How do humans impact biodiversity

In this manner, the increase in agricultural land actually harms our agricultural future. Human actions have also played a role in climate change, which is also causing great danger for biodiversity. The change in climate is due to increased atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, which causes increased land and ocean temperatures, and changes in precipitation and sea level rise.

With the change in climate also comes a change in species. Climate affects the timing of reproduction and migration, the length of growing seasons, species distributions and population size, and the frequency of pest and disease outbreaks.

It is also expected that the change in climate in the 21 st century will have a much higher rate than the past 10, years and create an even bigger impact on biodiversity Climate , It is expected that 80 percent of biologically rich regions will suffer great losses of plant and animal species because of global warming. The rate of change of habitats is expected to increase up to ten times due to global warming Sherbinin , Biodiversity affects everyone to varying degrees.

People that live in poverty depend heavily upon nature to provide them with resources to live. In third world countries logging has become a common activity of the poor.

It is a huge problem in many developing countries because it is destroying natural habitats, yet it seems to be one of the only ways that people can make enough money to support their families. The New York Times recently ran an article about individuals in Malawi illegally cutting down trees in order to make enough money for food. One individual states, "We have no money to raise our families. We have nowhere to run, nothing else to do. So we have to cut the trees to feed our families.

The current rate of deforestation in Malawi is 2. Wines , The degradation of the environment will affect both poor and industrialized nations. However, The developing nations will be the ones that are affected the most by the degradation of the environment by increasing poverty, reducing labor productivity, and exacerbating the current economic social crisis Mapping , Developing nations do not have the resources to help their citizens find an alternative to use nature for survival.

Educating individuals in developing countries about the need to preserve biodiversity is a must for ensuring human survival. Educating locals on the impact people are making on the environment and showing people how they can live in equilibrium with nature, will help preserve biodiversity without causing further oppression.

Many times individuals do not realize that there are alternative ways of obtaining money that do not put the environment into jeopardy. For example, in the case in Malawi , if the locals were to obtain honey from beehives found in the forests they would be able to make more money than they would by selling wood Wines , General education in developing countries is very important to biodiversity even if it does not focus directly on sustainable living.

There have been significant studies that have shown that educating and empowering women lead to a decrease in birthrates which would make a huge impact on population growth, especially since developing nations have a higher birthrate compared to industrialized nations. Simply educating individuals, all individuals, not just impoverished ones, about their impacts on biodiversity is a step in the right direction. Eldredge , Governmental Actions. Although there are actions individuals can make that can assist in helping the biodiversity problem, it is important for governments to take actions that will provide a larger scale effect on saving biodiversity.

The George W. Bush administration is not known for protecting the environment. President Bush has eliminated the roadless rule, which was a rule that kept logging and roads from being present in 60 million acres of national forests.

Bush has also cut 42 million acres of critical habitat from the 83 million acres that are needed for threatened and endangered species.

There has been a great decrease in the amount of designated wilderness in the United States. Bush designated , acres as wilderness areas compared to 9. There has also been a decrease in the number of species that were added to the endangered species list; Bush has added 31 species, Reagan , Bush Senior , and Clinton Wetsone et al.

Bush made another decision against the environment by not ratifying the Kyoto protocol. The Kyoto protocol is a treaty that agrees to manage climate change on earth by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere or to employ emissions trading when governments provide an incentive for individuals to reduce the amount of emissions Kyoto , Al Gore signed the Kyoto protocol in , however this agreement was not binding until it was ratified Kyoto Protocol A , , Kyoto Protocol B The United States has agreed to reduce their carbon intensity to 18 percent by ; however, this is actually an increase in overall emissions Kyoto Protocol A , The goal of RGGI is to bringing the northeast region of the United States together to discuss a regional cap-and-trade program that deals with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses emissions that are released from their power plants.

The cap and trade program works by allowing a certain amount of emissions from each company, but if a company has been able to limit its emissions and has not reached the maximum level allowed, they are able to sell the permits for the emissions to companies who cannot keep within their maximum allowance for emissions Regional , RGGI will cap the program by taking the average emission between the years of to and not allowing a greater amount than this average to occur from to Although there is much evidence that the Bush administration does not truly care about the environment, they have made a few contributions that are beneficial to the environment.

There are two ways in which debt for nature swaps can occur. The first way is through bilateral debt swap, which occurs between the two governments. The second way is through commercial debt swap, this occurs when a nongovernmental organization purchases the debt at a discount from the creditor government. The nongovernmental organization then organizes the conservation project with the debtor government.

World Wildlife , Biodiversity is an issue that affects everyone and therefore everyone should be aware of their effect on biodiversity. As biodiversity decreases on earth, so do the chances of human survival. Therefore, it is important to educate people on living in equilibrium with the environment. It is also important to make sure that the government is making laws that will ensure biodiversity for the future and not focus on shortsighted economics. If humans become extinct, it will likely be a result of their own action or lack of action.

Hopefully humans will realize this before it is too late. Climate Change and Biodiversity. Dobson, A. Conservation and Biodiversity. They are often fed on wild fish, reducing their populations. Sometimes fish can escape and compete with indigenous wild species and compete for resources, resulting in reduced biodiversity.

Predators of the fish such as sea lions can become trapped in the nets and die. A non-indigenous species does not live in an area and may be introduced by humans for a particular purpose such as removal of pest species or for hunting. However, the new species may out-compete or kill indigenous or naturally occurring species. These may be reduced in number, resulting in reduced biodiversity or maybe extinction.

One example is the introduction of cane toads to Australia. Cane toads are native to South and Middle America but were introduced into Australia in the s to control pests that ate sugar cane, an important crop.

Ecol Evol , 3, Smart cookie preferences. Change cookie preferences Accept all cookies. Skip to content. Human impacts on biodiversity. Deforestation Deforestation of Brazilian rainforest in , taken by satelite. Project summary Focus: to model the response of biodiversity to environmental changes caused by human activity Funding: NERC. We are modelling environmental changes caused by human activity. The main threats facing biodiversity globally are: destruction, degradation and fragmentation of habitats reduction of individual survival and reproductive rates through exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species.

Publications Hudson, L. Biodiversity research We are creating molecular and digital tools to explore undiscovered biodiversity. Diversity and informatics research Researching undiscovered diversity in megadiverse systems using big data.