26 population to break off from the larger population. The size of the fragment population affected succession rate, “such that increased light penetration and altered seed pools in smaller fragments impeded the rate of ecological succession relative to that of larger fragments.”20 The effects of fragmentation on the Fox River Area, caused by conversion of lands, is habitat degradation and biodiversity loss. Climate change and land cover have circular influences on each other. Changes in land cover can influence the climate. The intensive conversion of the land can result in loss of undegradable land, which can result in localized changes in temperature and weather patterns.21 Likewise, humaninduced climate changes can create changes in land cover. The formation of the specialized group of trees, tallgrass prairie, was driven by climate change dynamics that occurred over the course of 18,000 years ago.22 In the middle of the Ice Age, glaciers were the primary land cover of Northeastern Illinois. As the climate became warmer, the glaciers were transposed with tundra-type vegetation and that with a hardwood forest. About 8,300 years ago, the climate became even warmer, making conditions favorable to prairie. The rise in temperatures caused the glaciers to melt at unprecedented rates, shifting the distribution of the land and the species inside those biomes. As the major drivers of climate change, humans were at the core of this phenomenon. Although humans have always played a direct role in the health of the environment, they have not always proved to be harmful. The Potawatomi tribe were the first humans to settle in the Fox River Area.23 They settled villages at future sites of Aurora and Oswego and subsisted by 20 Haddad, Nick. “Habitat Fragmentation and its Lasting Impact on Earth’s Ecosystems.” Science Advances, March 20, 2015. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1500052; Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 21 Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Fox River Area Assessment. Office of Scientific Research and Analysis, 1998. https://friendsofthefoxriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/fox-3-Living-Resources.pdf. 22 Ibid. 23 National Interagency Fire Center: Humans and National Interagency Fire Center. “Wildfires.” Purdue, https://mrcc.purdue.edu/living_wx/wildfires/index.html; Historyonthefox. “The Era When the Fox River Valley’s Native People and Settlers Lived Alongside Each Other.” History on the Fox, Nov 1, 2022. https://historyonthefox.wordpress.com/category/fox-river/; Indians.org. “Potawatomi Indians.” Indians.org,
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