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North American Endangerment Essay

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North American Endangerment Essay
In this essay, I will be discussing the leading causes of the recent endangerment of both the North American bats and coral reefs. There are ultimate and proximate causes for each of these species continued extinction. In correlation, the extinctions of North American bats and coral reefs would severely impact other organisms in their ecosystem in any ways. Most recently biologists went to complete their annual bat census only to discover that an abundance of bats were quickly dying off or already dead, a drastic population difference from the previous years’ censuses. It was proximately the cause of a white, powdery substance that feathered the animals’ noses, wings, and ears for unclear reasons. This white-nose syndrome was finally discovered …show more content…
Everything causes a domino effect, which will lead to even more drastic changes therefore. The proximate cause to bats’ destruction is due to the spread of the fungus Geomyces destructans that was imported from Europe to the United States. Ultimately, the fungus tricked and irritated the bats to the point of no return: they would use up their prime energy storage and led the bats to starvation, dehydration, and consequently, death. If bats were to go extinct, predators would starve during the winter months that were reserved to the easy prey and food source. Farm fields would evidently see a high increase in insects messing up their system. The ultimate death of coral reefs was due to ocean acidification, which altered the corals’ saturation levels drastically. There are many proximate causes that led to the continuing extinction of coral reefs such as overfishing, agricultural runoff, and increased water temperatures; just small changes could ultimately lead the coral reefs to diminish. Coral reefs are one of the prime, if not the leading, support system to millions of species. It can be surely predicted that if coral reefs were to go extinct, their entire ecosystem would suffer the consequences because they provided both food and protection from outside predators. It is clear that these two organisms hold a true light over both of their

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