“Maintaining biodiversity at its present level is impossible if people are going to achieve a reasonable standard of living in the near future”
“Maintaining biodiversity at its present level is impossible if people are going to achieve a reasonable standard of living in the near future”
- Discuss this with reference to a tropical biome you have studied (40 marks)
Biodiversity means the variety of life forms/organisms in an ecosystem, biome or entire planet. Globally, biodiversity is not evenly distributed. It generally increases from the poles towards the equator as around 50% of the world’s plants and animals live in tropical rainforests. This is because of the proximity to the equator causing a warmer, more moist, stable climate which means plants grow better and can support more species higher up in the food chain. Standard of living is the level of wealth, goods and services, which are available to a person or ground within a population. For development and to improve people’s standard of living, it’s often necessary to make use of the world’s biodiversity. However, it has become clear that we must preserve the current level of biodiversity so that we can maintain the carbon sink that rainforests provide and so that we can continue researching and finding developments in certain medicines that rainforests can provide. Human beings have exploited the tropical rainforests for many years now for their abundance of resources and their biodiversity. The moist exploited is the Amazon rainforest which has already lost 20% of its area forever. Deforestation is the single biggest threat to the rainforest; the prime cause of it is cattle ranching. This is when land is cleared to provide space for cattle ranchers to herd their livestock to help increase beef production. This activity accounts for 60% of deforestation in Brazil, which is having a major effect on the biodiversity of the ecosystem. The impacts of deforestation are wide. In the Amazon there have been problems with increased forest fires, soil erosion and decreased biodiversity, caused by habitat loss. Subsistence farming is another factor
- Discuss this with reference to a tropical biome you have studied (40 marks)
Biodiversity means the variety of life forms/organisms in an ecosystem, biome or entire planet. Globally, biodiversity is not evenly distributed. It generally increases from the poles towards the equator as around 50% of the world’s plants and animals live in tropical rainforests. This is because of the proximity to the equator causing a warmer, more moist, stable climate which means plants grow better and can support more species higher up in the food chain. Standard of living is the level of wealth, goods and services, which are available to a person or ground within a population. For development and to improve people’s standard of living, it’s often necessary to make use of the world’s biodiversity. However, it has become clear that we must preserve the current level of biodiversity so that we can maintain the carbon sink that rainforests provide and so that we can continue researching and finding developments in certain medicines that rainforests can provide. Human beings have exploited the tropical rainforests for many years now for their abundance of resources and their biodiversity. The moist exploited is the Amazon rainforest which has already lost 20% of its area forever. Deforestation is the single biggest threat to the rainforest; the prime cause of it is cattle ranching. This is when land is cleared to provide space for cattle ranchers to herd their livestock to help increase beef production. This activity accounts for 60% of deforestation in Brazil, which is having a major effect on the biodiversity of the ecosystem. The impacts of deforestation are wide. In the Amazon there have been problems with increased forest fires, soil erosion and decreased biodiversity, caused by habitat loss. Subsistence farming is another factor