managing the enviornment

Authors Avatar

Ramone Pemberton 12JVA            5/3/2008

Ecology and managing the environment

The effects of human activity on ecosystems and biodiversity

Agricultural Practice

Biodiversity is a ‘measure of the relative diversity among organisms present in different ecosystems. "Diversity" in this definition includes diversity within a species and among species, and comparative diversity among ecosystems.’

Monoculture is the practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area. The advantages to the farmer of monoculture are, the reduced plant competition for nutrients, space and solar radiation, control of unprofitable organisms, the reduction of costs by limitation of specialized machinery required for arable operations and to maximize profit from the growing of high gross margin crops. The effects of monoculture on biodiversity are that it will be lower as there will fewer plant and weeds due to the insects eating them and using the plant and weeds for habitat reasons. Like for example eating drinking and staying alive.

The benefits of a farmer removing the hedges from his field are that the there will be more area for biodiversity to occur for example when growing plants for human food, the plants need to be consumed so that they can be suitable for human consumption. So by a farmer removing hedges this will leave him with more area to grow more plants for food. The effects on wildlife and biodiversity from removing the hedges are bad as by doing this there habitat are being destroyed. Animals from the leaf all the way up to the hawk depend on the hedge and the hedge is as important to these animals as the hedge acts like a boundary as most the animals used to be used to living in woodlands but over the years have adapted to hedges. Animals like foxes and badges use hedges as ‘roadways from getting to and from other hedges as they do not like crossing open fields.

Fertilizers promote growth to the farmer’s crops. They are applied by being mixed with the soil for the crops to take in via their roots. Insecticides are used by the farmers to prevent insects eating away at the crops. The insecticides are a pesticide that stops insects in all forms eating the crops and by using this crops stay insect free. Fungicides are used to prevent fungi and omit spreading to the crops as if they are not controlled they end up resulting in loss of yield and profit. Herbicides are used to prevent the growth of a desired plant (kill) for example a weed plant. The herbicides attacks plant hormones in a growing weed that may be in the farmers crop but the herbicide will only kill the weed and leave the desired crop unharmed.

Join now!

Eutrophication is the naturally occurring process of nutrient enrichment of freshwater and coastal waters. A big cause of this is when farmers are putting fertilizers on their crops and it running off into rivers and streams. The run off sequence happens when the fertilizers are slurrily spread on to agricultural land. This encourages the growth of algae and contributes to the process of Eutrophication.

 The effect of these chemicals on wildlife are that fertilizers improve plant growth so animals that live in a `plant habitat or eat plants will have a positive effect as the plants will be ...

This is a preview of the whole essay