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Areas sometimes included when referencing the Appalachian region. Northern section is generally not included. Environmental issues in Appalachia, a cultural region in the Eastern United States, include long term and ongoing environmental impact from human activity, and specific incidents of environmental harm such as environmental disasters related to mining.
The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity. The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian geologist Alexey Pavlov, and it was first used in English by British ecologist Arthur Tansley in reference to human influences on climax plant communities. [20]
Mountains cover approximately 25 percent of earth's surface and provide a home to more than one-tenth of global human population. Changes in global climate pose a number of potential risks to mountain habitats. [13] Climate change can adversely affect both alpine tundra and montane grasslands and shrublands.
Human activities increased the dispersal of edible plants, including trees, shrubs, grasses, and lianas. [16] Cultural developments accelerated with the adoption of agriculture in the highlands in the Middle Woodland period, delayed relative to the lowlands by rugged terrain, low population, limited fertile soil, and a shorter growing season. [16]
Induced seismicity is typically earthquakes and tremors that are caused by human activity that alters the stresses and strains on Earth's crust. Most induced seismicity is of a low magnitude . A few sites regularly have larger quakes, such as The Geysers geothermal plant in California which averaged two M4 events and 15 M3 events every year ...
While erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10–40 times the rate at which soil erosion is occurring globally. [7] At agriculture sites in the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion at up to 100 times the natural rate of erosion in the region. [8]
Taiga (boreal forests) has amazing natural resources that are being exploited by humans. Human activities have a huge effect on the taiga ecoregions mainly through extensive logging, natural gas extraction, and mine-fracking. This results in the loss of habitat and increases the rate of deforestation.
Disturbance of a fire can clearly be seen by comparing the unburnt (left) and burnt (right) sides of the mountain range in South Africa. The veld ecosystem relies on periodic fire disturbances like these to rejuvenate itself. In ecology, a disturbance is a temporary change in environmental conditions that causes a pronounced change in an ecosystem.