The term biodiversity refers to the variety of existing organisms. Since the beginning of time, biodiversity has been surprising us with millions of species, and biodiversity has proven its value in preventing multiple threats to climate change, human health, etc. Unfortunately for us, there has recently been a huge decline in biodiversity. “Global biodiversity deteriorated rapidly over the last two hundred years and currently over 12,000 species are threatened with extinction.” Let’s dive right into the five main causes of this loss in biodiversity.
1. Climate Change
Increasing amounts of greenhouse gasses are polluting our air and are trapping the heat in our environment. The WWF’s 2020 Living Planet Report found that there has been an average 68% drop in mammal, bird, fish, reptile, and amphibian populations since 1970. On land, animals couldn’t handle the increasing temperatures, so they had to relocate to areas that may not support their way of life as their old habitats did. Every degree increase leads to an increased amount of organisms leaving their homes. Similarly in oceans, marine life are evacuating rapidly to escape the threatening heat. When they can't escape, they vanish. For instance, a celsius increase of 1.5 degrees results in 70% to 90% of coral reefs in an area vanishing.
2. Pollution
Vehicle emissions, burning of fossil fuels, and construction are all huge causes of pollution, which is a huge contributing factor to the loss of biodiversity. Multiple pollutants such as sulfur are seeping their way into soils, lakes, streams, and oceans as well as soils, intoxicating all organisms inhabiting those areas. Excess nitrogen in the atmosphere harms all kinds of plant life. Extra ozone in environments ruins the safety of many habitats, causing species to die out. Being exposed to ozone also harms plants in their production of roots, seeds, fruit and more. Chemicals in the air harm life in more ways than one by eliminating many species and then reducing food availability for others.
3. Overexploitation
It’s a fact that overexploitation has been a significant trigger in biodiversity’s decline. Activities such as overharvesting, overhunting, and overfishing lead to the extinction of so much wildlife. Due to overharvesting, many organisms are being poached for their natural resources, which are being used so extensively that their supply is rapidly diminishing, and their numbers are no longer sustainable. As for overhunting, organisms are being hunted at a faster rate than they can reproduce. Already, so many species such as wooly mammoths, Caspian tigers, and Dodos have gone extinct as a result of overhunting. Lastly overfishing has caused a drastic decline in aquatic animals. Overfishing has also led to the destruction of coral reefs, and reduction of food resources for other organisms. Overall, in just the Brazilian Amazon itself, hunting causes the death of more than 14 million animals per year.
4. Deforestation
Deforestation refers to the action of tearing down forests to use them for a new purpose. It has continuously proven to be extremely harmful to ecosystems, yet people continue to do it at larger scales. Forests are one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems, and deforestation is tearing many, many forests down. Organisms that live in these cut down areas no longer have a place to call home and have to relocate to places that may not meet all their needs, causing many of these animals to die. Many tree species have also been shown to permanently disappeared due to deforestation. It has been recorded that 80% of the world’s land biodiversity lives in forests , and they are now losing 137 species of organisms because of deforestation.
One similarity between climate change, pollution, overexploitation, and deforestation besides that they promote the loss of biodiversity is the fact that they occur because of humans and our actions. In order to preserve our beautiful environment and all its diversity, we need to make a change and think of our home.
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