Unsustainable vs. Sustainable

What is a sustainable ecosystem? A sustainable ecosystem is a biological environment of a given area that can support itself without any outside influence. In today’s world, these sustainable ecosystems are fading away, while the human environmental footprint is growing. One example of an ecosystem that used to be sustainable is the Great Barrier Reef, which has been severely affected by bleaching. For those who didn’t see my last post, basically, climate change causes reefs to turn a white colour (hence the name) and start to die. This is all because of growing human influence in nature, which makes many ecosystems unsustainable.

When this ecosystem used to be sustainable, the abiotic (the factors in the ecosystem that are not alive, like water, air, and sunlight) and the biotic elements (the factors in the ecosystem that are alive, like animals, plants, and microorganisms) worked in harmony. The plants would use the sunlight to do photosynthesis and create oxygen for the aquatic life to thrive. The ground was nutrient-rich and helped the plants grow. And most importantly, the water was the right temperature so that everything in it could thrive. Nowadays, climate change has made the water warmer, which the coral isn’t used to. To keep it short (Go read my previous post for more detailed information!) the coral dies because it isn’t used to these temperatures. Once the coral dies, the fish that live in it cant protect themselves from their predators anymore, which throws the whole ecosystem off balance. The populations of all the biotic factors in the ecosystem are diminishing.

See this table for a clear look at the abiotic and biotic factors in a sustainable and unsustainable ecosystem:

Click here to watch video on human activities that make ecosystems unsustainable.

Sources: Environment Ecology, Wikipedia

Photo by Konstantin Kopachinsky on Unsplash