2008年12月11日 星期四

相關影片一

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=GYziy78Atz8&feature=channel

這是一個介紹美麗雨林的影片 與熱帶雨林不僅是一座森林而已 她在世上扮演的角色是不可或缺的 一旦雨林消失了 後果是不堪設想的

2008年12月3日 星期三

p70-2-2~p71-1-2

One example is the brilliantly colored golden toad once found only in a small area of lush cloud rain forest in Costa Rica's mountainous region . Despite living in the country 's well-protected Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve,by 1989,the golden toad had apparently become extinct. Warmer air from global climate change caused the area's moisture bearing clouds blowing in from the Caribbean Sea to rise and dry out the habitat for this frog and many other species. The golden toad appears to be one of the first victims of current global warming because warmer air reduced the moisture in its forest habit . At 2007 to the extinction of five other toad and frog species in the jungles of Costa Rica.

SPECIES BECOME EXTINCT INDIVIDUALLY AND IN LARGE GROUPS

All species eventually become extinct, but drastic changes in environmental conditions can eliminate large groups of species. As local environmental conditions change, species disappear at a low rate, called background extinction. Based on the fossil record and analysis of ice cores,biologists estimate that the average annual background extinction rate is one to five species for each million species on the earth.

In contrast, mass extinction is a significant rise in extinction rates above the background level. In such a catastrophic, widespread (often global) event, large groups of existing species (perhaps 25-70%) are wiped out in a geological evidence indicate that the earth's . Fossil and geological evidence indicate that the earth's species have experienced five mass extinctions (20-60 million years apart) during the past 500 million years.  

金蟾蜍是一個例子,其只有被發現在哥斯大黎加山區一個小區域的熱帶雨林。儘管其是生活在哥斯大黎加保護區,但是在1989年,金蟾蜍似乎還是逐漸絕種。全球氣候改變所產生的熱空氣造成加勒比海地區發生嚴重乾旱使蛙類以及其他相關種類族群減少,因為森林棲息地的乾旱,讓金蟾蜍變成了全球暖化的犧牲者。在2007年的研究發現全球暖化也使得哥斯大黎加叢林有五種蟾蜍及蛙類的絕種。  

所有物種最後都會邁向絕種,但是環境如大幅度的變化會使得大量族群滅絕。當環境是逐漸改變,物種消失的速率很慢,稱之為自然滅絕。根據化石記錄和分析冰層中心,科學家評斷每一百萬種裡的1~5種為每年的自然滅絕率。  

相對來講,大滅絕的速率明顯的高於自然滅絕的速率。上次有類似這樣全球性大滅絕是在五百萬年前,那時的物種約有25%~70%滅絕。由化石的地理證據指出,地球在過去五億年經歷了五次大滅絕,每次發生的間距約為兩千~六千萬年。