Sarvani & Sophia

January 26, 2016

Loss of Biodiversity
When people think about biodiversity they dont normally physically see it in their
everyday lives. Its like snowstorms to San Diegans, we know they exist, but we dont
see it unless we go to where its actually happening. We dont physically see the homes
of the Polar Bears melting, we don't see the homes of all the animals that live in the
forests being cut down, so does that mean we shouldnt care? No, in fact we should
learn more about it, educate more people about it so that everyone knows what
happening and we can take measures to stop it or help those animals.
Theres isnt just one reason for loss of biodiversity, theres five. Habitat loss and
degradation. This is basically just homes of animals being destroyed by a number of
things. Degradation in the nature is when a certain environment is changed and is made
so that the animals living there cannot live there anymore or make it hard to live there.
The second one is climate change. Climate change is something that everything knows
about, but to give a brief explanation of what it is, it's when the the weather changes by
a few degrees, but it impacts everything else in the world and causes sea levels to rise,
ice to melt, etc. Another cause for biodiversity is pollution, this is caused just by power
plants, cars, burning coal, etc. The fourth one is over-exploitation and unsustainable
use. This is like when you have a credit card and you spend more than you can afford
and then youre in trouble. In nature terms, if you catch more fish then there's fish being
produced, you'll run out of fish. The last one is invasion of alien species. Now, this may
sound a little weird, like a title to a sci fi movie, but what this means is when a species,
that not supposed to be there comes and establishes a population. An example of this is

if a cheetah came into the rainforest, this is unnatural and would cause some of the
animals in that environments to die off.
Habitat loss has been considered as the main cause for loss in biodiversity.
There are three kinds of habitat loss: Habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, and
habitat degradation. Habitat destruction is when bulldozers come and actually destroy
parts of a home. For example, when companies cut down trees to make other buildings,
they take everything aways from a gorilla. Habitat fragmentation is when something or
someone cuts off the space for the animals to live. Dams are a really good example of
habitat fragmentation because dams cut off the space for fish to swim around. When
fish cant swim around, they wont be able to find food in other places. The last one,
habitat degradation is basically when theres too much pollution, invasive species, and
disruption to an ecosystem (such as fires) to where the habitat cant support the native
animals that were living there.
In conclusion, the loss of biodiversity is a big problem in the world that we need
to address right now. Not only does it affect the animals, it could affects us as well. If we
dont pay attention to all the habitat destruction and the pollution we put in the air, some
important animals we have right now, we will lose them forever.

Works Cited
Article #1 (http://www.globalissues.org/article/171/loss-of-biodiversity-and-extinctions)
Article #2 (http://biologybiozine.com/articles/unit-8-animals/the_loss_of_biodiversityphp)

Article #3: http://www.earthtimes.org/encyclopaedia/environmental-issues/habitat-lossdegradation/

Article #4
https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Threats-to-Wildlife/Habitat-Loss.aspx
Article # 5
http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-marine-habitat-destruction/
Article #6
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-effects-of-environmentaldegradation.php
Article #7:
https://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/unit/text.php?unit=9&secNum=7
Article #8:
https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Threats-to-Wildlife/Overexploitation.aspx
Article #9:
http://www.shmoop.com/conservation-biology/threats-invasive-species.html
Article #10
http://priweb.org/globalchange/bioloss/bl_03.html