Maintaining Biodiversity (AQA GCSE Biology)
Revision Note
Written by: Lára Marie McIvor
Reviewed by: Lucy Kirkham
Positive & Negative Human Impact
The increasing human population and the activities of humans (including waste production, peat bog destruction, deforestation and our contributions to global warming) are causing a reduction in global and ecosystem-level biodiversity
These activities are considered as negative human interactions with ecosystems
There are, however, ways in which humans can interact positively with ecosystems
Methods to reduce negative impact on ecosystems & protect biodiversity
There are many conflicting pressures on maintaining biodiversity. Some examples include:
The cost of programmes:
Protecting biodiversity can be very expensive
Eg. the land used for field margins could be used by farmers to grow crops and sell them – governments sometimes pay farmers a subsidy to make up for the lost money
It costs money to check that programmes designed to maintain biodiversity are actually being followed
Protecting food security:
Land that is protected to maintain biodiversity could instead be used for farming – this can cause conflict in areas where there are food shortages
Sometimes organisms seen as a threat by farmers (eg. locusts and wolves) are killed to protect crops and livestock – this can negatively affect food chains / biodiversity and can cause conflict when species that are already under threat due to hunting or habitat loss are involved (eg. lions in parts of Africa)
The development of society:
Increasing amounts of land are required to sustain the increasing human population
Eg. land required for new housing developments or for new agricultural land in developing countries
This high demand means that land with undisturbed habitats and high biodiversity is increasingly being used for development
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