Question.
What do you understand by ecological balance and imbalance? Discuss the factors contributing to global ecological imbalance? ( 25 Marks, 66th BPSC geography)
Discuss the factors responsible for global ecological imbalances. ( 60-62nd BPSC geography)
Answer.
As we know, everything around us is a part of our environment. There are two major components of the environment, biotic and abiotic components.
All organisms such as plants, animals, microorganisms, and humans are part of the biological components of the environment. Soil, water, air, temperature, sunlight, minerals, etc. are part of the abiotic components of the environment.
In an area, all the organisms interact with each other and with the abiotic components of the environment, forming an ecosystem.
The environment is self-propelled and in order for it to remain self-propelled, living beings have to live in a particular ratio so that the interaction between the biotic and the non-living continues.
In ecology, we study the birth, development, distribution, and nature of living beings of a particular place.
It also includes the study of energy flow, biogeochemical cycle, etc.
What is the ecological balance?
Each organism and abiotic component has its own role in the stability of the ecosystem. Ecological balance is a dynamic equilibrium within a community of organisms in a habitat or ecosystem.
The following are the characteristics of ecological balance:
- The number of species in the ecosystem remains constant, that is, neither the number of species is more so than other species become extinct.
- The diversity of flora remained constant or continued to grow.
- The quality of abiotic components such as water, soil, air, and minerals should not deteriorate.
- For example, in grasslands, there are a large number of herbivores and a sufficient number of carnivores [but less than herbivores] to the ecological balance of the grassland ecosystem.
What is Ecological Imbalance:
Ecological imbalance is a situation in which the number of species of a particular organism either increases or decreases very much, due to which the self-adjusting power of the system starts to weaken.
Following are the signs of ecological imbalance:
- A high increase in the population of a particular species and a decrease in the population of other species.
- The sharp decline in particular resources like forests, soil, water, minerals, etc.
The following are the major factors contributing to the global ecological imbalance:
Ecological imbalance started after the industrial revolution due to human mindless exploitation of resources, population explosion, and high consumption resulting in the disturbance in homeostasis principles of ecology that leads to the ecological imbalance at the global and regional levels.
The introduction of new plant or animal species to new habitats:
- Intentionally or unintentionally by human activities, some species of plants and animals enter new habitats where they have no predators that can stop their population. Due to said, there is a huge increase in the population of that species, causing an ecological imbalance in that habitat.
- For example, the introduction of lantana flower species to the Western Ghats has caused a great loss of biodiversity.
Due to high human population growth:
- Due to the high human population growth, there has been a lot of burden on the ecology in order to fulfill man's needs.
- A lot of deforestation takes place. Due to this the habitat of wildlife decreases.
- In order to produce more food, it uses faulty farming practices and chemical pesticides and fertilizers, which harm many organisms of the ecology and reduce their numbers.
- Various pollutants have increased to an alarming level due to the Industrial Revolution and the use of plastics.
Natural calamity:
- Natural calamities such as floods, tsunamis, forest fires, landslides, etc. cause more damage to a particular organism of the ecology, and loss of abiotic components causes the loss of zoos, causing great damage to them.
- What do you understand by ecological balance and imbalance? Discuss the factors contributing to global ecological imbalance?
- Global ecological imbalances | Regional global ecological imbalances | Global and regional ecological changes and imbalances
- पारिस्थितिक संतुलन और असंतुलन से आप क्या समझते है ? भूमंडलीय पारिस्थितिक असंतुलन में योगदान देने वाले तत्वों का वर्णन करें।
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