Objectives
Introduce ecosystems and relating vocabulary including ecosystem, biotic and abiotic and sustainability
Analyze human impacts on the planet
Demonstrate an example of a human impact: deforestation
Introduction
In this lesson, we will be talking about something incredibly important: ecosystems. In this lesson, we will first define an ecosystem and some other important vocabulary and then, we will analyze the importance of human impacts on ecosystems by discussing a very well known effect that humans have on the environment: deforestation.
Defining an ecosystem
When you see the word “ecosystem”, the sections “eco” and “system” might jump out at you and for good reason. Ecosystems do have to do with systems and the natural world. An ecosystem is actually the collection of interactions that organisms have with their physical environment. For example, your own backyard is an ecosystem composed of many interactions between a multitude of components such as bees, plants, the soil or the trees. Some of those interactions include pollination done by bees, which helps plants survive or photosynthesis, the process by which plants can turn carbon dioxide, water and sunlight into glucose and oxygen (the oxygen that you end up breathing). Without a doubt, ecosystems are fascinating as there are so many interactions that can be observed within them and that occur constantly.
Biotic and abiotic components and sustainability
There is a lot a vocabulary pertaining to ecosystems so in this lesson, we will start by defining three basic and important terms that you will probably come across many times in the future.
Firstly, the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem. Essentially, the biotic components of an ecosystem are the things that are alive, whereas the abiotic components of an ecosystem are not. Going back to the example of a garden, we see a variety of both biotic components (such as bees, trees, flowers or worms) and abiotic components (such as soil, rocks and water sources like ponds).
Of course, some ecosystems are more secure than others and can last longer. Sustainability is the capacity of an ecosystem to last in time and to survive external stress. For example, my garden is definitely not as sustainable as a whole forest as it would not be able to last as long or overcome disasters such as tornadoes to the extent that a forest could.
Human impacts on ecosystems
Another example of an external stress is humankind. Don’t take this the wrong way, humankind can and has done good things for the planet, but it can also pose severe threats to ecosystems on large scales. There are many human activities that cause harm to ecosystems such as mining or the use of fossil fuels. In this lesson, we will be analyzing one of these activities: deforestation. Deforestation is basically the cutting down of trees and is done for many reasons. The primary reason behind it is farmers getting rid of trees to increase the amount of usable land they have. Other causes include logging to make paper and other things that use wood or even wildfires which can be caused by humans.
The approximately 30% of the Earth’s surface that is covered in forests is at risk because of deforestation. The loss of forests poses many problems including, but not limited to, the destruction of animal habitats and the hampering of the Planet’s ability to get rid of carbon dioxide, which is a major greenhouse gas that causes global warming. Because of all this, it is easy to see that deforestation is a threat to ecosystems on a global scale.
This is just one of the ways that humans are impacting ecosystems right now and is a rather pessimistic way to end a lesson, but there are good things going on as well. Many world governments have realised these problems and are working on reducing humanity’s impact of the Planet; whether it be through the development and use of renewable energy sources such as solar power or the signing of documents setting international climate goals, like the Paris climate change agreement.
Conclusion
As we have learnt today, ecosystems are vital and fascinating things. I hope this lesson has given you an idea on how humans impact them and has possibly gained your curiosity into the interactions between biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems such as your own backyard. By learning about all this, we increase our awareness of the world around us are become able to make a difference.
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