IGCSE Biology 0610
Human Influences on Ecosystems
Food Supply
Food production has increased because:
Improved machinery means less labour is needed
Fertilizers help crops to grow better
Insecticides: a type of pesticide that kills insects
Herbicides: a type of pesticide that kills weeds
Artificial selection and genetic modification means that yields are
improved: cows produce more milk, cows are more muscular giving more
meat, plant crops can resist insects and cold weather
World Food Supplies:
Not enough food available in a country to feed its people because:
Fast increase in population
Increasing use of crops for fuel
Decrease of farming = Climate change/Urbanization
Famine: Wide spread scarcity of food
The main causes of famine:
The rapid rate of population increase
Long term climatic change
Soil erosion and desertification
Economic pressure
Unequal distribution of food
Drought
Flood
Monoculture is the continuous production of one type of crop that is
often genetically uniform.
Negative Impacts of Monoculture
If a natural disaster were to occur, the whole crop could be wiped
out.
If pests & disease attacked crop, it could harm it easily
Using large fields and pesticides reduces the variety of species.
This hinders biodiversity.
Negative Impacts of Intensive Livestock Production
Welfare issues for the livestock
Diseases can spread easily among them
Waste can pollute land and waterways nearby
IGCSE Biology 0610
Habitat Destruction
Reason for habitat destruction
Increased area for food crop growth, livestock production and
housing
Extraction of natural resources
Marine pollution
Through altering food webs, and food chains, humans can have a
negative impact on habitats.
Effects of deforestation
Reduced biodiversity/destroys habitats/extinction
Loss of CO2 fixation, thus increase in CO2, thus global warming
Soil erosion: tree roots cannot retain soil, goes into rivers making
the water dirty & causes blockages, soil becomes less fertile
Flooding: usually 75% of water is absorbed by foliage, root
systems or evaporates. After deforestation, water accumulates in
valleys
Pollution
Water and air pollution:
Chemical waste and sewage in rivers results in water not being drinkable
and eutrophication can occur
Sulphur dioxide dissolves in rain, causing acid rain which increases
acidity of lakes and leaches aluminium out of the soil causing:
The fishes’ gills are damaged, eventually killing them. This is fixed
by adding calcium hydroxide (slaked lime)
Destroys top of trees and aluminium damages tree roots = dead
tree, important nutrients leached away
SO2 poses health hazards for humans (asthma sufferers)
Damages limestone buildings and sculptures
Fewer crops can be grown on an acidic field (fixed by adding
lime)
Pollution due to pesticides:
Insecticides (kill insects): meant to kill insects which eat crops, but can
kill other, useful insects such as bees which are pollinators, or by
IGCSE Biology 0610
bioaccumulation (the increase in dose of toxin from one level of the food
chain to the next)
Herbicides (kill weeds): can be harmful to animals which eat the plants
Nuclear fall-out:
Radioactive particles are sprayed into the atmosphere in a nuclear
accident or bombing;
These particle “rain” back to earth from clouds, sometimes far from the
accident site;
The radioactivity damages DNA and causes cancer and radiation illness
at every level of the food chain.
Non-biodegradable plastics:
Choke birds, fish and other animals
Fill up the animals’ stomachs so that they can’t eat food
Collect in rivers, and get in the way of fish
Acid rain:
Caused by sulphur dioxide (burning fossil fuels) and nitrogen oxides
(nitrogen reacting hot engines), as they dissolve and cause acid rain
Damages trees and plants, and kills fish and other river life
Prevention: catalytic converters, in factories slaked lime neutralizes these
acidic oxides and use of flue-gas desulfurization
Global Warming:
Increase in average temperature of the Earth
Started at the same time as humans began burning fossil fuels
Scientists believe fossil fuels are causing this – not proven yet
Increase in carbon dioxide and methane concentrations in the atmosphere
cause an enhanced greenhouse effect the leads to climate change
Negative impact of female contraceptive hormones in water courses:
Reduced sperm count in men and feminisation of aquatic organisms
Eutrophication:
when water plants receive too many nutrients.
Fertilisers put in soil by farmers
Fertilisers with nitrates / detergents with phosphates leach into rivers and
lakes after rain
Water plants grow more than usual
They block sunlight and kill plants underneath
They die and sink to bottom
IGCSE Biology 0610
Bacteria/fungi decompose remains using the O2 and decreasing the O2
concentration
Fish and other creatures die from oxygen starvation.
Conservation
Sustainable resource: one which is produced as rapidly as it is removed
from the environment so that it does not run out
Sustainable development: development providing for the needs of an
increasing human population without harming the environment
Sustainable development requires:
Management of conflicting demands
Planning and co-operation at local, national and international levels
Some resources can be maintained, limited to forests and fish stocks.
They can be sustained using:
Education
Legal quotas
Re-stocking
Natural resources:
Water: used to grow food, keep clean, provide power, control fires and
to drink. We get water constantly through rainfall but we are using up
planet’s fresh water faster than it can be replenished.
Fossil fuels: need to be conserved as they will soon run out, they should
be therefore replaced with green forms of energy.
IGCSE Biology 0610
Recycling:
Water: water from sewage can be returned to environment for human use
by sanitation and sewage treatment
Paper: sent to special centres where it is pulped to make raw materials
for industry
Plastic: fossil fuels, bottles →→ fleece clothing
Metal: mining takes a lot of energy so recycling saves energy
Species and habitats: need to be conserved because:
Organisms have value in themselves (ethical value)
Value to medicine (new molecules from exotic plants = new drugs)
Genetic resources are useful to humans as well and are lost when species
disappear (DNA for genetic engineering)
Each species has its role in its ecosystem; if it is removed, then the whole
ecosystem could collapse.
Endangered species:
How they become endangered: climate change, habitat destruction,
hunting, pollution and introduced species
If the population size drops, variation decreases
Endangered species can be conserved by: monitoring and protecting
species and habitats, education, captive breeding programmes and seed
banks
Conservation programmes include:
Reducing extinction.
Protecting vulnerable environments
Maintaining ecosystem functions, by nutrient cycling and resource
provision, e.g. food, drugs, fuel and genes.