GREAT BARRIER REEF
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the diversity of living organism that cohabits in an ecosystem. It is measured not only by the number of species that exist in one specific place but also by the number of Individuals that there's of ach species. Ecosystems are driven fragile by the biodiversity that lays in them; it's a cycle, and one step can destroy the whole process. Biodiversity is needed because every specie, plant, fungus, or animal is a part of the cycle of life and the disappearance of one can end with all the others.
The term was coined by E.O Wilson, a biologist who has greatly contributed to the description of what biodiversity is and how important is to conserve it.
Conflict. Biodiversity loss.
It doesn't only have a natural importance for us, but we are also affected because many communities and people directly depend on the biodiversity of a place. For example, the disappearance of some species could trigger a chain effect that wiped out the nourishment of whole communities; and the disappearance of a species of bees would lead to horrible disasters in agriculture and massive loss of food resources.
So biodiversity it's incredibly important in our lives and if we don't really realize in our daily life. And it's maybe our lack of consciousness in this topic that makes loss of biodiversity such a huge problem as it's been increasing and all because of us.
Causes and Consequences of Biodiversity loss
As with many other changes in the Earth, human is the main reason of biodiversity loss. We talk about biodiversity loss as the disappearance of one or more species in a determinate habitat. The causes of this loss can be summarized in order of the impact over biodiversity with the acronym HIPPO which stands for: Habitat loss, Invasive species, Pollution, human over-Population and Overharvesting by hunting and fishing.
HABITAT LOSS:
Each species has evolved to survive in a specific habitat, with a series of characteristics in some cases found seldom times. Is for that, that the destruction of these habitats also ends with those species that could only survive in that specific habitat, becoming a cause of biodiversity loss. Clear examples are deforestation produced when looking for agriculture land or urbanization; and also the urbanization of marine places.
The first one clearly destroys any kind of habitat that was there before; in the second exemple the habitat can be altered enough to make it impossible to live for some species.
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Without the human being, species follow a routine, stay in the place that they belong to and create a natural cycle. But humans with their travels and doing have disrupted this equilibrium by moving species to places they don’t belong to, introducing predators for species that weren’t endangered before, obliging them to either adapt or disappear.
POLLUTION:
The effects of pollution are endless and they can affect a great amount of species. Pollution can alter the temperature of some habitats, making it inhabitable; or the chemicals thrown by factories, in liquid or solid state, can arrive to different animals and plants killing them instantly.
HUMAN OVER-POPULATION:
The number of people on the earth currently is unsustainable. It’s technically impossible to feed the 7 billon humans living on Earth without creating a huge impact in our planet. Not only we are ending with the predators and their food, we are also the ultimate conquerors. We are rapidly making ours every piece of solid ground and adapting it to our liking, completely ignoring the species that habited the place before to set up a place to live for each of us. We’ve totally forgot that we aren’t alone in the world and that we actually need our cohabitants to survive.
OVERHARVESTING:
As we’ve said, the Earth has to deal with a too great amount of humans. We are ending with Earth resources faster than they can be replaced. By consuming so many resources, the number of them decreases as they can’t grow at our pace and, with no too much time, they can become extinct. Overharvesting can be the cause of different species, therefore, of biodiversity loss.