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ECOLOGY II: HUMAN EFFECTS ON THE BIOSPHERE

Population age structure in industrialized countries


vs. developing countries
The average fertility rate required to achieve long term zero
population growth ( replacement fertility rate) is 2.1
The expansion of human population and affluence,
especially in the developing world harms natural
ecosystems
What is the biosphere?
The biosphere includes all regions of Earth where organisms live
!"#$%&'()$)-Lhe ocean, lce caps, oLher bodles of waLer, llquld and frozen.
*+,(%&'()$)-LarLhs ouLer, rocky layer
-,.%&'()$)-gases and alrborne parucles
What factors are studied when considering the biosphere?
Climate refers to the average weather conditions such as cloud cover,
temperature, humidity and wind speed over time
Biomes are areas of land characterized by their
climate and type of vegetation
Factors that cause differences in regional climates include wind and
ocean currents, intensity of sunlight, distribution of land masses
and seas, and elevation
Global climate change, a topic that includes global
warming, refers to the relatively abrupt shift in
weather patterns during the last hundred years
Carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants are
collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket,
trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up
Human activities are responsible for rising
concentration of greenhouse gas
The rise in average temperature effects on the earth's
climate patterns and on all living things.
1) Weather patterns change as consequence of global warming
higher temperatures could lead to increased droughts and
wildfires, heavier rainfall and a greater number of category 4 and 5
hurricanes.
2) Health problems associated with global warming include allergy
and asthma causes by smog pollution.
3) Increasing global temperatures are expected to disrupt
ecosystems, pushing to extinction those species that cannot adapt.
Approximately 20 to 30 percent of plant and animal species
assessed so far are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if
global average temperature increases by more than 2.7 to 4.5
degrees Fahrenheit.
The International Union of Conservation of Nature
reported that of 47,677 species analyzed, 36% were
threatened or endangered
Extirpation refers to the loss of a single population while extinction
means that all populations of a species have disappeared irreversibly
Population growth of humans has also cause the unintended
decline of biodiversity, the HIPPO acronym
H Habitat loss, including that caused by human-induced
climate change.
I Invasive species (harmful aliens, including predators,
diseases, and competitors that displace native species
P Pollution
P Population, Human overpopulation to be exact, a root
cause of the other four factors
O Overharvesting, Overuse (hunting,
fishing, gathering)
Habitat loss is the single greatest threat to biodiversity
throughout the biosphere
Desertification occurs when plowing or grazing removes plants and
exposes topsoil to wind erosion
Invasive species ranks second behind habitat loss as a
threat to biodiversity
Brown tree snakes came on cargo planes to Guam and fed on
exotic birds, three bird species are now extinct in the island
Overexploitation of wildlife by harvesting is another
major threat to biodiversity
Scientists estimate that we have removed as much as 90 percent of the
large predatory fish such as shark, swordfish and cod from the world's
oceans.
Pollution (Oil spills, human agricultural waste, fertilization,
pesticides, acid deposition, greenhouse gases etc.) caused
by human activities has a negative effect on biodiversity
When pollutants enter the food chain, top predators
most severely damaged
Biological magnification- the concentration of a chemical
increases as the the pollutant moves up the food chain
Conservation biology is a goal oriented science that seems
to understand and counter the loss of biodiversity
Biodiversity hotspots refers to relatively small areas that have a large
number of endangered and threatened species and endemic species,
those found nowhere else
Science In the News
Science NOW Magazine
Sea Turtles Suffer Collateral Damage From Fishing
More than 8 million sea turtles have died in the past 2 decades after
being accidentally caught by fishing vessels, a global analysis suggests.
The researchers identify the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Pacific
Ocean as particularly dangerous for sea turtles. Turtle deaths probably
are widely underreported, along coastlines with small-scale fishing.

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