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Freshwater fish diversity is harmed as much by selective logging in rainforests as they are by complete deforestation, according to a new study.
Researchers had expected the level of damage would rise depending on the amount of logging and were surprised to discover the impact of removing relatively few trees.
[...] Lead author Clare Wilkinson, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: "That such a small change can impact fish biodiversity is shocking and worrying. We expected to see a gradient from least affected in the selectively logged areas, to heavily impacted for the streams in oil palm plantations. Instead, we saw almost the same level of fish biodiversity loss in all altered environments."
[...] Researchers believe the reasons for these dramatic changes are likely to be down to a range of factors that affect stream habitats when trees are lost. Trees provide shade, creating cooler patches of stream that many fish need to spawn. Older, taller trees provide more of this shade, but they are the ones usually removed in selective logging. Leaf litter from these trees also helps to keep the streams cool and to concentrate food sources.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by leftover on Saturday April 21 2018, @08:00PM
I grew up on (and often in) a small river. When I was a kid the water ran clear almost all the time and there was an actively diverse ecosystem with multiple shellfish, crustaceans, amphibians, and a couple dozen fish species. Then housing development started upstream. The water started being at least cloudy all the time. All the species that required clear water and rocky bottom vanished quickly. Shortly after, everything that ate them left. In relatively few years the entire structure collapsed. Now the only fish in the river are transient carp. It seems that only farmers practice soil conservation, draining surface water away from waterways to percolate through the soil into buried tile. When that water eventually goes into the same river further downstream, it is completely clear. Every video of logging operations seems to show hillside mud generators. I could easily believe that even surveying a region prior to logging could cause significant damage to any ecosystem downhill and downstream if the people continue to be mindless about it.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.