TOPIC: HUMAN INFLUENCES ON ECOSYSTEM

DATE: 16/01/2023

SUBTOPICS:

• Food supplies
• Habitat Destruction
• Pollution
• Conservation

FOOD SUPPIES

Modern technology has resulted in increased food production. Food production has increased
because:

Agricultural machinery – to use larger areas of land and improve efficiency

Chemical fertilisers – to improve yields

Pesticide – used to kill pests that feed on crops

Herbicides – to reduce competition with weeds

Insecticides – to improve quality and yield

Selective breeding – to improve production by crop plants and livestock

FAMINE is the widespread scarcity of food

CAUSES:

• Rapid rate of increase in population

• Long term climatic change
• Soil erosion and desertification
• Economic pressure
• Unequal distribution of food

2 TYPES OF FARMING PRACTICE

1. Monoculture is the growing of one type of crop on the same land, year after year

Negatives impacts of Monoculture

• Overuse of fertilisers: Pollute water, causing eutrophication

• Overuse herbicides and pesticides – accumulate in food chains
• Spread of disease and pests
• Reduce biodiversity reduces variety of species
• If a natural disaster were to occur, the whole crop could be wiped out
• Reduce the over fertility of the soil
 2. Intensive livestock production is the rearing of animals in large numbers

Negative Impacts of intensive livestock production on Ecosystem

• Effect waste on waterways/crops

• Use of pesticides
• Loss of biodiversity

Reasons for habitat destruction:

• Increased area for food crop growth

• Increased area for livestock production
• Housing and urbanisation
• Extraction of natural resources: mining, fossil fuels
• Marine pollution: oil spillage, fertilizers, untreated sewage and pesticides, plastic refuse

DEFORESTATION is the removal of large areas of forest

Reasons for Deforestation

• To provide land for agriculture, housing roads, industry

• To provide timber (wood) for building, furniture, and fuel

Effects of DEFORESTATION

• Reducing biodiversity
• Extinction
• Loss of soil
• Flooding
• Increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

POLLUTION is the release of harmful substance into the environment

A POLLUTANT is a substance that contaminates air, water, or land

Types of Pollutants:

• Non-biodegradable- cannot be decomposed and build up to toxic levels as they are passed
along food chains
• Biodegradable – can be decomposed by bacteria