Five Key Threats To Biodiversity

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5. Chemical Pollution

Perhaps surprisingly, there have been some major advances in stemming pollution over recent decades.

Successive clean air and clean water acts across the world have forced industry to tighten up their controls and ensure the proper disposal of toxic substances which were once simply dumped.

However less heed has been given to nutrients which can build up in the soil and water and effect ecosystems through a process of eutrophication, causing one part of the system to thrive to the utter devastation of others.

Classic cases of eutrophication are algal blooms in rivers and seas, such as those which turned the Potomac River green a few years ago.

Once again, Man’s actions cause an imbalance in the ecosystem which if left unchecked can reach a tipping point where biodiversity is not just harmed but wholly destroyed.

^{Photo Credit: Blue Spring River by JoelDeluxe on flickr under Creative Commons Attribution License.}