Environmental Science

2nd Quarter Exam Goals: Complete Goals

14. *Describe ways in which humans accelerate species extinction (5-3)

For starters loss of habitat is the single greatest threat to species. A great example of this is called HIPPCO: meaning habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation; invasive (nonnative) species; population growth and increasing use of resources; pollution; climate change; and overexploitation. This is an example of how the underlying and direct causes of the endangerment and extinction of wild species. The difference between the two is that underlying causes would be; population growth, rising resource use, undervaluing natural capital, poverty. The direct causes habitat loss, habitat degradation and fragmentation, introduction of nonnative species, pollution, climate change, overfishing, commercial hunting and poaching, sale of exotic pets and decorative plants, predator and pest control. If you ask most biodiversity researchers, the greatest threat to wild species is habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation.

An instance of this is about how the polar bears are losing their habitat with the ice habitat melting away. One of the biggest deforestation is in tropical areas I s the greatest eliminator of species, followed by the destruction and degradation of coral reefs and wetlands, the plowing of grasslands, and pollution of streams, lakes, and oceans. In general the greatest threats to any species are loss or degradation of habitat, harmful invasive species, human population growth, pollution, climate change, and overexploitation.

Most national parks and other nature reserves are habitat islands, many of them encircled by potentially damaging logging, mining, energy extraction, and industrial activities. Even freshwater lakes are habitat islands too that are especially vulnerable to the introduction of nonnative species and pollution. Habitat fragmentation occurs when a large, intact area of habitat such as a forest or natural...