Human Impact and Biodiversity Questions 1. Biodiversity has economic and ecological value. What does economic value mean? What are some of the planet’s resources that humans use for economic gain? List 3 examples and explain how they have economic value. Economic value refers to the amount of money a resource is worth. Trees can be cut down and processed to sell paper and lumber, plants are grown and harvested to mass produce and sell medicine, coal is harvested/extracted and burned to fuel power plants for electricity. 2. What does ecological value mean? Use keystone species in your answer and explain what it means. Ecological value refers to how much a resource helps the organisms in an ecosystem survive. Species depend on each other for food, shelter and survival. A keystone species is a plant or animal that plays a unique and crucial role in the way an ecosystem functions. Without keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. A keystone species holds a lot of ecological value in that ecosystem because many organisms depend on that species for their survival. 3. Biodiversity provides different types of variety to our planet. What are the three types of variety? Explain what each of the 3 types mean. Genetic: Organisms in the same species have different traits because they have different genes. Species: There are many different species of plants, animals and microorganisms in one ecosystem. Ecosystem: There are many different ecosystems in the biosphere. 4. What is an ecosystem service? Provide three examples of different types of ecosystem services that our planet provides and explain how each of them makes life possible for humans. An ecosystem service is a benefit that ecosystems provide to support life and maintain balance on this planet. Climate stabilization is a service that ecosystems provide by balancing the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere via plants so that organisms can survive. Decomposition is the process that breaks down waste material and cycles essential nutrients (carbon, nitrogen) back into the environment so that organisms can grow and survive. Pollination is the process of transferring pollen to ensure fertilization that leads to the creation of new seeds. This continues plant reproduction for food and oxygen that all organisms depend on. 5. Explain what a disturbance in an ecosystem is. What are the two main causes of disturbances? Provide 2 examples of each cause of an ecological disturbance. A disturbance is any event that causes a change or disruption in an environment. Disturbances can be caused naturally, such as fire or earthquakes. Disturbances can be caused by human impact, such as habitat destruction and pollution. 6. What are the four main effects of a disturbance in the environment? Explain what each one means. Extinction: Death of a species Migration: Movement of a species out or in Speciation: The evolution of a new species Succession: Observed changes and development over time (Within any ecological community some species may become less or more abundant over time in response to change. This observed change over time in what is living in a particular ecosystem is ecological succession) 7. After a disturbance occurs, there can be negative and positive effects due to the changes in the ecosystem. Explain how there can be negative and positive affects in an ecosystem. Use the word biodiversity in your answer. Healthy ecosystems that have a lot of biodiversity are resilient and have the ability to bounce back from a disturbance. Biodiversity is dependent on natural disturbances for survival, limiting competition, and allowing for new growth. Disturbances can actually be used to preserve or even increase biodiversity in an environment. The effects of a disturbance depend on what kind of disturbance it is, how it is measured, and which species are in the community when it occurs. 8. What does ecological succession mean? How is this connected to an ecological disturbance? Ecological succession is the observed process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. Succession is initiated by some type of disturbance, such as a fire, habitat destruction, or flooding of an existing community. 9. What is the CHIPPO acronym used to describe? Explain what each letter means and provide an example of each. CHIPPO is an acronym used to describe human impact on the biosphere. Climate Change: Global warming caused by burning fossil fuels and contributing to the abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (CO2) Habitat Destruction: Humans destroying habitats for economic or personal gain (deforestation, conversion of land to agriculture) Invasive Species: Introducing a plant or animal that is not native to a specific location; and has a tendency to spread, which is believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy and/or human health. An example is the Emerald Ash Beetle which threatened biodiversity and destroyed ash trees. Pollution: Introduction of contaminants into the environment. There are many types of pollution including air, soil, water, noise, light and littering. Population: The overpopulation of humans which impacts the demand and consumption of natural resources on the planet. Overexploitation: Exploitation means making money off of the earth’s resources. Plants can be overharvested and animals can be overhunted causing numbers to get critically low and possibly become extinct, this is called overexploitation. 10. Explain how the increase in human population affects Earth’s natural resources. As the human population has grown, our demands for the Earth’s resources have grown. Resources are limited and eventually the population will be too large for Earth to support. 11. Explain the difference between resources that humans need and resources that humans desire and provide an example of each. Humans need resources for survival such as water, food, shelter and medicine. Humans have desires for comfort, luxury, and leisure. These desires have lead to many new inventions that make our lives more convenient, more glamorous, and more entertaining, like automobiles, jewelry, and technology. Making and operating these products requires resources from the biosphere like fossil fuels, precious metals, and rare earth metals. 12. What are two ways that humans can ensure the survival and abundance of Earth’s resources? We need to restore and preserve our ecosystems, reduce waste, conserve energy and reuse/recycle materials. We also need to make and invent technologies that limit the disturbance on ecosystems 13. What have the advances in medicine and technology done for the human population and how does this impact the availability of resources? Advances in medicine and technology have improved human health and sanitation vastly improving the survival rate and doubling the average human lifespan. The human population continues to increase at an exponential rate, which means a larger demand for Earth’s resources.