Question

Mention three causes of the loss of biodiversity.

Answer 1

Hint: Biodiversity is defined as the diverse variety of flora and fauna present in our ecosystem. But due to anthropogenic actions, a severe decline in flora and fauna has been observed in the last few decades.

Complete Answer:
In this specific question, we need to understand the significant causes of the loss of biodiversity. The increasing rates of extinctions are large because of anthropogenic activities.

The major reasons for the biodiversity loss are habitat loss and fragmentation, over-exploitation, and alien species invasions. Let us study this in detail.
1. Habitat loss and fragmentation is the significant cause of directing the extinction of flora and fauna. It was intensely observed in tropical rainforests.

2. The Amazon rainforest conserving approximately millions of species are being fragmented and destroyed for agricultural needs.
- Moreover, the destruction of various habitats by environmental contamination also endangers the existence of many species.
- When large habitats are fragmented into small pieces due to human activities, organisms like mammals and birds residing in large regions are drastically impacted. This leads to a steep population decline.

3. Over-exploitation is majorly due to the increasing demands of bombing populations.
- Several species diminishing in the past 500 years such as passenger pigeons were because of anthropogenic actions.
- Presently, many marine fishes all over the world are over-exploited, harming the existence of several commercial species.

4. Last but not the least, alien species invasions by accident or deliberately caused havoc for the native species of that specific area.
- The alien species after invasion not only aggressively compete with them but also cause their extinction. E.g., The Nile perch invasion in Lake Victoria in Africa caused the extinction of around 200 native species of cichlid fish.
- Similarly, the unwanted invasion of the African catfish for aquaculture needs is causing a threat to the native catfish.

Note: These reasons have contributed majorly to biodiversity loss. But other than this, there exist some other important causes too such as coextinction, overexploitation, pollution, etc.