Ecosystems at Risk Critical Analysis

Humans have been associating with ecosystems and changing them for as long as the start of human life. An ecosystem is a community of species and their non-living environment working in cohesion. Ecosystems at risk, such as The Amazon rainforest and the GBR are those which are heavily affected by change and if altered they require a long time to return to their former state. Human activities such as fishing, tourism and deforestation have had huge impacts on the balance of these ecosystems.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest biological organism in the world, the balanced ecology of the Great Barrier Reef is very vulnerable to even the smallest human influence. The range, frequency and the scale of human impacts on coral reefs are building to the extent that reefs are threatened globally. Pollution, global warming and over-fishing are the main factors that are tipping the stability of the ecosystems within the coral reefs.

Pollution has made a huge impact on the Great Barrier Reef and its struggle for survival, human based pollution has caused such harm to our reefs that it needs to be stopped or reduced dramatically in order to save our this fragile ecosystem. The human pollution has been a major source for issues concerning the Great Barrier Reef and its struggle to survive in modern day conditions. The Amazon rainforest is one of the world’s largest tropical rainforest covering more than half of Brazil. Deforestation is the major concern in the Amazon Forest, there is little thought been given to sustainable methods for the region.

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Due to Brazil’s economic situation, the government decided to use the Amazon Basin to increase activity in the agricultural industry; As a result the largest factor of forest destruction has been to create temporary cattle pastures but because most of the regions poor soil the pastures is only viable for a few years. Government policies have allowed the destruction of the forest to be so extensive that there are no more incentives for cattle pasture in Amazonian Brazil. Deforestation causes the rapid depletion of resources; this is happening because the natural resources are being extracted through mining.

Products such as Mahogany and Brazilian Cherry Wood are being cut at such a rate that they are now considered a rarity; these products are also the most useful products in the region. If nothing is done to stop the mining of these natural resources there will be none left. Overfishing is one of the major driving pressures that have devastated impacts on coral reefs. Aggressive fishing methods have often hurt coral reefs sometimes beyond repair. Overfishing of a certain species near coral reefs can easily affect the reef’s ecological balance and biodiversity.

Overfishing of certain species near coral reefs can easily affect the reef's ecological balance and biodiversity. Due to certain amounts of nutrients, oxygen and salt content the fishes in the coral reef ecosystem help maintain the balance needed by the corals and without these fishes the coral reef would collapse. There are many necessary steps to help stop overfishing, these are: designing effective conservation programs, finding the impact of management actions, knowing the drivers of overfishing and deciding how are we made to exceed sustainable limitations on fishers.

The animal resources are subject to exactly the same plundering. For example, many of the best edible fish such as the piracacu have had their populations greatly reduced by overfishing without any seasonal control to avoid the breeding season. The use of gill nets, dynamite and other environmentally unacceptable methods of fishing is having a drastic effect on the product that is the best source of protein in the region. Already river turtles have been over hunted to almost extinction through the use of their meat and eggs.

The exploitation of natural resources has been great and has put the ecosystem at great risk. Ecosystems are very precise , fragile and have an almost equilibrium like environment, it needs all its elements to be able to function and to be stable, that is why even the slightest human interference is often harmful to the ecosystem, and given the modern context we are increasing the damage done to the Great Barrier Reef ; the Amazon forest. If we do not stop our destructive ways, humans will eventually destroy all major ecosystems.

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