Biodiversity

Some really exciting science coming out of South Carolina concerning the really incredible value of "wildlife corridors" in helping to protect plant and animal diversity. One of the greatest dangers of human overpopulation and the attendant global climate change is the extinction of thousands of plant and animal species. The study reported on in today's NYT shows one simple planning tool that can help to aleviate that problem to some extent.

From the original study, we learn that: Habitat fragmentation is one of the largest threats to biodiversity. Landscape corridors, which are hypothesized to reduce the negative consequences of fragmentation, have become common features of ecological management plans worldwide. Despite their popularity, there is little evidence documenting the effectiveness of corridors in preserving biodiversity at large scales. Using a large-scale replicated experiment, we showed that habitat patches connected by corridors retain more native plant species than do isolated patches, that this difference increases over time, and that corridors do not promote invasion by exotic species. Our results support the use of corridors in biodiversity conservation.

The use of landscape corridors needs to become common practice in housing and urban development and our government needs to not only purchase and set aside large corridors from coast to coast but to pay other countires, particularly in South America and Africa, to develop and maintain such corridors. The need for funds for this sort of life-and-death project is just one of the reasons that the waste of so many billions on the Bush junta's war on Iraq sickens me.