Question

1. Threat to biodiversity in MUTUALISM, COMMENSALISM AND PARASITISM
   1. Describe the threat. What is it? Where is it? What is causing it? Etc. (at least a long paragraph description here).
   2. What potential or actual harm can result from this threat?
   3. Give at least two statistics related to this threat.

Answer 1

The threat to biodiversity is MUTUALISM, COMMENSALISM, AND PARASITISM.

a)All these terms refer to the symbiotic relationships of organisms with each other and the environment which causes benefit in the long run. Biodiversity needs focus because it balances the ecosystem. If our ecosystem is imbalanced, then all living organisms will be at a risk for their life. Therefore, we should really look into matters which cause a threat to our biodiversity. The first and foremost threat is the increasing population. With such an overpopulation, urbanization is at its peak. As a result of all this, there is more demand for resources. This ultimately leads to overconsumption and overexploitation of these resources causing a scarcity for it in the long run. Climate change is also a topic which is causing havoc in the biodiversity. Due to such abrupt climatic changes, global warming is increasing at an alarming rate with every passing day. Overall, there are many such causes such as the above-mentioned ones, pollution, ozone layer depletion, etc which cause habitat destruction and occurs as a threat to biodiversity.

b) These above-mentioned threats like an increase in population, climate change, pollution, etc ultimately hampers the living of the inhabitants. Living organisms like animals and humans will suffer in the long run when there will be an extreme scarcity for the resources used to sustain life. The climate change will cause places to have extreme temperatures, thus hampering the living at such locations. With pollution, more and more people are suffering from diseases that are detrimental to their health like asthma, lung cancer, etc. All this can ultimately lead to mass extinction.

c)There are figures and other statistics that gives us an idea about the loss that biodiversity faces. WWF(World Wide Fund for Nature) took a survey where they observed that there has been a loss in the freshwater wildlife and terrestrial wildlife. The percentage of decline in freshwater wildlife is 76% and the percentage of decline in terrestrial wildlife is 39%.