As I have learned in the readings, extinction is a natural selection process. I have also read that humans are often responsible for accelerating this process. Bensel; & Turk (2014) indicate that our fundamental dependence on the natural world makes the study of environmental science relevant to all of us. Environmental issues including deforestation, ozone depletion, water pollution, and climate change affect us all. What humans do can affect the whole or part of the ecosystem and many cause unintentional extinction by simply living every day.
Should humans be concerned with the extinction rate? I believe that humans should be concerned about how they are causing the extinction to increase by not focusing on their individual actions. I read an interesting article about the high frequency of functional extinction; the numbers of a certain species that has been made extinct by human harvesting, or environmental interference where the set number of expected population is driven below the norm and may not recover. “Furthermore, we find that large-bodied species that can be found at the top of the food chains can only be exposed to small increases of the mortality rate and small decreases in abundance before going functionally extinct compared to small-bodied species lower in the food chains” (Säterberg, Sellman, & Ebenman, 2013). When I think of large-bodied species, I think of humans who can live off of smaller species. An example is the fishing industry. Humans have over harvested the natural shrimp to the point of having to farm raise them in pens out in the ocean. Humans should also be concerned about the immediate actions of fishing because methods use to catching one specific species, may cause another unintended species to go extinct; such as, killing off dolphins because they tend to get caught and drown in the next used to tuna fish.
Additionally, should humans strive to preserve representative samples of all biomes on the planet? To study and keep a sample of all biomes can lead to further study of human development and how we affect biomes; major world communities of vegetation and the adaption of life that sustained from the vegetation. In article about West African grasses that were divided in three biomes: desert C4 grassland, short grass savanna, and tall grass savanna, I read that “this study presents a method for assigning phytolith assemblages to tropical grass-dominated biomes, with the objective of offering a new tool for combining pollen and phytolith data in the reconstruction of tropical biomes”(Bremond, Alexandre, Peyron, & Guiot, 2008). The affect humans have on earth constantly changes the basic biomes. To learn where humans have helped or destroyed the environment, a sample of the original biomes will be necessary.
References
Bremond, L., Alexandre, A., Peyron, O., & Guiot, J. (2008). Definition of grassland biomes from phytoliths in West Africa. Journal Of Biogeography, 35(11), 2039-2048. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.01944.x
Säterberg, T., Sellman, S., & Ebenman, B. (2013). High frequency of functional extinctions in ecological networks. Nature, 499(7459), 468-470. doi:10.1038/nature12277
Bensel, T. & Turk, T. (2014). Contemporary Environmental Issues (Kindle Locations 102-104). Bridgepoint Education Inc. Kindle Edition.
The Cat's Meow 