Biodiversity

• biodiversity is the variety of living organisms present in an area
• Biodiversity is important because:

  • humans rely on organisms for food
  • a change to the population of one species may affect the population of other species in the food chain
  • organisms may produce chemicals that could help in the development of future medicines
  • humans rely on other organisms for raw materials such as wood, paper, adhesives and oils
• human interaction within ecosystems can have both a positive and negative impact on the levels of biodiversity.
• the impact of an increase in the human population, including increased waste, deforestation, peat bog destruction and global warming has reduced the biodiversity
• the larger the human populations gets, the more land we require.
• more houses must be built, more resources found, more food must be grown and more waste is produced. this often means less spaces and fewer resources for other animals and plants
• often biodiversity is significantly reduced when land is cleared for human uses, such as building, farming and waste disposal.
• when farmers want to harvest crops, the hedges that are used to mark the boundaries of the field can often get in the way of machinery. Farmers solutions to this is to remove the hedgerows.
• the hedgerows, however, provide food and shelter for a wide range of different animals.
• some hedgerows are now protected by the government and it is illegal to remove them. this helps to preserve this ecosystem for the organisms that depend on it.