MST WEEK 10

• Pollution


  Water, air, or land pollution that appears to be a threat to all life forms on Earth
• Pollution


  Plays a major threat to biodiversity when it comes to the nutrient loading of the elements nitrogen and phosphorus
• Invasive species


  An exotic or unnatural species that has been introduced to a foreign habitat, causing major threats to the native species
• Next to habitat loss, invasive species are ranked as the second biggest threat to biodiversity
• Invasive species


  • They are highly adaptable and can easily dominate a certain area
  • Many natural species survive only in a particular environment, so they tend to be displaced, or worse, perish
• Overexploitation


  The act of overharvesting species and natural resources at rates faster than they can actually sustain themselves in the wild
• Overexploitation

  • Overharvesting
  • Overfishing
  • Overhunting
• Some species of living organisms find it hard to reproduce when their number is too small
• Climate change and excessive nutrient loading


  • Two major factors affecting biodiversity that are expected to become more severe in the future
• The productivity of ecosystems depends on policy choices in investment, trade, subsidy, taxation, and regulation, among others
• Habitat loss


  Occurs when human activities result in the conversion of natural ecosystems to human-dominated systems, eliminating or reducing numbers of species that were a part of the original ecosystem
• Primary activities that result in habitat loss

  • Farming
  • Forestry
  • Grazing by livestock
  • Modification of aquatic habitats
  • Conversion to urban and industrial landscapes
• In the Philippines, deforestation (forest denudation and fragmentation) is a leading cause of habitat destruction that negatively impacts biodiversity on an exponential scale
• Poorly controlled logging and mining activities have created mostly irreparable damage to forest cover, affecting the diverse assemblages of flora and fauna that inhabit those primary forest territories
• Biodiversity hotspot


  A region with high species diversity and high level of endemism
• The Philippines is the only country in the region that is a biodiversity hotspot
• Reasons for Philippines' high biodiversity

  • Geological movement
  • Tropical weather
  • Once extensive forest cover
• Features of the Philippines' rich biodiversity

  • More than 52,177 described species, half of which are endemic
  • More than 1,130 terrestrial wildlife species recorded, 49% are endemic, 157 are threatened (128 are threatened endemic)
  • Floral diversity is between 10,000 and 14,000 species of vascular and non-vascular plants, more than half of which are endemic
  • 359 species of amphibians (101 species) and reptiles (258 species), 246 are endemic, the highest known percentage endemism among vertebrates
  • 576 species of birds, 195 are endemic, the 4th country in the world in terms of bird endemism
  • 174 mammalian species, 111 are endemic, the greatest concentration of terrestrial mammalian diversity and endemic mammals in the world
• In the last 15 years, new species have been discovered in particular of murid rodents, in Luzon, Mindanao, and Mindoro, and several new species have been discovered in small islands such as Sibuyan (five new species) and Camiguin (two new species), catapulting these islands to a new status as centers of mammal endemism
• Conversion of land for residential and commercial use


  Contributes to effects in lower-lying habitats
• Irresponsible and unsustainable fishing and aquaculture


  Harms marine habitats ecosystems
• Fishing practices

  • Dynamite fishing
  • Poison-dependent fishing
• Recent developments

  • Black sand mining in the northern Philippines
• The Philippine coral reef system is down to 5% in terms of being in excellent condition, as over 32% are already severely damaged
• 85% of the reefs in the Coral Triangle (the region covering countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, et al.) are threatened, shadowing the global average which stands at 60%