EcoHomeLife Explains is a series of articles that explains terms and concepts relating to sustainability in simple and easy terms but supported by scientific evidence. In this edition we answer the question: why is biodiversity loss bad for the environment?
On my journey to live a more sustainable life, I do a lot of research and reading to understand how I can best reduce the impact I have on the environment.
One term that comes up again and again is biological diversity loss. It’s a very important term as it has a huge impact on our environment.
So I decided to give you a brief overview of what it is and why it’s such bad news for the environment.
What Does It Mean To Lose Biodiversity?
According to the Cambridge Online Dictionary, biodiversity describes the different living organisms that exist on earth. So we are losing the diversity of plants, fungi, microorganisms and animals through potential extinction of certain plant, animal, fungus and microorganism species.
Individual species going extinct, doesn’t necessarily cause an issue. It’s a natural occurrence. Scientists estimate that the baseline extinction rate is around one species in a million species going extinct each year.
While this contributes to biodiversity loss, it’s not what is generally meant when this term is used in relation to sustainability or threats to the environment. These baseline extinctions happen over a period of hundreds or thousands of years and are part of evolution.
But what causes an issue are mass extinctions. These are events where a large number of species die out in a shorter period of time. Scientists agree that our earth has seen five mass annihilations so far. (Alsulami et Petrovskii, 2023)
While there isn’t a consensus among scientists regarding the cause of these mass extinction events, one study suggests that the main driver is large-scale volcanic activity.
Global warming and lethal conditions caused by volcanic activity were responsible for many of the past mass annihilations. (Bond et Grasby, 2016)
There are many scientists that believe that we are in the sixth mass extinction. And while the five previous had natural causes, this time, it’s down to human activity. (Ceballos et al., 2017)
These are the drivers of biodiversity loss:
- Depletion of natural resources – our consumerist society uses more resources than we have
- Loss of natural habitats – deforestation, urbanisation, etc.
- Climate change – fuelled by our addiction to fossil fuels
- Exploitation – hunting and overfishing
- Pollution – from microplastics, harmful synthetic petrochemicals, toxic fumes, pesticides, etc.
- Invasive species – many of which were introduced by humans
So Why Is Biodiversity Loss Bad For The Environment?
The ecosystems on our planet are carefully balanced by mother nature, with every single organism playing its part to keep the ecosystem healthy and working.
Only a healthy planet can support life as we know it. We need diversity in the organisms on our planet for the air we breathe as well as the food we eat, according to the Royal Society.
Let’s look at the impact of biological diversity loss in more detail.
Releasing Carbon Dioxide Into The Atmosphere
The release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into our atmosphere is one of the main drivers of global warming.
The sun’s radiation turns into infrared emissions after it hits the earth’s surface. These infrared emissions are absorbed by the CO2 particles, preventing the warmth from escaping our atmosphere. (Anderson et al., 2016)
But due to human activity, the level of CO2 in our atmosphere is so high that the surface temperature keeps rising, which causes climate change.
Nature has a natural way of keeping the carbon dioxide levels low enough not to cause issues, as CO2 is absorbed and stored by various organisms. Trees absorb CO2 and store it as carbon, including in their roots and wood. (Waring et al., 2020)
But it’s not just trees: many other plants also store carbon. And there is a huge amount of carbon that is stored in the soil too. It’s passed on by plants to mycorrhizal fungi in exchange for other nutrients.
The fungi store the carbon in their huge mycelium network that runs under our feet. This makes the soil a carbon dioxide sink.
Other ecosystems also store CO2 and the biggest of all are our oceans. (Li et al., 2024) There are two ways our oceans absorb and store so much CO2: first by making it soluble and pumping into the depth of the oceans.
Second, through biological sequestration, which means marine organisms in the water absorb and store the greenhouse gas. (Moreira et Pires, 2016)
Mangroves, peatlands, wetlands, grasslands and many other ecosystems also play their part in absorbing and storing harmful CO2.
Biodiversity loss brings these vital ecosystems out of balance if not destroying them completely, which will limit their ability to store carbon dioxide.
Puts Food Security For Everyone At Risk
Plants form the basis of our food chain, and they need certain conditions to grow, including healthy soils and for some pollinators to distribute their pollen.
Biodiversity loss impacts on both those things. We know that many of our pollinators, including bees and butterflies, are at risk, due to the use of pesticides, habitat loss and climate change. (Whipple et Bowser, 2023)
If we were to lose them, many plants who rely on them for pollination would also go extinct together with the animals that rely on them for food. The impact would be felt along the entire food chain, which ends with us.
The other vital ingredient for plant growth is healthy soil, which relies on a wide range of organisms, including fungi, bacteria, insects and invertebrates.
We know that our insect population is declining, with some estimates putting the threat of extinction at 10%, others at 40% of the current insect population. This would have huge impacts on the health of our soils and plants (Van der Sluijs, 2020)
The diversity of the soil’s microbiome is vital for the health of the soil, but even these little organisms are at risk, due to various reasons, including pesticides (Hussain et al., 2009), microplastics (Zhai et al, 2024) and, traditional agricultural practices (Derpsch et al., 2023).
Every single organism, including us humans, depends on a healthy earth for our food. But without the biodiversity the various ecosystems wouldn’t be able to feed everyone.
Exposes Us To Natural Disasters
Extreme weather events, such as floods, heat waves, droughts, wildfires and storms, have become more frequent and intense. While climate change does also play a role in this, biodiversity loss plays an even bigger part.
Ever since humans have stopped being nomadic and settled down, they have changed the use of land to suit their lives. Today human settlements mostly consist of cities, towns and villages, which are connected via roads.
This urbanisation turned woods, grasslands and other ecosystems into concrete jungles, which aren’t good at absorbing water. The result, flooding is becoming increasingly common. Especially when flood plains are built up. (Fox et al., 2024)
The water from rain and overflowing rivers and lakes just doesn’t have anywhere to go any more.
One illustrative example of this is the beaver. Through hunting, this native animal got extinct in the UK in the 16th century. Without them, the landscape changed. Today, they have been reintroduced in several locations as a natural form of flood management. (Auster et al., 2022)
This shows how biodiversity loss can make natural disasters worse. Another example is drought resistance of ecosystems. A study has shown that grassland that contains a high level of biological diversity is more resistant to prolonged periods of dry weather. (Tilman et Downing, 1994)
You can observe this phenomenon in your own garden. If you have a short lawn that is basically just one type of grass, you will find it going brown quickly if there isn’t any rain for a while in summer.
But if you have left an area wild, where a wide range of different plants grow, you will notice that this patch won’t go dry as quickly.
Healthy ecosystems need biological diversity to function. If we lose this diversity, ecosystems become unbalanced and are less able to protect themselves and us from natural disasters.
Halting And Reversing Biodiversity Loss Is Vital
Now that we know why biodiversity loss is bad for the environment, we can also understand why it’s vital to stop it from happening. But it’s just as important to reverse it.
This means we need to address the drivers of biological diversity loss, especially climate change. We also need to protect the biodiversity we still have through conservation and habitat protection.
However, this alone won’t be enough. We also have to reverse biodiversity loss, by restoring lost habitats. (Hahn et al., 2022)
Most of these can only be achieved through policy and societal changes, which need all countries to work together. But there are things that we, as individuals, can do:
- Adopt eco-friendly gardening to increase the biodiversity in your garden
- Move away from our consumerist society and buy less
- Reduce the amount of plastic you use by switching to plastic-free alternatives, such as shampoo bars or plastic-free razors and toothbrushes.
- Walk and cycle more and use your car less
- Reduce your carbon footprint by investing in an electric car, a heat pump, solar panels and a battery
We need a fundamental change in how we live our lives, which isn’t easy. And because of the scale of change needed, many people feel helpless and don’t believe they can make a difference.
But you can. You can change your way of life and become more sustainable. And you can set a good example for your children, friends, colleagues and family. We can start the ball rolling and once it gets up to speed, it’s unstoppable. So be the one to give it a big push!
