Humans and biodiversity

The quality of human life on Earth depends on ecosystems, which provide services that benefit our day-to-day lives. Some of these ecosystem services pass directly from the environment into human use and include resources such as food, medicine, and housing materials.

Other ecosystem services benefit humans more indirectly. Examples of these secondary benefits include protection from tropical storms by coastal dunes, or waste removal by established wetlands. Ecosystem services can also be categorized as ethical or aesthetic services, which provide recreational or inspirational value.

All of these ecosystem services are best provided by healthy ecosystems. One major contributor to an ecosystem’s health is its biodiversity, or the variety of life found in the ecosystem. This variety can be thought of in terms of the genetic diversity in its populations or the species diversity of its communities. The more biodiverse an ecosystem is, the more productive and resilient it is to change.

Human-induced changes to the environment—such as habitat loss, resource overexploitation, pollution, and climate change—often have major impacts on the organisms in ecosystems. These changes can put stress on species, forcing them out of their normal range or causing their numbers to decline. In some cases, a species’ existence may become critically threatened. In these endangered species, population sizes have reached such low levels that the species is at risk of extinction.

When species go extinct, ecosystems lose biodiversity. This decreases the complexity of ecosystem interactions, making ecosystems less resilient to disturbance. However, species don’t have to go extinct for biodiversity to decrease. When the number of individuals in a population decreases, the genetic variation in the population also decreases. This loss in genetic diversity results in populations that are less tolerant to future environmental changes, further perpetuating the decrease in biodiversity.

A loss of biodiversity within an ecosystem negatively affects the overall health of the ecosystem, which causes a decrease in the quantity and quality of the services provided by that ecosystem. This can put the quality of life that humans enjoy as a result of ecosystem services is at risk of decline.

Humans can help protect Earth’s biodiversity! There are many things humans can do on the individual, community, organization, and government level to help protect biodiversity. For example, by planting flowers, fruits, or vegetables in your garden that are native to your area, you not only help preserve local biodiversity among plantlife but also help sustain biodiversity among the insects that rely on these plants for food.

Keep researching and talking with your family, teachers, and friends to come up with more ways that you can help preserve the amazing diversity of life on Earth.