Essays --

Enviro Geo 1 CP: Take Home Final Exam Unit One Review: Biodiversity A. What is biodiversity? Biodiversity is the variety of life and all natural processes found on Earth. B. Why is global biodiversity decreasing? The main cause of the decrease in global biodiversity is the result of human activity. This means habitat destruction, hunting, invasive species, pollution, and climate change that threaten the extinction of species. C. How can we protect and preserve biodiversity? One way we can preserve and protect biodiversity is through the law. Right now, legal actions are being made to save species from extinction. For example, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) forbids the government and private citizens from harming listed endangered and threatened species or their habitats. Also Species Survival Plans (SSP) are made to manage, protect, and reintroduce threatened and endangered species by putting them into captivity until safe to be released. D. How do energy and nutrients move through ecosystems? a. (reference food webs/food chains/energy pyramids) Energy and nutrients move throughout the ecosystem through the consumption of other creatures. This transfers energy to the next consumer, however it transfers smaller and smaller amounts of energy as the chain of consumers grows larger. E. THE BIG QUESTION: Why is it important to protect biodiversity? Biodiversity increases an ecosystem’s productivity; meaning all species play huge roles in it, especially humans since they have the ability to completely change nature. Humans heavily depend on plants and animals and benefit directly from diverse ecosystems: plants, clean water, oxygen, food, and fertile land all come from healthy bio... ...ding then transforming into Industrial agriculture with the advancements of technology. B. How can we produce enough food for a rapidly growing population while sustaining our ability to produce it? Our world today faces the problem of running out of space. We need not only land to live on, but also land to cultivate crops. Already forty percent of Earth’s land is used for farming purposes, and with a population over seven billion and still rapidly growing, the main problem is, There isn’t enough room. So the price of food is raising. Right now, one billion people are suffering from hunger, they can’t afford the food that is taking up living space, so if we cut down more forests and destroy nature, will the prices go down? The best way to produce enough food for our population as of now is to use our resources more efficiently and reduce our wastes of food. Essays -- Enviro Geo 1 CP: Take Home Final Exam Unit One Review: Biodiversity A. What is biodiversity? Biodiversity is the variety of life and all natural processes found on Earth. B. Why is global biodiversity decreasing? The main cause of the decrease in global biodiversity is the result of human activity. This means habitat destruction, hunting, invasive species, pollution, and climate change that threaten the extinction of species. C. How can we protect and preserve biodiversity? One way we can preserve and protect biodiversity is through the law. Right now, legal actions are being made to save species from extinction. For example, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) forbids the government and private citizens from harming listed endangered and threatened species or their habitats. Also Species Survival Plans (SSP) are made to manage, protect, and reintroduce threatened and endangered species by putting them into captivity until safe to be released. D. How do energy and nutrients move through ecosystems? a. (reference food webs/food chains/energy pyramids) Energy and nutrients move throughout the ecosystem through the consumption of other creatures. This transfers energy to the next consumer, however it transfers smaller and smaller amounts of energy as the chain of consumers grows larger. E. THE BIG QUESTION: Why is it important to protect biodiversity? Biodiversity increases an ecosystem’s productivity; meaning all species play huge roles in it, especially humans since they have the ability to completely change nature. Humans heavily depend on plants and animals and benefit directly from diverse ecosystems: plants, clean water, oxygen, food, and fertile land all come from healthy bio... ...ding then transforming into Industrial agriculture with the advancements of technology. B. How can we produce enough food for a rapidly growing population while sustaining our ability to produce it? Our world today faces the problem of running out of space. We need not only land to live on, but also land to cultivate crops. Already forty percent of Earth’s land is used for farming purposes, and with a population over seven billion and still rapidly growing, the main problem is, There isn’t enough room. So the price of food is raising. Right now, one billion people are suffering from hunger, they can’t afford the food that is taking up living space, so if we cut down more forests and destroy nature, will the prices go down? The best way to produce enough food for our population as of now is to use our resources more efficiently and reduce our wastes of food.