The Causes of Marine Life Extinction Did you know that more than 90 percent of all organisms that have ever lived on Earth are extinct? According to Pandey, the author of Humans Pushing Marine Life toward ‘Major Extinction’, nearly 10,000 species go extinct each year, and this rate is estimated to be 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate (1). Human beings are causing irreversible damage to the oceans and their wildlife, which is being led by two major reasons: Commercial fishing or over-fishing, which damaged the marine environment and caused a loss in the marine life diversity, and pollution, which is a primary way of the extinction causes that drastically modifies the marine life habitat. As a result of the commercial fishing and pollution, many of the marine species will start disappearing of the oceans. Briggs emphasizes that over-fishing “has induced population collapses in many species.
Holocene Extinction (6th Mass Extinction) Did you know humans had the power create a mass extinction event? For 12,000 years, the Holocene extinction has been devastating life on earth; it branches into nearly all taxonomic groups: birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and arthropods. Only 875 extinctions have been documented between the year 1500 and 2010, but, according to International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, there is approximately 140,000 extinctions per year. In the last 12,000 years, all over the globe, a large variety of animals have been wiped out because of human activity. Extinctions happen everywhere on the world that has increasingly fluctuating weather.
Scientists calculate that without humans about one to five species would die a year, which is considered the background rate of extinction. But in our current society human activities are destroying many of the chances these animals need to survive. We as a planet are killing species at a rate 1,000 to 10,000 times more than the expected rate. Unlike previous extinctions 99% of the species, listed on the endangered species list, established by the endangered species act, became threatened due to human activities, such as the introduction of invasive species, habitat destruction, and global warming (The Extinction Crisis). What can we do to stop this?
Presently, the rate of species extinction is occurring several thousand times faster than has been observed over geologic time. (Purvis, E., & Mace, 2000) Though they represent a minority of all species, island species make up 75% of animal extinctions since the 16 000's. Because of traits inherent to islands, including isolation and small geographic range (Purvis, E., & Mace, 2000), islands are more susceptible to extinction than the continents. This results in a disproportionate ratio of island to continental extinctions. For example, 20% of the world's bird species inhabit islands, but of historical bird extinctions, about 90% were islanders (Frankham, 1997).
These extinctions happen over millions of years, and even a few species dying every year is enough to add up over the course of millions of years. With this waning state of diversity on the planet earth, how will it affect all of humankind. Together with all of these other species a web has been formed, and although it is an extremely large and convoluted web it is also very fragile. The biosphere of Earth is just one potential species death away from catastrophic consequences in some cases, but the issues are still not addressed. Humankind’s overuse of planetary resources is part of the problem, but it is definitely not the only problem.
While extinction constitutes a major part of life, it typically occurs at a rate of one to five species per year. Today, however, scientists estimate plants and animals are being lost up to 10,000 times this rate, with dozens of species going extinct every day (Greenwald). The only way to combat this problem is through wildlife conservation. One of the main reasons for the rapid growth in extinction rates includes deforestation. Eighty-five percent of the species listed as “threatened” or “endangered” are in danger as a direct result of habitat destruction.
Critics claim that species vanish and new ones appear all the time. That’s true, if you’re talking in terms of millennia. Species disappear at an approximate rate of one species per million per year, with new species replacing the lost ones at about the same rate. Although lately humans caused the extinction rate to severely increase, to where entire species are annihilated each day. Nature will take millions of years to repair what is destroyed in just a few decades.
In most cases, the cause of this displeasing calamity is generally human-related. As more time goes on, more species are in peril of becoming extinct. The rate at which they are being lost is startling, even when compared with the catastrophe of the extinction of the dinosaurs approximately 70 million years ago. Nobody knows exactly what the current extinction rate is, but according to leading scientists it is around 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than normal. The rate of extinction seems to keep escalating as time passes as well.
If the current trend continues, at least 50% of all currently existing species will be either extinct or endangered by the year 2050 (Today’s Situation). For this reason endangered species deserve more protection than the current regulations provide. Throughout history there have been many different reasons for the extinction of species. The earliest known reason was 64-66 million years ago when scientists believe a meteorite struck earth causing the extinction of the dinosaur and of 85% of the species existing at the time (Sherry, 2). Another major problem is the introduction of species into a new environment.
An enormous parf of mass extinction is the loss of the animals` natural habitat. The highest rates of deforestation began on the 1990`s at a striking 16 million hectares a year. Commercial deforestation in the amazon rainforest seriosly reduced the population of many species and led to extinction of others. Commercial and Industrial operations may pollute animals`s environment, The baiji, a fresh water ... ... middle of paper ... ...pecies. National Wildlife Federation is playing a leadership role in identifying and promoting innovative approaches to safeguard endangered species and other wildflife in the face of a changing climate.