The Human Impact On The Decrease In Biodiversity
Earth has a huge number of different species, each with its unique characteristic and role in nature. In order for Earth beings to thrive successfully, there are multiple factors that need to occur to balance the changes. Biodiversity is the wide variety of species that roams the Earth, each of them playing an important role in keeping the ecosystem healthy and thriving. A decrease in biodiversity, even a little, can impact the human race and the remaining species tremendously. So, while we humans continue to thrive in this world, we too need to care about the fragile creatures that if we didn’t have would potentially put the human race in danger.
According to the United Nations, an approximate 3 billion humans require marine and coastal biodiversity and another 1.6 billion on depend on forests to survive, so the loss of biodiversity affects over 4 billion people. Unfortunately, there are a number of issues that is threatening biodiversity on our planet, and if we do not act upon solving it, we could be in danger due to the immense number of consequences that comes after.
I have chosen this topic as my research topic because since young, I have developed a lot of interest in the surrounding and the creatures that live on this rock we walk on called Earth, and I would want to write about how we are gradually destroying these creatures that would affect the time we have left on Earth. Three main issues to be investigated include habitat loss, invasive alien species and climate change.
Habitat loss is the most impactful to the loss of biodiversity, it is the act of destroying other organisms’ land for resources or human demands. An example of a wide diversity of species in a particular area is the Amazon. Statistics have shown the Amazon to be the breathing system of earth, as it the responsible for producing 20% of the world’s oxygen. Moreover, studies have shown that the Amazon is home to an estimated 10 million different species!
Studies by WWF have shown that an estimate of 18 million acres of forests are loss globally each year due to deforestation. Russia has around 12 million km squared of forests but 20,000 km squared are loss each year, placing it on one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, along with Africa, China, Southeast Asia and many more. Tropical forests such as rainforests house almost half the species on Earth- roughly 10 million species exist altogether. Habitat loss is the reason why species go extinct, we are literally destroying their homes!
For example, the Bornean pitcher plant and orangutans are on their way to extinction due to massive loss of habitat over the last few decades. Tropical forests aren’t the only ones undergoing deforestation, wetlands and coral reefs (sometimes also known as “the rainforest of the sea”) have only a fraction of what they used to be. All these deforestations of land and sea is mainly to suit to the increasing needs of us humans. According to the WWF, around 85% of all species threatened by habitat loss in the IUCN’s (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list.
Humans need these extra lands due to the exploding population and the need for more food sources. Around 70% of all deforested lands are converted to agricultural land. It is estimated that half of the world’s initial forests have disappeared, and they are still being removed at the rate 10 times higher than any possible level of regrowth. This can be a huge impact to the habitat of animals that reign the forest, and if biodiversity loss reaches a dangerous level, the ecosystem and humans can be badly affected. One of which would be the economic cost of lost biodiversity. The ecosystem performs majority of nature’s work, such as pollination, irrigation, decomposition, soil reclamation and other things.
These tasks will need to be paid to perform if the ecosystem is unable to do so, and these tasks costs money. It has been estimated that the value of biodiversity is around the trillions. Because of this, just deforestation itself has cost us $2-5 million worldwide. Not only that, going along with the law of ecology, a decrease in plant life can dwindle down the number of species in the ecosystem. In a food chain, there is the producer and the consumers, when a plant (example of a producer) decreases in population, this will cause the decrease in primary consumers, which then affects the population of the secondary consumer and it goes on. This basically means that the more we affect the food chain, the more we put humans’ existence at risk. This act of conservation would be difficult, however, as we clear habitats for our own demands.
One of the examples of habitat loss directly related to human demands would be palm oil production. A common and widely used vegetable oil comes from its palm production site, which is built by clearing large areas of land and converting it into a palm tree nurture land. Indonesia and Malaysia are responsible for producing around 85% of all palm oil productions, according to the WWF, however these forests that are converted to palm oil production site are the only habitats of orangutans.
Commonly known as the ‘man of the forest’, these majestic creatures are critically endangered and according to WWF and TheSunUK, their population from more than 230,000 in total in the last century, to about 100,000 for Bornean orangutans, 7,500 for Sumatran orangutans and less than 800 for Tapanuli orangutans. Not only that, the Sumatran elephant is now also endangered with numbers dwindling below 3,000 on the island.
Another cause towards the reduction of biodiversity is climate change. Climate change is defined as the change of weather patterns within a certain region or on a global scale, and this rapid change since the 20th century had a huge impact on the global biodiversity. Antarctica would be an example of how climate change has changed its entire outlook and biodiversity that lived within the continent. Antarctica consists of ‘ice mountains’ and frozen sea that plays a very important role in controlling the overall global temperature.
The large area of ice that blankets Antarctica reflects sunlight back into space, which in other words removes excess heat energy on Earth that, if remained, might scorch the Earth. All species are adapted to living both on and under the thick ice — from the algae that grow on the underside of frozen ice, which forms up to 25% of the Arctic Ocean’s primary production, to the invertebrates, birds, fish and marine mammals further up the food chain. However, according an article by Global Issues, Antarctica had its highest warming rate over the past decades, as shown by Global Biodiversity Outlook.
The area of ice in Antarctica had decreased in quite a large amount, and this can really affect the food chain as polar bears now lose their natural habitat and are forced to dwell into woodlands where their survival is at risk, along with the unbalanced ecosystem that can wreck entire species. In addition to that, the increasing global sea level not just from the melting glaciers in Antarctica, but also the loss if snow and ice in countries like Greenland which could swallow up islands, lands near sea and small countries.
Polar bears, for example, are Antarctica’s most ferocious predator, but according to a study, published in Ecological Applications, polar bears in northeast Alaska and the Northwest Territories have been analysed and a documented loss of population declination between 2001-2010 showed a 40% population loss, from 1,500 to 900 bears. Melting ice berks had driven polar bears towards land, where their thick fur might put them at risk of dying than it being its key to survival in Antarctica.
Other than that, introducing foreign species into native lands can cause mayhem to the ecosystem in that particular region. This is called invasive alien species, it is when a non-native species is introduced into a different ecosystem and impacts it negatively. One of the most significant consequence introducing a foreign specie into a different region is habitat loss. According to Environmental Science Organisation, the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is an insect that is non-native to Eastern United States from Asia that quickly and effectively kills infested hemlock trees. In some parts of the Eastern United States, approximately 80% of hemlock trees have been killed. With the large area of forests destroyed, the species that lives within it now faces endangerment and possibly extinction, which ultimately reduces overall biodiversity.
The main cause to the reduction of biodiversity is habitat loss. Plausible theories of the causes of reduced biodiversity and how habitat loss influences the loss of biodiversity is alerting and needs to be act upon. Although invasive alien species pose a threat to the reduction of biodiversity, it is not a significant cause to it as some foreign species actually provided more nourishment to an ecosystem, for example acting as a food source or as a predator to other invasive species. I believe that climate change is as significant as habitat loss as climate change can alter the environment of species and some of them are not able to adapt to the climate and may die off, affecting the ecosystem and finally, overall biodiversity.
With biodiversity reducing at an alarming rate over the past decades, it is important that we take action as soon as possible. One very important course of action is to educate the people about the issue regarding habitat loss directly influencing the loss of biodiversity, this includes education in school, raising awareness by campaigns, published on readable and websites. This will allow people to understand the value of biodiversity and hopefully drive them to contribute in saving planet Earth.
Many organisations are working towards conserving natural habitats, organisations like WWF and National Wildlife Federation help save and take care of endangered animals due to habitat loss and destruction. Through WWF’s hard work and determination, they have successfully protected at least 107 million acres of nature globally. Governments are also contributing to conserving habitat by enforcing stricter rules and laws to prevent illegal deforestation and hunting. Climate change is also being looked at upon seriously. International summits like Kyoto have successfully reduced carbon dioxide (which is a gas that has greatly contributed to global warming due to machineries, factories, vehicles and more) by 12.5% in 2012.
The UK’s government is also committed to reduce carbon dioxide levels by 60% by 2050 as compared to the carbon dioxide levels in 1990. However, this can be a challenge as developing countries like China and India have an increasing level of carbon dioxide emission due to industrialisation and commerce and it is very hard to overcome its emission as it is continually increasing. This interferes with other nations striving to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Not to mention that China and India have huge populations (both countries nearly hitting 1.4 billion population in 2016 as stated by the World Bank) and this increases the demands of the people which inevitably increases energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission.
From what I have researched, it is clear that the reduction of biodiversity can impact every species on Earth negatively. After researching, I think that habitat loss is the most significant cause to the reduction of biodiversity as it is basically destroying the homes of many animals, leaving them to stray off to unadaptable lands and dragging their population down. Habitat loss also causes other factors such as climate change to occur as deforestation is a form of habitat loss and this reduces photosynthesis rate, reducing carbon dioxide absorption and increasing the levels of carbon dioxide in the air.
I have also learnt that many organisations are putting in an immense amount of effort into conserving lands and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I now understand that I cannot waste food as these foods come from fields that used to be forests, I will also switch off lights or the tv when not in use as I will need to use less paper as a lot of trees have been cut down for our precious writing paper. This research has enlightened me about the major issues relating to the loss of biodiversity and I will be a more responsible person to save the species on Earth and to save Earth itself, as it has provided us a life to live in the first place.
