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Positive effects to mother nature
The team collected and analyzed data from hundreds of scientific monitoring programs, as well as media reports, from 67 countries. As many would expect, they did find evidence of nature benefiting from the sudden drop in air, land, and water travel.
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Wildlife also benefited from reduced air and noise pollution as industry, natural resource extraction, and manufacturing declined. There was less litter found on beaches and in parks, and beach closures in some areas left the shoreline to wildlife. In Florida, for example, beach closures led to a 39 percent increase in nesting success for loggerhead turtles. Ocean fishing fell by 12 percent, and fewer animals were killed by vehicles strikes on roads and in the water. Ocean noise, which is known to disrupt a variety of marine animals, dropped dramatically in many places, including in the busy Nanaimo Harbour in British Columbia where it fell by 86 percent.
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The ecotourism activities that provide financial support for many conservation efforts dried up, and many restoration projects had to be cancelled or postponed. Parks that were open to visitors were inundated by abnormally large crowds. And in many places, hikers expanded trails, destroyed habitats, and even trampled endangered plants.
But there were also many downsides to the lack of humans. Lockdowns disrupted conservation enforcement and research efforts, and in many places illegal hunting and fishing increased as poor, desperate people looked for ways to compensate for lost income or food.
The researchers estimate that delays to invasive species control programs caused by lockdowns will have a huge impact. Failure to remove invasive mice from remote seabird nesting islands could lead to the loss of more than two million chicks this year alone.
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