How Wolves Change Rivers

What Hacker News said

Recommends zackmorris · 2015-07 · on “Why is the Northwest so warm?”

In hindsight this looks like the idle ramblings of someone out of touch with reality. But in truth it's closer to the opposite - I've spent too much time analyzing the repercussions of everything because that's what programmers do. If someone ever finds this, this video sums up a lot of what I was trying to say: [this video] Now multiply that by every ecosystem that has been tampered with by humans across the face of the planet and decide for yourself if our climate has been affected.

Recommends nkoren · 2016-11 · on “Let's Colonize Titan”

You need to learn about trophic cascades. Here's a quick intro: [this video] This played out in the Pleistocene extinctions to a very significant degree, having tremendous effect on ecosystems everywhere. Here's an entire conference worth of the subject: [LINK]

Recommends GFischer · 2017-05 · on “Last major primeval forest in Europe on 'brink of collapse'”

I saw a pretty cool documentary on how reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone changed the ecosystem for the better. Not the one I saw but very similar: [this video] More serious article: [LINK]

Recommends heimatau · 2020-02 · on “Colorado voters are set to decide if wolves should be reintroduced to the state”

This could be good for Colorado. I had to watch this video [1] for my biology class. It's interesting how the wolves changed the entire ecosystem by just changing the behavior of deer (they avoided grazing near the river because that's where the wolves wanted to be). The ripple effects are fairly significant. 1 - [this video]

Cites schiffern · 2014-09 · on “Can the World Really Set Aside Half of the Planet for Wildlife?”

>In what way? Because we are all completely dependent on ecosystem services provided by those species, such as erosion control (without which your country erodes away to desert), rainwater buffering (without which you experience catastrophic flooding), and transpiration (without which you lose almost all inland rainfall[1]). Loss of individual species is just the symptom. The real problem—and what this article discusses—is wholesale destruction of wilderness. Don't imagine that just a handful of species can provide these services either. Since ecosystems are complex adaptive systems, a particular species' role is almost always subtle and interconnected. See: the services provided by wolves i

Cites dredmorbius · 2015-09 · on “Elephants Shot with Poison Arrows Travel to Humans for Help”

Loss of species diversity, 50 million years of evolution, and potentially profound impacts on ecosystems. Look for the story in the past year or so about dramatic impacts of reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone. How Wolves Change Rivers: [this video] [LINK] Destroy a species and it's gone forever. Moreover, if you're looking to eliminate suffering, it's humans and their rampant overconsumption which are driving that. Not the elephant.

Cites briantakita · 2016-03 · on “Could Harvesting Fog Help Solve the World’s Water Crisis?”

This solution would have negative disruptive impacts. Harvesting fog would effect dependent microclimates & ecosystems, by taking water out of the air. This also has an affect of causing a greater concentration of the water to be held by big institutions (corporations & government). This creates a social power imbalance, concentrates the economy to global institutions, & reduces autonomy of the people who live on the land. Plundering & profiteering off the commons & reducing autonomy in the guise of humanitarian efforts. --- re: better solutions, after all harvesting fog is a "solution". Regenerate the ecosystems. Encourage small scale regenerative agriculture, that utilizes native plants in

Cites astrodust · 2016-09 · on “Can Anyone Stop the Man Who Will Try Just About Anything to Stop Climate Change?”

Rabbits have completely transformed the Australian continent, one so dramatic you can see the effects from space. ( [LINK] ) Cane toads have a smaller but measurable effect since they utterly ruin entire ecosystems. If you think it's impossible for a single organism to have an effect on climate you're mistaken. Wolves, once reintroduced to Yellowstone, have changed the entire park, altering water flow on a massive scale: [this video]