On lands developed by humans, animals change before our eyes

This contributes to their survival

An interesting discovery was made by scientists from an international consortium that conducted a study of 150 European meadows and pastures. Scientists from eight countries came to the conclusion that the more intensively people develop herbaceous ecosystems, the more often the fauna in such systems is represented by relatively small and energetic animals.

As reported on the website of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which represented Russia in the consortium, this was proven thanks to large-scale scientific work. Experts examined plants, bats, birds, flying and other terrestrial and soil invertebrates. They measured them according to a variety of parameters (length, weight, mobility, speed and type of reproduction, respiration rate). And they came to the conclusion that in those ecosystems in which humans interfered less (that is, where undisturbed communities continue to exist), animals are larger, less mobile, reproduce more slowly, and have other physiological manifestations, compared to their neighbors with In areas more developed by humans, things are not going very well.

And vice versa – in intensively used meadows and pastures live more slender (with reduced biomass), but at the same time much more energetic representatives of the fauna, which react faster to stimuli, run better, fly or crawl (depending on the species), and also reproduce. This allows them to survive and resist complete degradation in their rapidly changing world.

Thus, scientists have come to a paradoxical conclusion: anthropogenic impact on ecosystems can contribute to the preservation of these ecosystems.