Thursday, March 29, 2012

Noise Pollution can Change Forests?

     I recently read an article about how noise pollution affects forests. The article was about the animals/ plants that were affected in areas of high noise pollution. (areas near highways, cities, e.t.c) In noisy areas, mice eat the seeds to the Pinyon tree, which is a very important plant in the Southwest. The Pinyon tree rely on scrub jays (type of bird) to help plant seedlings, because scrub jays hide millions of pinyon seeds in one autumn, so they are many new seedlings each year. In noisy areas though, mice eat the pinyon seeds while scrub jays completely avoid them. This is happening in the southwest, with areas of high noise. The problem about this topic is that about 1,000 species of fungi insects, arthropods, mammals and birds depend on pinyon trees.
     I think that scientists should fin a way to help the pinyon trees. I think they should do this for a couple of reasons. First, 1,000 different species depend on pinyon trees, so they must be very important. Secondly,  I think if this problem doesn't get solved soon, it might mess up the southwest's ecosystem. Thirdly, I really want to know the reason why scrub jays don't eat the seeds in areas of noise and how and what can be done to stop it.



Article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/science/noise-pollution-is-changing-forests.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=noise%20pollution&st=cse

Pictures from: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/PHOTO/LARGE/western_scrub_jay_1.jpg
http://www.itsnature.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/pinyon1.jpg

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