8 Human Activities Affecting The Life of Ecosystems We Should Avoid

Ecosystem is the interaction of living things to their environment. The balance of the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem is important to prevent negative impacts from environmental hazards such as natural disasters, environmental degradation and others. Human activities can affect and even disturb the balance of the ecosystem.

Human Activities Affecting The Life of Ecosystems

The human activities that affect the ecosystem (read about the most dangerous chemicals in the world) as follows :

1. Urban Sprawl

Urban sprawl is a phenomenon of expansion of urban activities in rural areas causing the conversion of rural to urban functions. As a result of protected areas, the cultivation of agro-ecosystems and the habitats of animals and plants has decreased, which ultimately converts into concrete buildings for the benefit of humans.

2. Forest Burning and Illegal Logging

The forest is a vast expanse of nature that is mostly covered by canopy trees, shrubs and animal shelter. Some human needs can be fulfilled by the existence of the forest. To meet these needs, people often do forest destruction such as logging trees for timber use and burning forests for agricultural land (food needs) and settlements. The destruction of forests is bad for the sustainability of the forest ecosystem balance. Here’s the impact:

Animals lost their shelter
Potential floods and landslides
Land becomes barren
A small cruising area for animals to look for food. As a result, the territorial animal area to look for food whereas its function is switched remain a wildlife roaming area and consequently humans are disturbed by their own actions.

3. Wild Hunting

Hunting is a human activity from prehistoric times in order to survive. Currently hunting animals in the forest is done because they want to take the skin or the meat of the animals or just a hobby for sports. Slowly the population of animals in the forest is reduced and become extinct.

As a result the balance of the ecosystem is disrupted. The ecological pyramid of forests is changing especially the biomass pyramid of hunted areas is reduced. At one level there is a reduction of mainly carnivorous animals so that herbivorous animals thrive and producers are unable to meet the feeding needs of these herbivores. If it had been so the herbivorous animal would experience hunger and then die. There are many human activities affecting the life of ecosystems you should avoid.

4. Excessive use of Fertilizer

Fertilizer consists of natural and artificial based on chemical synthesis. Factory-made fertilizers containing synthetic chemicals which are used excessively will dissolve and ill be carried unintentionally by water into the river or lake so that there will be accumulation of nutrients and weeds in water then water hyacinth can thrive too much and then cover the biota underneath. Weed cover can block incoming sunlight and biota that require sunlight will die. You may also read : Harmful Effect of Using Chemical Fertilizer

5. Excessive use of pesticides

Excessive use of pesticides causes the pest will be resistant and resistant to certain pesticides. As a result the population of insects increased rapidly and destroyed human cultivation plants. (Read also Bad Effect of Agricultural Chemicals)

In addition it can kill other insects that are not plant pests. For example pesticides sprayed on plants are eaten by rats and squirrels. The chemicals that enter the body are difficult to decompose well and eaten by predators of eagles. These chemicals automatically enter the eagle’s body and produce eggs that can not grow and develop. If the predator population is reduced, rodents will be rampant and human cultivation plants will experience crop failures.

6. Disposal of Household and Industrial Waste into River

Rubbish or objects are no longer used every day there are always both from home and industry. The final garbage dump has not been fully utilized. People prefer to throw garbage into a river that is closer and practical, but the impact will be related to each other because the river is one source of livelihood. Here’s the impact :

Pollution (contamination) of water. Rubbish contains seeds of disease and toxins so that the aquatic ecosystem in it will be disrupted
Plants or aquatic animals present in rivers can eventually experience a reduction in population
In addition to animals and plants, the effect on humans are also very large because it is used for drinking and cooking need can cause poisoning on the body
Garbage can also clog waterways, then overflow and cause floods

You may also read :Harmful Effects of Chemicals on biodiversity

The industry also produces waste that causes air and water pollution. Liquid and solid wastes from unprocessed industrial waste that are processed first will cause water have contain toxins and cause less fertility on soil. (Read also Chemicals used in organic farming) Temporary shelters are required before doing disposal such as recycling or treatment that does not cause poisoning.

7. Damage the Coral Reefs

Tropical marine ecology is one of discipline science that studies the coral reef ecosystem. Coral reefs are the habitat of various species of marine animals as well as coastal boundaries of the currents. In addition, it can be used as bioactive medical and as pharmaceutical ingredients. Therefore, sometimes people take coral reefs to be traded for profit.

Some human activities that damage coral reefs:
Touch and bring home coral reefs. Touches can cause dead on coral reefs so that the population will be decreases.
Throw anchors to the coastline under which there are coral reefs (colonies)
Sea pollution by rubbish and waste, both domestic and factory waste
Fishing methods using toxins and explosives can poison coral reefs.
Lime deposition due to tree felling. So that the limestone deposits that flow into the habitat of coral reef experiencing the formation of a sediment that causes obstruction of sunlight to the coral reefs. If there are no coral reefs, stomata cells can not do photosynthesize to produce food and slowly but sure they will die.

8. Industrial and Settlement Development without regard to Environmental Impact Analysis (AMDAL)

Industrial development will be very helpful to fulfill human needs quickly and settlement helps humans get comfortable shelter. However, if it does not pay attention to the AMDAL such as the percentage of green open space (RTH) required in each KDB (Basic Coefficient of Building) to balance air pollution generated which is caused by factory smoke is not well implemented and household waste without first processing is discharged directly into the river or sea . So air pollution and water pollution will be a disturbance of the balance of air and water ecosystems

Various human activities affecting the life of ecosystems we should avoid, if not based on sufficient knowledge about the ecology of good landscape ecology and awareness of the importance of ecosystem balance both types of freshwater ecosystems, marine ecosystems and forest ecosystems. Hopefully this article adds insight and can raise our awareness of the importance to protect the environment and to pay attention to the balance of ecosystem.