The environment of direct exposure and the environment of indirect human exposure is practically reflected in the number of populations of animals and plants in nature. Human exposure provokes an increase in numbers in certain species, in others - a decrease, third - extinction. The consequences of any direct and indirect impact of an organization can be very different.
Direct exposure medium
The direct destruction of certain species by humans is called direct exposure. This definition includes: deforestation, trampling grass in places for a picnic, the desire to catch and dry a rare and even unique butterfly, the desire to gather a large, beautiful bouquet of flowers from the meadow.
Targeted shooting of animals also falls into this category of human exposure.
Indirect influence
Indirect environmental impacts are the degradation, destruction or any changes in the habitat of animals or plants. Harmful to entire populations of plants and aquatic animals through water pollution.
For example, the population of Black Sea dolphins is not recovering, because with the indirect human impact on environmental pollution, a large amount of harmful substances gets into the sea waters, which increases the mortality rate of the population.
Throughout the Volga in recent years, infection of fish has become much more frequent. In its delta, fish (in particular, sturgeons) found parasites that were previously not characteristic of them. The analysis made by scientists confirmed that infection is the result of an indirect human impact on environmental pollution.
The immune system in fish was suppressed for a long time due to technical waste that was discharged into the Volga.
Habitat destruction
A fairly common reason for the decline in the number and extinction of populations is the destruction of their habitat, the separation of large populations into several small ones that are isolated from each other.
Indirect environmental impacts may result from deforestation, road construction, and land development for agriculture. For example, the population of Ussuri tigers declined sharply due to the development by people of the territory in the habitat of tigers and a decrease in the base of natural food.
Another example of indirect environmental impact is the extinction of bison in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. In this case, there was a violation of the habitat of a population of a certain species when a population of a different species was populated there.
Bison, which for a long time were inhabitants of dense forests, adhered to old habitats, in which there were many thickets of succulent grass. The tree bark served as their food, along with the leaves of the trees that the bison obtained by tilting the branches.
At the end of the 19th century, people began to populate deer into the forest, and after that the fast extinction of bison became noticeable. The thing is that deer ate all the young foliage, leaving the bison without food. The streams began to dry out, because they were left without the coolness that the shadow of the foliage provided.
The latter also affected the bison, who only drink clean water, but were left without it. So deer, which do not pose any danger to the bison, became the cause of their death. More precisely, the cause was a human error.
Direct and indirect exposure methods
A person is able to influence the environment by a variety of methods:
- Anthropogenic. A consequence of human activity, directly related to the realization of the interests of the economy, culture, military, reconstruction and others. Introduces biological, chemical and physical changes into the environment.
- Destructive. The actions of people who lead to the loss by the natural environment of their qualities that are useful to the person himself. For example, the exploitation of rainforests under plantations or pastures. As a result, a change in the biogeochemical cycle takes place, and the soil loses its fertility in a couple of years.
- Stabilizing. The activity is aimed at slowing down the destruction of the environment as a result of both natural processes and human activities. For example, measures to protect the soil, which are aimed at reducing its erosion.
- Constructive. Human exposure, which is aimed at restoring the environment that has suffered damage from natural processes or environmental factors of direct and indirect effects. For example, restoration of landscapes, restoration of rare populations of plants and animals.
Impacts are divided into intentional and unintentional. The first is when a person expects certain results from his actions, and the second - when a person does not even predict any consequences.
Causes of environmental degradation
The use of nature’s resources, which is expanding every year, is growing, population growth and the progress of science and technology inevitably lead to depletion of resources and increased environmental pollution by consumer waste.
Thus, two causes of environmental degradation can be distinguished:
- Decrease in natural resources.
- Environmental pollution.
Deforestation of small tributaries, a decrease in groundwater, soil moisture, and a decrease in the water level in a river and lake can result in deforestation in the river basin. As a result of this and some other environmental factors of direct and indirect impact, there is a lack of water in the urban environment, the fish begins to die gradually. In connection with the intensification of eutrophication (filling with nutrients) of water bodies, algae and pathogenic aquatic organisms begin to actively develop.
The construction of a pumping system or dam to accumulate water in the river and restore the regime of moistening the fields does not solve the problem of maintaining a normal groundwater level and ending drought in the lake. Moreover, the water flow for evaporation in the irrigation systems and from the surface of the reservoir only exacerbates the problem of a lack of river flow into the lake. Delayed solid runoff and a dam that supports water cause flooding.
It should be noted that the higher the level of use of natural resources, the greater the level of environmental pollution. It can be concluded that solving the problem of the rational use of natural resources will save resources from depletion and reduce environmental pollution.
How strong is the effect?
The strength of the environmental consequences of environmental factors of direct and indirect human exposure depends on certain variables: population, lifestyle and environmental awareness.
A high level of population and a luxurious lifestyle deplete the resources of nature and pollute the environment. The more environmental awareness the population has, the less pronounced the consequences.
A simple lifestyle close to nature does not negatively impact nature. An example of this is the banal deforestation for logging and for planting crops.
In order for humanity to progress further, the most important conditions will be a change in lifestyle and an increase in environmental awareness.
Population recovery
People are now faced with the question of taking measures to protect and restore rare populations of endangered species of animals and plants. This type of nature conservation activity is called population-specific.
To stop the extinction of whole species of plants and animals, increase their number in nature, the following measures are practiced in the world:
- Explore the flora and fauna of a state (region or region);
- identify exceptional and endangered species;
- create red books;
- make gene banks;
- carry out propaganda activities regarding the protection of flora and fauna;
- Develop and comply with the criteria of globally recognized measures of human behavior in nature;
- carry out all kinds of environmental events.
International Red Book
There are more than 30 international organizations in the world that coordinate the study and practice of protecting the environment from direct impact and the environment of indirect impact, as well as the optimal use of natural resources. The world-famous organization is UNESCO (United Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
At the initiative of UNESCO, IUCN was created - an international association for the protection of nature and its resources with headquarters in Switzerland in Glan. Just IUCN organized the creation of the first international Red Book in 1965.
Initially, the Red Book included 5 volumes with a list of species of animals that are facing extinction. It was published on red sheets, which served as a kind of warning. Following this, the Red Books began to be published in several states in a slightly different form: in them the names of endangered species of animals were listed on white pages. Only the covers were left red.
In the 1980s, the Red Book of the RSFSR: Animals, which included 247 species, and the Red Book of the RSFSR: Plants, with 533 species of endangered plants, were already published. Now there is the formation of the Red Books of the republics and regions of the Russian Federation. In the beginning of the 2000s, the Red Book dedicated to the Yaroslavl region was published.
Successful results
In Russia, the result of protective activities against the environment of direct impact and the environment of indirect impact is the restoration of many beaver populations, as well as the restoration of the stability of walrus populations in the Far East, sea otters from the north and gray whales.
Thanks to the efforts of the workers of the Astrakhan state reserve, the area of the pink or nut-bearing lotus was increased approximately 8 or even 10 times.
Finnish conservation from direct impact and indirect impact in forests can also be called successful. In recent years, the number of wolverines and bears has increased, and lynxes have become about 8 times more. With the support of the governments of Bangladesh, Nepal and India, the Indian tiger population almost tripled.
It is already known that various populations in the community actively interact with each other, resulting in biotic connections. Work to protect populations of certain species is often ineffective. For example, in order to maintain the population of Ussuri tigers, it is necessary to normalize its nutrition, to carry out work to protect not only individual species, but entire communities.
Breeding in reserves
Plants are usually bred artificially in botanical gardens, and animals in reserves or zoos. Species that are preserved in similar ways are needed as a reserve for their restoration in natural habitats.
For example, in a reserve on the banks of the Rybinsk or Darvinsk reservoirs, they are engaged in the cultivation of pine forest in open-air cages. That is, grouse, black grouse, partridge, etc. Then there is the resettlement of game to their natural habitat. A rare muskrat is bred in the Khopersky Reserve.
There are special centers where rare species are practiced. In nurseries, young individuals of endangered or rare species of animals and plants are propagated and grown, and after they are settled in natural habitats.
For example, the Oka nursery, in which cranes are bred, as well as the Prioksko-Terrasny bison nursery, became famous. Thanks to the hard work of the workers of the last nursery, which was established in 1959 as one of the first in Russia, the restoration of the bison population in the Caucasus and in the forests of Europe (also in Belovezhskaya Pushcha) became real.
Currently, bison are able to survive in the wild only in reserve mode.
There are many examples of fish factories that breed different types of fish, which are also released into lakes and rivers. The sterlet, stellate sturgeon and sturgeon populations can be maintained in this way.
In the countries of France, Austria, Sweden and the Federal Republic of Germany, lynx, which was bred in captivity, was moved to the forests.
Gene banks
Gene banks are storages in which, under special conditions, embryos, germ cells, animal larvae, spores and seeds of plants are kept.
In Russia, the very first gene bank can be considered the collection of seeds of cultivated plants, which was created by N. I. Vavilov in the 20-40s of the last century. The collection is an absolute treasure that has no price.
She was kept in Leningrad. Institute employees who survived the blockade preserved it during World War II. They did not touch a grain from the collection even during the famine.
Now the national gene bank of plants is located in the Kuban station of the former All-Union Institute of Plant Production named after N.I. Vavilova. Over 350,000 plant seed samples are stored in bunkers underground. A huge number of ancient varieties that have long disappeared, and wild species related to cultivated plants are waiting in the wings. In addition, all the modern and the best of what the breeders have created lately has been kept here.
The collection is replenished on an ongoing basis.
Low Temperature Cell Preservation
In order to restore the endangered species or preserve it, the method of preserving cells at low temperature is now used. Many gene banks around the world use this method. In Russia, for example, there are banks of cattle sperm, fish species for fishing, as well as rare domesticated breeds of birds.
In Pushchino, a specialized research center was created at the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation, which constantly develops ways to preserve and restore populations of endangered or rare animal species.
But in order to restore the whole species, it is necessary to create a sufficiently large population in which individuals will be adapted to reproduce, to colonize and adapt to their habitat independently.
It is necessary to create a population structure characteristic of a certain type of population. It is clear that this is an extremely complex, lengthy and financially expensive work. It is much easier to weaken the external factors of direct and indirect effects, while maintaining the natural populations of various species.