There are currently many threats to Biodiversity. In this blog post, I will outline the top five threats to biodiversity.

What is biodiversity and why is it important? Go check out this previous blog post that I wrote which explains this in detail, linked here.

What are the major threats to biodiversity?

1. Climate Change
2. Pollution
3. Habitat Loss
4. Invasive Species
5. Overexploitation of species

Climate Change

A piece of climate change is that there are warming land and water temperatures. With these warming temperatures, this poses a risk to species extinction. I’ll give you an example. Due to warming waters, coral reefs are having bleaching events and some of these bleaching events result in the coral dying. Coral Reefs are vital to the ocean ecosystem as they a plethora of services (examples include: shelter, breeding sites, & food) to ocean species, so if coral reefs die off, this leaves many species with nowhere to go, which could threaten their extinction. If you want to read more about coral reefs, bleaching events, and climate change, click here for a post I wrote that goes more in depth about this topic.

Pollution

Nitrogen in the air can kill plant species, reducing the biodiversity while also harming aquatic plant and animal species. Sulfur pollutants can accumulate in forests/trees, soil, and lakes causing harm to these. Fossil fuels play a role in pollution and reduction of biodiversity as well. Spills can result in harm and death to plant and animal species, which could lead to extinction. Burning Fossil Fuels also exacerbates climate change, which we discussed earlier.

Habitat Loss

Simply put, habitat loss means that there is less space for animal species to go. If there is less space for animal species to live, naturally, their population numbers will decline thus reducing biodiversity.

Invasive Species

Invasive species are species that don’t naturally occur in a specific ecosystem. Invasive species reduce biodiversity by competing and usually outcompeting native species, meaning that because of the invasive species in the ecosystem, they cause declines in the native species populations. Invasive species and native species often compete for food and even shelter. For example, Cuban Tree Frogs are invasive in Florida and are causing much harm to the Florida ecosystem by eating much of the native frogs, lizards, etc in the ecosystem. This is resulting in declining populations of these native species thus reducing biodiversity. This is just one of many examples. I know there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to invasive species, so I will do a separate blog post about this soon!

Overexploitation of species

Overexploitation of species basically means when humans take animals out of the wild quicker than they can reproduce, leading to population declines (endangered or critically endangered) and could lead to extinction. Some examples of this include: pet trade, poaching, commercial fishing/overfishing, and excessive logging/deforestation. Take the poaching of elephants for example. Poaching is one of the biggest threats that face elephants and as a result most species are now endangered and some are critically endangered. African elephants are not able to reproduce quickly, they have a gestation period of 22 months and they typically only give birth every 4 years. So, if they aren’t able to reproduce quickly to replenish their populations, and if people are poaching numerous elephants a day, this would paint a clear picture as to why they are endangered. I’m sure you can see how this would negatively impact them, their populations, & threaten biodiversity.

So what can we do about this?

In my opinion, one of the best ways to help preserve biodiversity is through education. Don’t be afraid to have those tough conservations with people and help educate your friends, families, co-workers, etc. I’ve linked below a few articles on this topic that have different ways that you can help.

https://sustainability.yale.edu/blog/6-ways-preserve-biodiversity

https://www.kloranebotanical.foundation/en/understanding-and-preserving-biodiversity/10-steps-to-preserve-biodiversity

(Child Friendly Site) https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/biodiversity/how-to-help-biodiversity2