Biodiversity benefits and threats related to your species

1. Biodiversity benefits and threats related to your species:

Benefits:

Chinese pangolins were exploited for their economic interests and consumption purposes. This species of pangolins was useful for business farming, although they were subject to an international trade ban.  At the global business level, scales of pangolins, dead and live pangolins were also exported from Africa and Asia to China and Vietnam as a source of money. The international trafficking of Chinese pangolins had gone to the extent of threatening their existence. Chinese pangolin farming was evident in China for both commercial and consumption purposes (Zhang, 2016). The Chinese pangolins are a rich source of meat in China and are a delicacy for the Chinese indigenes. The business confined production of Chinese pangolins had lots of strong financial support from various investors. However, there were some challenges, especially in terms of keeping the pangolins captive for commercial breeding. The commercial Chinese pangolin farming was a source of living for Chinese farmers.

The farmers breed Chinese pangolins on a large scale for meat, lamina, and exportation to the Asian customer market. The lamina of the Chinese pangolins was a source of Chinese traditional medicine that was useful for the treatment of skin diseases. Dried and roasted Chinese pangolin scales helped stimulate lactation and help in drain pus. According to China’s biodiversity, the plates of the Chinese pangolins are useful for medicinal purposes in various pharmaceuticals firms (Tensen, 2016). Chinese pharmaceuticals use approximately 29 tons of Chinese pangolin scales in a year for the production of traditional medicine. The plates are a precious medicine for the treatment of lactating mothers experiencing poor circulation of lactic acid. .

Chinese pangolins also play a crucial role in maintaining reasonable levels of ants and termite in biodiversity. Chinese pangolins pray on ants and termites as their food. Reintroduction of Chinese pangolins will be a benefit to farmers who breed this species for commercial purposes. The farming will also affect the population of Chinese pangolins because of them on high demand for their meat and scales. Pangolins are one of the wild mammals that experience animal trafficking at a high rate for their lamina. The species will face possible extinction because of the high demand for scales in the production of traditional Chinese medicine. The target species of the pangolins might face the threat of gradual decline and extinction. The reintroduction of Chinese pangolins will also help in controlling the population of plant pests like ants and termites.

Threats:

The increased population of Chinese pangolins can be a threat to the ecological distribution of ants and termites. A high level of Pangolins prey incidents on ants and termites can lead to an imbalance of the biodiversity. One Chinese pangolin is estimated to consume almost 20,000 a day, and this poses a significant challenge in the ecological system and biodiversity as a whole (Thapa, 2013). The Chinese pangolins also destroy the environment with their extraordinary long tongues as they dig into the ground for their food.

Citation(s):

Tensen, L. (2016). Under what circumstances can wildlife farming benefit species conservation?. Global Ecology and Conservation, 6, 286-298.

Thapa, P. (2013). An overview of Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla): Its general biology, status, distribution, and conservation threats in Nepal. The Initiation, 5, 164-170.

Zhang, F., Wu, S., Zou, C., Wang, Q., Li, S., & Sun, R. (2016). A note on captive breeding and reproductive parameters of the Chinese pangolin, Manis pentadactyla Linnaeus, 1758. ZooKeys, (618), 129.

2. Species survival plan:

Part 2: Species Interactions

3. Species interaction model:

Species interaction model

(Source: Sáez, 2015)

4. Citation(s):

Sáez, E., Stange, E., Szántó, I., González-Olivares, E., & Falconi, M. (2015). Chaotic dynamics and coexistence in a three species interaction model. International Journal of Biomathematics, 8(02), 1550022.

5. Prediction:

The reintroduction of Chinese pangolin will have different effects on the community. Some of the existing species will experience positive impacts because of the return of the Chinese pangolin. For instance, human beings are the largest predators of the Chinese pangolin, and thus they will embark on poaching the species and eat them. Human beings will have increased prey on their side. Also, lions and hyenas are other types of species that consume the Chinese pangolin, and thus they will have a victim on their hand. However, Chinese pangolin feeds on termites and ants, and therefore their reintroduction will negatively affect the population of termites in the community. Other species like bacteria will have a mutual benefit from the reintroduction of Chinese pangolin because they live in the throat of the Chinese pangolin and feed on the food which the species eat. In turn, the bacteria help the Chinese pangolin in their digestion process because they break the food down. Humans will face an indirect impact as they move to the forest to poach the Chinese pangolin, and in the process, they face attacks by lions showing amensalism interaction.

Carbon & Climate Change

6. Carbon atom pathway model:

Description

The carbon cycle begins when animals take out carbon atoms from their body to the atmosphere through the process of respiration. The carbon atoms are then sending to the soil by decomposition of the leaves from plants and weathering of rocks. The method of leaking or runoffs allows the carbon atoms from the lithosphere to move to the hydrosphere where marine plants take it in through photosynthesis. Weathering of rocks also takes some carbon atoms to the atmosphere where the process later ends at the biosphere after plans take it in the process of photosynthesis.

7. Impact prediction:

The reintroduction of Chinese pangolin will result in an increase in carbon in the atmosphere because thus resulting in a warmer temperature. The carbon in the atmosphere was at equilibrium before the reintroduction of Chinese pangolin on earth. However, when the species comes, changes in the carbon will occur, and thus there will be non-equilibrium of the carbon atoms. The available carbon in the carbon cycle moves slowly every year. Reintroduction of the Chinese pangolin will affect the grams of carbon released by animals to the atmosphere and thus leading to an increase in the movement of the carbon cycle.

8. Climate change impact:
   1. How the climate will change:

The weather after the reintroduction of Chinese pangolin will change because there will be an increased emission of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which affects the temperature in the area. The energy balance model can explain the climatic change between 50 to 100 years because it predicts the surface temperature from radiation. The continued increase of carbon atoms to the environment will change the climate because the weaker absorption bands become strong, affecting the earth’s dispersion.

1. Selection process:

The model is useful when predicting the temperature of a particular place over a long period. The reason for selecting the model was to ensure that temperate is predictable, which aid in understanding changes in climate. Additionally, it is also in understanding an increase in carbon atoms in the atmosphere. Singh et al. developed the model so that it can predict the temperature.

1. How the species will be impacted:

The change in climate will have an impact on the life of Chinese pangolin. For instance, a change in weather will result in increased temperature, which will influence the body of the animal to respond to the changes. The feed intake of the species will reduce, and the level of sweating increases so that the species can react to the body temperature and increase heat loss (Cossins, 2012).

1. Citation(s):

Cossins, A. (2012). Temperature biology of animals. Springer Science & Business Media.

9. Greenhouse gas model:
10. Greenhouse gases involve the gases found in the atmosphere of the earth and produce greenhouse effects. The greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide water vapor, hydrofluorocarbons, methane, and others. When there are changes in the concentration of greenhouse gases, the global climate changes drastically.
11. There are different photons which play a role in the greenhouse effect. One of the types is the inflated radiation, where the dispersion is not noticeable, but the heat from it is evident. The light from this type is invisible, but the warmth comes to affect the relationship.
12. An increase in carbon dioxide causes increased temperate on earth because there is blocking of hotness, which enters the soil from getting lost to space.
13. The survival plan made will increase the greenhouse gas concentration. In turn, this will affect the overall change of temperature. Fossil fuels are useful during the process of decomposition. Thus, the decay will increase the level of carbon atoms in the atmosphere leading to increased heat on the planet.

Population Growth

10. Population/species growth curve:
11. Carrying capacity change:

The population of the Chinese pangolins has been decreasing over time, and so has their carrying capacity.  One of the reasons for this decline is the illegal hunting and poaching of wild pangolins in the world for commercial purposes has brought significant variations in their numbers. These actions have caused a change in the tally of Chinese pangolins that the ecosystem can comfortably support. The difference in the carrying capacity of Chinese pangolins is also as a result of consumption by the Chinese people. The Chinese take this species of pangolins as part of their unique delicacies. The use of Chinese pangolins has contributed to the change of the numerical values of these wild mammals. The demands for Chinese traditional medicine are also contributing to the decline of the numerical value of Chinese pangolins. Scales of the Chinese pangolins are in high order because of their various medicinal purposes. Therefore, this mammal is severely hunted in China to extract plate, causing a change in the carrying capacity of the species.

12. Collapse explanation:

The human factor is the primary cause of the decline of the population of the Chinese pangolins. Chinese people are the greatest threat to the existence of Chinese pangolins because they use it as meat and medicine. Humans form the main percentage of the predators of the Chinese pangolins. Hence, they are associated with the collapse of this species of mammals. The growth rate of Chinese pangolins does not depend on the population density of humans (Sun, 2019). The relationship between the collapse of the Chinese pangolins and the humans is dependent.  The Chinese people require meat from the pangolins for their protein needs. Humans do not entirely depend on the Chinese pangolins for their survival. Humans use Chinese pangolins for various commercial benefits.  The Chinese pangolin forms the most significant percentage of exports from China to Asian consumer markets. This species is also useful for the production of medicine in various pharmaceuticals in China, which has further led to the collapse of this Chinese mammal.

13. Citation

Sun, N. C. M., Arora, B., Lin, J. S., Lin, W. C., Chi, M. J., Chen, C. C., & Pei, C. J. C. (2019). Mortality and morbidity in wild Taiwanese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla pentadactyla). PloS one, 14(2).