make a claim using evidence that a provisioning ecosystem service has been devalued as a result of human activities.
Answers
Ecosystem encompasses all living things (animals, plants and microorganisms) and non-living things (earth, climate, soil, sun, weather, and atmosphere). All these components make up the environment and they are critical for the natural and normal functions of all the activities on the planet. In short, they are the foundations of the ecosphere and influence the health of all the systems on earth.
For example, ecosystems determine the niche played by each and every organism and how they interact with the non-living things such as water, light, air and climate. It’s otherwise said to be an intricate and interconnected system where living and non-living things function.
balance. This article outlines various human activities affecting an ecosystem.
Various Human Activities That Affect an Ecosystem
1. Agriculture
With the ever increasing number of the world’s population, there is similarly a soaring demand for sufficient food. The population growth rate is hence driving the world to clear forests in order to create more room for agriculture. Based on data by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 40% of earth’s surface now supports agriculture, and a bigger fraction of these lands were formerly covered by forests.
Destruction of wildlife: Forests are critical habitats for wildlife and as ecosystems supporting the intricate relationship between living and non-living things, they have been adversely affected by agricultural practices. A larger percentage of Europe, for example, was densely covered with temperate forests but with time it has been cleared to make room for farm land.
Global warming and climate change: Population growth-influenced deforestation is to blame for three billion tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere each year which is equivalent to the destruction of 13 million hectares of land annually as put forward by Union of Concerned Scientists. This rate of deforestation affects the ecosystem by raising global temperatures and disrupting the cycle of condensation and evaporation
2. Plastic production
The invention of plastic has created one of the most problematic pollution problem ever witnessed on the face of earth. Waste plastic is everywhere on earth even in the oceans. Plastics remain in the environment for thousands of years and have long-lasting consequences on the fragile ecosystems and regulatory cycles.
3. Emission of Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gases
The emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases namely methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are human induced through combustion of fossil fuels and the use of man-made products. In a bid to generate energy, the world has continued to depend on carbon-rich fossil fuels namely gas, oil and coal.
4. Destruction of the reefs
Ocean reefs are the globe’s richest oceanic ecosystems but human activities have led to their destruction by upsetting the natural flow of nutrients and energy that support plant and animal species in the marine world. Water pollution, climate change, overfishing and acidification of marine waters are the repercussions of human activities that have caused the destruction of coral reefs.
5. Production of Black carbon
Black carbon particles have been generated by human activities for hundreds and hundreds of years. Black carbon particles are materials emitted into the atmosphere as smoke and are produced from cooking with solid animal fuels, burning firewood, diesel car exhausts, and the burning of trees. The presence of these particles in the atmosphere creates a heat-absorbing layer that gives rise to increased global temperatures, thus compounding the global warming effect.
Explanation:
An ecosystem consists of the living and non-living things that interact with one another in a particular location.
Unfortunately, ecosystems do not always remain valued.environmental stress occurring over a relatively short period of time and causing large changes in the affected ecosystem. Disturbance can result from natural causes or from the activities of humans.
Humans also cause physical disturbances, for example, through construction activities. Wildfire is a type of chemical disturbance caused by the rapid combustion of much of the biomass of an ecosystem and often causing mortality of the dominant species of the community such as trees in the case of a forest fire. Wildfires can ignite naturally, usually through a lightning strike, or humans can start the blaze.
Sometimes fires are set deliberately as a management activity in forestry or agriculture. Events of unusually severe pollution by toxic chemicals, nutrients, or heat may also be regarded as a type of disturbance if they are severe enough to result in substantial ecological damages. Disturbance can also be biological, as when a severe infestation of defoliating insects causes substantial mortality of trees in a forest, or of crops in agriculture. The harvesting of forests and other ecosystems by humans is another type of biological disturbance.
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