Galapagos Islands Drought

Assignments 1: I developed a hypothesis to predict that the island with the finches with the larger beak will be able to adapt more rapidly to their surrounding and handle the hard seeds of their island verses the island with the finches with the smaller beaks. I left the primary beak size on Darwin

In the article “Climate change in Hawaii and U.S Tropical islands” written by EPA, informs the audience that island communities and ecosystems face uncertainty as a result of the negative effects brought on by one of the most controversial topics debated today. Climate change. Islands, like Hawaii, Guam, and the Caribbean, are most vulnerable to the harsh effects of climate change. The reason for this is because islands are small and the way their infrastructures are set up make communities almost directly affected. One of the most important things that are affected is the weather. In areas where precipitation was generous, rainfall is actually decreasing while drier areas see an increase in rainfall. Less precipitation also means less available water resources because

The Grants observed how the two ground finches preformed while attempting to obtain a seed called a Caltrop. Caltrops naturally have spikes around the seed as a defense against intruders. The Magnirostris did not have a hard time cracking open the Caltrop, with its hard, powerful jaw. However the Fortis would have to put more effort into cracking a single seed. The regular Fortis would try for six times and then give up, moving on to another seed. They will often move onto a different seed without trying. However the Fortis with a beak that is slightly deeper beak would attempt to crack the caltrop, and after a few tries, will succeed.

The poop of the Galapagos Penguin fertilizes the land allowing for the healthy growth of plants which are consumed by other animals that live on the islands. If the Galapagos Penguin became extinct, it could possibly cause the extermination of local plants such as the “Ulva” leading to the extinction of the animals which rely on them. These include the “Parrot Fish”, Sally Lightfoot Crabs, “Five-Spotted Anthia” as well as many more species of land and sea

On average, the temperate deciduous woodland should receive around 750-1500mm of rain per year. If this number is greatly exceeded, then the soil will become saturated and the area will flood, suffocating the plants as they do not have access to sufficient oxygen and carbon dioxide. On the contrary, if there is not enough rainfall then the plants will also die because they do not have access to a plentiful supply of minerals that the water contains such as nitrogen and magnesium.

One of its most important characteristics is its beak. The finch adapted to have a thin, long beak to probe through moss, bark and leaves in search of food (Wildscreen Arkive, N.D.). These finches have the thinnest beak out of the 13 finches; which aids them to find small insects. The Green Warbler finch are mostly found in humid highland forest where their primary food source is found. These adaptations made them more fit to survive on available food. Over the years the finch’s beak has evolved as the bird developed different taste for insects. Another famous adaptation is how they camouflage in their environment. The Green Warbler is restricted to the forest and is greener in body colouration, while the Gray Warbler is found in shrubby, dry thickets and is greyer and duller looking (Certhidea olivacea, 2010). Their coloration helps them camouflage in their own environments, and to hide from predators. Recent studies have found that there are in fact two separate species of the Warbler Finch, the Green Warbler Finch and the Grey Warbler Finch, but are considered as a single species (Wildscreen Arkive, N.D.). The Green Warbler finch mainly occupies larger, inner islands, while the Grey Warbler finch inhabits the smaller, outer islands (Green Warbler Finch,

As parts to of the world still continue to commit acts of deforestation in the rainforest areas, at the same time, the climate on earth also becomes affected by these actions, too. The trees in the rainforest are essential to the water cycle (Szalay). The water cycle is the movement of water on the earth (“Summary of the Water Cycle”). The trees in the water cycle act in the process of evapotranspiration. The word evapotranspiration is evaporation and transpiration together (Briney). Evaporation is when water converts from liquid into a gas or vapor (Briney). Transpiration, however, is when a plant or tree absorbs the water from their roots and is evaporated back into the atmosphere through its leaves, stems, or flowers (Briney). The water evaporated from the trees and plants contribute to the rainfall in the forest (Briney). In the article The Effects of Deforestation in Amazonia, author Harald Sioli states, “With the reduction of rainwater re-evaporating from the original forest, the rate of its recycling will also diminish” (200). If the process of evapotranspiration decreases due to deforestation, the amount of rainfall will also decrease. The rainforests like the Amazon will change in climate and become dry and could possibly cause more forest fires due to the reduction of precipitation in the rainforest (Shukla, Nobre, & Sellers).

In 1977 a drought reduced the number of small seeds available for the birds, forcing them to rely on larger seeds and nuts, which were difficult for birds with smaller beaks to open. The number of birds unable to eat reduced as they died and gave way to harder beaked finches. Within a couple of generations they had evolved larger beaks. In 2003 another drought struck the Galapagos and as there were many large beaked finches, the food source of nuts dwindled, making the ability to eat smaller seeds an asset. The numbers of larger beaked birds dwindled as food became scarce, leaving the smaller birds to survive and reproduce. Darwin’s theory was not well received when first written in On the Origin of Species, though many scientists today use it as a basis for research in evolution.

Short beaked finches have less food source because they can’t open hard seeds. Because of that they die off from starvation. Birds with small beaks couldn’t open the hard seeds so they had no food source and struggled to find food they could eat. For evidence of the finches not being able to eat see figure 3.

According to Diamond (2005), the rapid deforestation in Haiti is caused by lower rainfall compared to the Dominican Republic. The

While floods cause pollution in water that can damage plants and habitat it also washes away nutrients that are important for plant growth (Arctic Climate Change). Too little water such as during a drought can cause plant and animal life to die, altering the food chain and ruining the pattern.

The Galapagos Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean at 960 km to the west of mainland South America. The total area of the ecoregion is 7,882 km2 and encompasses 13 islands larger than 10 km2, 19 larger than 1 km2, 42 islets smaller than 1 km2 and at least 26 emergent rocks. The water currents that surround the islands influence in the climate. From May to December prevails the Garúa (misty) or dry season as a result of the cool Humboldt Current influence. In this season the temperature is cool, there are mist and drizzling rain called garúa. The hot and wet season is in the rest of the year and are the result of the influence of the warm Panama current. Heavier rainfall and warmer temperatures appear in this season. The precipitations in

From causing erosion to threatening the survival of endemic flora and fauna, the effects of this invasion were deeply felt in the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago of nineteen islands situated in the Pacific Ocean, about one-thousand kilometers from the Ecuadorian coast. After they were first introduced in the archipelago, the conditions of the ecosystem unfortunately yielded a massive increase in reproduction rates for goats―up to 10-35% per year. Specifically, due to two factors: the lack of the main predators―such as coyotes, dogs, mountain lions, foxes, eagles, and bobcats―of domestic goats, and the presence of large areas of grasslands and abundant vegetation on the islands.

The Amazon basin is critical point of interest due to the role it plays in influencing the precipitation and carbon cycles at a global and regional scale. (Cox et al., 2008) Scientists have conducted climate models and predicted global warmer and drier conditions on Earth by the end of the 21rst century. (Olivares et al 2015) Warmer and drier conditions will affect ecosystems and the plants and animals within it due to high temperature and water stress. High temperatures in the tropical Atlantic causes rainfall to decrease across the Amazon, making areas susceptible to drought and forest fires. (http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/) Plants in the Amazon have certain tolerance to heat and water availability, if the conditions of their environment

Some reasons why beaks were thought to be so useful for testing Darwin’s theory of natural selection was because it seemed that the more favorable variations in their beaks will be passed down. Another reason was because there were more variations in the beaks depending what the finches ate so he could study a variety of beaks.