MODULE 1 The development of human population

Introduction

You will learn in this module the history of the development of human population- from hunting and gathering using pebbles and
stones to a more sedentary livelihood in the period of agriculture and industrialization. It is also highlighted in this module how and
where settlement and civilization emerged from various part of the worlds until communities’ agglomerate and become more
deliberate and invasive in natural resource use. Today, you are part of the modern community in a world of urbanization which favor
and desire ultimate comfort and convenience at the expense of making earth’s natural system ugly and imbalance because of pollution
and intense destruction. Learn more and think big as you go along in this module.

Abstraction

A. The Development of Human

Currently, we are in a New epoch in Earth’s history, the Anthropocene. This is an

epoch when human activities have ‘become so profound and pervasive that they
rival, or exceed the great forces of Nature in influencing the functioning of the
Earth System’. There are three stages of Anthropocene period: industrial era
during1800-1945; The Great Appreciation during 1945-2015; and stewardship at
the present. The industrial era is also called the Holocene epoch. This period is
characterized by sudden increase of carbon emissions causing anthropogenic
climate change causing adverse effects to the environment, biodiversity and
trends in evolution. Along this period, humans become the major driver of changes
in the landscape of the Earth. These changes have become more prevalent that it
eventually exceeds the normal biogeochemical cycles leading to global
environmental change. Nonetheless, recognizing the share of human population
to global environmental changes is a way to better understand the interaction of
physical, chemical and biological processes that regulate the Earth system to support life and how this system is altered by human
activities.

But how does human completely dominate the Earth? To understand this event, let us start with the evolutionary development of
human.

Early hominids or the primitive human like organisms appear in fossil record at around 6 million years ago (Fig.1). The first recorded
hominid was the remains of a small, bipedal hominim, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, which was found in Chad. There were also remains
recovered as transitional early hominins such as the Ardipithecus sp. and Australopithecus sp. The first recognizable human evolved
about 2.5 million years ago, the Homo habilis, probably during the development of Pleistocene ice ages in mid-latitudes. Remains of
this hominid were found in rift valleys of East Africa or in cave deposits in South Africa. There brain sizes were smaller than modern or
premodern humans but the cranial capacities were greater than earlier hominins. Some of their morphological features closely
resemble to modern humans. Homo ergaster and H. erectus which may have arisen around 2 million years ago, have started to expand
their distribution, first reached the areas of Asia. Thereafter, they expanded to Europe based on the stone tools found in Italy that was
associated to Homo dated 1.3–1.7 million years ago. The modern humans, H. sapiens, appeared in Africa around 160,000 years ago
and eventually spread out of Africa and to other parts of the world.

Humans have also arrived in Australia around 150,000 to 40,000 years ago. It was also believed that the arrival of human in Americas
occurred around 12,000 years ago using the Bering land bridge from Asia. They were equipped with Clovis spears.

Before 10,000 years ago, humans were thought to live by means of hunting and gathering. The population during this time was also
very small at around 5 million. Hence, there optimum territory for hunting and gathering was huge at around 300 to 500 km2 and may
expand to 500 to 2000km2 during drier period.

When humans started to cultivate and settle to one location, the population also started to
increase (Fig.2). From the time of agricultural revolution up to the birth of Christ, the
population rose to over 200 to 300 million. By 1650 AD, the population reached over 500
million. This was also the birth of medical and industrial revolution and the development of
agricultural and colonization.

Human population eventually exploded reaching about 1 billion by 1850, 2 billion by 1930
Figure 1. The human
and 4 billion by 1974. Currently, human population is close to reaching 8 billion. Despite of the many pandemic diseases in the past
such as malaria, cholera and small pox, human population remained victorious leading to enormous mismatch of death-rate control
with the birth control resulting to the growth of population.

A.1. Hunting and Gathering

Pebble tools are the oldest records of human activity and technology. These are crude stone tools which consist of a pebble with one
end chipped into a rough cutting edge. These were found with human bone remains in Africa. At Dikika in Ethiopia, stone-tools used
for consumption of meat dating around 3.42–3.24 million years ago were found. There were also evidences found in Lake Turkana in
northern Kenya and the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia dating at 2.6 million years ago, in Gona in the north-east of Ethiopia around
2.5 million years ago and in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania at 1.75 Ma.
The tools became more sophisticated as stone age developed. During
Palaeolithic Age, human started to use wood for ladders, fire, pigment
(charcoal), and as digging sticks. As Palaeolithic Age progressed, clothing
and shelters were becoming permanent. Humans also began to eat wide
variety of food, mostly meat, but generally distinguished omnivorous.
However, this prompted human to explore wide areas.

Humans also developed communicative skills like speech. Aside from that,
they also discovered how to use fire. Human may have started fire around
1.4 million years ago. But a more compelling evidence showed that human
used fire around 400,000 years ago. Overall, humans may be active and
effective hunters, but they could also be dedicated scavengers of carcasses
either naturally dead or has been killed by carnivores.

A. Human as Cultivators, Keepers, and Metal Workers

Table 1. These were the possible changes and At the end of Pleistocene period, humans started to make major
changes for living. For instance, the hunting folk “Natufians” in
development that occurred at the end of Pleistocene
the Middle Eastern region which includes Jordan, Syria, Israel,
Palestine and Lebanon around 14,000–15,000 years ago started to
build houses of stone and wood. They also buried their dead with
rituals, gathered along like communities, ground up cereals with
mortar and pestle, and made arts from animal bones. The possible
development that occurred after the Pleistocene period is
summarized on Table 1.

Beginning Holocene period (10,000 years ago), the Natufians

together with various part of the world started to domesticate
rather than gather plants and hunt animals. The space they required
were reduced but their population started to increase. The first
major settlement emerged in the Middle East. The controlled
breeding of animals and plants able to provide humans a more reliable and readily
expandable source of food which creates a solid and secure basis for cultural
advance including civilization and the ‘urban revolution. In general, domestication
is the most important intervention man made in the environment (Fig.3). It created
genetic differences from wild plants due to conscious and unconscious human
selection. The origin of agriculture is still controversial. Some believed it was a
religious reasons and others pursued the idea of changes in climatic conditions.
Sauer (1952) on the other hand believed that plant domestication was initiated in
Southeast Asia by fishing folk, who found that lacustrine and riverine resources
would enable stable economy or semi-sedentary lifestyle.

The first evidence of domestication occurred in Mediterranean lands and the Hilly
Flanks of the Middle East around 12,000 years ago. Domestication of millet in China
occurred around 10,000 years ago and the maize, beans and squashes in
Mesoamerica may have been domesticated around 10,000–9000 years ago. Figure 2. Domestication of plants from
Domestication of sheep, goats, pigs and cattle took place in the Near East and different parts of the world.
neighboring areas around 10,500–9000 years ago, shortly after, cats’ domestication
occurred. But it was presumed that the first domesticated animal was dog around 16000 years ago in southern China because of its
hunting importance. Horse was first domesticated in the steppes of Kazakhstan at c. 5500 years ago, the chicken in South Asia and
Southeast Asia including the Indus Valley and China, donkey in north-east Africa about 5000 years ago, water buffalo during the
Neolithic in various regions in south and eastern Asia, and the pig in the Middle East and China.

Another important development in agriculture was irrigation and the adoption of riverine agriculture presumably started in Egypt
around 5050 years ago. In the “Secondary Products Revolution, the used of domesticated animals were applied in agriculture such as
ploughing. Textiles from animal fibers were also produced and used for exchanges. The use of milk was also developed leading to
pastoralism.

In general, the spread of agriculture has transformed the land cover of the earth. There have been enormous changes in the landscape
of different biomes. Before agriculture, the forest cover was around 46.8 million square kilometers, but it declined during agriculture
period. For the past 300 years, cropland and pasture areas had tremendously increased. The transformation of the landscape, due to
deforestation, may have caused modification of global climatic conditions because of the released carbon dioxide.

Another important development of human history is the emergence of Neolithic cultures, the mining of ores and smelting of metals,
during eighth millennium BC. But first evidence of smelting was found in Turkey and Jordan about 6th millennium BC. The spread of
the metal works was very rapid, in 2500 BC, it already appeared in Britain and China.
The used of fossil fuels came in recent years. It has expanded to the
Table 2. Population of Urban areas in 2010.
development of fossil-fueled machineries allowing mining to expand. At
Adopted from Goudie 2013.
least 28 million tons of earth materials were moved due to mining.

A. Modern industrial and urban civilizations

It was during the cereal agriculture that humans were gathered in large
numbers and settlements (cities) with more institutionalized social
formations like states. Around 6000 years ago, cities were developed in
the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates, and around 5000 years ago in the
coastal Mediterranean, the Nile valley, the Indus plain and coastal Peru.
Early cities with large population number have emerged such as Nineveh
with a population of 700,000, the Augustan Rome with around 1 million
and the Carthage at its fall in 146 BC had 700,000 in population. However,
major transformation occurred in 17th century when culture and
technology was revolutionized for the arrival of major industries. Along
with these turning point transformation was also the acceleration of
human population and the development of urbanization. Highly urbanized
cities emerged which center large chunk of the population. In 2010, the
most populous city was Tokyo in Japan with around 36.7 million followed
by Delhi in India with 22.2 million (Table 2). The Manila of Philippines was
also listed with 11.6 million.

This aggregation of human settlement has resulted to several environmental problems, thereby increasing ecological footprints. An
ecological footprint is an accounting tool for ecological resources in which various categories of human consumption are translated
into areas of productive land required to provide resources and assimilate waste products. It is thus a measure of how sustainable the
lifestyles of different population groups are. The cities’ ecological footprints even rose in the 20 th century because human population
reaches more than seven billion and the world economy goes up to more than 15 fold, including the use of energy. To measure the
human impact in the biosphere, these six indicators were monitored: deforested areas, terrestrial vertebrate diversity, CO 2 releases,
population size, water withdrawals, and N releases.

The agglomeration of population comes with various stages of pollution in earth’s history: a) pollution microbienne or pollution
bacterielle, is caused by bacteria living and developing in decaying and putrefying materials and stagnant water associated with
settlements of growing size; b) pollution artisanale, associated with small-scale craft industries such as tanneries, potteries and other
workshops carrying out various rather disagreeable tasks, including soap manufacture, bone burning and glue-making; c) pollution
industrielle, involving large-scale and pervasive pollution over major centres of industrial activity, particularly from the early
nineteenth century; d) pollution fondamentale, pollution affects the whole regions are affected like the desiccation and subsequent
salination of the Aral Sea area; f) pollution foncière, vast quantities of chemicals are deliberately applied to the land as fertilizers and
biocides; and g) pollution accidentale, major accidents can cause pollution which is neither foreseen nor calculable e.g. the Chernobyl
nuclear disaster of 1986. Humans now achieved the special role of perturbing major biogeochemical cycle, including the nitrogen cycle
where more N2 were converted from the atmosphere into reactive forms than earth can process.

MODULE 2 The Human Impact on Vegetation

Abstraction
The large amount of world’s biomass has reduced tremendously with terrestrial biomass declined by 45% through
harvesting, deforestation, and conversion of grasslands and wetlands for the last 2000 years. Human activities
which changed land use and land cover have modified soils, have changed the landform, changed the quality and
quantity of some natural waters, affected geomorphic processes and influenced climates. We will discuss further
the details of the many human activities that have affected the vegetation of the world.
A. The use of Fire
Humans are known to have used fire since Palaeolithic times. People use fire to:
a. clear forest for agriculture, to improve grazing land for domestic animals or to attract game;
b. to help game as cover and hunting; to kill or drive away predatory animals, ticks, mosquitoes and other pests;
c. to repel the attacks of enemies or burn them out of their refuges;
d. for cooking; to expedite travel;
e. to burn the dead and raise ornamental scars on the living;
f. to provide light; to transmit messages via smoke signalling;
g. to break up stone for tool-making; to protect settlements or encampments from great fires by controlled burning;
h. to satisfy the sheer love of fires as spectacles;
i. to make pottery and smelt ores; to harden spears;
j. to provide warmth; to make charcoal; and
k. to assist in the collection of insects such as crickets for eating.
Fires occur naturally such as from lightning. Others may occur by spontaneous combustion due to ecosystems heavy vegetal
accumulations which were compacted, rotted and fermented thereby generating heat. Falling boulders may also create a spark for
natural fires. However, direct anthropogenic activities became the dominant driver of global fire activity trends. Nonetheless, some
actions preventing fires has also resulted to what we call “fire deficit”. In USA, fire suppression activities had resulted to the decline
of the number of occurring fires since 1800s. Fire suppression has deliberate effect or consequences in the vegetation. It naturally
occurs because of its importance in the ecosystem.

The effects of fire suppression are:

a) Compositional and structural changes of the vegetation

b) Forest stands become denser and shadier
c) Some seedlings of plants decrease in number like the Sequoia seedlings
d) Fire-intolerant species flourish
e) The amount of combustible fuel in the ground increases

Fire is also important to vegetation since it played an important role in the formation of various major types of vegetation e.g. savanna,
pine forests and in influencing the operation of ecosystems. Fire may assist germination of dormant seeds also. It can also alter
seedbeds to benefit other species of plants. It could also trigger the release of seeds and stimulate the vegetative reproduction of
many woody and herbaceous species. Fire can control forest insects, parasites and fungi as well– a process termed ‘sanitization’. It
also stimulates the flowering and fruiting of many shrubs and herbs, and to modify the physicochemical environment of the plants.
Above all, fire could result to greater species diversity.

B. The Role of Grazing

Some grasslands of the world were natural grazing areas of many animals. But the introduction of pastoral economies affected the
vegetation structure of the world. Light grazing though is beneficial to vegetation. It permits succulent sprouts to shoot. It may result
to efficient spread of seeds as well. It may also increase the amount of nitrogen in herbage area because of the passage of grazed
plants in the gut. It could also increase species diversity by opening another niche.

However, overgrazing is detrimental to the vegetation. Excessive trampling when conditions are dry will reduce the size of soil
aggregates. It may also accelerate soil deterioration and water erosion. It can also kill plants or lead to a marked reduction in their
level of photosynthesis while allowing poisonous plants and woody plants to intrude. Above all, it could transform a vegetation
landscape into a grazing grassland.

C. Invasive Species

Invasive species are non-native species that adversely affects habitats and biodiversity.
Common characteristics of invasive species are: a) adapts easily, b) reproduces quickly,
and c) harms property, economy, or the native plants and animals. Introduction of
invasive species becomes a problem because it threatens endemic species of the area. It
could also cause loss of farming production while some invasive species could affect
health such as house mouse Mus musculus, a carrier of a bacterium that causes
leptospirosis. The presence of invasive species may lead to: habitat modification,
resource competition along with native species, predation of native species and becomes
a parasite to native species. To prevent introduction of invasive species, bioinvasion
potential of a species involved should be carefully assessed; ecological requirement of
the target species should be evaluated including its food habits and its habitat requirement; and the possible effect of the species to
local economy such as in farming. The progress of the area infested with invasive species can be managed following the species curve.
At the onset of introduction (level 1) and when community started to detect the presence of the species, the invasive species can still
be managed hence prevention is just simple. But as its numbers progress, removal of the species from the environment becomes
unlikely. Some notable invasive species in the Philippines are: the amphibians Kaloula pulchra, Hoplobatrachus rugulosus, and
Rhinella marina; and plants Chromolaena odorata or locally known as hagonoy, and Imperata cylindrica or cogon.

D. Deforestation

Deforestation is best define as the temporary or permanent clearance of forest for agriculture or other purposes. Deliberate removal
of forest is one of the most long-standing and significant ways in which humans have modified the environment. Since pre-agricultural,
world forests have declined approximately into one-fifth, from 5 to 4 billion hectares. The highest loss has occurred in temperate
forests (32–5%) followed by subtropical woody savannas and deciduous forests (24–5%). Forests are cleared to allow agriculture; to
provide fuel for domestic purposes, or to provide charcoal or wood for construction; to fuel locomotives, or to smoke fish; and to
smelt metals.

The great phase of deforestation in central and western Europe or as ‘the great heroic period of reclamation’, occurred from AD 1050
onwards for about 200 years. The European expansions had resulted to the transformation of landscape in other countries such as
Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and North America. Most equatorial lands have been deforested since 3000 years ago BC
specifically in Africa, 7000 BC in South America and Central America, and 9000 BC in India and New Guinea. However, some studies
revealed that pre-historic human activities were more extensive in the tropical forest.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the total annual
deforestation in 1990 for 62 countries (representing some 78% of the tropical Table 2. Annual Forest
forest area of the world) was 16.8 million hectares. In 1990 to 2000, the rate of
deforestation in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean was
increasing while Europe, West Asia and North America was significantly reduced.
However, Brazillian Amazonia was still experiencing high deforestation rate. Some
areas were heavily exploited such as the Philippines, peninsular Malaya, Thailand,
Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Central America, Madagascar,
West Africa and eastern Amazonia.

In 1992, Myers refers countries with threatening rates of deforestation with

percentage of forest loss greater than the global figure as -biodiversity hotspot.
These areas are particularly rich in species, rare species, threatened species, or
some combination of these attributes. The analysis for hot spots uses plant endemism and the degree of threat as criteria. These
countries include: Tropical Andes, Mediterranean Basin, Mesoamerica, Carribean Islands, and the areas of southern Mexico,
Madagascar, northern and eastern Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Ironically, these forests are sources of potential foods,
drinks, medicines, contraceptives, abortifacients, gums, resins, scents, colorants, specific pesticides and other essential products but
the continuous and rapid loss is extremely serious.

The Philippine Forest

Ironically, Philippines is also considered as a megadiverse country.

There are only 17 identified megadiverse countries based on the
assessment of Conservation International. These nations harbor the
majority of Earth's species and high numbers of endemic species.
Nonetheless, the biodiversity hot spot status of the country also
implies that ecosystem plunder has threatened the rich biodiversity to
extinction due to the unprecedented rate of forest destruction. The
continued forest loss is attributed to the massive commercial logging,
land conversion and most recently, the various forms of swidden
(kaingin) cultivation.

Historically, at the onset of Spanish colonization, the Philippines was

covered with 97% of tropical rainforests which was primarily Figure 3. Showing the 25 hot spot countries.
composed of four main forest vegetation types; dipterocarp, mangrove, pine and mossy (or cloud forests). Dipterocarp vegetation has
the most commercially important species, the dipterocarp trees. In 1900s, more than 15 million hectares of undisturbed and secondary
forests translating to around 70% total forest cover. At the end of World War II, the remaining forest cover decreased and 50% forest
cover were left. From 1900 to before 2000, a total of nearly 15 million hectares of forest were lost. Currently the country has remaining
6 million hectares only. Primary forests have declined dramatically to only less than a million hectares today.

Deforestation is a form of replacing species-rich forests with species-poor ecosystems. These also create fragmentation which more
likely increased disturbances from wind and light penetration which changes forest structure, microclimate, and standing biomass.
Ecological succession of Philippine forests began after the ban of massive logging and some policies such as Selective Logging System
and the banned of high yield yarding extraction system were implemented. Succession had been efficient and eventually secondary
forests dominated by dipterocarp trees. But majority of the logged over areas were modified and disturbed consistently by farming
from shifting cultivations and the flourishing plantations.

Module 3. Human Influence on Animals

Abstraction

Domestication of animal

Domestication is the most profound ways in which humans have affected animals. Since the start of domestication, humans altered
tremendous range of changes in the shapes and sizes of animals like with the modern dog breeds such as wolfhound and a chihuahua.
Domestication has also accelerated the process of evolution, a change of species which supposedly occur through time like dinosaurs
and birds. Characteristics of important animals like cattle and sheep were also altered. The wild ancestors of cattle gave no more than
a few hundred milliliters of milk but today the best milk cow can yield up to 15,000 L of milk during its lactation period. The sheep also
had been changed such as its tails size, colour and wool. The wool of present-day fine-fleeced sheep consists of uniform, thin down
fibres and the total yearly weight may now reach 20 kg from previous ancestors which only produced 1 kg. Various species of animals
have changed tremendously because of human. These changes happened primarily to better human populations’ lifestyle.

Dispersal and invasion of animals

The world is divided into regions with distinctive animal life, referred as the great ‘faunal realms’ as identified by zoogeographers like
Alfred Wallace. This pattern of wildlife distribution evolved slowly over geological time. An interesting line of realms is between
Australasia and Asia –also called the Wallace’s Line. Because of its isolation from the Asian land mass, Australasia developed a
distinctive fauna characterized by its relative absence of placental mammals, its well-developed marsupials and the egg-laying
monotremes (echidna and the platypus).
However, modern societies are breaking the fauna realms because humans are facilitating what are called ecological or biological
invasions. Animals which are highly adaptable and dispersive forms are spreading explosively and the more specialized organisms are
limited, replaced or might even gone from their habitat. In 2011, Global Native Species Information Network listed several species as
invasive in other countries. These species are listed as the most widespread invasive animals: rats (Rattus rattus and Rattus
norvegicus), cats (Felis catus), goats (Capra hircus), American mink (Mustela vison) and the house mouse (Mus musculus). These
invasive alien species are now the major concern for management especially for biological conservation worldwide.

There are three main stages in the process of biological invasions because of human actions. The first stage, covers several millennia
up to about AD1500, human favoured migration in the Old World (Asia). The second stage commenced about AD 1500, during the
time of discovery, exploration and colonization of new territories, and the initiation of ‘the globalization of exchanges’ within and into
Old World. The third stage, which only covers the recent 100 to 150 years, shows a more extensive ‘multifocal globalization’ with
increasing rate of exchanges.

Reasons for deliberate introduction of species to different regions are: for food, sport, revenue, sentiment, control of other pests and
for aesthetic purposes. Nonetheless, there were also accidental introductions especially during the development of open-ocean
vessels. The spread of the highly invasive fish, the goby (Neoglobius melanostomus) into the Great Lakes region of North America from
the Black Sea is due to this cause.

There could be more successful and less successful in the invasion of an introduced species. There are particularly five rules of
biological invasions:

Rule 1 ‘Isolated environments with a low diversity of native species tend to be differentially susceptible to invasion.’

Rule 2 ‘Species that are successful invaders tend to be native to continents and to extensive, non-isolated habitats within continents.’

Rule 3 ‘Successful invasion is enhanced by similarity in the physical environment between the source and target areas.’

Rule 4 ‘Invading exotics tend to be more successful when native species do not occupy similar niches.’ Rule 5 ‘Species that inhabit
disturbed environments and those with a history of close association with humans tend to be successful in invading man-modified
habitats.

Human influence on the expansion of animal populations

In most cases, human actions may lead to the decline of some species. But there are instances also that alterations of the environment
and modification of competition will favour the expansion of some species. For example, in studies of bird population in cities, it
showed that urban areas support highest number in terms of biomass and numbers compared to agricultural and uninhabited areas.
However, in terms of diversity and species richness, urban areas are significantly low.

In America, the huge population of the domestic cat (Felis catus) has been a serious problem for many birds. There are no less than
77 million pet cats in the USA and possibly an additional 60–100 million homeless strays. In some areas of the USA, populations of
squirrels, rabbits, racoons, skunks and opossums are thriving in the urban area. While in some African cities, a scavenging hyena
(Crocuta crocuta) can be found in the urban as well. In general, animals that tolerate disturbance, are adaptable, utilize patches of
open or woodland-edge habitat, creep about inside buildings, tap people’s food supply, avoid recognizable competition with humans,
or attract human appreciation and esteem. Although urban areas may have different composition of species, urban wildlife is likely
only composed of exotic rather than native species.

Modification of certain habitat may lead to expansion of certain species. For example, European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) was
introduced to Britain during medieval from west Mediterranean. Their population increases during the period of agricultural expansion
especially modifying grasslands and the subsequent decline of their predator like hawks from game-guarding landlords in Britain. In
1950s, there were about 60 to 100million rabbits in the wild already. Therefore, there were several species which gain benefits from
modification of habitat and landscapes by urbanization. These species are referred as synanthropes. Examples are pigeons and
sparrows who thrives along buildings and gutters within human habitation.

Causes of animal contractions and decline: pollution

The extreme effect of human activities to animals is extinction. The decline may be brought about by intentional killings for subsistence
and commercial purposes, but much wildlife decline occurs indirectly through pollution, habitat change or loss, and competition from
invaders. For instance, some veterinary drugs and certain chemical pesticides can create undesirable and unexpected changes in other
animal populations. For instance, Gyps vultures in both Africa and India were poisoned by diclofenac given to cattle for treating
inflammation, pain and fevers. This is toxic to the vultures so that when they eat cattle carcasses, they are in effect poisoned.

Another example is the catastrophic decline in bumble and honey bees in some parts of the world which is attributed to the use of
neonicotinoid pesticides in seed dressing for crops. Decline of bees is highly detrimental to plant diversity. Another example was the
use of DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) to control of insects such as malarial mosquitoes during the Second World War. DDT
content becomes concentrated as it goes up in the food chain or what we referred the biological accumulation and magnification. Its
quantity was increasing in rivers from run-offs in farms. DDT had a major effect on sea-birds. Their egg shells become thinned to the
extent that reproduction fails especially in fish-eating birds. Landbirds were also affected such as bald eagle (Haliaeetus
leucocephalus), peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) and osprey (Pandion haliaetus) which showed decrease in eggshell thickness and
population decline from 1947 to 1967. The decline was correlated with DDT usage and subsequent reproductive and metabolic effects
upon the birds.
Oil pollution is a serious problem for marine and coastal fauna and flora also, some oil spills derives from natural seeps. Sea-birds are
especially vulnerable since oil clogs their feathers; while the ingestion of oil when birds attempt to preen themselves leads to enteritis
and other complaints. Local bird populations may be seriously diminished. Another pollution is the effect of runoff from the land which
causes nutrient enrichment due to contain nitrates and other nutrients derived from fertilizers. Equally, poor land management can
also cause salinity levels to be reduced below the level of tolerance of reef communities as a consequence of accelerated runoff of
freshwater from catchments draining into lagoons. This sedimentation can also damage the reefs.

Another pollution is soil erosion which cause increase stream turbidity. It may adversely affect fish habitats. The reduction of light
penetration inhibits photosynthesis, which in turn leads to a decline in food and a decline in carrying capacity. Turbidity could also be
increased by mining, construction and dredging. Industrial air pollution has an adverse effect on wild animals also. Some chemicals
emitted are arsenic and sulfur which are proven harmful to birds.

Habitat change and animal decline

Land use and land cover changes, including the conversion of natural ecosystems to cropland which modified habitats caused animal
declines. Many species have lost a very large part of their natural ranges as a result of human activities, and a study of historical and
present distributions of 173 declining mammal species from six continents has indicated that these species have collectively lost over
50% of their historic range area. A particularly stark example of a species whose range is shrinking, because of habitat loss and intense
poaching, is the wild tiger, Panthera tigris. Its historical range was from the Caspian to southern China, but now, in less than a century,
it occupies only 7% of this range with very few thousands in the wild.

Animal extinctions

Between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, most large mammals became extinct everywhere except Africa due to some natural events. In
the late Quaternary, extinctions were crucial. It is believed that this extinction closely followed the chronology of the spread of
prehistoric civilization and the development of big-game hunting. For instance, the complete deforestation of Easter Island in the
Pacific between 1200 and 800 years before the present was an ecological disaster that led to the demise of much of the native flora
and fauna and also precipitated the decline of the megalithic civilization that had erected the famous statues on the islands.

As the size of human populations has increased and technology has developed today, humans have been responsible for the extinction
of many species of animals and a reduction in biodiversity – ‘this is the only truly irreversible global environmental change the Earth
faces today’. How many animals are facing extinctions today? Kindly search IUCN REDLIST for the updated status of animals.