what can affect the balance of nature?

Answer 1

Only nature itself can alter or change the balance. How foolish we are to think we can influence such a powerful force. Don't believe me? go outside and make the wind stop blowing. Since we supposedly have all of this influence on the natural enviroment I think we should regulate the weather. After all we think we are all powerful

Answer 2

People. Weather we admit it or not, the way we live drastically changes our environment, and that of the animals around us.

Answer 3

hjere are some effects and posible solutions as well as a good source that talks just about that


there are natural cycles in the planets life
but a lot is influenced by mans existance ,and this is increasing with overpopulation,putting strains on Natural resources and increasing contaminations as well as destructions of essential componants the ensure living conditions for all life forms

some home truths

politicians and scientists who work for politicians have downplayed the facts because solutions are expensive and means change and change effects many people income,and most of the world is kept in the dark of the real things that are going on.


in North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss and desertification


in recent times thousands of people have died because of exessive heat,usually old people.in India ,Mexico and France,
deforestation causing desertification,the desert conditions causing very cold nights and scorching hot days

in china, thousands of what used to be farmers are running for their lives from the dust storms that have burried their towns and turned their lands into dessert,the globe where they were got to hot for them .
and instead of producing food they are now needing it from some where else,and they will drastically effect the world food prices when they start buying water in the form of grains ,at any cost destabalising governments, in some countries ,could be the result
(are you seeing more Chinese around interested in agricultural lands ,we do here in Mexico)

,the Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year
and all of the desserts we know are a results of mans actions ,and they are increasing ,not getting less ,in the dinosaurs days ,there were no desserts.

collectively this planet is drying up because of bad farming practices like,over grazing and fertilizers,

as far as the food production is concerned, Global warming or some of its effects are serious,rising seas result in landloss

each degree rise in temperature means 10%crop loss

more landloss because of desertification every year,we have less areble land to produce food ,for an extra 70 million people ,

and there is less and less water (because of deforestation),to irrigate this production ,
and there are less and less farmers to do it..
who are overpumping deep carbon aquifiers
who are plowing more and more unstable lands because they have lost so many million hectares to desertification ,
because of bad farming practises ,such as using fertilizers and heavy machinary or over grazing

RISING SEAS
The northpole is melting ,and we will know it without ice in our life times.
this does not affect the sea level because it is ice that is already in the water.but the melting ice from Green land and the south pole ,are another matter.

Global warming is in theory reversable,but it will mean global co operation between all countries ,and taking into account human nature and the world politics ,it is unlikely that this will happen,

At least not untill we are all in the middle of planetary disastres and it becomes a battle for the survival of humanity every where.

SOLUTIONS
if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to reverse the destructive processes

reduce carbon emisions,and they are already working on that by alternative forms of energy and regulations on carbon producing materials,aerosol cans,burning rubbish,industrial chimneys,powerplants etc.

the capture of carbon and the production of water and assist the aquiferous manta.

the world bank pays large subsidies for reforrestation to capture carbon and the best tree for this is the Pawlonia

Waterharvesting projects ,such as millions of small dams.to redirect over ground waterflows from the rains into the ground to supply subteranian water supplies.

the protection of existing forrests.

stop building more highways,urban planning to include vegetation stop building cities encourage people to return to the land to conduct their business from there which now has become possible thanks to the internet.

education to motivate people to auto sufficiency by building more home food gardens.

education on environmental awareness
education on family planning to curb over´populaion

Agricultural education and improvements to follow the principals or sustainability and soil management.

more environmental or land ,design to prevent bush fires,such as--fire breaks

,more dams.regulations and control for public behaviour

alternative effeciant public transport to discourage the use of the internal conbustion engine

recicling wastes,limit water use

i am a Permaculture Consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government in Guerrero Mexico
http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

Source(s) Lester E Brown is the director and founder of the global institute of Environment in the United states .he has compiled a report based on all the satalite information available from NASA,and all the information that has
come from Universities and American embassies WORLD WIDE ,
his little book--a planet under stress , Plan B has been trans lated into 50 languages and won the best book award in 2003.

Answer 4

Killing of wild life
Increasing use of fossil fuels
Increasing carbon dioxide
pollution.........................so on so forth

Answer 5

Some people think that fire ruins ecosystems
but.......



Prescribed Fire Restores the Balance of Nature

Fire is a naturally-occurring phenomenon which has helped maintain ecological communities throughout North America for thousands of years. Without periodic fires, landscapes such as the tallgrass prairies of the Midwest would in many places be lost to succession, as competing plants displace the fire-adapted prairie species along with the diversity of wildlife that coexist with them.

Historically, fire-influenced communities were maintained by some combination of fire, grazing and soil disturbance. Lightning has always been a natural ignition source of fire and man's use of fire helped intensify this effect in many ecosystems, particularly in grasslands.

Across North America, Native Americans used fire to achieve a variety of results. They used it to drive and enclose game to make hunting easier, to drive away reptiles and insects, to increase the supply of grass, seeds and berries, and to facilitate travel and improve visibility by keeping down the weeds and thickets. Fire was also used both offensively and defensively in warfare. European settlers used fire to clear land for farming and home sites.

Since the early 1900s, the practice of suppressing all forest and rangeland fires, along with an agricultural trend away from grazing and burning, has allowed woody succession to replace grassland ecosystems with shrub and forest communities. Research, however, shows that fire plays a vital role in maintaining the health and diversity of these ecosystems. As a result, the use of prescribed fire (the application of fire under a predetermined set of conditions) is being reintroduced by land managers into grasslands and other natural communities as an important ecological management tool.

Fire's Role in Ohio

In Ohio, fire is a natural force in many plant communities and the use of prescribed fire plays a crucial role in restoring and maintaining biodiversity. Fire promotes nutrient recycling by reducing litter and accumulated fuels which lessens the likelihood and severity of uncontrolled and damaging wildfires. Fire hastens seed germination, in part, by lengthening the growing season by removing plant litter and exposing the darkened soil surface to earlier warming by the sun. Fire is also used as a tool in controlling non-native plant species and the spread of woody plants into prairies and savannas.

Some rare and endangered animal species are dependent upon fire for maintaining their habitat. Animals that depend on the open character of grasslands for hunting and nesting (short-eared owls, northern harriers, grasshopper sparrows), for food (voles), or for association with particular species (Karner blue butterfly with wild lupine), may benefit most from burning, as it promotes the habitat in which these animals survive.

Fire Management & Research Program

Because fire is such an important natural process and helps achieve defined ecological management goals, The Nature Conservancy has developed a Fire Management & Research Program headquartered at Tall Timbers esearch Station in Tallahassee, Florida. The program provides training for Conservancy staff and land managers from other agencies in the use of prescribed fire to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems through fire management workshops. The Fire Management and Research Program maintains a database with background information on each preserve or tract where The Nature Conservancy has an active burn program. This information is essential for tracking, planning, and training purposes and helps the Conservancy gain an understanding of the role of fire in the natural ecosystems being managed.

Prescribed burning is both a science and an art requiring an understanding of the interactions between weather, fire behavior, plant fuel types, and plant ecology. Fire managers are experienced professionals who strive to understand the fire-adapted ecosystem and its response to prescribed fire. The frequency and seasonality of prescribed burns are timed to maximize the benefits to fire-adapted species and minimize disturbance to the other native elements of the community. Fire managers make sure that management objectives are reached safely and effectively. "Prescribed burning deals with a variety of factors diverse topography, different types of vegetation and unpredictable weather. All conditions must be right to safely execute a planned burn," states Dave Minney, Fire Manager for the Ohio Chapter. "Training and experience are essential for burn crew members."

Prescribed burns for ecological management usually fall into one of two categories: a) Ecosystem/habitat recovery burn where the goal is to recreate, restore, or enhance ecosystem or habitat qualities that have been disrupted, degraded, or otherwise altered by past land use activities or fire exclusion; b) Ecosystem/habitat maintenance burn where the goal is to maintain existing conditions within their normal range of variability. Monitoring is an ongoing process used to gauge the attainment of management goals and to assess the need for research.

Although gaps still exist in the understanding of fire ecology, it continues to gain acceptance as an important resource management tool. Thanks to The Nature Conservancy's Fire Initiative and cooperative sharing of resources and expertise with federal, state and local partners, the return of fire is being recognized as a critical element in the life cycle of our landscapes.
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Every species has limits of tolerance to factors that affect its survival, reproductive success and ability to continue to thrive and interact sustainably with the rest of its environment, which in turn may have effects on these factors for many other species or even on the whole of life.The concept of an ecosystem is thus an important subject of study, as such study provides information needed to make decisions about how human life may interact in a way that allows the various ecosystems to be sustained for future use rather than used up or otherwise rendered ineffective.
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Although humans currently comprise only about one-half of one percent of the total living biomass on Earth, the human effect on nature is disproportionately large. Because of the extent of human influence, the boundaries between what we regard as nature and "made environments" is not clear cut except at the extremes. Even at the extremes, the amount of natural environment that is free of discernible human influence is presently diminishing at an increasingly rapid pace, or, according to some, has already disappeared.
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The natural environment comprises all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth. Some would say in its purest sense, it is an environment that is not the result of human activity or intervention, but this is incorrect because the natural environment comprises all living things including human beings. The only distinction is an irrational prejudice on the basis of species alone, which non-human animal rights supporters call speciesism - that is, differentiating humans from other animals purely on the grounds that they are human. The natural environment may be contrasted to the built environment, and is also in contrast to the concept of a cultural landscape.
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