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Giant Panda, Wolong Nature Reserve
Caption:
A panda at the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province in southwest China. Pandas are rare in the wild, with likely fewer than 1,000 living in the shrinking and fragmented habitats of China. Researchers like Michigan State University's Jack Liu work in conjunction with the Chinese to better understand habitat challenges and the impact of human interaction on areas of biodiversity such as Wolong. [To see related images, search for "Wolong Reserve."]
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Scientists from Michigan State (MSU) and Stanford universities, in a fresh look at world population dynamics, have revealed evidence that increased numbers of households, even where populations are declining, are having a vast impact on the world's biodiversity and environment.
Reduction in household size has led to a rapid rise in household numbers around the world and has posed serious challenges to biodiversity conservation, write Jianguo (Jack) Liu of MSU and Stanford colleagues Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich and Gary W. Luck in the Jan. 12 advance online publication of the journal Nature. Biodiversity is threatened severely not only by increased numbers of households, but also by less efficient per capita consumption of natural resources, the researchers say.
A systems ecologist, Liu received his NSF CAREER award in 1997. He already had acquired significant background on the impact of household dynamics on giant pandas in southwest China's mountainous Wolong Nature Reserve when he approached Stanford's Paul Ehrlich, renowned for his population studies, with an idea: Expand the probe into a worldwide look at the impact of households on global biodiversity and environment.
"The numbers of households increased much faster than the size of the population at Wolong," Liu said. "This has important implications because given the same population size, more households mean a need to consume more resources, and therefore, a greater impact on the environment. What was discovered from the panda reserve helped me to conclude that considering population size and growth alone is not enough, and made me want to find out whether other areas in the world have similar phenomena."
In China's Wolong, a reduced average household size was tied directly to an increase in household numbers and a rise in the amount of fuel wood consumed by the local populace for cooking and heating, which has contributed to deforestation and loss and fragmentation of habitat for giant pandas.
For the complete text of this story, see NSF Press Release PR 03-06.
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Credit: |
Credit Sue Nichols, Michigan State University |
Year of Image: |
2002 |
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Categories:
ANIMALS / BIRDS / REPTILES / FISH
BEHAVIORAL / Neuro, Cognitive
Formats Available:
TIFF Format - 8.45M - 2100 x 1406 pixel image - 300 DPI
Restrictions:
Important: Permission is granted to use this image for personal, educational, or nonprofit/non-commercial purposes only. Any other use of this image is prohibited without permission from the owner.
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