fungal diseases or food spoilage can have a large impact on human food supplies and local economies. The fungus kingdom encompasses a diversity of taxa with varied ecologies, life cycle strategies. However, little is known of the biodiversity of Kingdom Fungi. Advances in molecular genetics have opened the way for DNA analysis to be incorporated into taxonomy, phylogenetic studies published in the last decade have helped reshape the classification within Kingdom Fungi, which is divided into one subkingdom, seven phyla, and ten subphyla. The English word fungus is directly adopted from the Latin fungus, used in the writings of Horace, a group of all the fungi present in a particular area or geographic region is known as mycobiota, e. g. the mycobiota of Ireland. Like plants, fungi grow in soil and, in the case of mushrooms, form conspicuous fruit bodies. The fungi are now considered a kingdom, distinct from both plants and animals, from which they appear to have diverged around one billion years ago. Fungi have membrane-bound cytoplasmic organelles such as mitochondria, sterol-containing membranes and they have a characteristic range of soluble carbohydrates and storage compounds, including sugar alcohols, disaccharides, and polysaccharides
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Invertebrate
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Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column, derived from the notochord. This includes all animals apart from the subphylum Vertebrata, familiar examples of invertebrates include insects, crabs, lobsters and their kin, snails, clams, octopuses and their kin, starfish, sea-urchins and their kin, jellyfish, and worms. The majority of species are invertebrates, one estimate puts the figure at 97%. Many invertebrate taxa have a number and variety of species than the entire subphylum of Vertebrata. Some of the invertebrates, such as the Tunicata and Cephalochordata are more closely related to the vertebrates than to other invertebrates. This makes the term invertebrate paraphyletic and hence almost meaningless for taxonomic purposes, the word invertebrate comes from the form of the Latin word vertebra, which means a joint in general, and sometimes specifically a joint from the spinal column of a vertebrate. In turn the jointed aspect of vertebra derived from the concept of turning, coupled with the prefix in-, meaning not or without. The term invertebrates is not always precise among non-biologists since it does not accurately describe a taxon in the way that Arthropoda. Each of these describes an valid taxon, phylum, subphylum or family. Invertebrata is a term of convenience, not a taxon, it has very little circumscriptional significance except within the Chordata, the Vertebrata as a subphylum comprises such a small proportion of the Metazoa that to speak of the kingdom Animalia in terms of Vertebrata and Invertebrata has limited practicality. That would at least circumscribe the Chordata, however, even the notochord would be a less fundamental criterion than aspects of embryological development and symmetry or perhaps bauplan. The following text reflects earlier scientific understanding of the term and of animals which have constituted it. According to this understanding, invertebrates do not possess a skeleton of bone and they include hugely varied body plans. Many have fluid-filled, hydrostatic skeletons, like jellyfish or worms, others have hard exoskeletons, outer shells like those of insects and crustaceans. The most familiar invertebrates include the Protozoa, Porifera, Coelenterata, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Echinodermata, Mollusca, Arthropoda include insects, crustaceans and arachnids. By far the largest number of described species are insects. The following table lists the number of described extant species for major invertebrate groups as estimated in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,2014.3. The IUCN estimates that 66,178 extant vertebrate species have been described, the trait that is common to all invertebrates is the absence of a vertebral column, this creates a distinction between invertebrates and vertebrates
15.
Madagascar dry deciduous forests
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The Madagascar dry deciduous forests represent a tropical dry forest ecoregion situated in the western and northern part of Madagascar. The area has high numbers of plant and animal species but has suffered large-scale clearance for agriculture. They are among the worlds richest and most distinctive dry forests, the area is also home to distinctive limestone karst formations known as tsingy, including the World Heritage Site of Bemaraha. Geological substrate is varied and includes the limestone massifs. These dry deciduous forests span the coastal plain with its limestone plateaus emanating virtually at sea level to higher altitudes to roughly 600 metres, the area includes wetlands and grasslands as well as dry forests characterized by a deciduous canopy extending to a height of 10 to 15 metres. Climate is tropical, with daytime temperatures commonly exceeding 30 °C. Rainfall, ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 mm, is more abundant than in the thickets and succulent woodlands. While the absolute number of plant species is lower than in the rainforests of the island. Trees have adapted to the dry climate by shedding leaves in the dry season to limit evapotranspiration. Moreover, some species like baobabs and Moringa have adapted by evolving the ability to store water in their large bulbous trunks. Four species of baobabs, including three endemics occur in this ecoregion, other notable tree species include flamboyant tree, Pachypodium species, and several Fabaceae and Rubiaceae. Forest understory plants include Lissochilus orchids, one characteristic in common with other tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests is the presence of relatively high densities of mammalian biomass. Several of Madagascars characteristic lemur species are found including the fat-tailed dwarf lemur, five subspecies of Propithecus. As well as lemurs the dry forests are home to the islands largest predator, the lakes and rivers of the dry forest region are homes to most of Madagascars bird species. Among reptiles, many chameleon and gecko species occur here, as well as the Madagascar sideneck turtle, most dry forests have already been destroyed by human action, especially near the Central Highlands. The remaining forest is severely fragmented, burning, grazing, and logging are the major threats, and siltation, overfishing and invasive species impact the wetlands. Some species such as lemurs suffer from hunting, as the limestone has weathered over geologic time, this karst formation often exhibits spiry pinnacles, called tsingy locally. The name derives from the Malagasy word which means walk on tiptoe, there are an abundance of limestone caves and virgin forests that shelter the diverse wildlife of the Ankarana region
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Urban planning
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Urban planning is also referred to as urban and regional planning, regional planning, town planning, city planning, rural planning or some combination in various areas worldwide. It takes many forms and it can share perspectives and practices with urban design, urban planning guides orderly development in urban, suburban and rural areas. Practitioners of urban planning are concerned with research and analysis, strategic thinking, architecture, urban design, public consultation, policy recommendations, implementation and management. Urban planners work with the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering. Early urban planners were often members of these cognate fields, today urban planning is a separate, independent professional discipline. The discipline is the category that includes different sub-fields such as land-use planning, zoning, economic development, environmental planning. There is evidence of planning and designed communities dating back to the Mesopotamian, Indus Valley, Minoan. Archeologists studying the ruins of cities in these areas find paved streets that were out at right angles in a grid pattern. The idea of a planned out urban area evolved as different civilizations adopted it, beginning in the 8th century BCE, Greek city states were primarily centered on orthogonal plans. The ancient Romans, inspired by the Greeks, also used orthogonal plans for their cities, city planning in the Roman world was developed for military defense and public convenience. The spread of the Roman Empire subsequently spread the ideas of urban planning, as the Roman Empire declined, these ideas slowly disappeared. However, many cities in Europe still held onto the planned Roman city center, cities in Europe from the 9th to 14th centuries, often grew organically and sometimes chaotically. But many hundreds of new towns were built according to preconceived plans. Most of these were realized from the 12th to 14th centuries, from the 15th century on, much more is recorded of urban design and the people that were involved. In this period, theoretical treatises on architecture and urban planning start to appear in which questions are addressed and designs of towns. During the Enlightenment period, several European rulers ambitiously attempted to redesign capital cities, during the Second French Republic, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, under the direction of Napoleon III, redesigned the city of Paris into a more modern capital, with long, straight, wide boulevards. Planning and architecture went through a shift at the turn of the 20th century. The industrialized cities of the 19th century grew at a tremendous rate, the pace and style of this industrial construction was largely dictated by the concerns of private business
17.
Slash-and-burn
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Slash-and-burn agriculture, or fire–fallow cultivation, is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. In subsistence agriculture, slash-and-burn typically uses little technology and it is often applied in shifting cultivation agriculture and in transhumance livestock herding. Slash-and-burn is used by 200–500 million people worldwide, in 2004 it was estimated that in Brazil alone,500,000 small farmers each cleared an average of one hectare of forest per year. The technique is not scalable or sustainable for large human populations, methods such as Inga alley farming have been proposed as alternatives which would cause less environmental degradation. Historically, slash-and-burn cultivation has been practiced throughout much of the world and this happened in the river valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Due to this decrease in food hunting, as human populations increased. Some groups could easily plant their crops in fields along river valleys. In this context, humans used slash-and-burn agriculture to more land to make it suitable for plants. Thus, since Neolithic times, slash-and-burn techniques have been used for converting forests into crop fields. Fire was used before the Neolithic as well, and by hunter-gatherers up to present times, clearings created by fire were made for many reasons, such as to draw game animals and to promote certain kinds of edible plants such as berries. Slash-and-burn fields are used and owned by a family until the soil is exhausted. At this point the ownership rights are abandoned, the family clears a new field, after a few decades, another family or clan may then use the land and claim usufructuary rights. In such a system there is no market in farmland, so land is not bought or sold in the open market. In slash-and-burn agriculture, forests are typically cut months before a dry season, the slash is permitted to dry, and then burned in the following dry season. The resulting ash fertilizes the soil and the field is then planted at the beginning of the next rainy season with crops such as upland rice, maize, cassava. Most of this work is typically done by hand, using basic tools as machetes, axes, hoes. Large families or clans wandering in the lush woodlands long continued to be the most common form of life through human prehistory, axes to fell trees and sickles for harvesting grain were the only tools people might bring with them. All other tools were made from materials found at the site, such as fire stakes of birch, long rods
18.
Waterberg Biosphere
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The Waterberg is a mountainous massif of approximately 14,500 square kilometers in north Limpopo Province, South Africa. The average height of the range is 600 m with a few peaks rising up to 2000 m above sea level. Vaalwater town is located just north of the mountain range, the extensive rock formation was shaped by hundreds of millions of years of riverine erosion to yield diverse bluff and butte landform. The ecosystem can be characterised as a dry deciduous forest or Bushveld, within the Waterberg there are archaeological finds dating to the Stone Age, and nearby are early evolutionary finds related to the origin of humans. Waterberg is the first region in the part of South Africa to be named as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. The underlying rock formation derives from the Kaapvaal Craton, formed as an island roughly 2.7 billion years ago. This crustal formation became the base of the Waterberg, which was transformed by upward extrusion of igneous rocks. These extruded rocks, containing minerals such as vanadium and platinum, are called the Bushveld Igneous Complex, the original extent of this rock upthrust involved about 250,000 square kilometers, and is sometimes called the Waterberg Supergroup. Sedimentary deposition from rivers cutting through Waterberg endured until roughly 1.5 billion years ago, in more recent time the Kaapvaal craton collided with the supercontinent Gondwana, and split Gondwana into its modern-day continents. Waterberg today contains mesas, buttes and some kopje outcrops, some of cliffs stand up to 550 meters above the plains, with exposed multi-coloured sandstone. The sandstone formations could retain groundwater sufficient to make an environment for primitive man. The cliff overhangs offered natural shelters for these early humans, the first human ancestors may have been at Waterberg as early as three million years ago, since Makapansgat,40 kilometers distant, has yielded skeletons of Australopithecus africanus. Hogan suggests that Homo erectus, whose remains were also discovered in Makapansgat. Bushmen entered Waterberg around two years ago. They produced rock paintings at Lapalala within the Waterberg, including depictions of rhinoceros, early Iron Age settlers in Waterberg were Bantu, who had brought cattle to the region. The Bantu created a problem in Waterberg, since cattle reduced grassland caused invasion of brush species leading to an outbreak of the tse-tse fly, the ensuing epidemic of sleeping sickness depopulated the plains, but at higher elevations man survived, because the fly cannot survive above 600 meters. Later people left the first Stone Age artifacts recovered in northern South Africa, archaeologists continue to excavate Waterberg to shed light on the Nguni culture and the associated dry-stone architecture. The first white settlers arrived in Waterberg in 1808 and the first naturalist a Swede appeared just before mid 19th century, around the mid 19th century, a group of Dutch travelers set out from Cape Town in search of Jerusalem
19.
Bushveld
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The Bushveld is a sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa named after the term veld. The elevation of this varies from 750 to 1,400 m. The latter is the northernmost mountain range in South Africa, as implied by the regions name, the Bushvelds well-grassed plains are dotted by dense clusters of trees and tall shrubs. The grasses found here are tall and turn brown or pale in winter. The Bushveld is one of the most mineral-rich regions of the world and this is due to the Bushveld igneous complex, an extremely rich saucer-shaped geological formation that stretches over more than 50,000 square kilometers. This formation contains most of the reserves of minerals such as andalusite, chromium, fluorspar. The complex includes the Merensky Reef, which is the worlds biggest source of platinum as well as platinum-group metals
20.
Wetland
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A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink, Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, the water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens, and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to people about wetland issues. Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they may also play a role in water-sensitive urban design. A patch of land that develops pools of water after a storm would not be considered a wetland. Wetlands have unique characteristics, they are distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level. Specifically, wetlands are characterized as having a table that stands at or near the land surface for a long enough period each year to support aquatic plants. A more concise definition is a community composed of hydric soil, Wetlands have also been described as ecotones, providing a transition between dry land and water bodies. In environmental decision-making, there are subsets of definitions that are agreed upon to make regulatory and policy decisions. A wetland is an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water produces soils dominated by anaerobic processes, There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog and fen. Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic ecosystems as additional wetland types, the largest wetlands in the world include the swamp forests of the Amazon and the peatlands of Siberia. Under the Ramsar international wetland conservation treaty, wetlands are defined as follows, Article 2.1, may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands. Although the general definition given above applies around the world, each county, Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas. This definition has been used in the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, some US states, such as Massachusetts and New York, have separate definitions that may differ from the federal governments. It is not uncommon for a wetland to be dry for long portions of the growing season, the most important factor producing wetlands is flooding
21.
Stora Alvaret
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Stora Alvaret is a limestone barren plain on the island of Öland, Sweden. Because of the soil mantle and high pH levels, a great assortment of vegetation is found including numerous rare species. Stora Alvaret has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to its extraordinary biodiversity, the area of this formation exceeds 260 square kilometres, making it the largest such expanse in Europe and comprising over one fourth of the land area of the island. Stora Alvaret is not devoid of trees, contrary to a misconception, in fact. Stora Alvaret is a dagger shaped expanse almost 40 kilometres long, the limestone plain was created by glacial action from earlier ice age advances. The limestone formation itself was created about 500 million years ago in more southerly seas, gradually hardening into limestone and drifting northward, the limestone of Stora Alvaret contains a rich fossil record of some of the marine creatures who contributed to it. For example, orthoceratites are found in some of the present day structures on the island. Only as recently as 11,000 years ago did the first portions of the island of Öland emerge from the Baltic Sea, over the next several thousand years, more ice melted and the first wave of large mammals including humans migrated across the ice bridge from the mainland. Finally a thin soil mantle was formed by plant colonisation of the limestone and some wind driven deposition. In many places the limestone has no soil whatsoever upon it, the best known early paleolithic settlement occurs at Alby, situated on the east coast of the island, where excavations have revealed vestiges of wooden huts around a prehistoric lagoon. Artefacts retrieved include evidence of bear, marten, seal and porpoise, evidence of later ringforts abounds including the most well known site at Eketorp. In the Bronze Age and early part of the Iron Age, extreme pressure was exerted on the tree species growing on Stora Alvaret. Jannson suggests that this disappearance of trees caused a mysterious evaporation of humans about 500 AD which is documented at Eketorp and it is thought provoking to imagine that the expanded human population may have exceeded its carrying capacity of this place by about 500 AD. Later, about 800 to 1000 AD various Viking settlements appeared on the fringe of Stora Alvaret, the first documented scientific study of the biota of Stora Alvaret occurred in the year 1741 with the visit of Linnaeus. He wrote of this ecosystem, It is noteworthy how some plants are able to thrive on the driest and most barren places of the alvar. Some relict species from the age are among the flora palette of Stora Alvaret. A wide variety of wildflowers and other plants are found on the limestone pavement ecosystem, some of the species found include stonecrop, dropwort, Artemisia oelandica, Shrubby Cinquefoil, Common spotted orchid and kidney vetch. Most of these wildflowers bloom from May to July, although the alvar here is known for its severely dry conditions, there are some seasonal wetlands and vernal pools, notably the vestigial lagoon area northwest of the village of Alby
22.
Daintree Rainforest
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The Daintree Rainforest, is a region located on the north east coast of Queensland, Australia, north of Mossman and Cairns. At around 1,200 square kilometres, the Daintree is the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australian continent, along the coastline north of the Daintree River, tropical forest grows right down to the edge of the sea. The rainforest is named after Richard Daintree, an Australian geologist, the area includes the Daintree National Park, some areas of State Forest, and some privately owned land, including a residential community of upwards of 5 people. As of May 2011, 72% of the properties earmarked for buyback or compensation had been secured and these buyback areas of tropical rainforest included 215 blocks of land purchased by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, and 13 purchased by private conservation agencies. The Daintree Rainforest contains 3% of the frog, reptile and marsupial species in Australia, 7% of bird species in the country can be found in this area. There are also over 12,000 species of insects in the rainforest, all of this diversity is contained within an area that takes up 0. 1% of the landmass of Australia. Part of the forest is protected by the Daintree National Park, the roads north of the river wind through areas of lush forest, and have been designed to minimize impacts on this ancient ecosystem. The tropical rainforest ecosystem of the Daintree Rainforest is one of the most complex on Earth and its plant diversity and structural complexity is unrivalled on the Australian continent and represents the origins of its more familiar ‘Australian’ flora. Millions of years ago, the Australian continent was warm and humid, during this time rainforest thrived in places such as the Ayers Rock region. As Australia became more arid, there were fewer and fewer places rainforests were able to survive, in the Daintree region, however the climate and topography were ideal, so the area became a last remaining refuge for rainforest. Within this refuge many species were able to live comfortably without reason to change and their descendants that are still living today retained many of their ancestors primitive characteristics, some dating back 110 million years. One species in particular, Idiospermum australiense, commonly known as the fruit, is one of the rarest and most primitive of the flowering plants. Its discovery in 1970 was arguably Australia’s most significant botanical find, from a total of 19 primitive flowering plant families on Earth,12 families are represented in the Daintree region making the highest concentration of these plants worldwide. There is outstanding coastal scenery that combines tropical rainforest, white sandy beaches and this is an extremely rare combination. To the west of Cape Tribulation stands Mt Pieter Botte with its granite outcrops. The summit providing expansive vistas of undisturbed forest and to the south the skyline is dominated by the giant granite boulders of Thornton Peak – one of Queensland’s highest mountains, the Daintree rainforest contains important and significant habitats for conservation of biological diversity. Approximately 430 species of birds live among the trees, the primitive flowering plants Austrobaileya scandens and Idiospermum australiense are also endemic to the Daintree. The Daintree Region is home to a number of rare and endangered species, including the southern cassowary, the Daintree Important Bird Area is a 2656 km2 tract of land that largely coincides with the northernmost part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site
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Queensland
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Queensland is the second-largest and third-most-populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west, to the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. Queensland has a population of 4,750,500, concentrated along the coast, the state is the worlds sixth largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 km2. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australias third largest city, often referred to as the Sunshine State, Queensland is home to 10 of Australias 30 largest cities and is the nations third largest economy. Tourism in the state, fuelled largely by its tropical climate, is a major industry. Queensland was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the first European to land in Queensland was Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606, who explored the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula near present-day Weipa. In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain. The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 by Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney, New South Wales at that time included all of what is now Queensland, Queensland was explored in subsequent decades until the establishment of a penal colony at Brisbane in 1824 by John Oxley. Penal transportation ceased in 1839 and free settlement was allowed from 1842, the state was named in honour of Queen Victoria, who on 6 June 1859 signed Letters Patent separating the colony from New South Wales. The 6th of June is now celebrated statewide as Queensland Day. Queensland achieved statehood with the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, the history of Queensland spans thousands of years, encompassing both a lengthy indigenous presence, as well as the eventful times of post-European settlement. The north-eastern Australian region was explored by Dutch, Spanish and French navigators before being encountered by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770, the Australian Labor Party has its origin as a formal organisation in Queensland and the town of Barcaldine is the symbolic birthplace of the party. June 2009 marked the 150th anniversary of its creation as a colony from New South Wales. The Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000 BC, likely via boat or land bridge across Torres Strait, during the last ice age Queenslands landscape became more arid and largely desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. This led to the worlds first seed-grinding technology, warming again made the land hospitable, which brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the states tropical rainforests. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa and this was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, and it also marked the first reported contact between European and Aboriginal Australian people. The region was explored by French and Spanish explorers prior to the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King George III of the United Kingdom on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, naming Eastern Australia, including Queensland, the Aboriginal population declined significantly after a smallpox epidemic during the late 18th century
24.
Great Barrier Reef
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The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from space and is the worlds biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms and it supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN labelled it one of the seven wonders of the world. The Queensland National Trust named it a icon of Queensland. A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, other environmental pressures on the reef and its ecosystem include runoff, climate change accompanied by mass coral bleaching, and cyclic population outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish. According to a study published in October 2012 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Great Barrier Reef has long been known to and used by the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and is an important part of local groups cultures and spirituality. The reef is a popular destination for tourists, especially in the Whitsunday Islands. Tourism is an important economic activity for the region, generating over AUD$3 billion per year, in November 2014, Google launched Google Underwater Street View in 3D of the Great Barrier Reef. A March 2016 report stated that coral bleaching was more widespread than previously thought, in October 2016, Outside published an obituary for the reef, the article was criticized for being premature and hindering efforts to bolster the resilience of the reef. The Great Barrier Reef is a feature of the East Australian Cordillera division. It includes the smaller Murray Islands and it reaches from Torres Strait in the north to the unnamed passage between Lady Elliot Island and Fraser Island in the south. Lady Elliot Island is located 1,915 km southeast of Bramble Cay as the crow flies, the Plate tectonic theory indicates Australia has moved northwards at a rate of 7 cm per year, starting during the Cenozoic. Eastern Australia experienced a period of uplift, which moved the drainage divide in Queensland 400 km inland. Also during this time, Queensland experienced volcanic eruptions leading to central and shield volcanoes, some of these became high islands. The Great Barrier Reefs development history is complex, after Queensland drifted into tropical waters, it was influenced by reef growth. 10 million years ago, the sea level lowered, which further enabled sedimentation. The reefs substrate may have needed to build up from the sediment until its edge was too far away for suspended sediments to inhibit coral growth
25.
Reef
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A reef is a bar of rock, sand, coral or similar material, lying beneath the surface of water. Reefs may be up to 261 feet below the surface, artificial reefs such as shipwrecks are sometimes created to enhance physical complexity on generally featureless sand bottoms in order to attract a diverse assemblage of organisms, especially fish. There is a variety of reef types, including oyster reefs. These biotic reef types take on additional names depending upon how the reef lies in relation to the land, Reef types include fringing reef, barrier reefs, as well as atolls. A fringing reef is a reef that is attached to an island, a barrier reef forms a calcareous barrier around an island resulting in a lagoon between the shore and the reef. An atoll is a reef with no land present. The reef front is a high energy locale whereas the internal lagoon will be at an energy with fine grained sediments. One useful definition distinguishes reefs from mounds as follows, reefs are held up by a macroscopic skeletal framework. Coral reefs are an excellent example of this kind, corals and calcareous algae grow on top of one another and form a three-dimensional framework that is modified in various ways by other organisms and inorganic processes. By contrast, mounds lack a macroscopic skeletal framework, mounds are built by microorganisms or by organisms that dont grow a skeletal framework. A microbial mound might be built exclusively or primarily by cyanobacteria, excellent examples of biostromes formed by cyanobacteria occur in the Great Salt Lake of Utah, and in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Cyanobacteria do not have skeletons and individuals are microscopic, cyanobacteria encourage the precipitation or accumulation of calcium carbonate and can produce distinct sediment bodies in composition that have relief on the seafloor. Cyanobacterial mounds were most abundant before the evolution of shelly macroscopic organisms, bryozoans and crinoids, common contributors to marine sediments during the Mississippian, produced a very different kind of mound. Bryozoans are small and the skeletons of crinoids disintegrate, however, bryozoan and crinoid meadows can persist over time and produce compositionally distinct bodies of sediment with depositional relief. The Proterozoic Belt Supergroup contains evidence of microbial mat and dome structures similar to stromatolite reef complexes. Ancient reefs buried within stratigraphic sections are of considerable interest to geologists because they provide information about the location in Earths history. Corals, including some major extinct groups Rugosa and Tabulata, have been important reef builders through much of the Phanerozoic since the Ordovician Period. However, other groups, such as calcifying algae, especially members of the red algae Rhodophyta
26.
Wastewater
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Wastewater, also written as waste water, is any water that has been adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. Wastewater can originate from a combination of domestic, industrial, commercial or agricultural activities, surface runoff or stormwater, municipal wastewater is usually conveyed in a combined sewer or sanitary sewer, and treated at a wastewater treatment plant. Treated wastewater is discharged into receiving water via an effluent pipe, wastewaters generated in areas without access to centralized sewer systems rely on on-site wastewater systems. These typically comprise a septic tank, drain field, and optionally an on-site treatment unit, the management of wastewater belongs to the overarching term sanitation, just like the management of human excreta, solid waste and stormwater. Sewerage is the infrastructure, including pipes, pumps, screens. Soluble organic material such as urea, fruit sugars, soluble proteins, drugs, pharmaceuticals, inorganic particles such as sand, grit, metal particles, ceramics, etc. Soluble inorganic material such as ammonia, road-salt, sea-salt, cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, thiocyanates, thiosulfates, animals such as protozoa, insects, arthropods, small fish, etc. Macro-solids such as napkins, nappies/diapers, condoms, needles, childrens toys, dead animals or plants. Gases such as sulfide, carbon dioxide, methane, etc. Emulsions such as paints, adhesives, mayonnaise, hair colorants, emulsified oils, toxins such as pesticides, poisons, herbicides, etc. The result is that the content of the water will be decreased. Those biochemical reactions create what is measured in the laboratory as the oxygen demand. Such chemicals are also liable to be broken down using strong oxidizing agents, both the BOD and COD tests are a measure of the relative oxygen-depletion effect of a waste contaminant. Both have been adopted as a measure of pollution effect. The BOD test measures the demand of biodegradable pollutants whereas the COD test measures the oxygen demand of oxidizable pollutants. The so-called 5-day BOD measures the amount of oxygen consumed by oxidation of waste contaminants in a 5-day period. The total amount of consumed when the biochemical reaction is allowed to proceed to completion is called the Ultimate BOD. Because the Ultimate BOD is so time consuming, the 5-day BOD has been almost universally adopted as a measure of pollution effect
27.
Sustainable forest management
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Sustainable forest management is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management has to keep the balance between three pillars, ecological, economic and socio-cultural. A number of sets of criteria and indicators have since developed to evaluate the achievement of SFM at the global, regional, country. These were all attempts to codify and provide for independent assessment of the degree to which the objectives of sustainable forest management are being achieved in practice. In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Non-Legally Binding Instrument on All Types of Forests, a definition of SFM was developed by the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe, and has since been adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization. This balance is critical to the survival of forests, and to the prosperity of forest-dependent communities. For forest managers, sustainably managing a particular forest tract means determining, in a way, how to use it today to ensure similar benefits, health. In most cases, forest managers develop their forest plans in consultation with citizens, businesses, organizations and other interested parties in, the tools and visualization have been recently evolving for better management practices. Because forests and societies are in constant flux, the outcome of sustainable forest management is not a fixed one. What constitutes a sustainably managed forest will change over time as values held by the public change, Criteria and indicators are tools which can be used to conceptualise, evaluate and implement sustainable forest management. Criteria define and characterize the essential elements, as well as a set of conditions or processes, periodically measured indicators reveal the direction of change with respect to each criterion. Criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management are used and many countries produce national reports that assess their progress toward sustainable forest management. There are nine international and regional criteria and indicators initiatives, which involve more than 150 countries. Countries who are members of the same initiative usually agree to produce reports at the same time, within countries, at the management unit level, efforts have also been directed at developing local level criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management. There appears to be growing international consensus on the key elements of sustainable forest management, seven common thematic areas of sustainable forest management have emerged based on the criteria of the nine ongoing regional and international criteria and indicators initiatives. This consensus on common thematic areas effectively provides a common, implicit definition of sustainable forest management, the seven thematic areas were acknowledged by the international forest community at the fourth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests and the 16th session of the Committee on Forestry. The Ecosystem Approach has been prominent on the agenda of the Convention on Biological Diversity since 1995, the CBD definition of the Ecosystem Approach and a set of principles for its application were developed at an expert meeting in Malawi in 1995, known as the Malawi Principles. The definition,12 principles and 5 points of operational guidance were adopted by the fifth Conference of Parties in 2000, application of the ecosystem approach will help to reach a balance of the three objectives of the Convention
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Deforestation
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Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, the most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests. About 30% of Earths land surface is covered by forests, Deforestation occurs for multiple reasons, trees are cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and plantation. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and it has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation has also used in war to deprive the enemy of cover for its forces. Modern examples of this were the use of Agent Orange by the British military in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency, as of 2005, net deforestation rates have ceased to increase in countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland, disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many countries, deforestation, both naturally occurring and human-induced, is an ongoing issue, Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the live in tropical forests. Between 2000 and 2012,2.3 million square kilometres of forests around the world were cut down, as a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres remain of the original 16 million square kilometres of forest that formerly covered the Earth. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation, commercial agriculture is responsible for 32%, logging is responsible for 14%, and fuel wood removals make up 5%. Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to global deforestation, some argue that poor people are more likely to clear forest because they have no alternatives, others that the poor lack the ability to pay for the materials and labour needed to clear forest. One study found that population increases due to fertility rates were a primary driver of tropical deforestation in only 8% of cases. Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government institutions, the distribution of wealth and power, population growth and overpopulation. Globalization is often viewed as another cause of deforestation, though there are cases in which the impacts of globalization have promoted localized forest recovery. The degradation of forest ecosystems has also traced to economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation. Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past 30 years, Deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate and geography. Deforestation is a contributor to global warming, and is cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect
29.
Biodiversity
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Biodiversity, a contraction of biological diversity, generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions defines it in terms of the variability within species and it is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation within an area, biome, terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics and these tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earths surface, and contain about 90 percent of the worlds species. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, there are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, the number and variety of plants, animals and other organisms that exist is known as biodiversity. It is a component of nature and it ensures the survival of human species by providing food, fuel, shelter, medicines. The richness of biodiversity depends on the conditions and area of the region. All species of plants taken together are known as flora and about 300,000 species of plants are known to date, all species of animals taken together are known as fauna which includes birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions, more than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all living on Earth. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, there are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of a substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland. More recently, in 2015, remains of life were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, If life arose relatively quickly on Earth, then it could be common in the universe
30.
Water table
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The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water, the water table is the surface where the water pressure head is equal to the atmospheric pressure. It may be visualized as the surface of the materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. The groundwater may be from precipitation or from groundwater flowing into the aquifer, in areas with sufficient precipitation, water infiltrates through pore spaces in the soil, passing through the unsaturated zone. At increasing depths water fills in more of the spaces in the soils. Below the water table, in the zone, layers of permeable rock that yield groundwater are called aquifers. In less permeable soils, such as tight bedrock formations and historic lakebed deposits, the water table should not be confused with the water level in a deeper well. The elevation of the water in this well is dependent upon the pressure in the deeper aquifer and is referred to as the potentiometric surface. The water table may vary due to changes such as precipitation and evapotranspiration. Springs, rivers, lakes and oases occur when the table reaches the surface. Springs commonly form on hillsides, where the Earths slanting surface may intersect with the water table, Groundwater entering rivers and lakes accounts for the base-flow water levels in water bodies. Within an aquifer, the table is rarely horizontal, but reflects the surface relief due to the capillary effect in soils, sediments. In the aquifer, groundwater flows from points of pressure to points of lower pressure. The slope of the table is known as the hydraulic gradient, which depends on the rate at which water is added to and removed from the aquifer. This occurs when there is a layer of rock or sediment or relatively impermeable layer above the main water table/aquifer. If a perched aquifers flow intersects the Earths dry surface, at a wall for example. On low-lying oceanic islands with porous soil, freshwater tends to collect in lenticular pools on top of the denser seawater intruding from the sides of the islands, such an islands freshwater lens, and thus the water table, rises and falls with the tides. In some regions, for example, Great Britain or California, winter precipitation is higher than summer precipitation
31.
Toolibin Lake
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Toolibin Lake is a seasonal fresh to brackish water perched lake or wooded swamp, in south-western Australia. The lake is listed by the Australian Government as an ecological community under the Environment Protection. The lake lies in the catchment of the upper Blackwood River at an altitude of 300 metres above sea level. It is about 300 hectares in area and 2 kilometres in diameter, has a depth of 2 metres. It is one of a chain of wetlands occupying a palaeodrainage valley forming part of the northern Arthur River system, most of it is covered with a woodland of water tolerant tree species, with a large open area on the eastern side. Toolibin is the major lake in the catchment that has not become completely saline. Toolibin Lake lies in a low area of the Wheatbelt with an average annual rainfall of 400 mm, mainly falling in May–August. It usually only water at certain times of year, sometimes drying out completely for several years. Toolibin Lake is recognised as a wetland of importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Flooded gum, acorn banksia and rock sheoak woodland occur on the higher ground, the vegetation includes submerged aquatic plants and sedges around the lake. The vegetation community provides habitat, now rare in the wheatbelt, for woodland birds. It also supports a population of the threatened red-tailed phascogale
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Biodiversity of New Zealand
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Recently a component has been introduced by humans. New Zealands pre-human biodiversity exhibited high levels of endemism, but has experienced episodes of biological turnover. Global extinction approximately 65 Ma ago, resulted in the loss of such as dinosaurs, pterosaurs. The ancient fauna is not well known, but at least one species of terrestrial mammal existed in New Zealand around 19 Ma ago, New Zealand has developed a national Biodiversity Action Plan to address conservation of considerable numbers of threatened flora and fauna within New Zealand. The break-up of the supercontinent of Gondwana left the resulting continents and microcontinents with shared biological affinities, Zealandia began to move away from Antarctic Gondwana 85 Ma ago, the break being complete by 66 Ma ago. It has been moving northwards since then, changing both in relief and climate, about 23 million years ago New Zealand was mostly underwater. One estimate suggests just 18% of the present surface area remained above the water, however geological evidence does not rule out the possibility that it was entirely submerged, or at least restricted to small islands. Today about 93% of the Zealandian continent remains below the sea and it seems likely that some primitive mammals also were part of the original cargo. Whether or not any of these taxa are descendents of survivors of that ancient cargo remains unproven, recent molecular evidence has shown that even the iconic Gondwanan plants the southern beeches arrived in New Zealand after separation of Zealandia from Gondwana. There is a rate of interspecific and intraspecific hybridisation in New Zealand plants. The two sources of New Zealands biodiversity following separation from Gondwana have been speciation and air- or sea-borne immigration, most of these immigrants have arrived from Australia, and have provided the majority of New Zealands birds and bats as well as some plant species. Cyanoramphus parakeets are thought to have originated in New Caledonia and have been successful at reaching many islands in the region, the link between the two island groups also includes affinities between skink and gecko families. The history, climate and geology of New Zealand have created a deal of diversity in New Zealands vegetation types. The main two types of forest have been dominated by podocarps and southern beech, podocarps, an ancient evergreen gymnosperm family of trees, have changed little in the last 190 million years. Forests dominated by podocarps form a canopy with an understory of hardwoods. The forests of beeches, from the genus Nothofagus, comprise a less diverse habitat, with the beeches of four species dominating the canopy. In the north of New Zealand the podocarp forests were dominated by the ancient giant kauri and these trees are amongst the largest in the world, holding the record for the greatest timber volume of any tree. The value of this was not lost on early European settlers, the remaining vegetation types in New Zealand are grassland of grass and tussock, usually associated with the subalpine areas, and the low shrublands between grasslands and forests
33.
Saint Lucia
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Saint Lucia is a sovereign island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and it covers a land area of 617 km2 and reported a population of 165,595 in the 2010 census. The French were the islands first European settlers and they signed a treaty with the native Carib Indians in 1660. England took control of the island from 1663 to 1667, in ensuing years, it was at war with France 14 times, and rule of the island changed frequently. In 1814, the British took definitive control of the island, because it switched so often between British and French control, Saint Lucia was also known as the Helen of the West Indies. Representative government came about in 1840, from 1958 to 1962, the island was a member of the Federation of the West Indies. On 22 February 1979, Saint Lucia became an independent state of the Commonwealth of Nations associated with the United Kingdom, Saint Lucia is a mixed jurisdiction, meaning that it has a legal system based in part on both the civil law and English common law. The Civil Code of St. Lucia of 1867 was based on the Quebec Civil Code of 1866 and it is also a member of La Francophonie. One of the Windward Islands, Saint Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the islands first European settlers, the French pirate François le Clerc frequently visited Saint Lucia in the 1550s. It was not until around 1600 that the first European camp was started by the Dutch at what is now Vieux Fort, in 1605 an English vessel called the Olive Branch was blown off-course on its way to Guyana, and the 67 colonists started a settlement on Saint Lucia. After five weeks only 19 survived due to disease and conflict with the Caribs, the French officially claimed the island in 1635. The English attempted the next European settlement in 1639, and that too was wiped out by Caribs, in 1643 a French expedition sent out from Martinique established a permanent settlement on the island. De Rousselan was appointed the governor, took a Carib wife. In 1664, Thomas Warner claimed Saint Lucia for England and he brought 1,000 men to defend it from the French, but after two years, only 89 survived with the rest dying mostly due to disease. In 1666 the French West India Company resumed control of the island, in 1722, George I of Great Britain granted both Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent to The 2nd Duke of Montagu. He in turn appointed Nathaniel Uring, a merchant sea captain and adventurer, Uring went to the islands with a group of seven ships, and established settlement at Petit Carenage. Unable to get support from British warships, he and the new colonists were quickly run off by the French. During the Seven Years War Britain occupied Saint Lucia for a year, Britain handed the island back to the French at the Treaty of Paris in 1763
34.
Carrying capacity
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In population biology, carrying capacity is defined as the environments maximal load, which is different from the concept of population equilibrium. Its effect on population dynamics may be approximated in a logistic model, Carrying capacity was originally used to determine the number of animals that could graze on a segment of land without destroying it. Later, the idea was expanded to more complex populations, like humans, for the human population, more complex variables such as sanitation and medical care are sometimes considered as part of the necessary establishment. As population density increases, birth rate decreases and death rate typically increases. The difference between the rate and the death rate is the natural increase. The carrying capacity could support a natural increase or could require a negative natural increase. Thus, the capacity is the number of individuals an environment can support without significant negative impacts to the given organism. Below carrying capacity, populations typically increase, while above, they typically decrease, a factor that keeps population size at equilibrium is known as a regulating factor. Population size decreases above carrying capacity due to a range of factors depending on the species concerned, a recent review finds the first use of the term in an 1845 report by the US Secretary of State to the US Senate. Several estimates of the carrying capacity have made with a wide range of population numbers. A2001 UN report said that two-thirds of the fall in the range of 4 billion to 16 billion with unspecified standard errors. More recent estimates are lower, particularly if non-renewable resource depletion. Supporters of the concept argue that the idea of a carrying capacity is just as valid applied to humans as when applied to any other species. Animal population size, living standards, and resource depletion vary, the number of people is not the only factor in the carrying capacity of Earth. Waste and over-consumption, especially by people and nations, is putting more strain on the environment than overpopulation. This has been studied by computer models like World3. Some aspects of a carrying capacity may involve matters such as available supplies of food, water, raw materials. Eradication of, for example, large or critical portions of any system can interrupt essential processes
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Water pollution
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Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies. This form of environmental degradation occurs when pollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds, Water pollution affects the entire biosphere – plants and organisms living in these bodies of water. In almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and population, Water pollution is a major global problem which requires ongoing evaluation and revision of water resource policy at all levels. It has been suggested that pollution is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases. An estimated 580 people in India die of water related illness every day. About 90 percent of the water in the cities of China is polluted, as of 2007, half a billion Chinese had no access to safe drinking water. In addition to the problems of water pollution in developing countries. The head of Chinas national development agency said in 2007 that one quarter the length of Chinas seven main rivers were so poisoned the water harmed the skin. Natural phenomena such as volcanoes, algae blooms, storms, and earthquakes also cause changes in water quality. Although interrelated, surface water and groundwater have often studied and managed as separate resources. Surface water seeps through the soil and becomes groundwater, conversely, groundwater can also feed surface water sources. Sources of surface water pollution are generally grouped into two based on their origin. Point source water pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway from a single, identifiable source, examples of sources in this category include discharges from a sewage treatment plant, a factory, or a city storm drain. The U. S. Clean Water Act defines point source for regulatory enforcement purposes, the CWA definition of point source was amended in 1987 to include municipal storm sewer systems, as well as industrial storm water, such as from construction sites. Nonpoint source pollution refers to contamination that does not originate from a single discrete source. NPS pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of contaminants gathered from a large area, a common example is the leaching out of nitrogen compounds from fertilized agricultural lands. Nutrient runoff in storm water from sheet flow over a field or a forest are also cited as examples of NPS pollution. Contaminated storm water washed off of parking lots, roads and highways, however, because this runoff is typically channeled into storm drain systems and discharged through pipes to local surface waters, it becomes a point source
36.
University of the West Indies
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The aim of the university is to help unlock the potential for economic and cultural growth in the West Indies, thus allowing for improved regional autonomy. The University was originally instituted as an independent external college of the University of London, since the Universitys inception, students and faculty have been recognized in fields ranging from the arts and sciences, to business, politics, and sports. Notable alumni and faculty include three U. W. I, nobel Laureates, sixty-one Rhodes Scholars,18 current or former Caribbean Heads of Government, and an Olympic medalist. The universitys cricket team participated in West Indian domestic cricket. This university consists of three campuses at Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados. There are satellite campuses in Mount Hope, Trinidad and Tobago and Montego Bay, Jamaica, the other contributing countries are served by the Open Campus which has a physical presence and Heads of Sites in each of the 18 countries. The university was founded in 1948, on the recommendation of the Asquith Commission through its sub-committee on the West Indies chaired by Sir James Irvine, the Asquith Commission had been established in 1943 to review the provision of higher education in the British colonies. Initially in a relationship with the University of London, the then University College of the West Indies was seated at Mona, about five miles from Kingston. The university was based at a used by evacuated Gibraltarians during the war. The University College achieved independent university status in 1962, the St Augustine Campus in Trinidad, formerly the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, was established in 1960, followed by the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados in 1963. Before the establishment of the Open Campus, University Centres, headed by a Resident Tutor, were established in each of the other thirteen contributing territories, each of the physical campuses has faculties common to all of the campuses, such as Humanities & Education and Social Sciences. Cave Hill, Barbados and Mona, Jamaica and St. Augustine, Trinidad, both Mona, Jamaica, and St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, have the Faculty of Medicine. In 2008 Cave Hill accepted the first students at their Faculty of Medicine, previously, they only accommodated students in the final two years in the medical program at their School of Medicine which was located at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. St. Augustine also has the Faculty of Engineering, in 1950, HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, the last surviving granddaughter of Queen Victoria, became the first Chancellor of the University College of the West Indies. Sir William Arthur Lewis was the first Vice-Chancellor under the UWI’s independent Charter, a native of St Lucia, he served as the first West Indian Principal of the UCWI from 1958 to 1960 and as Vice-Chancellor from 1960 to 1963. He was succeeded by Sir Philip Sherlock who served as Vice-Chancellor from 1963 to 1969, Sir Roy Marshall, a Barbadian, was the next Vice-Chancellor, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was succeeded by Dr Aston Zachariah Preston, a Jamaican, the fifth Vice-Chancellor was Sir Alister McIntyre, who served from 1988 to 1998, followed by alumnus and Professor Emeritus Rex Nettleford who served from 1998 to 2004. The current Vice-Chancellor is Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, who succeeded Professor E. Nigel Harris in May 2015, current enrollment across the four campuses is 56,000
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Pelagic fish
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The marine pelagic environment is the largest aquatic habitat on Earth, occupying 1,370 million cubic kilometres, and is the habitat for 11% of known fish species. The oceans have a depth of 4000 metres. About 98% of the water volume is below 100 metres. Marine pelagic fish can be divided into pelagic coastal fish and oceanic pelagic fish, coastal fish inhabit the relatively shallow and sunlit waters above the continental shelf, while oceanic fish inhabit the vast and deep waters beyond the continental shelf. Pelagic fish range in size from small forage fish, such as herrings and sardines, to large apex predator oceanic fishes, such as bluefin tuna. They are usually agile swimmers with streamlined bodies, capable of sustained cruising on long-distance migrations, the Indo-Pacific sailfish, an oceanic pelagic fish, can sprint at over 110 kilometres per hour. Some tuna species cruise across the Pacific Ocean, many pelagic fish swim in schools weighing hundreds of tonnes. Others are solitary, like the ocean sunfish weighing over 500 kilograms. Epipelagic fish inhabit the epipelagic zone, the epipelagic zone is the water from the surface of the sea down to 200 metres. It is also referred to as the waters or the sunlit zone. The photic zone is defined as the surface waters down to the point where the sunlight has attenuated to 1% of the surface value and this depth depends on how turbid the water is, but in clear water can extend to 200 metres, coinciding with the epipelagic zone. The photic zone has sufficient light for phytoplankton to photosynthese, the epipelagic zone is vast, and is the home for most pelagic fish. The zone is well lit so visual predators can use their eyesight, is well mixed and oxygenated from wave action. However, it is an almost featureless habitat and this lack of habitat diversity results in a lack of species diversity, so the zone supports less than 2% of the worlds known fish species. Epipelagic fish can be divided into small forage fish and larger predator fish which feed on them. Forage fish school and filter feed on plankton, most epipelagic fish have streamlined bodies capable of sustained cruising on migrations. In general, predatory and forage fish share the same morphological features, predator fish are usually fusiform with large mouths, smooth bodies, and deeply forked tails. Many use vision to predate zooplankton or smaller fish, while others feed on plankton
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Cetacea
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Cetacea are a widely distributed and diverse clade of aquatic mammals that today consists of the whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Most species live in the sea, some in rivers, the name is derived from the Latin cetus whale and Greek ketos huge fish. The extinct ancestors of modern whales are the Archaeoceti, while cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychids, molecular evidence supports them as a relative of Artiodactyls. Cetaceans belong to the order Cetartiodactyla and their closest living relatives are hippopotamuses and other hoofed mammals, having diverged about 50 million years ago. Cetaceans range in size from the 1 m and 50 kg Mauis dolphin to the 29.9 m and 190,000 kg blue whale and they have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers. Dolphins are able to very tight turns while swimming at high speeds. The hindlimbs of cetaceans are internal, and are thought to be vestigial, baleen whales have short hairs on their mouth, unlike the toothed whales. Cetaceans have well-developed senses—their eyesight and hearing are adapted for both air and water, and baleen whales have a system in their vibrissae. They have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin to maintain body heat in cold water, Some species are well adapted for diving to great depths. Although cetaceans are widespread, most species prefer the waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. They spend their lives in the water, having to mate, give birth, molt or escape predators, like killer whales. This has drastically affected their anatomy to be able to do so and they feed largely on fish and marine invertebrates, but a few, like the killer whale, feed on large mammals and birds, such as penguins and seals. Some baleen whales are specialised for feeding on benthic creatures, male cetaceans typically mate with more than one female, although the degree of polygyny varies with the species. Cetaceans are not shown to have pair bonds, male cetacean strategies for reproductive success vary between herding females, defending potential mates from other males, or whale song which attracts mates. Calves are typically born in the fall and winter months, cetaceans produce a number of vocalizations, notably the clicks and whistles of dolphins, the moaning songs of the humpback whale. The meat, blubber and oil of cetaceans have traditionally used by indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Cetaceans have been depicted in cultures worldwide. Dolphins are commonly kept in captivity and are sometimes trained to perform tricks and tasks
39.
Habitat conservation
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It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in terms of any one ideology. For much of history, nature had been seen as a resource, one that could be controlled by the government and used for personal. The idea was that only existed to feed animals and animals only existed to feed humans. The land itself had limited value only extending to the resources it could provide such as minerals, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries social views started to change and scientific conservation principles were first practically applied to the forests of British India. This was the first case of conservation management of forests in the world. Rather than focusing on the economic or material benefits associated with nature, humans began to appreciate the value of nature itself, however, land development from anthropogenic economic growth often causes a decline in the ecological integrity of nearby natural habitat. For instance, this was an issue in the rocky mountains of the USA. However, there is economic value in conserving natural habitats. Financial profit can be made from tourist revenue, particularly in the tropics where species diversity is high, the cost of repairing damaged ecosystems is considered to be much higher than the cost of conserving natural ecosystems. Measuring the worth of conserving different habitat areas is often criticized as being too utilitarian from a point of view. Habitat conservation is important in maintaining biodiversity, a part of global food security. There is evidence to support a trend of accelerating erosion of the resources of agricultural plants. An increase in similarity of agricultural plants and animals means an increased risk of food loss from major epidemics. Wild species of plants have been found to be more resistant to disease. A combination of seed banking and habitat conservation has been proposed to plant diversity for food security purposes. Events leading to habitat loss include climate change, catastrophic events such as volcanic explosions. Natural climate change, events have previously been the cause of many widespread, for example, some of the mass extinction events generally referred to as the Big Five have coincided with large scale such as the Earth entering an ice age, or alternate warming events. Other events in the big five also have their roots in natural causes, such as volcanic explosions and meteor collisions
40.
Mangrove
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A mangrove is a shrub or small tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are salt tolerant trees, also called halophytes, and are adapted to life in coastal conditions. They contain a complex filtration system and complex root system to cope with salt water immersion. They are adapted to the low oxygen conditions of waterlogged mud, the saline conditions tolerated by various mangrove species range from brackish water, through pure seawater, to water concentrated by evaporation to over twice the salinity of ocean seawater. The term mangrove comes to English from Spanish, and is likely to originate from Guarani and it was earlier mangrow, but this word was corrupted via folk etymology influence of the word grove. Mangrove swamps are found in tropical and subtropical tidal areas, areas where mangal occurs include estuaries and marine shorelines. The intertidal existence to which trees are adapted represents the major limitation to the number of species able to thrive in their habitat. High tide brings in water, and when the tide recedes. The return of tide can flush out these soils, bringing back to salinity levels comparable to that of seawater. At low tide, organisms are exposed to increases in temperature and desiccation. About 110 species are considered mangroves, in the sense of being a tree grows in such a saline swamp, though only a few are from the mangrove plant genus. However, a mangrove swamp typically features only a small number of tree species. It is not uncommon for a mangrove forest in the Caribbean to feature three or four tree species. For comparison, the tropical rainforest biome contains thousands of tree species, though the trees themselves are few in species, the ecosystem that these trees create provides a home for a great variety of other organisms. Mangrove plants require a number of adaptations to overcome the problems of anoxia, high salinity. Each species has its own solutions to problems, this may be the primary reason why, on some shorelines. Small environmental variations within a mangal may lead to greatly differing methods for coping with the environment, once established, mangrove roots provide an oyster habitat and slow water flow, thereby enhancing sediment deposition in areas where it is already occurring
41.
Lake Manyara
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Lake Manyara is a shallow lake in the Natron-Manyara-Balangida branch of the East African Rift in Manyara Region in Tanzania. Said by Ernest Hemingway to be the loveliest, in Africa, it is also the home of a diverse set of landscapes and wildlife. The name Manyara comes from the Maasai word emanyara, which is a species of plant that is grown into a hedge around a family homestead. The name is a Masai description not for the lake, while most known for baboons, the lake and its environs is also home to herbivores such as hippos, impalas, elephants, wildebeests, buffalo, warthogs and giraffes. Leading away from the forest to the fringes of Lake Manyara are the flood plains, to the south are visible the acacia woodlands. Leopards, although in abundance, are hard to get a glimpse of, Lake Manyara provides opportunities for ornithologists keen on viewing and observing over 300 migratory birds, including flamingo, long-crested eagle and grey-headed kingfisher. The Rift Valley escarpment forms a landmark and provides a spectacular backdrop to Lake Manyara. To the east of Lake Manyara lies the Kwakuchinja wildlife corridor, the corridor allows wildlife to migrate between dispersal areas and parks that include Tarangire National Park to the southeast, Lake Manyara to the west and the Engaruka Basin to the north. Within the Kwakuchinja corridor are several villages that include Ol Tukai Village, further from the lake and outside of village lands, lies the 44000 acre Manyara Ranch, of which 35000 acres comprise the Manyara Ranch Conservancy. This is a conservation and tourism project supported by the African Wildlife Foundation, the Tanzania Land Conservation Trust. While not a park, the conservancy is frequented by resident and migrating wildlife including elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard, rarely seen in the parks but a common resident on the conservancy is the lesser kudu. Lake Manyara is part of the Lake Manyara Biosphere Reserve, established in 1981 by UNESCO as part of its Man, Lake Manyara at Tanzania Tourist Board
42.
UNESCO
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005
43.
Man and the Biosphere Programme
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As of March 2016,669 biosphere reserves in 120 countries, including 16 transboundary sites, have been included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Biosphere reserves are areas comprising terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems, each reserve promotes solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. Biosphere reserves are nominated by governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Their status is internationally recognized. The buffer zone surrounds or adjoins the core areas, and is used for activities compatible with sound ecological practices that can reinforce scientific research, monitoring, training and education. The transition area is the part of the reserve where the greatest activity is allowed, fostering economic, participating countries establish MAB National Committees that ensure maximum national participation in the international programme, defining and implementing each country’s activities. MAB currently operates through 158 National Committees established among the 195 Members States, the agenda of the MAB Programme is defined by its main governing body, the International Coordinating Council. The MAB Council consists of 34 member states elected by UNESCO’s General Conference, the council elects a chair and five vice-chairpersons from each of UNESCO’s geopolitical regions, one of which functions as a rapporteur. Its staff members draw on expertise in many and varied disciplines, the programme can grant seed funding to assist countries in developing projects and/or to secure appropriate partnership contributions. The latest World Congress of Biosphere Reserves took place in Lima, Peru and this will be the 4th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves and it shall develop a new vision for the decade 2016–2025. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves is supported by different regional, sub-regional or thematic networks and these are as follows, The African Biosphere Reserves Network was created in 1996 and comprises 33 African countries. The ArabMAB Network was officially launched in 1997 and represents 18 Arab countries, the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network was launched in 1994. Today, it consists of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea, euroMAB is the network of biosphere reserves in Europe and North America. Created in 1987, it is the largest MAB Regional Network with 53 countries, the Ibero-American MAB Network was created in 1992. It comprises 22 countries from Latin American and the Caribbean, Spain, the Pacific Man and the Biosphere Network was created in 2006 and comprises the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga. The South and Central Asia MAB Network was created in 2002 and comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, the Southeast Asian Biosphere Reserve Network was created in 1998. Today, it comprises Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, the East Atlantic Biosphere Reserve Network was created in 1994. It comprises the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Madeira and Azores, Mauritania, Morocco, Sao Tomé and Principe, the World Network of Island and Coastal Biosphere Reserves was established in 2012 and comprises 22 countries. Agenda 21 Searchable list of UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves Frequently Asked Questions on Biosphere Reserve A-Z of Areas of Biodiverity Importance, Biosphere Reserves
44.
Groundwater
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Groundwater is the water present beneath Earths surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or a deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table. Groundwater is recharged from, and eventually flows to, the naturally, natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps. Groundwater is also withdrawn for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, Groundwater is hypothesized to provide lubrication that can possibly influence the movement of faults. It is likely that much of Earths subsurface contains some water, Groundwater may not be confined only to Earth. The formation of some of the landforms observed on Mars may have influenced by groundwater. There is also evidence that water may also exist in the subsurface of Jupiters moon Europa. Groundwater is often cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution than surface water, therefore, it is commonly used for public water supplies. For example, groundwater provides the largest source of water storage in the United States. Underground reservoirs contain far more water than the capacity of all surface reservoirs and lakes in the US, many municipal water supplies are derived solely from groundwater. Polluted groundwater is less visible, but more difficult to clean up, than pollution in rivers, Groundwater pollution most often results from improper disposal of wastes on land. An aquifer is a layer of substrate that contains and transmits groundwater. When water can flow directly between the surface and the zone of an aquifer, the aquifer is unconfined. The deeper parts of unconfined aquifers are more saturated since gravity causes water to flow downward. The upper level of this layer of an unconfined aquifer is called the water table or phreatic surface. Below the water table, where in general all pore spaces are saturated with water, is the phreatic zone, substrate with low porosity that permits limited transmission of groundwater is known as an aquitard
45.
Escarpment
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An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as an effect of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations. Usually escarpment is used interchangeably with scarp, but some sources differentiate the two terms, where escarpment refers to the margin between two landforms, while scarp is synonymous with a cliff or steep slope. The surface of the slope is called a scarp face. This is a ridge which has a gentle slope on one side. Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes, either by differential erosion of rocks, or by vertical movement of the Earths crust along a geologic fault. Most commonly, an escarpment is a transition from one series of rocks to another series of a different age. Escarpments are also formed by faults. When a fault displaces the ground surface so that one side is higher than the other and this can occur in dip-slip faults, or when a strike-slip fault brings a piece of high ground adjacent to an area of lower ground. More loosely, the term describes the zone between coastal lowlands and continental plateaus which have a marked, abrupt change in elevation caused by coastal erosion at the base of the plateau. Earth is not the planet where escarpments occur. They are believed to occur on other planets when the crust contracts, on other Solar System bodies such as Mercury, Mars, and the Moon, the Latin term rupes is used for an escarpment. When sedimentary beds are tilted and exposed to the surface, erosion, escarpments erode gradually and over geological time. The mélange tendencies of escarpments results in varying contacts between a multitude of rock types and these varying levels of erosion can lead to strange features forming in the exposed rock. Kinver Edge The Lincoln Edge Stanage Edge Wenlock Edge France La Côte dOr is famous for its wines and has given its name to a département, le Pays de Bray, a clay vale enclosed by chalk escarpments
