News:
I read the article “Lemur
Extinctions Are Harmful to Madagascar’s Plant Life, too” and I learned that
there are plants are trees that rely on a specific species of lemurs to spread
their seeds for the diversity of the forest. Lemurs are extremely important to
the ecosystem of Madagascar, this article stressing the important of fruit
eating lemurs.
Being the unique and amazing
animals lemurs are, they eat plants and fruits are poop out the seeds all over
the forest. Here, lemurs are taking over the role that birds usually hold in
most environments.
According to this article, at least
17 types of lemurs have become extinct. The reasons are due to a loss of
habitat from the expansion of agriculture areas for palm oil and other
products. A term that I had never heard that is used to describe plant that do
not have seed dispenser is “orphaned” which is exactly what is happening to
some plant species in Madagascar. The plant called Canarium is what is having
the largest issue with this, and now has to bet on strong winds and other
animals being its main dispersers.
Researcher say that this issue
could grow to other species and could happen in other country, becoming a much
larger problem. It is amazing to me how important each species is in an
ecosystem, so matter how small or large.
- -
Joanna Langner
No comments:
Post a Comment