Animals, plants, and other organisms exist in physical environments called ecosystems. Each part of an ecosystem directly or indirectly depends on all the other parts for survival.
Ecosystems can vary in size from small to large. Examples of small ecosystems include a tidepool, pond, or tree trunk, while larger ecosystems can include a swamp, desert, or grassland.
When an ecosystem is disrupted, it can have serious consequences for the organisms that live there.
Habitat loss, a reduction in the amount of living space through destruction, fragmentation, or degradation, is a major threat to the balance of an ecosystem.
Reasons for Habitat Loss
Habitat loss can be a consequence of human activities such as:
- Industrialization and urbanization (growth of industries and cities)
- Agriculture (farming and ranching)
- Deforestation (the removal and destruction of a forest or trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use)
- Resource extraction (the withdrawing of materials from the environment for human use, including oil, gas, coal, rocks, minerals, water, fish and wildlife)
- Pollution
Habitat loss can also occur due to environmental changes such as:
- Changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun and the tilt and wobble of the Earth’s axis
- Changes in the amount of energy the planet receives from the sun
- Volcanic activity
- Shifts in ocean currents
- Changes in temperature
- Tectonic shifts (movement of the plates that make up the Earth’s crust)
- Drought (a period of drier than normal conditions that can last years)
Natural occurrences and human activity have altered the land on this planet for thousands of years. But in the past few hundred years, population growth, industrialization, urbanization and other human factors have devastated wildlife habitat, leading to the extinction of hundreds of species.
Habitat Loss Solutions
Habitat restoration and the recreation of a functioning ecosystem are key solutions to habitat loss.
When habitats cannot be restored to their original size or condition, another solution is the building of wildlife corridors. The purpose of a wildlife corridor is to allow species with limited survival resources in one area to move quickly and easily to another more sustainable area.
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