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Course: High school biology - NGSS > Unit 9
Lesson 2: Humans and biodiversityHumans and biodiversity
Review your understanding of humans and biodiversity in this free article aligned to NGSS standards.
Key terms
Term | Meaning |
---|---|
Biodiversity | The variety of life found in a particular area |
Endangered species | A species at risk of extinction in all or nearly all of its range, often due directly or indirectly to the impacts of human activity |
Ecosystem services | Benefits provided to humans by healthy ecosystems |
Ecosystem services and biodiversity
The quality of human life on Earth depends on ecosystems, which provide services that benefit our day-to-day lives. Some of these ecosystem services pass directly from the environment into human use and include resources such as food, medicine, and housing materials.
Other ecosystem services benefit humans more indirectly. Examples of these secondary benefits include protection from tropical storms by coastal dunes, or waste removal by established wetlands. Ecosystem services can also be categorized as ethical or aesthetic services, which provide recreational or inspirational value.
All of these ecosystem services are best provided by healthy ecosystems. One major contributor to an ecosystem’s health is its biodiversity, or the variety of life found in the ecosystem. This variety can be thought of in terms of the genetic diversity in its populations or the species diversity of its communities. The more biodiverse an ecosystem is, the more productive and resilient it is to change.
Human activity can negatively impact biodiversity
Human-induced changes to the environment—such as habitat loss, resource overexploitation, pollution, and climate change—often have major impacts on the organisms in ecosystems. These changes can put stress on species, forcing them out of their normal range or causing their numbers to decline. In some cases, a species’ existence may become critically threatened. In these endangered species, population sizes have reached such low levels that the species is at risk of extinction.
When species go extinct, ecosystems lose biodiversity. This decreases the complexity of ecosystem interactions, making ecosystems less resilient to disturbance. However, species don’t have to go extinct for biodiversity to decrease. When the number of individuals in a population decreases, the genetic variation in the population also decreases. This loss in genetic diversity results in populations that are less tolerant to future environmental changes, further perpetuating the decrease in biodiversity.
A loss of biodiversity within an ecosystem negatively affects the overall health of the ecosystem, which causes a decrease in the quantity and quality of the services provided by that ecosystem. This can put the quality of life that humans enjoy as a result of ecosystem services is at risk of decline.
What else should I know about humans and biodiversity?
Humans can help protect Earth’s biodiversity! There are many things humans can do on the individual, community, organization, and government level to help protect biodiversity. For example, by planting flowers, fruits, or vegetables in your garden that are native to your area, you not only help preserve local biodiversity among plantlife but also help sustain biodiversity among the insects that rely on these plants for food.
Keep researching and talking with your family, teachers, and friends to come up with more ways that you can help preserve the amazing diversity of life on Earth.
Want to join the conversation?
- If humans took better car of its world and ecosystems it would better the world(7 votes)
- when will the next full moon be(5 votes)
- As of the time of this comment (December 13th, 2023), the next full moon will be on December 26th, 2023 at10:33pm EST.
Hope this helps!
-Izzy(3 votes)
- I believe that there will be feasible solutions in the future to solve human impact on the enviroment(5 votes)
- How about sticking to electric cars instead of the fuel ones?(2 votes)
- We still have to mine for those batteries which is just as harmful as using gas. There really is no win-win situation because both are very harmful to the environment.(5 votes)
- OOH OOH! I know! how about planting a gajillion trees? trees can take up carbon dioxide,right?(4 votes)
- Yep! As long as you make sure to plant a balance of native trees.(3 votes)
- Are there any more ways humans can help biodiversity and once one thing humans can stop doing to help?(4 votes)
- we need to find a new energy source, one that doesn't destroy the world. electricity won't work because we use fossil fuels to get it. Anyone have an idea?(3 votes)
- We could maybe eventually use solar energy for power if we could develop efficient enough stations for collecting it.(2 votes)
- How about a crazy ideas?:
Using storms for energy
Mining meteorites for unknown ore that could be used for friendly fuel
Tossing seeds in other countries from a hot air balloon
Invent Super Fertilizer that can make plants grow instantly(2 votes)- Okay, here is your replies:
1. Not possible, it is way too random and we don't have the technology to harvest lightning from storms.
2. Meteorites contain iron-like minerals, these could not be used for fossil-fuel based energy.
3. It is more efficient to hire people to plant them in places that are more habitable for plants, but it could be a good idea.
4. Impossible, it is not that easy to invent something that would supercharge all biological processes.
Happy Learning!(2 votes)
- Does any of you guys know about burcado was the first extinct animal to be cloned?(2 votes)
- Does any of you guys know about burcado was the first extinct animal to be cloned? maybe cloning and bringing back extinct speicies can solve the problem!(2 votes)
- or it could accidentally result in the creation of a horribly mutated species that takes over the planet and kills all human life 😳 nahh just joking, but i dont think that cloning is a very good idea with all of the things that could go wrong(1 vote)