The recent climate changes have caused warmer weather, and problems for the moose. These problems all come from the winter tick, which has more opportunities to get to the moose in the fall and spring now. The ticks can cause anemia, appetite loss, hair loss, liver fluke, and brain worm. The loss is not little; it is enormous. Minnesota reported losing over 90% of their moose population, going from about 4000 moose to only around 100. Scientists say they can track the number but have no solutions.
The environmental change and drop in moose population affects many other organisms, as well as the moose. In class, we learned that even the loss of one organism can throw the entire food web off balance. The organisms that the moose eats will not be gotten rid of as rapidly, and their populations will grow to be much larger than the regular size. This is bad for the enviorment, because they will start to fight other species for necessary resources, also known as Interspecific Competition. The decrease in moose is also a bad situation for the predators of the moose. These animals will not have enough food, and will have to look for other food sources. If no other sources are available, these organisms may also be looking at a sharp drop in their population, when they start to die from starvation. When it comes to weather changes in the enviorment, some organisms thrive even more, but unfortunately for some, like the moose, they are in a tough situation, where little can be done to help them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/opinion/the-disappearing-moose.html?_r=0
Your title immeditly caught my attetion. Your titlte fit right into what your article was about. I was surpised to hear that moose are in danger and you did a great job explaining how moose are endagered. I also liked how you added a connection to biology class by talking about the food web and how the food web would be affected wihtout the moose. Overall your article was good, but it could have used a little more information.
ReplyDeleteI think that you did a great job. Your title connected to your article directly and in a creative way.I think that your writing is very descriptive and I feel like I already know a lot about this issue just from reading about it. It's really shocking how much the moose poplulation dropped in Minnesota! While I was reading the article I was also connecting the issue to what we learned in class about the interdependance of organisms and our vernal pool projects. Is this something scientists should be concerned about and trying to help or fix? Good job Molly, I think your blog post was informative and well written.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! Your title is very cute and intriguing. Your tie into biology was almost seamless. It's scary to think of the impact that the loss of the moose will have on other organisms. I'm surprised that this has not been more eminent in the news and other places. With such a great population loss, I would expect the publicity of it to be huge. But, unfortunately, not many people know about the population loss. Scientists should be working hard to find a cure to these ticks or else that entire ecosystem is in trouble. Great job with this post!
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