11/29/2016 Strength in Numbers

Human Population Growth and its Impact

on Biodiversity

Cody Tyler Bennett

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Introduction

Throughout the years, humans have vastly altered landscapes and habitats to

accommodate our needs. Growth of the human population has led to an increased amount

of land required for living purposes and agriculture, including food for human consumption

and for domestic animals (Pimentel et al. 1997). The resulting effect of this land alteration

is habitat loss for species that could potentially live there. There is a negative correlation

between human population growth and biodiversity, and this will continue to be the case

until preventative measures are taken.

The human populations doubling time has gotten very short compared to earlier in

history. For example, from 500 BC to 600 AD, human numbers increased from 100 million

to 200 million. That is, it took 1100 years for our population to double in size. The growth

from 400 million to 800 million humans took just 550 years. Our population doubling time

has significantly decreased, as our numbers went from 3.2 billion to 6.4 billion in just 41

years (Molles and Borrell 2016). The Earth has a carrying capacity for humans, and we may

be growing very close to it. Determining how many lives can be supported by the world we

live in is a difficult task. We have overcome previous limiting factors with medical

breakthroughs, technological advances, and agricultural improvements. Estimates show

that the human carrying capacity for Earth is about 7.7 billion people (Van Den Bergh and

Rietvield 2004). We are on course to pass this mark, as most projections show human

population will pass 8 billion by 2025 (Wright and Boorse 2017). This same projection

shows our population reaching 10 billion around 2065, but there is a 15% chance that our

population will be lower by the year 2100 than it is today (Lutz and Qiang 2002, Wright

and Boorse 2017). However, is it such a bad thing that human numbers are increasing?
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The impact of a population can be measured by looking at its size, the affluence or

consumption of individuals, and the technological levels in the populations society (Daily

1992). This shows that human population growth is not necessarily a negative thing by

itself, but it has the capability to exacerbate problems. An expected population of 9 billion

people by 2050 means that 18% more land will need to be converted for agricultural use

(Tilman et al. 2001). Humans have already altered about 50% of the worlds surface for our

own benefit (McKee 2003). Even with improvements in farming, a growing population will

require a larger food source and more land to acquire that food from. This inevitably leads

to habitat loss for other organisms.

Why Care About Biodiversity?

As with any species, humans should naturally only be concerned with ensuring that

we continue to survive and thrive. Why, then, should humans concern themselves with

worrying about maintaining biodiversity levels? Ecosystem services are an important

benefit that other organisms perform that benefit the environment without humans

needing to perform the tasks themselves. These services such as pollination, soil formation

and aeration, nitrogen fixation, waste disposal by decomposition, and pest control along

with benefits gained from diversity of livestock genetics, diversity of crop genetics, and

medicines derived from plants account for over $300 billion worth of benefits in the United

States annually. Across the entire world, the value of these benefits is increased to $2.9

trillion (Pimentel et al. 1997).

We may be able to replicate some of the ecosystem services that biodiversity

provides, such as manually pollinating plants or aerating soil, but biodiversity has a strong
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potential to solve possible problems in the future. For instance, heat stress due to global

warming will likely have a severe effect on the crops we rely most heavily on (Teixeira et al.

2013). However, there are around 30,000 edible species of plants that can be grown, and

some of these can produce a large amount of harvestable food in environments that were

once thought to be too harsh and dry for agriculture (Wright and Boorse 2017). Likewise,

crossbreeding crops with wild genes can help protect the plants against climate change,

crop pests, and disease (Wright and Boorse 2017).

Human Impact

The human impact on biodiversity goes back at least 1.8 million years ago to the

beginnings of Homo erectus and its spread across Africa. Mammalian biodiversity was

rising in Africa from 3 million to 2 million years ago, but then it began to rapidly decline

right as Homo erectus appeared and spread (McKee 2003, Behrensmeyer et al. 1997). There

is currently no way of attributing this loss of biodiversity to actions and growth of humans,

but the negative correlation is present. Furthermore, there are no noted climate changes

for this period, so environmental factors can be ruled out as the reason for this decline

(McKee 2003). The likely explanation is that humans were controlling food resources that

other species needed to survive. Rather than hunting a species to extinction, humans

caused other species that shared its niche to starve (McKee 2003).

Resources such as food are not always what we keep from other species. Humans

use about 40% of available solar energy in the biosphere, and this has only increased with

human population growth (Maurer 1996). Increases in primary productivity are positively

correlated with both human population density and bird species richness (Chown et al.
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2003). More available net primary productivity bolsters almost all organisms. However,

humans can harvest and control this energy far more efficiently than other organisms. It is

estimated that biodiversity loss will be somewhat slow until humans consume at least 66%

of available solar energy. At this point, biodiversity will rapidly decline (Maurer 1996).

About 56,000 years ago, humans reached Australia. The following 10,000 years saw

the loss of 23 of Australias 24 genera of large land mammals (McKee 2003). Once again,

climate change was not the cause of the extinctions in this time period. Hunting and habitat

destruction, the burning of trees to clear paths for navigation, caused the decline and

disappearance of native Australian species (McKee 2003). Since then, we have altered the

land further, and habitat loss is an enormous factor behind the loss of biodiversity.

Humans can control the fate of the land we live on. Close to one-third of the worlds

land is used to grow food for livestock (Pimentel et al. 1997). Another pressing matter is

deforestation occurring where biodiversity levels are high, such as in the tropics. This

deforestation is either caused by greed in developed countries that have lenient or no

conservation policies, or by the needs of the growing human population in less developed

countries (Jha and Bawa 2006). Deforestation causes the loss of 90,000 km2 of tropical

forests, the hotspots of biodiversity, annually with another 20,000 km2 being affected by

fragmentation (Molles and Borrell 2016). Habitat destruction causes 36% of known

extinctions (Wright and Boorse 2017). Our progress has led to the decline of organisms

that we share this world with.

The world is comprised of 1.4 to 1.6 million known species with an estimated 12.5

million species worldwide. About 1000 species are known to have gone extinct in the last

500 years (Wright and Boorse 2017, McKee 2003). Overexploitation has been the cause of
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23% of these recent extinctions (Wright and Boorse 2017). Before the appearance of

humans, mammalian extinction rates were less than one every 1,000 years, except during

the five main extinction events (Wright and Boorse 2017). This difference is far too striking

not to attribute to humans. Changes need to be made and human views of biodiversity need

to be expanded to preserve and rejuvenate the world that we live in.

Population growth leads to an increase in urban areas which harms and prevents

biodiversity. Urbanization is simply another form of habitat destruction, but urban areas

generally stay developed for a long amount of time without much chance for restoration. In

the US, land use by urban areas is increasing more quickly than land that is being preserved

by parks or other conservation efforts (McKinney 2002). Some species can flourish at the

edge of urban development, but urbanization ultimately deals a huge blow to species

richness (Chown et al. 2003).

An increase in human population does not have to mean a decrease in biodiversity.

As our numbers as a species grow, we can develop better ways to manage land and protect

biodiversity (Bulte and Horan 2002). However, this is only possible if proper conservation

policies are put into place and abided by. Such policies usually receive strong opposition

from companies or groups with other interests. There has been a negative correlation

between human population growth and forested area, but this has been stabilizing and

reversing in some countries within recent history (Mather and Needle 1999). Conservation

policies aimed at habitat and/or species are essential to the preservation of biodiversity

(Wright and Boorse 2017, Chown et al. 2003).

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Solutions and The Future

The recent explosiveness of human population growth seems to be coming to an end

(Lutz and Qiang 2002, Wright and Boorse 2017, Molles and Borrell 2016). Contraception

availability has grown rapidly in recent history. The vast majority of the worlds regions

show over 60% of women using contraception; the exception to this is sub-Saharan Africa

at 21.5% (Molles and Borrell 2016). Additionally, fertility rates have plummeted in high

population countries. India has seen a 50% decline in fertility rates in the past 65 years

solely through education about population consequences and increased access to

contraceptives. A similar approach was taken by the Chinese government in 1970.

However, growth rates did not decline fast enough, and the one-child family policy was put

into place in 1979. Some may see this as far too extreme, but Chinas fertility rates have

dropped by 75% since 1970 (Molles and Borrell 2016). Nearly all countries have seen at

least a slight drop in fertility rates within the last 25 years which may indicate that

population stabilization is on the way (Molles and Borrell 2016).

Population growth rates near biodiversity hotspots have recently been declining,

but there has not yet been a stabilization of population. Furthermore, these areas are

mostly inhabited with young people, and declining fertility rates will not affect the

population enough to reduce the growth rate for a while (Williams 2013). Even though

population growth may be heading towards a plateau, biodiversity will continue to

diminish in these hotspots unless conservation efforts take place. Progress has certainly

been made with the CITES treaty, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the Lacey Act,
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but biodiversity has yet to rebound from human impact (Molles and Borrell 2016). Public

education could be one of the biggest contributors in preventing further negative human

impact on biodiversity (McKinney 2002).

Conclusion

Human population growth has reached astonishing rates in recent history, and

biodiversity has suffered as a consequence. Through habitat loss and overexploitation, we

can see the destructive impact that the growing number of humans has had on the number

of other species in the world. This decreased biodiversity is troubling, as we receive many

ecosystem services, agricultural benefits, and medical benefits from the organisms that we

are causing to go extinct. Human impact in the tropics is especially evident and noteworthy

due to the extensive levels of biodiversity in these areas. Our population may finally be

heading towards stabilization thanks to declining fertility rates, but we are also growing

close to the assumed carrying capacity that the Earth can handle. Conservation policies,

technological advancements, and agricultural advancements must be made to help reduce

human impacts on the ecosystems that we have not already destroyed or altered. We must

take responsibility and protect what remains of the Earths biodiversity.

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