Benefits to ecosystem include climate and water regulation; the creation and protection of soils, helping to reduce floods and soil erosion, shoreline protection, and providing natural controls of agricultural pests, all of which promote creative evolution.
Biological diversity or Biodiversity is the very heart of our environment. It is the total richness of all the living forms and life processes of our planet. It is the web of life that includes the full-range of ecosystem, their component species, and the genetic variety of those species produced by nature or shaped by men. It includes plants and animals and the processes and inter-relationships that sustain these components. Plants absorb and convert nutrients from the soil in order to grow. In turn, they produce oxygen for humans and animals. Insects, birds, and other pollinators feed on nectar from flowers; and in so doing also cross-fertilize flowers.
Today, biodiversity is fast becoming endangered by modern development and by the sheer pressures and demands of the growing human population. Our wasteful and inefficient consumption patterns also affect the environment that nourishes us. Eating too much meat, for one, requires more resources to raise animals. Consuming endangered animals to satisfy our cravings causes species decline. Using non-recyclable food containers affect the environment, as well. The choices we make in our daily consumption of food and other goods have an ecological footprint and often, larger ramifications that we are unaware of.
What threatens biodiversity?
• Habitat loss and Degradation: activities such as urban expansion, logging and shoreline modification modify the landscape so that fewer organisms can survive there. : non-native species that aggressively compete with native plants and animals can drastically alter the landscape. Dense plant monocultures, for example, provide little habitat or food for local animals.
• Pollution: chemical and sewage pollution can be directly toxic to many plants and animals, and can modify the oxygen and nutrient content of the air and water.
• Climate change: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a consortium of hundreds of climate scientists around the world, believe that humans are likely contributing to an overall increase in global temperature.(5) This threatens many animal and plant species that will probably not be able to adapt fast enough.
• Excessive hunting, fishing and “pest control”: some of the animals threatened by these actions include bison, whales, seals, wolves, ground squirrels and a large percentage of the world’s fish species. Chemicals used to control pest can often harm non-target species, and contaminate food and water.
Evidence of man’s dependence is everywhere. The introduction of invasive alien species into ecosystem affects indigenous species. A classic example is the case of the janitor fish which infested the Philippines’ Laguna Lake, and disrupted balance in its ecosystem. Ecosystem diversity is also threatened. For example, in southeastern Vancouver Island, over 92% of the land base consists of “modified,” landscapes.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) notes in a video that:
• 1 bird out of 8,
• 1 mammal out of 4,
• 1 conifer out of 4,
• 1 amphibian out of 3, and
• 6 marine turtles out of 7, are all threatened with extinction
In addition,
• 75% of genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost
• 75% of the world’s fisheries are fully or over exploited
• Up to 70% of the world’s known species risk extinction if the global temperatures rise by more than 3.5°C
• 1/3rd of reef-building corals around the world are threatened with extinction
• Every second a parcel of rainforest the size of a football field disappears
• Over 350 million people suffer from severe water scarcity
Based on scientific data collected from across the globe, it revealed that more than a third of the natural world has been destroyed by human activity in just over the past three decades, because of, among others, increased emissions of green house gases into the ecosystem. Unless consumption of natural resources was cut and the destruction of vital ecosystems was stopped, human life and that of thousands of other animals and plants would not be sustainable hence the suggestion that the earth itself could be extinct by 2050. In short, the demise of biodiversity will be the death of life on earth, as we know it.
Why do we need to save the ecosystem?
We need to save the ecosystem because we are a part of the ecosystem. All things in the ecosystem are related and dependent on all of the other parts. We thus need to save the ecosystem that supports us in order to save ourselves from the damage we did to the environment that gives us our food, clothing and shelter. If one ecosystem is thrown off balance it causes a domino affect down the food chain/web. We need to maintain a balance.
Sources:
http://greenoptions.com/tag/ecosystems
http://planetsave.com
http://www.globalissues.org
http://www.aseanbiodiversity.org
