LESSON 1: THE SCIENCE OF ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

Subtopics: 1.1 Biodiversity

1.1.1 Causes of Ecological Imbalance
1.1.2 Effects to Biodiversity
1.2 Environmental Ethics
1.2.1 Restoration and Conservation of Ecological Balance

Objectives: 1. Describe the science of ecology and evolution from the different
perspective of the 21st-century environmentalist.
2. Identify the causes of ecological imbalance and how it affects
biodiversity.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of how essential ethics to conserve and
restore the environmental balance.

Overview

Ecology is not merely a discipline it also entails a worldview. The way people manipulate
the different species of animals, plants and other living organisms over the decades causes
unwelcomed consequences. These consequences resulted in ecological imbalanced and affected
biodiversity. To understand the perspective of ecology, it requires ethical outlook and universal
adoption through science education followed by a translation of policy and practice (Callicott,
2012).

Tracing the history of ecology would always mention prominent scientist Charles’ Darwin.
His practice to his field of expertise became one of the bases of Code of Ethics in Science, a principle
which encompasses the respect for human dignity and life in all its manifestations; truthfulness,
honesty, fulfillment of acceptable obligations; as well as respecting the right for the freedom of
belief and ownership rights. Darwin’s solution to evolution over and done with variation and chance
calling it as natural selection becomes an issue from 17th to 18th centuries. Natural selection
described how species evolve in nature as new species then mutate at the point of reproduction
and competition among other species to get food, survive and again reproduce. This idea had failed
the rational argumentation and the presentation of active material and cognitive evidence because
not all species needs competition to survive, many survive because of interrelationships (Gaia,
2019).

The cognitive perspectives of people and how it evolved thru time, is an example that
ethics is necessary to attain the exact meaning of ecology. In the Trends in Ecology and Evolution,
how diverse organisms interact with the abiotic and biotic components of the environment is the
worldview definition of ecology. Its primary goal is to create advanced knowledge and results to
find solutions to environmental problems such as water, land, energy, food, or biodiversity. It also
includes proposed interventions to alter glitches and harms brought by overexploitation, invasions
and species decline (Courchamp, Dunne, Maho, May, Thebaud, & Hochberg, 2015).
 The quality of living is a result of the people contributions to the environment across
different factors and cultural frameworks (Peterson, Harmáčková, Meacham, M., Queiroz, Jiménez-
Aceituno, Kuiper, . . . & Bennett, 2018). This topic provides emphasis how diverse ecosystem is
influenced by the less represented familiarity of the causes and inappropriate actions of people
when it comes to environmental conservation and restoration.

BIODIVERSITY

The derivation of the term Biodiversity is from the words "biological" and "diversity.
“Definitively this term refers to any living organisms found on Earth from Kingdom Plantae to other
Kingdoms as well as the ecosystems they inhabit.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (2019) gives a formal definition of biodiversity, "it
refers to the number of living organisms from varied sources such as terrestrial, marine and other
types of ecosystems that includes mutual relationships between the species and the ecosystems
which they are part.

Biodiversity encloses all the ecosystems, species and genetic materials which have
inbounded variability among them. It can be express through biological resources or the actual
components of ecosystems. These resources are real entities (a particular species of bird, a wheat
variety grown in a field, oak wood, etc.) while biological diversity is instead an attribute of life (the
array of bird species, the genetic variability of wheat around the world, forest types, etc.).

Biodiversity is understood most along with its three levels. First is the species diversity
which refers to the number of found species as well as the environment which they grow and lives,
for example, plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms. The second level is known as the genetic
diversity which resembles the different genes carried by the macro and microorganisms, for
example, parrot, hummingbird, eagles, doves, and herons are all birds, but they are different from
each other. The third one is called the ecosystem diversity refers to various territories or places
they are likely found such as tropical, forests, deserts, wetlands, and etcetera. Every ecosystem has
an intricate connection between the biotic and abiotic components.

Causes of Ecological Imbalance and Its Effects on Biodiversity

According to Petronzio (2015), there are five major threats to Biodiversity which causes
ecological imbalance. These are climate change, deforestation, habitat loss, overexploitation,
invasive species, and pollution.

1. Climate Change
Throughout the history of the planet Earth's ecosystem, the rapid change in
climate is due to anthropological activities. It is one of the significant causes why
ecosystems are affected in the long run and species, are made to be extinct.
Human-made climate as a new term for climate change speeds up the process of
 atmospheric variations due to the production of harmful gases coming from
industries and vehicles, burning of plastics, styrofoam and other types of materials
composed of polymers. In effect, the rising ocean temperatures melted the ice in
the Arctic sea which directly increases the sea level and affects marine biodiversity
and worst the vegetation zones. To survive, some tend to adjust, but some unable
to cope up which resulted in the deaths of living organisms.

2. Deforestation
Deforestation has a direct effect on the loss of biodiversity in many terrestrial
organisms. Worldwide, the estimated forest lost each year is approximately 18
million acres because of illegal logging and other human practices such as Slash-
and-Burn Agriculture, land clearing, and alike. These activities destroy the habitat
of species and drives climate change.

3. Overexploitation
Overused of resources and anthropological activities such as overhunting and
over-harvesting impact a lot to the loss of biodiversity. The illegal fishing for profit
as a form of overhunting or poaching expand the possibility of extinction of living
organisms-the extinction of an uppermost predator in the food chain can bring
disastrous effects to the environment functioning as one ecological unit.

4. Invasive Species
The placement of nonindigenous organisms in an ecosystem can increase threats
to native wildlife. The non-native species may serve as predators or competitors
to the ecological resources of the endemic species. If this happened, there will be
imbalanced and could affect people's health and their source of income. For
example, when genetically modified crops planted near the native crops, it may
harm the native crops because of high pest tolerance shifting the attention of the
pests to the native crops. Farmers of the natives may lose income, and residence
bounded by the said area may suffer due to some chemicals that may release by
this numbers of pests.

5. Pollution
Dumping plastics and burning activities pollute to the Earth's ecosystems. These
anthropological doings may release a hazardous chemical to the atmosphere
which may cause depletion in the ground ozone. It may also result in extinction
and environmental adaptation. For instance, when pollution takes place in the
ocean due to different dumped trashes it changes the quality of water, and in
effect species living there need to change the breeding and feeding habits to
survive.

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
The aim to minimize the threats to Biodiversity at the same time regain balance in the
Earth's ecosystems needs acquisition of knowledge and actions to ecological ethics. Environmental
Ethics according to Oak (2018) is a philosophical discipline that focuses on the moral relationship
of human beings to the abiotic and biotic components of the environment with conformity with
the laws and standards of the society.
 Environmental Ethics has three insights. First, there is no ethics without the
interconnectivity of natural beings or the Earth because all things on Earth is interconnected. The
second insight is, ethics must be visionary, and it must consider the possible effects on the future
generations. Finally, ethical actions are built-in when human acknowledge how to care for the Earth
properly (New World Encyclopaedia, 2017).

There are also three independent components of environmental ethics based on O'Neill,
Light, and Holland (2012), as discussed below:

1. Welfarism
Welfarism are principles or policies associated with the welfare of the state. For
example, Biocentric and ecocentric positions might justify the culling of animals in a
way that is not justifiable from the view that only sentient beings count. It may also
imply different understandings of the nature of the threats posed by climate change
and biodiversity loss.

2. Consequentialism
Consequentialism is an idea that its corresponding consequences may solely identify
the action whether it is humane and inhumane. One objection to consequentialism is
to argue that specific actions are wrong even though they lead to the best outcomes.
From what is called a "deontological" perspective, consequentialism permits too
much: it would be wrong to imprison a child of an illegal logger, illegal fisher, and other
unlawful environmental activities, even it would have a better result. This principle
does not intend to find the best outcomes but the proper action to employ within a
given situation that may not ruin many living organisms in the Earth.

3. Maximizing the value

Is maximizing the total aggregate good all that matters? One reason for suggesting not
is that optimizing the overall good fails to capture the distribution of goods and bads
adequately. Environmental problems have a distributional dimension. For example,
the adverse effects of climate change will fall disproportionately on the poor in current
generations, and on future generations who are less responsible for greenhouse gas
emissions as they accrue. Standard economic approaches to policy-making tend to
worsen those problems. Thus, willingness to pay measures of welfare count the
welfare of the poorest at a lower value, since the marginal cost of a dollar or pound
for an impoverished person is much higher than it is for a more affluent person. The
practice of discounting future utility means that the well-being of those in the future
counts for less than that of those who currently exist.

With all the major threats to biodiversity loss, people need to be ethical to minimize
environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, and overexploitation. Always think for the
best and never doubt your capacity to be an agent of change because if no one does who else, it
needs a start to dream big.

SUMMARY
Ecology is a worldview that requires ethical outlook and emphasized the interconnectivity
of humans and its biotic and abiotic components. The threats to ecology are also the problems
faced in biodiversity loss. One of the most significant contributors is human who continually
engages with activities that worsen climate change, deforestation, overexploitation, the
introduction of invasive species, and pollution. To overcome the threats, it needs an understanding
of what is ethical and what is not. To be environmentally ethical you must always think how to take
good care of the Planet Earth and its people, taking account of the bad habits or activities and
considering the future without thinking personal benefits.

STUDENTS ON TASK

Direction: Complete the table below. After the completion of the table, verify your entry through
conducting interviews among farmer and fisher folks. Further, in the interview ask the key-
informants of the reasons why some species in the past are not evident at present. Make a written
report of your work reflecting what you’ve learned from the interview.

Identified Organisms Before Identified Organisms at Present

Land Water Land Water
References:

Callicott, J. B. (2012). Ecology: An Ethical Perspective. Retrieved January 24, 2018, from
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/ecology-an-ethical-perspective-80059530

Convention on Biological Diversity (2019). What is biodiversity? Retrieved January 23, 2019, from
http://www.biodiv.be/biodiversity/about_biodiv/biodiv-what

Courchamp, F., Dunne, J. A., Maho, Y. L., May, R. M., Thébaud, C., & Hochberg, M. E. (2015). Fundamental ecology is
fundamental. Trends in Ecology & Evolution,30(1), 9-16. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2014.11.005

Gaia. (2019). Environment and Ecology. Retrieved January 25, 2019, from http://environment-ecology.com/history-of-
ecology/132-history-of-ecology.html

New World Encyclopaedia. (2017). Environmental ethics. Retrieved January 25, 2019, from
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Environmental_ethics

Oak, M. (2018, February 19). What are Environmental Ethics and What's Your Role in Saving Nature? Retrieved January
24, 2019, from https://helpsavenature.com/what-is-environmental-ethics

O'Neill, J., Light, A., & Holland, A. (2012). Environmental Ethics. Retrieved January 27, 2019, from
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/environmental-ethics-9138746

Peterson, G. D., Harmáčková, Z. V., Meacham, M., Queiroz, C., Jiménez-Aceituno, A., Kuiper, J. J., . . . Bennett, E. M.
(2018). Welcoming different perspectives in IPBES: “Nature’s contributions to people” and “Ecosystem
services”. Ecology and Society,23(1). doi:10.5751/es-10134-230139

Petronzio, M. (2015, May 23). 5 major threats to biodiversity, and how we can help curb them. Retrieved January 26,
2019, from https://mashable.com/2015/05/23/biodiversity-threats/#by320uTy8Zqb