Explain How The Earth's Processes Have Changed Populations Of Organisms

Climate change has affected us in many ways, but it was even more influential on organisms and their community. The Earth is gradually heating and we are left to deal with the consequences. Homes are being destroyed, organisms are dying, and resources are running low. Since 1880, Our Earth’s temperature had increased by about 0.8 degrees Celsius. Climate change is affecting the Earth and scientists say that one more degree will greatly affect people from all over the world. There are many consequences of climate change and each one has a great impact on all of us, but organisms’ homes are being destroyed and thousands of species are dying out. These organisms are imperative to our world and how it functions.

The first example of human manipulation of changes within the biosphere is through expansion. The rapid growth of the population has led to expansion in development; the need for more space is causing strain on other living organisms such as plants and animals. Human procurement of forest, grass, and wetlands has weighed on the animal population heavily. As a result of this domination, animals have lost areas they use to thrive in, causing migration and in more serious cases extinction. Animals are a prevalent source of protein for humans, and when a species is threatened by extinction, it not only disrupts the balance of the ecosystem, but it also disrupts the food chain. The more resources that are required to sustain human life, the bigger the need to migrate to surrounding areas in a short period of time (Haines).

The scale and pace of change is dramatic; for example, the extinction of species is occurring at around 100-fold pre-human rates4. The population sizes of vertebrate species have, on average, declined by half over the last 45 years5. More than 2.3 million km2 of primary forest has been felled since 20006. About

There is a famous quote by John Maxwell, where he said “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional”. Changes occur everywhere around us and it is how we adapt to those changes defines how we grow as a community causing further change to the environment. John Cronon, the author of Changes in the Land, writes about the interactions between the environment and its people. People are not the sole cause of ecological change. Some ecological change is also caused by natural events such as climate changes, floods, forest fires, and even drought. But these events do not drastically change the ecosystem as the changes brought by the interactions of Native Americans and Europeans with the environment. Changes caused by people such as Native Americans and English colonists affects the environment and results in a change in the environment where, now the people have to adapt to change in the environment.

The article discussed the changes in many habitats due to anthropogenic activity. Anthropogenic is an adjective that describes changes in nature due to the people. Next, this article discussed climate change and the impact that it is having on species like clams, and fish due to ocean temperatures rising. The article also addressed carbon dating of fossils to look for cause of extinctions. Human development and agriculture have had a tremendous impact on the population of many species that are terrestrial. Deforestation is a big problem that has caused a decline in the bird species. Commercial fishing in many areas has led to a decline in fish populations. Furthermore this article

In the next few paragraphs, one will see the evidence provided by a variety of archeologists and paleoclimatologists onto how climate change caused the breakdown of the beautiful society.

Earth’s environment is affected everyday by pollution. People must make changes in order for global warming to be slowed. People causing pollution are the largest factor in the climate change. Plants and animals are the most affected by the climate change. “The change has mostly consisted of humans emitting dangerous gases into the atmosphere causing global warming.” (Confronting the Realities of Climate Change). With the Earth’s average temperature rising, many animals and plants are being forced to adapt. The forcing of adaptations is also causing different species to slowly die and eventually they will become extinct. The extreme change in climate has happened before to the dinosaurs. When the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, they lived in a widely tropical climate. Once the climate began to rapidly cool, the cold-blooded reptiles did not have enough time to adapt to the change. People have also stated because the dinosaurs became extinct naturally that this is just a cycle but it is not. The

The Ted Talk video “Pay Attention to Penguins” shows one example of a change that can affect populations. Global warming affected the penguin’s ecosystem by melting the ice caps and killing the penguins. Global warming caused by humans has several negative impacts such as melting ice caps, reducing land used for breeding, and decreasing food supplies for penguins. The melted ice caps will raise sea level which will make no land for mating and laying eggs. The food levels will diminish like squid, krill and fish which will affect the survival of the penguins. Another way to interpret the change is that

Over time, Earth’s process had to have changed at some point. The Earth’s changing process hasn’t just effected the landforms and natural features, but also the populations organisms living here. These drastic processes have caused landform changes, climate changes, and natural disasters.

Several man-made threats have accelerated extinction rates across the globe, such as global warming, pollution, and introduced species. Current extinction rates

"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words” (Anna Sewell). There is undeniable evidence that animals are being affected by climate change. Even though the effects are difficult to measure, there are many different ways animals are being affected. With the loss of predator and prey species it affects the life cycles in the food chain. The earth’s climate change causes habitats such as snow, ice, or forest areas to alter, resulting in loss of habitat and food accessibility as well as causing extinction.

Not to mention “...both groups emphasized that climate change would play an increasing role in species decline…” (Gilman). Climate change is still a controversial topic to some, but many scientists have proven that it’s true. In fact, Neil Degrasse Tyson has given evidence to prove its truth and already informed the world that it’s too late to fix people’s mistakes (Neil). The extinction of species has been caused in certain instances by climate change, which is only getting worse. People have continuously altered the environment to the point of harming other species. The human race’s tendency to destroy an environment greatly impacts the plants and animals residing there. To be more specific, “Human destruction of animal and plant habitat...appear to be having a major impact on extinction rates” (Wilson). Environmental degradation and habitat destruction are both key players in the extinction of many world species. The impact people have had on the environment is much bigger than most anticipate, as they both destroy and intervene with the environment.

Human activities which include emission from motor vehicles, pollution, cutting down of trees have been attributed to be the major causes of warming to the earth leading to changes in climatic conditions. The warming in the earth has a lot of detrimental effects on the ecosystem leading to damages as well as loss of population diversity. The warming also causes the shifting in biomes as well as modifications in the phenological activities for different species. Due to the changes in climatic conditions, there is intense competition amongst many plant and animal species to enhance their survival which has led to species invading areas which was previously occupied by another species. On the other hand, changes in vegetation cover, has necessitated the relocation of human beings and other animals who depended on them and therefore they must change and adapt effectively to the new environments. The disruptions in the ecosystems especially where there are endangered species and interdependent species have adverse effects on the diversity and at times leads to extinction as well as affecting the biogeochemical cycles. The climatic changes have effects on ecosystem structures and functions as well affecting the benefits human beings derive from the ecosystems such as food, water and wood products

The study of ecology is also critically linked to a more full understanding of evolutionary biology both human evolution and the evolution of all species upon the earth. "All evolutionary change takes place in response to ecological interactions that operate on the population, community, ecosystem, biome and biosphere levels" (What is ecology, 2012, Science Education). The development of one species affects other species. Patterns of species development likewise affect the planet, as environmental changes affect us.

The health of the earth degrades with the destructive activity of human beings. A recent study by a group of scientists looked at twenty four different services that the earth’s ecosystems provide for humans, ecosystem services, and found that fifteen of them are in need of desperate help (Gazette 31 March 2005). These services are vital to the survival of both human and nonhuman life and include filtering water and providing nutrient rich soils and ocean waters. Many of the members of these various ecosystems are also decreasing in numbers. In a British survey of bird populations found that in the 200 birds of Britain tracked there was about a 54% population decrease between the 1968-1971 tacking period and the 1988-1991 tacking period. In two other surveys of 254 native plant species from the same area there was a decrease of about 28% during the past 40 years. Humans are pushing the sixth mass extinction (Gazette March 19, 2004).