Biodiversity in earth’s ecosystem is one of the most affected whenever disasters, especially the ones that are results of humans’ neglectful acts take place (Dennison, 2009). By definition, an ecosystem is basically a community composed of both living and non-living things regardless of their size. Some concrete examples of ecosystems are the Sahara Desert and basically all the natural forests (e.g. rainforests) and protected areas in the entire planet—all of these could be considered as an ecosystem as long as they could generate and sustain life.
Ecosystems and rainforests serve an important role in sustaining life because there are certain laws in an ecosystem that even humans with the latest technologies could not change. A perfect example of such laws would be the energy flow or the cycle of nutrients in an ecosystem. Energy initially comes from the sun. The energy from the sun is then used by producers (perfect examples are plants). The energy is then transferred to consumers (usually animals including humans). Next in line would be the decomposers. As the energy from the sun, the producers and the consumers flow to their recipients, a certain percentage of energy is lost in the form of heat.
Now our existence as humans have evidently affected the way how the ecosystem works and operates. It may even seem that everything is not occurring naturally anymore because have basically altered almost everything that we could see in the ecosystems. The nitrogen cycle, the water cycle, the food chain and the energy cycle, these are just few examples of the mechanisms in the ecosystems that could already be considered not normal. Droughts and an increasing conversion of fertile soils to deserts is most likely a result of improper and aggressive farming. Frequent occurrence of acid rains is evidence that the water cycle have been affected. These are concrete examples how negative the impact of human acts towards nature and ecosystems are.
Natural disasters such as flash floods, increased sea levels and even high intensity earthquakes could usually be triggered if the destruction of rain forests will continue. Animals will start to lose their habitats and along the process, especially when they are already limited to live in a relatively smaller area, they will lose some important skills and function such as hunting and portaging for food (for both herbivores and carnivores). Changes in cell structure and function could not immediately be anticipated because they are not usually evident and could only take place over the course of a few generations. Biomechanical reactions such as a reaction of an organism to fast-changing temperatures brought about by global warming could however be observed.
Works Cited
Dennison, B. (2009). Natural Disasters Caused by Human Stupidity. Cracked.
