The challenge was one that seems simple and quite frankly trivial at first but it hold great importance. What we have done is, we have taken a step back and looked at the whole convoluted system of the ecological cycles present in nature and have worked from there.
We are all familiar with the fact that the global temperature is on the rise and it needs to be stopped and controlled. Otherwise we will have to face the point of no return. We, humans, have contaminated/polluted the environment so much with greenhouse gases, plastic and toxic effluents from industries. It is time for us to pay the bill. In the wake of 2020, a new strand of coronavirus was found in china, the SARS-CoV-2 (more commonly known as Covid-19), has caused a worldwide pandemic. While the researches are desperately trying to find a cure, the public has been advised to follow the social distancing protocols and stay in a quarantine. This has led of the closure of popular and public spots. Which leads to their deserted state. So have these wildlife hotspots witnessed a positive change as a result of lower human disturbance or negative changes? Our team looks into this exact question.
Our research began by searching the effect of humans on nature. We'll classify the positive and negative effects of humans on wildlife hotspots first.
CONS of human interference:
We found that humans are responsible for most of the damage leading to global warming, this can be easily seen as humans have cleared millions of square kilometers of forest which have not been replanted. This kind of deforestation has had damaging effects on its own but the increase in hunting and illegal poaching has reduced wildlife as well. Parks were designed to conserve some flora and special biosphere reserves were created to shelter flora and fauna from humans. Even the creation of such reserves can not fully protect them from humans as explained in reference[1]. Sometimes as humans create artificial wildfires to accomplish various goals like making the soil more fertile or to clear a patch of land but that can lead to uncontrollable wildfires which are devastating to local ecosystems shown by reference[4] (for further reading about wildfires check out NASA's data base on wildfires in reference[2] and [3])
PROS of human interference:
On the flip side, we get to see that humans are not always selfish creatures. Humans in the past messed up big time but that doesn't mean we can't try to bring earth back to its former glory. Humans have been technologically advancing and using less environmentally damaging materials. We are planting more trees than we cut and we are helping endangered animals and plants survive. Our efforts to clean the world is increasing day by day (reference[5] provides more clarity if required). The parks we built are not only for protection of flora but also they provide the human mind a peaceful and relaxing location to exercise or meditate.
Now that we have seen how humans have an effect on the hotspots, let's take a look at how, without human interference, those same hotspots are effected.
CONS of no human interference:
Humans have caused many problems but some problems can only be solved with our intervention again. An example of such intervention would be the reintroduction of wolves Yellowstone National park. As explained in reference[6], Yellowstone national park was a site of wildlife conservation but due to the poaching of the grey wolves in 1872-1926, they were eradicated. This caused the elk population to boom which led to overgrazing. This has caused soil erosion, widening of river banks,etc and had to be fixed quickly. This is could not have been solved by nature alone so on January 12, 1995 the first eight wolves arrived from Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada into the park to balance the ecosystem and keep the prey to predator ratio maintained. This solution worked and the environment is flourishing.
PROS of no human interference:
Human intervention in the ecosystem is not pretty. When humans don't go around sticking their leg in ecosystems, nature gets time to breath a sigh of relief. Forests grow more and flourish, natural ecosystems start to become balanced, the chances of wildlife becoming roadkill are less, wildlife diversity is increasing, wildlife has been coming into urban areas and a lot more is happening. Slash and burn agricultural practices are reduced and thus accidental wildfires have also been reduced which is a massive reduction in carbon dioxide emissions as shown by NASA's database (reference[7]). "The historic wildfires in Australia likely unleashed about 900 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere" -nbcnews.com(reference[8]).
Now that we have seen what the Pros and Cons of human interference and non interference are, it's time for us to make changes and see for ourselves what we want to do with our environment.
This solution is a form of documentation and awareness of local diversities. Such documentation will be done by an app (The app is still under development and will be called "local taxonomist"). The app will help users to document the wildlife in their area from the smallest bug to the tallest trees. If a user is not sure of the taxonomy of the flora or fauna then the user can mark it for checking, the taxonomist can then label them. This can be used to increase the database of wildlife in all the regions of the world which will help for further research like migration pattern of birds and other migratory animals.
The app, when opened, will have the user classify themselves into 3 categories:
The user will be tested if they choose "Professional Taxonomist" and if they get a score above 80% then they will be given the badge of "Professional Taxonomist" which will allow them to bypass the answer verification process that is applied to "casual user". "Professional Taxonomist" badge allows them to verify the answer of other users.
The badge "Professional Photo Countributer" is not directly obtainable but will be awarded to users which provide photographs of wildlife consistently and also help in identifying species. This badge will give the user a higher file size (100MB) upload limit along with a higher word limit for the description.
The casual users can upload files (20MB). The answers given are checked on the basis of an upvote system. 100 upvotes and an upvote from a "Professional Taxonomist" are required to fully verify the answer.
If a user has both "Professional Taxonomist" and "Professional Photo Contributor" can provide write ups for a specie and that will be displayed on the front page of the app.
Other features include:
Our team has been documenting the local wildlife since 17 feb, 2017 , and is publically available on instagram at @khe1shoots. We can clearly see the rich diversity of animals and insects present in our region. Our app will provide platform for such photographers and allow them to document wildlife more clearly.
In our homes during this quarantine we have witnessed first hand how the diversity has increased in our back garden. We have got to see animals that we usually won't see like monkeys (see pic[1] and pic[2]).
We saw an substantial increase in the amount in critters and bugs like spiders, caterpillars and we also found that more birds that came to make nests in our trees, the chirping sounds have come back and it feels more alive then it did when we had the trees and bushes trimmed.
When compared to how the trimmed garden (pic[4]) and how the over grown garden (pic[5]) looks. We can see how it has changed a lot. Before we found broken eggs and small newborn birds on the ground because the trees didn't have enough foliage to cover for the nests and we had to sometimes take care of them for a few hours and clean them so that they don't die (pic[3]). Now that we haven't trimmed the trees, we dont see such incidents anymore and we can hear the small birds chirping and asking for food from their mama. Our observation is not only true for us, we have seen similar changes in our local parks and this is in direct correlation with our previous claims in the sections above were we saw the effects of human intervention versus without humans.
We believe that our solution will not only help for research but will also spread awareness and as more and more people use it and learn about the local wildlife.
Our project will not work unless we collectively do our part and help keep our environment not only clean but also lively. The sooner these ideas get incorporated, the sooner will the environment be better.
References:
dropbox link
pictures in dropbox ( pic[] )
Email: oragimirox@gmail.com
![pic[1]](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yuw3bhbu68aeres/AAAQlmtIasNWRBoshxGD7utUa/LRM_EXPORT_20200531_173029.jpg?dl=0){kind=link}
![pic[2]](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yuw3bhbu68aeres/AACA691aG6-GTRaQl3RuJYdba/LRM_EXPORT_20200531_173033.jpg?dl=0){kind=link}
![pic[4]](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yuw3bhbu68aeres/AABllRyGx_V8VRGz5w7T0Anwa/IMG-20200531-WA0030.jpg?dl=0){kind=link}
![pic[5]](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yuw3bhbu68aeres/AAD5v-q8JnT8p7mLq0NxaufWa/20200531_190621.jpg?dl=0){kind=link}
![pic[3]](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yuw3bhbu68aeres/AABxhlcpiEMpkxhsTQfsLd6Ja/LRM_EXPORT_20200531_175914.jpg?dl=0){kind=link}