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 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
People can especially influence biodiversity in the IRL in a negative way. There can be a major loss of habitat from development on the shoreline, like resorts and hotels (“The Indian River Lagoon,” n.d.). Due to the lagoon’s shallowness, it can become overcrowded very quickly. It it’s too overcrowded, the nutrients in the water will suffer and there will be too many particles. Humans are disrupting the growth of the many species in the IRL, and they are preventing them from reaching their full potential. There must be a variety of animals and plants for there to be biodiversity, and people are seizing both land and water that should be used as habitats for the animals in the
Another threat to species around the world is pollution in the atmosphere. Know as air pollution. Air pollution, global warming, is blamed for the greenhouse gasses created by humans that have been gathering up in the atmosphere. This is a problem as it is causing climate change which is the blame for rising sea levels, change in streamflow, and invasive species. The biggest problem is invasive species. How climate change supports the problem of invasive species is since the Earth's atmospheric temperature is getting warmer, it cause species to move closer to the pole to escape the heat (EPA). Scientists have been monitoring global warming as the oceans have been getting warmer since 1970 (AJ+). An example of invasive species due to climate change are fish, zooplankton, and seabirds in the northeast Atlantic have been moving closer to the poles to escape the heat. Also in the Mediterranean Sea, some species have died on mass while other warm water species
Biological diversity, also known as biodiversity, describes the huge variety of species found on Earth and the natural way in which ecosystems and communities are formed. In the past few centuries, humans have had an especially negative
Humans have existed since 200,000 years but the Earth has existed around 4.5 billion years. Nature has provided us with everything we have today - food, medicines, materials, chemicals, metals, minerals etc. It can only keep providing us when we maintain the right environment for it to exist. This environment depends on the biodiversity of Earth. The number of species of plants, animals and microorganisms and the various genes in these species, different ecosystems such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth. Hence Biodiversity impacts everything. We will discuss how Biodiversity plays a crucial role on social, environmental, and economic factors. We will also discuss what
“Biological diversity is of fundamental importance to the functioning of all natural and human-engineered ecosystems, and by extension to the ecosystem services that nature provides free of charge to human society ”(Lloyd, 2014). Biodiversity is very important to both plants, animals and humans on Earth and if one species is destroyed it throw the balance off .
In general, top predators and green plants are common because of the different community organisms such as the Chippewa Natural Forest that is in total disorder. These species come and go as free spirits and their colonization’s possible extinction are not determined by the presence or absence of other species (Wilson, 1992, p. 163). In fact, the amount of biodiversity is considered a random process in which the species fail to coexist except by accident. Secondly, some species are closely independent, that the food web is design so rigid the symbioses is so tightly bound and the community is virtually a super organism (Wilson, 1992, p. 16). Therefore, one species such as the Acadian flycatcher or goblin fern is a super organism, that thousands
Species diversity can help an ecosystem remain stable. The greater the number of species in an ecosystem, the greater the diversity of that ecosystem. This will make it harder for one species to overpower the rest.
The different environmental issues that are brought up with human activity are intense and sometimes the effects are not seen immediately but they do have an effect on the surrounding environment. First, I will elaborate one the different issues and explain what they include. The first being Biodiversity, which is known as the “The variety of life, typically expressed in terms of species richness.” (Bolen 2010). This includes both biotic and abiotic factors in the natural world that thrive. The second issue present is that of deforestation which is the action of clearing an area of trees, which could range anywhere from a small piece of land to a large area. Another
One example humans have impacted aquatic ecosystems has been through the introduction of invasive species. Invasive species are a
Forests have been cut, crops planted, pastures seeded, and urban areas paved. One of the most troubling consequences of human modification of ecosystems is an ongoing loss of species and therefore a loss of biodiversity around the world. The current extinctions have a human cause: habitat loss (such as clearing of tropical rainforests); the introduction of invasive species; unregulated hunting and fishing; and pollution of water, air, and
Two local examples of our impact would be habitat destruction and over-hunting. As the human population grows, so does the amount of land it requires for food and shelter. As a result of this, people cut down and destroy the places where animals live in to make way for farmland and other types of agriculture. This forces animals to move to a different area. However, some animals are overspecialized and can only survive in a specific environment. Therefore, when forced to leave, they will not be able to survive. This can lead to extinction in that area, otherwise known as extirpation. Over-hunting can also lead to extirpation. In today's society, we are more prone to hunting animals, whether it be for economic or personal gains or for food. This can reduce the the amount of animals in that area. Both of these examples affect biological diversity because when animals go extinct, specific traits can be lost. Then, when the rest of the species goes to breed, they won’t have the trait that may have helped them survive in their
More than 20 football fields of trees are removed each minute. Logging can affect plants and animals by losing their homes. Predator - prey relationships will alter which can then cause a trophic cascade by overpopulation from the prey or extinction of predators. Also keystone species could be removed by these factors. So these living and nonliving factors could affect an ecosystem in many ways. Changes affect the ecosystem strongly in ways which population could boost in biodiversity or severely diminish the population of both plants and animals.
Since the Industrial Revolution we have practiced deforestation, burned fossil fuels, and as a result we have disrupted stable ecosystems. Advances in medicine and technology have given humans the ability to increase their carrying capacity. While increasing our carrying capacity we have also decreased biodiversity around the world. We have introduced different species in new environments to help ourselves