9 Habitats Around The World That Need Saving (PHOTOS)

Sometimes it's development. Sometimes it's ignorance about how nature works. Sometimes it's just plain greed. And of course, throwing climate change in the mix makes everything worse.

We're talking about disappearing habitats around the world. We risk losing more than just natural beauty. These complex ecosystems are sources of income and job, sources of medicine, and homes for animals as well as humans.

Here are nine habitats where we need to check ourselves before it's too late. It's a short list, so feel free to add other natural places that are near and dear to your hearts in the comments.

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Mangroves

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Mangroves, those forests that straddle the land and the salty sea, are found all over the world in tropical zones. Here in the US, you can find them in Florida and a little bit in coastal Louisiana and Texas. Mangroves aren’t a species, but a habitat. Individual species include palm, hibiscus, holly, plumbago, acanthus, legumes, and myrtle. Some are small shrubs and some are trees, stretching up to 200 feet into the sky. Mangroves are some of the most complex ecosystems on earth, home to birds, shellfish, snakes, young fish, crocodiles, crabs, deer, kangaroos, honeybees, bats, and even the Bengal tiger, which stalks the Bangladeshi mangrove forests as night. They are great at capturing carbon and sequestering it in the sediment below. Finally, mangroves played a crucial role in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, protected low-lying coastal lands from the worst damage. Unfortunately, mangroves also thrive in valuable real estate. They’ve been razed for hotels, golf courses, resorts, housing developments, and shrimp farming. When they’re not being brazenly torn up, they are being killed by oil spills, chemical pollution, sediment overload, and disruption of the salinity balance in their waters. Experts estimate a loss of 35% of the world’s mangroves from 1980 to 2000. The biggest threat, though, is yet to come. In the rising waters from climate change, mangroves will be the first to go. Pictured is the world’s largest mangrove forest in Sundarbans, India, where Bengal Tigers live.

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Mangroves, those forests that straddle the land and the salty sea, are found all over the world in tropical zones. Here in the US, you can find them in Florida and a little bit in coastal Louisiana and Texas.

Mangroves aren’t a species, but a habitat. Individual species include palm, hibiscus, holly, plumbago, acanthus, legumes, and myrtle. Some are small shrubs and some are trees, stretching up to 200 feet into the sky.

Mangroves are some of the most complex ecosystems on earth, home to birds, shellfish, snakes, young fish, crocodiles, crabs, deer, kangaroos, honeybees, bats, and even the Bengal tiger, which stalks the Bangladeshi mangrove forests as night.

They are great at capturing carbon and sequestering it in the sediment below. Finally, mangroves played a crucial role in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, protected low-lying coastal lands from the worst damage.

Unfortunately, mangroves also thrive in valuable real estate. They’ve been razed for hotels, golf courses, resorts, housing developments, and shrimp farming. When they’re not being brazenly torn up, they are being killed by oil spills, chemical pollution, sediment overload, and disruption of the salinity balance in their waters. Experts estimate a loss of 35% of the world’s mangroves from 1980 to 2000.

The biggest threat, though, is yet to come. In the rising waters from climate change, mangroves will be the first to go.

Pictured is the world’s largest mangrove forest in Sundarbans, India, where Bengal Tigers live.

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Comments

[Steven Earl Salmony]

09:09 AM on 10/21/2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czvxyDgqxmM

Perhaps the time is approaching when someone will say so others can hear it,

Don’t just do something, stand there and speak out.

Then, perhaps in the offing, necessary change toward sustainability…

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
Chapel Hill, NC
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/
http://www.panearth.org/

[Gilliam G]

02:33 PM on 10/12/2010

Ever since the beginning of time
Mother Nature has a rhythm and rhyme
Then Man came along
With his industrial crimes

Human race can only survive
If we stand by Mother Nature's side
She's suffered our abuse
Up to her to decide
Can we win back trust or will she leave us behind?

If war and killing wasn't enough
Man pollutes the air with poisonous stuff
Burns rainforests and fills the ocean with oil

To hear full song (free download also):

http://gilsmusic.bandcamp.com/track/since-the-beginning-of-time

[dbmetzger]

07:50 AM on 10/05/2010

The San Diego Zoo has a new exhibit that shows how climate change is affecting animals around the world. Animal expert Rick Schwartz showed off some of the endangered species. http://www.newslook.com/videos/185156-real-victims-of-climate-change?autoplay=true

New Ocean Species Revealed
The biggest survey of the world's marine life ever undertaken has revealed there are many more creatures deep under the ocean than scientists had ever imagined. Six thousand more species have been found, but only a quarter have been officially identified. http://www.newslook.com/videos/255298-new-ocean-species-revealed?autoplay=true

[netaholic13]

11:02 AM on 09/22/2010

coral reefs in eastern Indonesia, rain forest in borneo and papua, wetlands in sumatra and borneo, glaciers in papua, mangrove and tall grass prairie spread all over the country. we must definitely safe Indonesia!

[EcoHustler]

05:04 AM on 09/21/2010

GO ECO... work less!

Are you tired of the 9-5 grind and stressful commuting? Are you fed up of not having enough time for friends, family and interesting pursuits? How would you like a 3 day weekend? Well the good news is that a less stressful, more pleasurable and more fulfilling lifestyle could be just around the corner.

The ‘green movement’ is evolving into a popular mass-movement that is seizing the opportunity presented by the multiple crises of a changing world to co-create the future that we want. This rapidly expanding new agenda presents the opportunity to reinvent how we spend our most precious commodity... our time.

http://ecohustler.co.uk/2010/09/16/go-eco-work-less-3/

[Blago 2012]

11:31 PM on 09/20/2010

" this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"

Sounds like another Obama broken promise

[Amalek]

10:08 PM on 09/20/2010

The people in the Maldives are Muslims.  Now the right's agenda on climate change becomes more clear.  They want to drown them.

[techcafe]

09:08 PM on 09/20/2010

perhaps there's more to life than 'economic growth', relentless industrialization and a mindless consumer culture?

maybe we ought to slooow-down...before we've killed off all the flora & fauna... and each other?

[Anne Mccormick]

11:19 PM on 09/20/2010

slow down, interesting. i suppose you would suggest we return to the days of the horse and buggie, sailing ships that took months to get from new england to europe, trains powered by coal, etc. etc. sorry won't work. what people want are faster trains, faster ships, and faster planes. going back to the dark ages is not an option.

[techcafe]

01:45 AM on 09/21/2010

what an asinine remark.

[indy1970]

03:26 AM on 09/21/2010

So what is your solution, Anne? Destroy everything as long as people are okay? Please.

[genrel1248]

06:38 PM on 09/20/2010

I've got some "tall grass" growin' in my basement. I'm just trying to save some habitat.

[dack6]

06:23 PM on 09/20/2010

Could we contribute by planting some of that "tall grass prairie?" Where can we get it?

[kansaswoman]

12:05 AM on 09/21/2010

Eastern Kansas is a good start. It is a habitat that is both expansive and subtle and you can burn it. In fact, that habitat needs regular burning to be maintained. A controlled burn is an amazing thing but do not attempt to do it unless you are trained. University of Kansas has a prairie project and will always accept donations of any amount for the prairie. Check out Konza Prairie near Manhattan KS if you ever make it to KS.

[LeeCalif]

05:37 PM on 09/20/2010

How much Mangrove habitat is BP now killing ?

BP is STILL using dispersant to try to hide any evidence of crude oil .

[Gasparilla]

05:20 PM on 09/20/2010

No, mangroves are a specific species. The tree/bush pictured is a mangrove. They can grow in salt and brackish water of a couple feet or so. They are the main component of mangrove "forests". But they are a species in themselves. Everglades National Park is lined with mangroves on Florida Bay.

[Cactusman]

03:31 AM on 09/27/2010

There are actually around 20 different species of mangrove, in about 6 to 8 different families of plants. The highest diversity occurs in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly Indonesia, New Guinea, and northern Australia. The US has three species of mangrove, all in different unrelated families. So mangroves are an individual tree, any one of about 20 species, and an entire habitat/ecosystem all at the same time. They are indeed very important for multiple reasons, as are all other habitats listed in this slideshow and the many that weren't.

[Trudy Trejo]

04:51 PM on 09/20/2010

Still trying to sell the idea of "rising waters" from "global climate change". Where is this rising water?? And if it's happening so slowly then don't you think the mangroves would adapt?

[ArtsyJane]

04:55 PM on 09/20/2010

What are you talking about?

[Sandra Larsen]

08:07 PM on 09/20/2010

Ahem...brain damage, don't bother.

[RodgzK]

05:46 PM on 09/20/2010

"Where is this rising water??" Well, one place is in the south Pacific where evacuation of the islands of Kiribati and Tuvalu to New Zealand and Australia because of the rising sea level began in 2008. Soon to join the list of evacuated islands, if it hasn't already, are the Carteret Islands in the central Pacific.

[Trudy Trejo]

05:50 PM on 09/20/2010

So man made global warming results in rising ocean waters for only a few localized areas around the globe. Funny, I would have expected it to have a more GLOBAL impact on rising sea levels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carteret_Islands#Cause_of_Carteret_Inundation

[matt819]

04:35 PM on 09/20/2010

Notwithstanding the objective fact of the decline of these resources and their continuing degradation, if you're anywhere right of center, they're not at risk. Despite the fact that numerous intelligence organizations are factoring climate change into political and military assessments for the next generation, the right continues to assert that it's not a problem. Astounding.

[Trudy Trejo]

05:54 PM on 09/20/2010

Nobody I'm aware of says environmental issues are not a problem at all. It is a tiny bit more nuanced than that. So you criticize "the right" for being simplistic when it is actually you that is being simplistic.

The "right" as you so vaguely refer to is more concerned with accurately assessing the state of the environment and accurately assessing which environmental issues are of most concern. It has become increasingly clear that the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis has been promoted with falsified and unreliable data for political purposes.

If we really want to help the environment we need to accurately assess what are the biggest dangers to the environment. Not simply invent a bogeyman as an excuse to increase taxes and introduce a raft of new regulations.

[cache]

08:22 PM on 09/20/2010

Nuanced? Nonsense. The right is not the least bit concerned with accurately assessing the state of the environment. We're not talking about taxes and regulation. Thats politics. We're talking about science. You know, anthropogenic climate change, species extinction, loss of habitat, etc, etc. I'm outdoors every chance I get. I see my species effect on the natural world. I see the changes and I see the fools who bury their heads in the sand.

[pathofhumanity]

03:05 PM on 09/20/2010

How about if we stop rewarding people for having large families by giving them reality shows and letting them make lots of money off of exploiting their children.

[ArtsyJane]

04:58 PM on 09/20/2010

I would be happy to do that, however, the problem with overpopulation is not ours in the West and the industrial world, rather it is very specific to the third world. Africa and parts of Asia are those who are concerned. Europe and the US barely meet the renewal of their population numbers, in fact most of Europe has a demographic decline. So even if we all stopped having children in America, that would change nothing to the problem at hand.

[Dnietz]

08:00 PM on 09/20/2010

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Population_density_with_key.png