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The environmental impacts of nuclear power plant disasters such as the Chernobyl disaster, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the Three Mile Island accident, among others, persist indefinitely, though several other factors contributed to these events including improper management of fail safe systems and natural disasters putting ...
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 ...
Land use change, especially in the form of deforestation, is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions from human activities, after the burning of fossil fuels. [4] [5] Greenhouse gases are emitted from deforestation during the burning of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon.
Deforestation is defined as the conversion of forest to other land uses (regardless of whether it is human-induced). [ 14 ] Deforestation and forest area net change are not the same: the latter is the sum of all forest losses (deforestation) and all forest gains (forest expansion) in a given period.
The effects that climate change has on both plant and animal species within certain ecosystems has the ability to directly affect the human inhabitants who rely on natural resources. Frequently, the extinction of plant and animal species create a cyclic relationship of species endangerment in ecosystems which are directly affected by climate ...
Humans are versatile enough to remediate adverse effects of species invasions. [ 142 ] [ 8 ] [ 143 ] The public is motivated by invasive species that impact their local area. [ 144 ] The control of alien species populations is important in the conservation of biodiversity in natural ecosystem.
Human uses of plants include both practical uses, such as for food, clothing, and medicine, and symbolic uses, such as in art, mythology and literature. Materials derived from plants are collectively called plant products .
The effects of climate change on plant biodiversity can be predicted by using various models, for example bioclimatic models. [5] [6] Habitats may change due to climate change. This can cause non-native plants and pests to impact native vegetation diversity. [7] Therefore, the native vegetation may become more vulnerable to damage. [8]