Human activities have a big impact on the way energy moves through natural ecosystems. This happens in a few key ways:
Habitat Destruction: About 80% of the Earth’s land has been changed for things like farming and building cities. This harms different plants and animals, making it harder for them to find food and survive.
Pollution: When farmers use fertilizers, some of those nutrients wash into rivers and lakes. This can cause too much algae to grow, which uses up a lot of oxygen in the water. As a result, fish and other creatures can't live there anymore. For example, every year, the Gulf of Mexico has a dead zone that is about 6,000 square miles— that's a huge area where aquatic life can't survive.
Climate Change: Higher levels of carbon dioxide (around 415 parts per million recently) are changing temperatures and rainfall. This affects how plants grow and impacts energy flow in ecosystems. These changes can also shift where different species live and change when certain natural events happen.
Overexploitation: When we take too many resources, like fish from the ocean, it upsets the balance in the food chain. For example, overfishing decreases fish numbers, which causes problems for animals that eat them.
All these human-caused changes are serious threats to the health and stability of our ecosystems.
Human activities have a big impact on the way energy moves through natural ecosystems. This happens in a few key ways:
Habitat Destruction: About 80% of the Earth’s land has been changed for things like farming and building cities. This harms different plants and animals, making it harder for them to find food and survive.
Pollution: When farmers use fertilizers, some of those nutrients wash into rivers and lakes. This can cause too much algae to grow, which uses up a lot of oxygen in the water. As a result, fish and other creatures can't live there anymore. For example, every year, the Gulf of Mexico has a dead zone that is about 6,000 square miles— that's a huge area where aquatic life can't survive.
Climate Change: Higher levels of carbon dioxide (around 415 parts per million recently) are changing temperatures and rainfall. This affects how plants grow and impacts energy flow in ecosystems. These changes can also shift where different species live and change when certain natural events happen.
Overexploitation: When we take too many resources, like fish from the ocean, it upsets the balance in the food chain. For example, overfishing decreases fish numbers, which causes problems for animals that eat them.
All these human-caused changes are serious threats to the health and stability of our ecosystems.