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Other scientists have criticized the assertion that population growth is a key driver for biodiversity loss. [13] They argue that the main driver is the loss of habitat, caused by "the growth of commodities for export, particularly soybean and oil-palm, primarily for livestock feed or biofuel consumption in higher income economies."
Loss of biodiversity also means that humans are losing animals that could have served as biological-control agents and plants that could potentially provide higher-yielding crop varieties, pharmaceutical drugs to cure existing or future diseases (such as cancer), and new resistant crop-varieties for agricultural species susceptible to pesticide ...
The illegal wildlife trade is the illegal trading of plants and wildlife. This illegal trading is worth an estimate of 7-23 billion [30] and an annual trade of around 100 million plants and animals. [31] In 2021 it was found that this trade has caused a 60% decline in species abundance, and 80% for endangered species. [31]
The rate of species loss is greater now than at any time in human history, with extinctions occurring at rates hundreds of times higher than background extinction rates. [35] [38] [39] and expected to still grow in the upcoming years. [39] [40] [41] As of 2012, some studies suggest that 25% of all mammal species could be extinct in 20 years. [42]
A 2021 report in Frontiers in Conservation Science proposed that population size and growth are significant factors in biodiversity loss, soil degradation and pollution. [38] [39] Some scientists and environmentalists, including Pentti Linkola, [40] Jared Diamond and E. O. Wilson, posit that human population growth is devastating to biodiversity.
After the death of plants, animals, and microbes, microbes begin to feed on the residues through their production of extra-cellular soil enzymes, resulting finally in the formation of humus. [162] As the residues break down, only molecules made of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, assembled and stabilized by oxygen and hydrogen bonds, remain ...
It estimates the average annual soil loss A on a plot-sized area as: [98] A = RKLSCP. where R is the rainfall erosivity factor, [99] [100] K is the soil erodibility factor, [101] L and S are topographic factors [102] representing length and slope, [103] C is the cover and management factor [104] and P is the support practices factor. [105]
Liebig's law states that growth only occurs at the rate permitted by the most limiting factor. [ 2 ] For instance, in the equation below, the growth of population O {\displaystyle O} is a function of the minimum of three Michaelis-Menten terms representing limitation by factors I {\displaystyle I} , N {\displaystyle N} and P {\displaystyle P} .