Biodiversity can be defined as the foundation which provides the ecosystem services and with it the ecosystem services are intricately linked. Thus, biodiversity is actually the wide ranging variability that exists within the marine, terrestrial, and the ecological complexes. Biodiversity includes the both types of the ecosystems (unmanaged and the managed) (Cardinale et al., 2012). While it is important to note that pollution poses as a serious threat for the biodiversity and specifically the aspects of nutrient loading. Nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen majorly contribute to the ecosystem dysfunction. Biodiversity is also negatively impacted by air pollution, ground level ozone, nitrogen emission, sulphur which affects the health of the living beings and it ability to grow and function. Emissions of both nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide gets deposited in water sources and affects the fauna and flora. Acidification negatively impacts the ecosystems services like the nutrient cycling and thus it affects the living organisms that are intricately linked with the biodiversity. The pollution at the ground level is related to the increased levels of ground level ozone and it impacts the cell membranes of the plants and animals. This inhibits the vital process of development and growth. Eutrophication is the accumulation of the nitrogen and other nutrients in water bodies. The high levels of pollution affect the human populations due to the increased concentration (Pearce & Moran, 2013). This study will be based on the pollution, how it increases over time and has affected the biodiversity. The research question of the study emphasizes on how has the pollution harmed the biodiversity over the past century and what are the probable solutions.
The purpose of the study is to analyse how pollution has increased over time and how it has impacted the biodiversity. The research question of the study: How has the pollution harmed the biodiversity over the past century and what are the probable solutions?
The significance of the issues can be described by the seriousness of the issue relating to the increased effect of pollution on the biodiversity. It is important to highlight that majority of the pollution has occurred due to the anthropogenic activities and this has negatively impacted the environment. This is turn has affected the health of the living organisms, the populations of the living organisms directly get affected due to the increased and elevated levels of pollution in the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. Air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution all affect the biodiversity of the living organisms that are living in a particular biome (Pilgrim et al., 2013). Pollution hinders the proper growth and development of the organisms along with the reduction in the number of the living organisms. The levels of the pollution have increased to a great extent due to the altered climate and weather patterns. The climate of the earth has altered due to the increased amount of human interference along with the increased air pollution. The rising levels of air pollution has caused changes in the patterns of the weather and climate. This in turn has deteriorated the niche and reduced the percentage of the habitats of the animals and plants (Bellard et al., 2012).
The problem here is to analyse how the rising levels of pollution has affected the biodiversity. The methodology selected for this study is a systematic analysis by searching the literature or peer reviewed journals over the various online journal hosting sites. Google scholar, Elsevier, Taylor Francis is used to search the articles on the impact of biodiversity due to the rising levels of pollution. The keywords used in sorting the search are: impact on biodiversity due to pollution, rising levels of pollution. The research is conducted qualitatively and only a few journal is selected for the study.
Depletion of the ozone layer
The atmosphere is divided into two different layers: the lower layer is the troposphere and the upper layer is the stratosphere. The upper layer of stratosphere is the ozonosphere which inhibits the entry of the harmful ultraviolet radiation into the atmosphere. However, majority of the anthropogenic activities has resulted into the destruction of the ozone layer in the stratosphere. The chemicals that were once used in the aerosol propellants, pesticides and air conditioners like the chlorofluorocarbons has and other substances like the halocarbons that are potent ozone depleting substances. The destruction of the ozone layer leads to the increased amount of entry of ultraviolet rays which reaches the ground. The harmful radiations cause harm to the marine algae, damage crops and cancer in people through the sunburns. Although it is important to note that the ozone depleting substances have been phased out and alternative chemicals are used instead (Grafton, 2012).
Air pollution has also led to the development of the acid rain and it causes pollution of the environment because acid rain contains the sulphuric acid and nitric acid. This air pollution is caused due to the burning of the fossil fuels and the generation of power from the power plants. These power plants burn the fossil fuels that later contributes to the development of the acid rain. Acid ran affects the streams and lakes and the organisms (insects, snails, clams, plants, amphibians and fish) that reside within it. These organisms find it extremely difficult to survive in the acidic conditions. It is also important to mention that fish eggs cannot hatch when pH is very low (less than 5). While insects, snails, clams and adult fishes die even when the pH level increases and thus a fewer option is left for the predators. Acid rain also potentially damages the leaves of the trees, which indirectly slows down the growth of the leaves making the soil toxic for the growth of the plants (Lv et al., 2014).
Global warming or climate change has both directly and indirectly affected the biodiversity. A wide range of altered climatic events and weather events has been noticed that has threatened the habitat of the species and have contributed positively to the reduction of the species through habitat destruction. Previously, earth’s temperature has changed slowly and earth has experienced both the warmer period and the ice ages. These changes have occurred for thousands of years; however, the changes now are associated with the anthropogenic activities of climate change. The anthropogenic activities have resulted into an accelerated level of change in climate and it is faster than the natural process. Since the industrial revolution during the year of 1850, there has been an increased number of fossil fuel (natural gas, oil and coal) burning. Burning of the fossil fuel has resulted into an increased amount of release of carbon dioxide in to the atmosphere. This has contributed to the greenhouse effect and this means that the earth will much warmer than it used to be in the past (Pawson et al., 2013).
Mercury is a potential pollutant which is released into the environment during from the activities of gold mining. The activities pose as a risk for the ecosystem and also for human health. A study by Palacios-Torres, Caballero-Gallardo and Olivero-Verbel (2018), was carried out which assessed the levels of the mercury in the sediments, fish, air, and human air. This study also determined a consumption of fish and the accumulation of mercury in to a region called the Choco biogeographic region. This region is also designated to be a global biodiversity hotspot which is located in the Columbian Pacific. The concentration of mercury in hair was measured within the people that reside near the riverine places. The levels of mercury in the fishes in the Atrato river was found to be above the limit set by WHO (0.5microgram/gram). In general, the sampling data revealed that there is widespread pollution of mercury in the Biogeographic region of Choco. The major issue posed by the mercury pollution is the release of mercury in to the environment and it leads to health problems among the humans. However, in several countries which has large amounts of natural resources, the economic aspects come before concerns of saving the environment and the biodiversity. Similarly, in countries like Columbia extraction of gold supports country’s economy and a big portion of the mining is informal and the territory under mining has many sensitive ecological areas. If the pollution level from mercury is high then there might be threat to the living organisms, water bodies and forests (Sippl, 2015). The reason for such a concern because Columbia hosts areas of high species richness, hotspot areas, and several megadiverse areas. while it has been highlighted in the study that the Choco region is one of the complex ecosystem in the planet because it consists of the 176 beetles, 206 mammals, 196 freshwater fishes, 139 amphibians, 188 reptiles, 793 birds, 4584 different species of spermatophytes. In spite of immense potential of Choco, the uncontrolled gold mining has resulted into loss of the biodiversity, loss of the forest cover which is causing the elimination of the world genome banks. While these problems have wide ranging effects as it disturbs the environmental balance and it is lot more complex (Driscoll et al., 2013).
A study was conducted by Hafez and Elbestawy (2009), highlighted that the environmental pollution has negatively affected the ecosystem organization. It affects the ecosystem organization and the availability of the resources. It is important to note that the soil biodiversity is affected by pollution and this later results into biological invasions, endangering the floras and faunas bringing changes into microbial function and diversity. Among all the industrial pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and common groundwater contaminants are considered to be highly carcinogenic for the soil microbes. Metal speciation along with the toxicity and biological availability are controlled by the physico-chemical properties of a specific environment. Thus, it is seen that the mixtures of the heavy metals are responsible for the affecting the populations of the microorganisms. It has been found that the certain heavy metals like copper and zinc are essential at the low concentration, while exert toxic effects due to higher concentrations. While it has been seen that lead is toxic even at the lower concentrations. Certain features of the soil microorganisms like the soil enzyme activity, soil respiration rate and biomass size are used as the bio indicators of the soil toxicity with the heavy metals (Chibuike & Obiora, 2014).
Threats to the biodiversity arises due to many factors and many of these factors are indirectly or directly linked with the industrial sector. The most prominent threats to the biodiversity are as follows:
Natural resources serve as a raw material for the industrial sector and mining of the raw materials puts extra pressure on the environment. Over exploitation of the natural resources leads to the threats to the biodiversity since the minerals, petroleum and coal are buried deep within the crust of the earth and the under the areas of forests. Thus, removing the natural resources often require removal of the forests which causes massive amount of the disturbances to the biodiversity and wildlife (Dong et al., 2014).
The different types of the forests are the habitats of the wild animals and plants. The destruction of the forests due to activities like the cutting of trees to obtain the raw materials, construction of dams, mining activities leads to the destruction of the habitat and biodiversity. Thus, it results into a reduction in diversity and subsequently acts as a threat to the biodiversity. While it is also important to note that the industrial development requires the construction of railway tracks, roads and due to this forest area are broken down into multiple fragments. This hinders the movement of the wild animals in the forest areas and often face the threats of roadkill. Thus, the phenomenon of fragmentation is also known as habitat destruction (Haddad et al., 2015).
The industrial sector manufactures the non-biodegradable substances and pollutants that do not degrade in nature. It is important to highlight that these substances enter into the food chain of the different animals and starts to accumulate as toxins. The animals that are located on the higher categories of the food chain has the higher accumulation of toxin into their body and starts to die. This phenomenon of the accumulation of toxin into the body, food chain and trophic level is called the biomagnification. Industries releases pollutants in the form of waste products that are non-biodegradable toxins. The final products or the finished products also interfere with the food chain and it leads to the global, local extinction of species and reduction of biodiversity (Valipour et al., 2012).
Another highlighting impact of the industrial pollution on the biodiversity is the industrial melanism. When the industrial revolution began in European nations, there were mainly the light coloured moths months that were mainly found on the light coloured trees. The light coloured moths used to have light coloured wing patterns and this pattern. However, with the advent of industrial revolution trees started to get cover with black soot and due to this the population of light coloured moths reduced drastically. Later on the dark coloured moths (with dark coloured wings) were found on the trees that were covered with black soot (Heliovaara, 2018).
Environmental taxes are also known as ecotax, pollution tax and green tax. This is aimed towards the reduction of pollution and it includes a wide array of legislative charges on the private individuals, businesses for the reduction of damage on the environment. Industrial pollution tax can be used to levy tax from the emission of carbon contained in the fossil fuels in any industrial facility. Incentivised taxation is another measure of rewarding both the domestic and industrial spheres. This taxation system will reward the industries entities that employs practices directed towards the reduction of pollution (de Vries & Hanley, 2016).
Tradeable pollution permit are the rights to buy and sell the potential or actual pollution in markets that are artificially created. Government raises funds by selling the reserved pollution permits and the revenue can be used to clean up the environment. Firms and industries receive the benefits and incentives so that they can invest the clean technology. Also, firms are able to use their excess of permits for the future use (Low, 2016).
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that, pollution has occurred due to the anthropogenic activities and this has negatively impacted the environment. This is turn has affected the health of the living organisms, the populations of the living organisms directly get affected due to the increased and elevated levels of pollution in the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. Air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution all affect the biodiversity of the living organisms that are living in a particular biome. Pollution hinders the proper growth and development of the organisms along with the reduction in the number of the living organisms. Biodiversity is also negatively impacted by air pollution, ground level ozone, nitrogen emission, sulphur which affects the health of the living beings and it ability to grow and function. Emissions of both nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide gets deposited in water sources and affects the fauna and flora. Acidification negatively impacts the ecosystems services like the nutrient cycling and thus it affects the living organisms that are intricately linked with the biodiversity.
References
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