Ecosystem Loss (DP IB Biology)

Ecosystem Loss: Causes

• The term ecosystem is used to describe all of the living organisms in an area, along with their interactions with each other and the non-living environment

• Human activities are responsible for damaging and destroying many ecosystems around the world

  • E.g. the destruction of habitat during deforestation

Anthropogenic ecosystem loss case study: mixed dipterocarp forest in Southeast Asia

• Dipterocarps are a family of trees that occur in the tropics, and that once formed a crucial part of a complex rainforest ecosystem that dominated Southeast Asia

• These rainforests are being gradually lost, with some parts of Southeast Asia having lost more than 50 % of their forests

• Forest is often lost due to a practice known as clear-cutting, where all of the trees in an area are cut down and removed

  • This provides timber and clears land for agriculture, e.g. palm oil plantations

K.Yoganand, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dipterocarp forests used to dominate Southeast Asia, but are being lost to deforestation

Anthropogenic ecosystem loss case study: student choice

• A second case study should be chosen and researched

• Consider the following factors

  • The ecosystem chosen should be from a local or familiar region

  • The ecosystem loss must be due to human activities

  • The case studies above give an indication of the level of detail required

• Examples of ecosystem loss from different parts of the world include:

  • Great Barrier Reef, Australia

  • Northern Great Plains, North America

  • Mangrove forests, various locations