Ecosystem: Have We Gotten Too Far?

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving, physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water, and sunlight. It is all the organisms in a given area, along with the nonliving (abiotic) factors with which they interact; a biological community and its physical environment (source: Wikipedia).

The entire array of organisms inhabiting a particular ecosystem is called a community.  Ecosystems, plants and other photosynthetic organisms are the producers that provide the food. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary. Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs. Ecosystems are functional units consisting of living things in a given area, non-living chemical and physical factors of their environment, linked together through nutrient cycle and energy flow.

Ecosystems have become particularly important politically since the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - ratified by 192 countries - defines "the protection of ecosystems, natural habitats and the maintenance of viable populations of species in natural surroundings"(source: United Nations Environment Programme. Convention on Biological Diversity. June 1992. UNEP Document no. Na.92-78) as a commitment of ratifying countries. This has created the political necessity to spatially identify ecosystems and somehow distinguish among them. The CBD defines an "ecosystem" as a "dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit" (source: Wikipedia).

With the need of protecting ecosystems, the political need arose to describe and identify them efficiently. Vreugdenhil et al. (Wikipedia) argued that this could be achieved most effectively by using a physiognomic-ecological classification system, as ecosystems are easily recognizable in the field as well as on satellite images. They argued that the structure and seasonality of the associated flora and fauna, complemented with ecological data (such as elevation, humidity, and drainage), are each determining modifiers that separate partially distinct sets of species. This is true not only for plant species, but also for species of animals, fungi and bacteria. The degree of ecosystem distinction is subject to the physiognomic modifiers that can be identified on an image and/or in the field. Where necessary, specific fauna elements can be added, such as seasonal concentrations of animals and the distribution of coral reefs.

The health of humans like all organisms depends on an ecosystem that sustains life in general. However, studies show some evidence that most life-support systems are far from healthy, therefore posing a big threat on human health. It is proven also that some gains in life expectancy and quality of life made during the twentieth century are at risk of being reversed in the twenty-first century.

It is being put to blame that our ecosystem degradation would lead to numerous health factors that poses risks for human life like pollution in water, air and land, the climate change, emerging new diseases from different breakthrough on viruses and bacteria, resurgence of old diseases, and so on and so forth.

With this, it also includes different studies and methods being used to discover natural gas, mining and coal; thus leads to an imbalance in our ecosystem. The main culprit – humans and its advanced technologies discoveries.

We can achieve a balance ecosystem only if we know how to take care of it while discovering and unraveling different breakthrough technologies. It is not that easy task though. As we gear towards the 21st century fever.

But let us always remember the saying that “history repeats itself.” And to be able to achieve a balance ecosystem, hand in hand we need to fully understand the causes and effects of the advancement of technology breakthroughs in our everyday living.