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Species diversity and human activities
In our efforts to provide enough food for the human
population at a low cost, mankind has had a considera- Balance between conservation and farming:
ble impact on the natural world
...

tion of food, it has been nearly doubled in the last 40
Impact of Agriculture:
years
...

ral communities into farmland
...

are different
...
As a result, Certain practises have directly removed habitats and
the number of species and the genetic variety of alleles reduced species diversity:

they posses is reduced to few that exhibit the desired
features
...


•

Plant hedges instead of using fences for boundaries

•

Leave wet corners of fields rather than draining
them
...
If its seriously reduced,
global living systems will become unstable
...
They increase
•
Creating monocultures (replacing natural meadows species diversity and act as corridors along which
To be economic, the number of individuals of these
with cereal crops)
many species move to disperse themselves, they also
desirable species needs to be large
...
If most of the •
and those
area is taken up by the one species the farmer deems
•
Over-grazing of land
that don’t
...

•
Use of pesticides and inorganic fertilisers
These other species have to compete for what little
•
Escape of effluent from silage stores into water
space and resources are available
...
Even if they evolved to adapt to •
Absence of crop rotation and lack of intercropping
these changes, the population of the species would be
However, there are a number of techniques to increase
considerably reduced
...
The overall effect is a reduction in spe- •
and shape
cies diversity

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