Human influences on ecosystems

Food supply
Modern technology has dramatically increased food supply:
• Agricultural machinery: to use in larger land areas and improve
efficiency
• Chemical fertilizers: to improve yields
• Insecticides: to improve crop quality and yield
• Herbicides: to reduce competition with weed
• Selective breeding: to improve production by crop plants and livestock
Monocultures and livestock production
Large scale mono-cultures of crop plants
Monoculture farming means that on a given agricultural land is grown only
one species of a crop at a time. If two or more species are sown in the field
together (for example beans and corn), it is not a monoculture but a
polyculture system.
The continuous production of one type of genetically identical crop.
The main benefits of monoculture farming are:
• Easier to manage
• More efficient
• Promotes technological advances in agriculture
• Offers higher earnings
The disadvantages of monoculture farming are:
• Reduced diversity in ecosystem
• Increased pests
• Problems associated with insecticides
Negative Impacts of Large-scale Monoculture
• If a natural disaster occurs, the whole crop could be wiped out.
• If pests & diseases attack crops, they could harm them easily
• Using large fields and pesticides reduces the variety of species. This
hinders biodiversity.
• When insecticides are used persistently, the pests may eventually
become resistant to them, reducing their effectiveness
Negative Impacts of Intensive Livestock Production

• Welfare issues for the livestock

• Diseases can spread easily among them
• Waste can pollute land and waterways nearby
Intensive live stock production
Livestock farming involves the rearing of animals for food and other human
uses, such as producing leather, wool and even fertilizer. This type of farming
primarily applies to cattle or dairy cows, chickens, goats, pigs, horses and
sheep.
The benefits of intensive livestock production are:
• Helps the economy and the agricultural industry
• Provides food security
The disadvantages of are:
• Easier spread of disease
• Welfare issues of livestock i.e. living in confined space
Providing sufficient food for the world population
Famine is an extreme scarcity of food. There are various factors as to why it
exists today:
• Uneven distribution of food
• Drought/flooding
• Poverty
• Increasing population
• Social implications
• Strategic plans that incorporate population concerns such as population
growth, distribution and rural-urban migration patterns are crucial
• Community development strategies which integrate essential social
services as well as production resources should be encouraged
• Economic implications
• Financial support must be given to research on the integration of
technologies for food production.
• Environmental implications
 •Reducing soil erosion and impoverishment, deforestation, falling
agricultural output, and poor water management should be
implemented,
Habitat destruction
Animal habitat destruction is a big issue that exists today. Whilst habitats
can be destroyed naturally i.e. tsunami, earthquakes etc, a lot of it cause
solely from human activity:
• Increased area for food crop growth, livestock production, and housing
• Extraction of natural resources (such as trees)
• Marine pollution
Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the
land available for other uses.
There are many undesirable effects of deforestation:
• Loss of habitat for animals living in the forest
• Reduction of food resources and breeding grounds of animals, potentially
leading to extinction
• Soil erosion due to the lack of soil support from tree roots
• Less photosynthesis leading to increased atmospheric CO2 levels and thus
contributing to the greenhouse effect
• Reduction of rainfall due to less plants to transpire water in the water
cycle
Pollution
Pollution is the presence in or introduction into the environment of a
substance which has harmful or poisonous effects.
There are various causes of land and water pollution you need to be aware
of.
Land & water pollution
Insecticides
Insecticides are used to kill pests to enhance crop yields but they can often
also kill other harmless animals.
For example, DDT was used to kill mosquito’s but it also remained in the
environment and was absorbed into food chains resulting in bioaccumulation
which killed a lot of other good animals. DDT is now banned.
Herbicides
Herbicides are used to kill weeds and other unwanted crops to reduce
competition and increase crop yields.
Herbicides can get washed in water systems and kill aquatic plants which
result in a disruption of the food chain.
Nuclear fall-out
This is a leakage from a nuclear power station. Radioactive particles can get
carried into the environment and settle. Organisms then absorb these
particles which can result in cancer.
Chemical waste
Inorganic waste (i.e. nickel, aluminum, lead, mercury) that are dumped into
water bodies can lead to the bioaccumulation of these metals.
Plastics
Plastics can not only physically trap and harm animals, but they can
deteriorate into smaller pieces and be consumed by them too. To make
matters worse, toxic gases are produced when plastics are burned.
Untreated sewage
Sewage is untreated organic waste produced along with household and
industrial waste material.
Dumping untreated sewage into the environment can lead to a lot of
problems such as:
• Eutrophication
• Death of aquatic animals due to pathogens in the sewage
• Spread of water borne diseases which can infect people by drinking
polluted water
Eutrophication:
Eutrophication is the excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body
of water, frequently due to run-off from the land, which causes a dense
growth of plant life.
The stages of eutrophication are as follows:
1. Sewage or fertilizers somehow leak into a water body i.e. lake
2. Various things are present in sewage/fertilizers such as phosphates,
organic matter, bacteria
3. Phosphates promote algae growth while bacteria reproduce by feeding on
organic matter
4. Excessive algae forms a blanket on the water surface
5. Aquatic plants die due to the lack of light
6. As plants die, bacteria aerobically decompose dead matter
7. Oxygen supply becomes depleted and aquatic animals die
8. The entire food chain becomes disrupted
The treatment of sewage provides clean, drinkable water.
1. Large objects such as sticks are screened out
2. Suspended grit is allowed to settle in the grit settling chamber’
3. Organic matter is digested via the ‘sludge digester’ and allowed to settle
in the ‘sludge settling tank’
4. The remaining liquid goes into an aeration tank which contains stones
that have microorganisms on the surface to digest other remaining
organic matter
5. Water passes out and may be chlorinated to kill any remaining bacteria

Greenhouse effect (climate change)

Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that prevent infrared
radiation to pass through.
These gases are very important in maintaining the surface temperature of
the earth.
Examples of greenhouse gases are:
• Carbon dioxide
• Methane
• Chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs)
• Nitrogen oxides
• Water vapour
With industrial revolution we are now produced excessive amounts of
greenhouse gases. This leads to the enhanced greenhouse effect, where
more and more infra-red radiation is becoming trapped. This is resulting
unstable climate conditions which is causing harm to the entire globe.
Acid rain
Acid rain is rainfall made so acidic by atmospheric pollution that it causes
environmental harm.
Acid rain is caused by the release of nitrogen oxides and/or sulfur dioxides
into the atmosphere.
• Nitrogen oxides are made from the reaction of nitrogen + oxygen in high
temperatures of car engines
• Sulfur dioxide is release by coal factories, cars, and oil refineries
These two gases can react with rain water to produce acid rain.
Acid rain can do a lot of damage to the environment:
• Damages leaf cuticles and kills plants
• Acidifies lakes and kills aquatic animals
• Damages buildings made of limestone
• Aluminium ions are leached out of the soil and washed into watery bodies
Some solutions to reduce the incidence of acid rain may include:
• Using oil instead of coal (since coal contains more sulfur)
• Switching to more renewable resources of energy
• Using catalytic converters in cars (which removes nitrogen oxides from
car exhausts)
Conservation:
Extinction and endangerment of a species
Extinction is the dying out or extermination of a species. Some factors that
may cause extinction are:
• Climate change
• Habitat destruction
• Hunting
• Pollution
• Introduced species i.e. species that are not native to a particular location,
and has the tendency to spread and cause damage to the environment
An endangered species of animal or plant that is seriously at risk of
extinction.
Conservation of endangered species
It is important to conserve endangered species in order to prevent
extinction.
Conservation may involve:
• Monitoring and protecting habitats
• Education
• Captive breeding programes
• Seed banks
• Conservation programmes
Sustainable Resource: one which is produced as rapidly as it is removed
from the environment so that it does not run out
Some resources can be conserved and managed sustainably, limited to
forests and fish stocks.
1. Forests can be conserved using education, protected areas, quotas and
replanting.
2. Fish stocks can be conserved using education, closed seasons, protected
areas, controlled net types and mesh size, quotas and monitoring.
Natural Resources:
• Water: used to grow food, keep it clean, provide power, control fires, and
drink. We get water constantly through rainfall, but we use the planet’s
freshwater faster than it can be replenished.
• Fossil fuels must be conserved as they will soon run out; therefore, they
should be replaced with green energy.
Recycling:
• Water: water from sewage can be returned to the environment for
human use by sanitation and sewage treatment
• Paper: sent to special centres where it is pulped to make raw materials
for industry
• Plastic: fossil fuels, bottles →→ fleece clothing
• Metal: mining takes a lot of energy, so recycling saves energy
Species and habitats need to be conserved because:
• Organisms have value in themselves (ethical value)
• Value to medicine (new molecules from exotic plants = new drugs)
• Genetic resources are helpful to humans as well and are lost when
species disappear (DNA for genetic engineering)
• Each species has its role in its ecosystem; if it is removed, then the whole
ecosystem could collapse
• The use of artificial insemination (AI) and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in
captive breeding programmes
Endangered species:
• If the population size drops, variation decreases
• Endangered species can be conserved by monitoring and protecting
species and habitats, education, captive breeding programmes, and seed
banks
• Reasons for Conservation Programmes include:
o reducing extinction

o protecting vulnerable environments

o maintaining ecosystem functions by nutrient cycling and resource

provision, e.g. food, drugs, fuel and genes

o increase biodiversity