Introduction
Ecosystem implies a complex relationship between living things, their habitats, the surrounding environment as well as the people who reside in a certain area. This includes plants, organisms, soil, and people among others. Biosphere defines the part of the earth that supports life. It is the earths’ atmosphere whereby living organisms exists in. in other words, biosphere is the composition of living organisms and their surrounding environment. Human beings accounts for being part of the greater earth’s ecosystem and their activities affects the ecosystem and the biosphere in various ways as discussed below.
Discussion
Ludington (n.d) in Ecology 2, observed that human activities were greatly involved in altering the balance in the ecosystem and biosphere. Activities such as hunting, agriculture, urbanization and industrialization are among the major human activities responsible of creating imbalances in the ecosystem and the biosphere. These activities greatly affect the quality and availability of earth’s renewable resources, mainly land, air and water, which dictates the stability in the ecosystems.
Human activities reduce biodiversity through various ways. Moving organisms from their original habitats to create space for agricultural activities or for human settlements is a course for imbalance in the ecosystem. For instance deforestation of land will lead to alteration of habitats which in turn may affect food chains and webs. Extensive reduction of forest cover can also contribute to droughts which directly affects the equilibrium in the ecosystem and biodiversity. Extensive hunting of various species to extermination, introduction of foreign species to environment which different from their original habitats also leads to imbalance and conflicts in the ecosystem and the biosphere (Ludington, n.d).
According to Ludington (n.d), the exposure of pollutant and toxic materials resulting from human activities to the environment, accounts among the major factors affecting the equilibrium in the ecosystem and the biosphere. Air pollutants such as greenhouse gases from industries and carbonic fumes from automobile exhausts are linked with the ozone layer depletion and global warming, which posses a great threat to the biosphere. The consequences of these air pollutants are excessive warming on the earth’s surface, harmful radiations, excessive flooding and droughts, acidic rainfalls, all which directly affects the organism food and water supply, alters their habitats and destruction of the environment.
Poor dumping of industrial and urban wastes affect the ecosystem in large magnitudes. Poor disposal of sewers into water system affects the quality and survival of marine organisms. Non-biodegradable wastes such as plastics kills micro-organisms which plays a key role in the in maintaining the interdependence in the eco-system and the bio-sphere. Agricultural fertilizers and chemicals are also swept to water bodies through surface runoffs, which affect food webs and marine life in general (Ludington, n.d).
Conclusion
Generally human activities majorly exposes adverse affects on the ecosystem and biosphere, but activities such as reforestation can be a great boost to sustainable development in the relationships within the biosphere hence improving the ecosystem.
Reference
Ludington, S. (n.d). Ecology Part 2: Populations and Humans in the Biosphere. Web.