The Global Conversation

Friday, April 15, 2011

Biodiversity and factors contributing to the recent loss of species

“The worst thing that can happen during the 1980s is not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that our descendents are least likely to forgive us.” E.O. Wilson, 1985

Everyday the world is depleting its resources and negatively altering Mother Nature by the destruction of natural habitat. Although the 1980s were a few decades ago, humans are forgetting the importance of biodiversity in an ecosystem and in our world.

The world is made up of so many factors, all of which are relevant to one another. When looking at the Earth and how natural resources make it function, it is crucial to understand the meaning of biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety and variability of life forms within any given biome, ecosystem, or planet; it includes all organisms, species, and populations. Normally there are three levels of biodiversity and these groups are genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. There are numerous threats to biodiversity such as: habitat loss and destruction, alterations in ecosystem composition, the introduction of exotic (non-native) species, over-exploitation, pollution and contamination, and global climate change. The loss of biodiversity is a noteworthy issue that scientists are studying on a regular basis. After understanding what biodiversity is then it is easier to comprehend the significance of ecosystems in the world.

The destruction of ecosystems in the world today is caused by both natural causes and human causes. There have been a large number of factors that relate to the recent loss of species and the amount is continuously growing. Many species are depleting because of resources such as food, land, and water. Also, the food chain is playing a key role in constantly making certain species increase greatly in numbers or drastically become extinct. These are reasons why it is vital for both humans and ecosystems to remember their value to one another and how important working together may be.

In comprehending ecosystems and the circle of life, it is necessary to recognize some facts.

· Terrestrial species had declined by 31% between 1970-2003.

· Roughly 1.4 million species are known to science, but because many species are undescribed, an estimated 10-30 million species likely exists at present.

· “Habitat loss presents the single greatest threat to world diversity, and the magnitude of this threat can be approximated from species- area curves and rates of habitat loss.” http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/biodiversity/biodiversity.html

Due to the influence of humans and species collapsing, it has been difficult for ecosystems to stay alive and prosper. In order to keep the world a successful and flourishing place to live, humans need to do their part in playing a positive role rather than a negative one. Not only do humans have an effect on an ecosystem but any ecosystem influences human life. Every scenario is different; therefore, in recognizing the importance of each ecosystem and their factors, it may be beneficial to focus on a specific case at a time.

Human Effects on the Ecosystems

We eat, breathe, work, shop, drink, cook, dance, plan, travel; live our entire lives around the ecosystem. Therefore when we are unable to do such simple tasks with ease we find ways to modify our surroundings and make the world more accessible to our needs. But such alterations come at a cost. Land transformation represents the primary driving force in loss of biodiversity worldwide. For centuries, humans have reshaped the earth to accommodate their ever changing fast paced schedules. And with the world’s population rate constantly rising, more adjustments must be made to satisfy and benefit the “greater common good.” The trouble with this is in a finite world with limited resources how much change is too much?

Humans are, without a doubt, the number one reason for the rapid decline of biodiversity and natural resources found on earth’s surface; which is quite obvious and requires little explanation. Mans number one concerns is to meet his own basic needs. With the number of people on the planet exponentially increasing each year, hunter-gatherer instincts become greater. The earth no longer has enough resources to sustain its population, and obtaining those basic needs translates to survival of the fittest.

The earth’s ecosystem is broken down into four basic parts the lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere; or in Layman’s terms earth’s rock, species, water, and air. All four of these parts work together and are essential in supporting the earth’s existence as well as our own. But through expansion of cities, agriculture, industry, commerce, and food we are depleting our world of goods before it can regenerate them.

There are five major ways in which we directly influence the earth’s decline:

-Deforestation

-Soil Erosion

-Hunting/Fishing/Meat Farming

-Pollution

-Overuse of Natural Resources

With close to 7 billion people occupying the earth and only a limited amount of inhabitable land, deforestation has become our best option for making space but lose of forests means change in climate and weather cycles. Fewer trees mean more carbon dioxide emissions released into the air. An increase in CO2 levels causes the earth’s surface temperature to rise. Rising temperatures create more weather fronts and more precipitation annually. Without tree’s on the ground to absorb the rain soil becomes dispersed. As soil is eroded by wind, water, and overgrazing the earth cannot replenish the mineral and rock quick enough to keep up with human supply and demand. Without the adequate nutrients, the soil cannot support plant growth. Fewer crops equal more hungry people. When the lithosphere can no longer provide humans with the basic nutritional necessities, we find new ways to produce large quantities of food.

Gaming, fishing, and animal farming are three of the biggest industries in the world as they supply us with meat. The biggest concern connected to these two areas is overexploitation. As of 1995, 22% of recognized marine fisheries were overexploited or already depleted (Lubchenco, Melillo, Mooney, and Vitousek, 495). With billions of consumers’ world wide, large quantities of fish, livestock, and pork must be slaughtered daily to feed the masses. In such an industrial based society we have discovered ways to do so in a short and timely manor. But just as we are depleting our land we are depleting our earth’s biodiversity as well. In 1997, 11% of the remaining birds, 18% of the mammals, 5% of the fish, and 8% of plant species on earth were extinct (Lubchenco, Melillo, Mooney, and Vitousek, 498). And while extinction is a natural process, the current rates at which we see the variations in animal and plant populations diminishing continues to rapidly increasing each year.

If it’s not people directly killing these plants and animals, then it’s pollution. Since most of the world’s population can be found in a consumer based society, industrial modernization is the driving force behind many of these issues. No longer is globalization about “bettering the society as a whole”; rather it is about bettering one’s self through wants and desires. Almost every single day a new technological item is released onto the market and as theory states a good consumer spends. With more people to please then resources available; more factories, energy sources, and industrial activity is required. Production creates toxins, and these toxins are released into our atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere essentially destroying all of our finite resources.

In order to survive humans need to work the earth and in exchange expect to get some return from the earth as well. Therefore it is vital that we establish a plan to decrease the amount of natural resources we use and ultimately alter. With food, water, and air being key factors of human existence, the more we abuse the limited resources we have the more we are contributing to human demise. Our major natural resources consist of air, plant and animal life, oil, forestry, soil, and fresh water. With humans polluting the air, eliminating species, leveling forests, and eroding soil; that leaves us with fresh water and oil.

3% of earth’s water is fresh the remaining 97% is salt water and is not suitable to drink. Fresh water comes from precipitation, but only 30% of the earth’s freshwater is in liquid form. The other 70% is icecaps. With such minimal amounts of freshwater at our disposal, it is alarming to think that 70% of our available freshwater is used on agriculture and the rest is divided amongst the population. You would think with such astonishingly small quantities of water at our hands that people would use up their share sparingly. The average person uses 123 gallons of water daily, so clearly this is not the case (Lubchenco, Melillo, Mooney, and Vitousek, 497).

Water must be filtered and heated, factories need power to manufacture goods, machinery must be fueled to operate, and humans must get around through transportation to survive. All of these facets release harmful emissions and all of these elements require oil to function. Oil is found deep within the earth’s crust and was created from the remains of plants and creatures. In order to become crude oil these remains have endured heat and pressure from the weight of the earth over millions of years. As humans, we are unable to reconstruct such pressure and unable to determine how much more oil the earth has left. Our only option is to become less dependent on oil and discover alternative options.

Human environmental interaction is inevitable. As long as we are around and continuing to reproduce we need the earth to supply us with natural resources. The key to understand the interdependence between humans and earth begins with realizing that our world is finite and these basic necessities are limited. The earth will not always be able to meet human needs and in turn some modifications must be made. When adaptations are successful, the relationship between people and the physical environment results in positive growth. When these adjustments are excessive, the process of interaction between humans and the physical environment results in human decline. Understanding is the first step in identifying the opportunities and limitations presented by the earth, and as conscious consumers we need to determine the contexts within which we will modify our own personal usage of resources to ensure that there will be plenty of supplies left to support future generations.

Case Study: Phytoplankton

What is phytoplankton?

Phytoplankton are plant organisms that live in the water and which produce organic compounds from inorganic molecules through the process of photosynthesis. Essentially, these organisms acts like land plants by producing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide (http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/p/phytoplankton.htm).
Sunlight is crucial to phytoplankton's production of oxygen (through the process of photosynthesis), therefore these organisms live in the surface waters of oceans and lakes, in both fresh and salt waters (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Phytoplankton/).
Phytoplankton are vital to the food web in all water environments/ ecosystems; they are the base of the food chain for aquatic animals ranging from microscopic zooplankton to some of the largest whales in the oceans.

- Responsible for much of oxygen present in Earth’s atmosphere (1/2 of total amount produced by all plant life)
- Slowly declining annual numbers of about 1% per year in total population
- As of 2010 is equivalent to a 40% decrease in population since 1950
- Growth depends on amount of CO2, sunlight, and nutrients. (nitrate, phosphate, silicate, and calcium at various levels.... water temp?... water depth, wind, and predators)
- Life span = a few days
What chain reaction would result from the decline of phytoplankton in the world?
-A decline in phytoplankton in the Earth’s waters would greatly affect larger systems in our world. Not only would a large portion of the base of the food chain decline, but so too would a vast amount of carbon dioxide absorption and oxygen production.
- Because phytoplankton are at the base of the food chain in the ocean environment, a decline in their existence would severely affect the rest of the food chain, including humans (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100728131705.htm).
- Whales and small fish eat plankton... Then, bigger fish eat smaller fish etc.
- Chain continues on to humans eventually (we eat fish)
- Without plankton smaller fish and crustaceans would be out of a food source and die causing a linear chain reaction of death and extinction of bigger fish and other mammals
- Ozone layer contribute to decline? Yes, by not absorbing all of the radiation and UV rays it kills off plankton because plankton are sensitive to the sun’s radiation
How would this effect the supply of oxygen on the Earth?

Plankton takes in Carbon Dioxide and gives off Oxygen (previously said) during their process of respiration, which they contribute for HALF of Earth’s oxygen in it’s atmosphere, directly affecting the survival of all living things on Earth.
A HUGE loss of oxygen in the atmosphere would be felt. An increase in Carbon Dioxide, which would cause an increase in temperature, causing a chain reaction of events leading to the struggle of survival of many of the Earth’s food chains.
If a drastic decline in plankton, there will be more CO2 in the air and less oxygen, meaning hotter temperatures. Resulting in contributions to global warming.

Effects that Ecosystems have on Humans

Introduction

· Changes in ecosystem services influence all components of human well-being, including the basic material needs for good life, health, social relations and freedom of choice and action.

· Humans are fully dependant on earth’s ecosystem and the services that they provide, such as food, clean water, disease regulation, climate change, spiritual fulfilment and aesthetic enjoyment.

Food Security

· Lack of conservation of the Earth natural ecosystems will affect the four dimensions of food security; food availability, accessibility, food utilisation and food systems stability.

· It will have an impact on human health, livelihood assets, food production and distribution channels, as well as changing, purchasing power and market flows.

· Its impacts will be both short term, resulting from more frequent and more intense extreme weather events, and long term, caused by changing temperatures and precipitation patterns.

· “The history of the world, me sweet, is who gets eaten and who gets to eat” Sweeney Todd.

· Unfortunately throughout the world there is already evidence of food wars gripping many nations as due to the decreasing numbers of crops harvested each year throughout the world many mouths are left hungry at dinner time.

· If we continue without hesitation to the lack of conservation of our earth’s natural resources some day it won’t be just underdeveloped countries that are left starving once night falls but our own too.

Water security

· Today the earth’s population is growing more and more everyday and is well over the 7 billion mark as it is today, however over 2 billion of the world’s population lives without clean drinkable and useable water each and every day. Furthermore predictions show that by the year 2025 ⅔ of the world’s population will face water security. The lacking concern for conservation of the earth’s natural resources brings us each day further and further towards the end of clean, drinkable water with the flick of a tap. The River Jordan is an example of the future of the earth’s natural conserves of fresh water and is slowly but surely drying up which affects the communities who live close by as they would use the water for drinking, washing and cooking. Over the past few decades, Israel, Jordan and Syria have diverted about 98% of the River Jordan and its tributaries for drinking water and agricultural use. Only 700 million to about 1billion cubic feet flows through the river today, a tiny fraction of the 45 billion cubic feet that used to surge through before the 1930s when the 1^st dam was built.

Environmental Damage

· As we see each year, the news discusses more and more damage through natural disasters; these disasters cause many problems for people throughout the world and consequently kill lots of citizens of areas that are affected.

· Climate change is linked in with the rise and severity of these natural disasters. Scientists at a conference in London in 2009 illustrated the links between climate change and natural disasters; they referenced the fact that rising outputs of “carbon dioxide from vehicles, factories and power stations will not only affect the atmosphere and the sea but will alter the geology of the earth”.

Consequences to Health

· Daily there come more and more evidence between the correlation of climate change and consequences to our health.

· Milder winters would reduce the normal seasonal peak mortality in some temperate developed countries and warming in drying of already hot countries would reduce the viability of mosquitoes.

· Modelling of climate change effects on cereal grain yields indicates a future world of regional winners and losers, with a 5–10% increase in the global number of underfed people.97 The conflicts and the migrant and refugee flows likely to result from these wider-ranging effects would, typically, increase infectious diseases, malnutrition, mental health problems, and injury and violent death. Future assessments of the health effects of climate change should attempt order-of-magnitude estimates of these more diffuse risks to health.

Consequences to the Economy

· Food security it is a vital need for all of us humans to survive; however going the way we are with little concern for the conservation of the earth’s natural resources. Climate change consequently affects the number of harvests per year, the number of local fisheries that are affected by the deaths of many fish, furthering the costs lost by the rising effects of climate change.

· Water security along with food security is a basic need for all of us to survive, not only us but the ecosystems themselves to survive. Rising sea levels and drainage of lakes, rivers and streams throughout the world. The dry ups of rivers and so on affects lots of people’s lives and subsequently costs lots of money to create sustainable livelihoods for those who cannot access clean drinkable water daily.

· As already shown climate change affects our earth and causes it to battle out against itself creating natural disasters, consequence in some times billions of pound worth of reparations to be made.

· Consequences to health are on obvious money burner due to the fact that it costs governments billion per year to supply medicine to help the common cold; a climate change magnifies health risks therefore again costing money to cure such illnesses.

Conclusion

· Conservation of the Earth’s Natural Resources and Biodiversity should be a vital part of each and every part of our day to day lives, examples that I’ve shown are only a few consequences of the fact that if we don't change there will be no need to change because there will be nothing to fix. The biggest hold back for creating change is money. Money money, money, is what controls our lives, what we eat, drink, how we work, were we live who we associate ourselves with, everything that we do revolves around money. Climate change is exactly the same, its money that has created all this damage to our planet, either starting with consumerism leading the way due to without the need to shop, shop, there would be no need for countless numbers of factories polluting our planet, countless numbers of brand new cars and other gadgets that send pollution into our atmosphere. The ecosystem provides over 30 billion pounds per year towards the economy of the planet and if governments worldwide were prepared to spend even a fraction of that per year we would be able to sustain a viable planet that we could live on with only a small few changes on our outlook to as how we live.

Why Ecosystems Collapse

* The world’s natural resource depletion is currently escalating “at a rate unprecedented in human history”. Growth in demand for raw materials, food and energy is having a devastating impact on the earth’s ability to sustain natural biodiversity and clean air

* Current global consumption levels have result in a large-scale ecosystem collapse, since more food is needed by living creations on the small available resources on the ecosystem

* Biodiversity suffers when the planet’s biocapacity cannot keep pace with human consumption and waste generation.

* Humanity is no longer living off nature’s interest, but drawing down its capital. This growing pressure on ecosystems is causing habitat destruction or degradation and permanent loss of productivity, threatening both biodiversity and human well-being

* The biodiversity loss was a result of resources being consumed faster than the planet could replace them

* Populations of species in terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems have declined by more than 30% since 1970, In the tropics the declines are even more dramatic, as natural resources are being intensively exploited for human use.

* Overfishing is a problem why ecosystem collapse, because if one fish is gone then the fish above it in the food chain won’t be able to eat that fish and it will mess up the food chain, thus degrading the system.

* It warned that if demand continued at the current rate, two planets would be needed to meet global demand by 2050.

The health of an ecosystem can, to a large extent, be judged by its level of biodiversity. While biodiversity is often thought of as the number of distinct organisms residing within an ecosystem - to understand the true role of ecosystem biodiversity we must look at the connections that exist between these organisms. An ecosystem is like a complex web of mutually beneficial relationships whereby each organism not only utilizes other parts of the ecosystem for its own preservation but its very existence contributes to the existence of other organisms in the relationship. Through this understanding of biodiversity we see the role of mutual dependency - the more connections that exist within an ecosystem the more resilient that ecosystem is to environmental change.

The concept of ecosystem collapse, then, enters in at a point in history where we have seen dramatic reductions in the level of earth’s biodiversity; and thus this relates to the health of ecosystems worldwide. In the United States alone we see 95% of all old growth forest now gone (through deforestation) & 99% of all native prairie also gone. Global fish stocks in the world’s oceans have been depleted to a dangerously unsustainable level - at current rates global fish stocks will have been depleted to an irrecoverable level before the end of the century. While these types of reductions are often viewed on a global scale, to understand their true affects we must examine ecosystems more locally.

Phenomenons such as eutrophication or the introduction of hazardous chemicals into an ecosystem can be massive points of stress in a localized ecosystem. These types of reductions of earth’s biodiversity have dramatic affects on the health of ecosystems. As reported by the Environmental News Network in 2001 this type of slow reduction of biodiversity within an ecosystem - this reducing of mutually supportive bonds between organisms can reach a point of breakdown or collapse (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/08/0807_ecollapse.html). In ecosystem collapse the bonds between organisms have been stressed to a point of such precariousness that “even the slightest disturbance can make them collapse” (Marten Scheffer, University of Wageningen). "Gradual changes in vulnerability accumulate and eventually you get a shock to the system, a flood or a drought, and boom, you're over into another regime. It becomes a self-sustaining collapse." (Stephen Carpenter, University of Wisconsin-Madison).

A poignant example of ecosystem collapse is the development of dead zones around the world. Even before the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a vast area within the gulf was unable to support life for several months a year. The collapse of this ecosystem and creation of a dead zone is caused primarily from agricultural runoff of nitrates flowing into the Mississippi. Nitrates in the gulf then cause massive algae blooms - effectively sucking all of the oxygen out of the gulf and depriving it of life for months on end. Without oxygen the variety of organisms and web of relations within gulf ecosystem collapses causing a dead zone.

A critical concept related to ecosystem collapse is carrying capacity - the level of life that an ecosystem can sustainably support. Reductions to an ecosystem’s carrying capacity that lead to collapse often are caused by a disastrous event occurring on a relatively short time line. Considering the millions of years required to develop the degree of biodiversity here on earth, might the unprecedented changes made by humans in the last century as a result of the industrial revolution lead to a global ecological collapse?

Scientists argue that just as depletion of biodiversity can lead to collapse, ecosystems often rebound given sufficient resiliency. Augmentation of ecosystem biodiversity may indeed have opposite affects to its depletion. Alan Weisman describes in his book The World Without Us ecosystems that have been allowed to undergo this process. On the island of Crete in the Mediterranean an area of land prohibited to access by humans has rebounded with astounding speed - quite thoroughly reestablishing its level of biodiversity. These are the stakes. What are we as global citizens to do about it?