The Impact Humans Has On the Ecosystem Shanty DePriest Everest University Online EVS 1001-44 October 26, 2012 The Impact Humans Has On the Ecosystem There are three Cycles in the Ecosystem that are impacted by Humans. They are the Carbon Cycle, the Phosphorus Cycle, and the Nitrogen Cycle. First cycle that human has a very significant impact on is the Carbon Cycle. The Carbon Cycle is the circulation of carbon between living organisms and their surroundings. For instance Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere is synthesized by plants, which is ingested and metabolized by animals, which is converted to Carbon Dioxide during respiration and decay.
Phosphorus enters the environment from rocks or deposits laid down on the earth many years ago. The phosphate rock is commercially available form is called apatite. Other deposits may be from fossilized bone or bird droppings called guano. Weathering and erosion of rocks gradually releases phosphorus as phosphate ions which are soluble in water. Land plants need phosphate as a fertilizer or nutrient.
Nitrogen fixing bacteria in the roots of leguminous plants reduce atmospheric nitrogen to ammonium using ATP and reduced NAD. The ammonium ions released into the soil are oxidised by nitrifying bacteria firstly to nitrite, and then to nitrate. This oxidation increases the nitrogen content in the soil which plants can use to produces many useful molecules including amino acids, proteins, DNA and ATP. The formation of these ions forms part of the ecological nitrogen cycle which plays a key role in sustaining life on this planet. Plants are the producers for an ecosystem.
Scherrie Smith Environment Science EVS 1001-120 October 26, 2012 Professor Amanda Slaughter How Humans Impact in Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus Cycle. Carbon Cycle- is the circulation of carbon between living organisms and their surroundings. Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is synthesized by plants into plant tissue, which is ingested and metabolized by animals and converted to carbon dioxide again during respiration and decay. The human impact on the Carbon Cycle is that human intrusion into the cycle is significant. We are diverting or removing 40% of the photosynthetic effect of and plants.
We have to set up guidelines to secure our environments well-being and follow them in order to save them from becoming extinct and hurting us in the long run, we must reduce our waste and pollution rate and restore as much as we can back to create a well-balanced eco-system to try to place it back to some kind of normalcy to secure human a future access to natural resources. 3. Identify solutions to each of the 3 components of your environmental footprint that you listed in question 1. What are the savings of BOTH carbon emissions and money you can achieve via each solution? solutions to each of the 3 components of your environmental footprint listed in question 1 Savings of carbon emissions Savings of
Humans can survive in any area that provides food, water and clean air. The biosphere must maintain a stable atmosphere and climate as well as protect humans from solar radiation. Based on this week’s required readings, what are the main causes of threats to the biosphere? Global warming Water shortage Loss of usable land Pollution Over population Social ills Pandemics Melting of polar ice caps Rising sea levels Extinction of species Define sustainability. According to Dictionary.com the definition for sustainability is as follows: the ability to be sustained, supported, upheld, or confirmed.
1. Nitrogen fixation is a natural process by which inert or unreactive forms of nitrogen are transformed into usable nitrogen. Why is this process important to life? Nitrogen fixation, natural and synthetic, is crucial for all forms of life because nitrogen is required to biosynthesize basic building blocks of plants, animals and other life forms of life. Farmers rely on nitrogen fixation for agriculture and the manufacture of fertilizer.
The Ecological Impact of Prokaryotes A. Prokaryotes are indispensable links in the recycling of chemical elements in ecosystems 1. Prokaryotes play essential roles in Earth’s biogeochemical cycles, e.g., decomposers break down and recycle organic compounds in dead organisms. Autotrophs make organic compounds that form the foundation for many food webs. They can metabolize inorganic molecules, make oxygen for the atmosphere, and fix nitrogen that becomes a nitrogen source for amino acids and nucleic acids. B.
Each organism has its role to play in the environment to keep the cycle of life regulated in a biosphere. The environment an organism lives in includes all external factors, such as abiotic and biotic factors, and is constantly changing. This continuous process demands the efforts of scientists and biologist to study and document the actions of each organism. The study of organisms and their interactions with their environment is termed ecology. Ecology is a broad science and includes some of these examples: Population processes, including reproduction, death, migrations, and death; interspecific interactions such as competition, predation, mutualism, and parasitism; structures of animal and plant communities, and the flow of energy and nutrients through an ecosystem.
Evolution forces adaptations to changes in environmental conditions in a population. The diversity of life on earth reflects the wide variety of adaptations necessary and suggests that environmental conditions have varied widely over the life of the earth. 3. An ecological niche is a species’ way of life or its functional role in a community. Everything that affects its survival and reproduction (temperature tolerance, water needs, space needs, interactions with other organisms, etc.)