Description
Every thing is described in the files uploaded down on the file. - The 'project' is a short review paper (2-3 pages) and is due Nov 11. For more information : Biology Project
Unformatted Attachment Preview
Purchase answer to see full attachment
Explanation & Answer
Kindly see attached file with the requested project paper. I have run it through Plagscan which generally provides similar results to Turnitin. However, let me know if you have any issues with it when you scan it with Turnitin
OUTLINE:
The doc file contains the requested 3-page project paper related to the effects that pollution or
climate change have on biodiversity. This paper is based on a post published at the
scientificamerican.com website, which is between the ones requested by the student and is
supplemented by two additional references as requested.
Running head: A WORLD WITHOUT FROGS
1
A WORLD WITHOUT FROGS
(NAME)
(PROFESSOR’S NAME)
(COURSE)
(DATE)
A WORLD WITHOUT FROGS
2
A world without frogs:
The main purpose of the article “World without frogs: Combined threats may croak
amphibians” (Biello, 2008) is to explain the different causes that might have originated the
observed dramatic decrease in the population of frogs. In this sense, several frogs are currently
facing the risk of becoming extinct as their population continues to drop due to the combined
action of pesticides, climate change and infections.
Special attention should be paid to pesticides like atrazine that, even if they had been
considered to be nearly harmless for the environment, biologists are now seeing that they might
have a critical effect on frog’s population. Hence, triazinic herbicides had been extensively used
in the past since no significant environmental effect had been clearly identifird. Indeed, due to
their high polarity and mobility in the environment, these herbicides had distributed over large
areas, meaning that the concentration was significantly decreased.
However, and in light of the new experimental results, we should reconsider the use of
these type of compounds and search for new more environmental friendly herbicides, assuming
that any does exist. Triazine herbicides play a double-edged sword on amphibians such as frogs,
toads or salamanders. Hence, recent findings (Biello, 2008) have demonstrated that atrazine
suppresses the immune system on amphibians and boosts the population of snails that act as host
for a parasitic larva able of infecting the already weakened and immunosuppressed leopard frog.
But exposure to herbicides is not the only environmental risk that amphibians like frogs
must face. Hence, global warming plays a critical role as the ponds where these frogs live are
being desiccated due to the increased evaporation rate as a result of the higher average
temperature. Hence, and since amphibians rely on the aquatic environment for both feeding an
A WORLD WITHOUT FROGS
3
reproduction, their population is dramatically decreased as the habitat they live in gets more and
more arid as time passes by.
Furthermore, a fungal infection whose incidence is believed to be due to the increased
global temperature as a consequence of climate change has decimated the population of frogs
and other amphibians worldwide in just a decade, to the point that most of them have been listed
as endangered species in the recent years. The infection caused by Chytrid fungus has spre...