Briefly explain "the evil quartet" that causes of species losses and decline of

biodiversity (Format:- font Times New Roman, 12, 2 spacing - max 5 pages)

The evil quartet is the factor that causes the species losses and decline of biodiversity.

The term evil quartet was given by Jarod diamond. He gives four principles

mechanism which is overhunting, introduced species, habitat destruction, and chains

of linked extinction.

Overhunting is define as the process of hunting some species within the allowed limit.

Species that was hunt usually live in wild areas such as the tropical rainforest which is

known for its biodiversity or in the jungle. Tropical rainforest consist of many layers

stack over the other which inside it live hundreds or thousands of species from among

the animal kingdom or plant kingdom and this cause it to be the most targeted area of

hunting. The problem with overhunting is the species that was hunt is not given

enough time to reproduce and balance the number of individual within the species.

Overhunt of some species which is sometimes endemic to a certain area can cause the

species to became less overtime and the worst scenario it may cause the extinction.

For reproduction to happen, the male and female must exchange genetic content

through the fertilisation of ovum from sperm. If one of the opposite sex is not

sufficient, competition could occur among the species. Hunting is done by human and

it left a great impact on the life cycle which includes the biotic and abiotic factors.

Human hunt usually for resources which either includes economical value, medicinal
value, or research value. The process of overhunting is widespread among country

especially the country where it is rich with biodiversity. Human started to be involved

in hunting due to the advanced of technology and affordable prices of equipment

offered by some vendors. It interrupts the habitat and resources of animal species due

to lacking of food or mate to continue their survival. Laws that was introduced in the

country related to hunting was abused by others and some go unknown due to lacking

of surveillance from authority. Due to different of views among human, some still

continue doing this forbidden act of overhunting because they don’t put any value in

it. Throughout history, the rate of overhunting increase and it is the major causes of

extinction for many species.

Next is the introduced species to certain areas. Introduced species cause disruption of

the life cycle where the species that was thought to bring benefit to some areas usually

can cause the problem to species originally from within that area. When any new

species was introduced to a new area, it may not be suitable because some of the

factors were ignored or taken for granted. This cause the competition to increase

especially for habitat and resources such as food and drink. The interaction among the

original species and introduced species sometimes is not compatible because of

differences between genetic or morphology. The harm that was caused by the

introduced species is greater because it may kill the local species for the habitat. Apart

from that, the specific role of some species in that population or rather known as niche

will face some problem because of the lacking of support from other species. Support
from other species within a life cycle is crucial to continue to survive. If some of the

species abandon their part, the other species will be affected by it. Introduced species

could not replace the role play by certain species due to different of genetic material.

New species are being introduced every day by the human because they want to breed

a new species even though most of it failed such as the case of Dolly the Sheep. The

higher demand of market from species drive illegal business to import variety of

species from neighbouring countries to be breed in the local for easy gain. This

problem causes the decline of biodiversity because of the incompatible type of species

that interact differently within the same area.

Habitat destruction is ranked as second as the cause of species loss and decline of

biodiversity. It is defined as the loss of places of living for a particular species within

a specific area. In general, for a prolong survival of species a habitat is necessary.

Within a habitat, it is where most of living things spend their time whether it be

growing, reproducing, or taking a rest. All kingdom is included and has their specific

habitat. Human is the main cause of habitat destruction. They continue to destroy

habitat either for economic value or resources. Such other factors such as agricultural

land, industrialisation, and overharvest also contribute to the loss of habitat. In

modern time, as time move forward and development is widespread, the need for

more landscape is important, especially for agriculture. The increase in need of

agricultural land is because the increase of population of human being that needs

more supply for growing. This causes a lot of habitat loss because within an area the
animal or plant depends on the surrounding to continue living. One of the factors that

are most common is logging. Apart from causing other consequences such as flash

flood and soil erosion, it also destroys the habitat for a variety of species. Sometimes

there are animal or plant that Is endemic to the area of logging and this could speed up

the decline of species for the living things.

Chains of linked extinction are related to how certain events is linked or related to

the extinction of some species. It may either be caused by human or disaster that

happen unexpectedly causing a loss in the population. In modern time, this rate of

linked is on a wider scale because of the advanced in technology such as cloning or

known as genetic modification. Genetic modification has benefits but the problem it

brings overcome the benefit. A clear picture about this is a plant species. Even though

the plant species varies in the aspect of the level of defence does not change and it

may lead to the mass death of extinction. Certain cases show that plant that has been

genetically modified is not resistant to any new disease and it may lead to poisoning.

Poisoning will occur to some animal if it consumes the genetically modified plant.

Plant was known to be the primary producer in every food chain cycle. The important

roles played by plants give the idea that the increase and decrease in the other

populations depend on it. Without genetically original plant, some of the animals may

have a mutation in their DNA and it could be inherited to the next generation thus

causing infertility. Other chained linked that may lead to extinction is the toxic waste

from the industrial company. Most industries remove their waste in the sea which is
known to contain a lot of biodiversities. For example, the coral reef habitat alone

consists of hundreds of different species either it is for a habitat or food resources. If

any of the fish is mutated due to the toxic waste, the other tropic level will also get

affected which is the bird. After every trophic level, the toxic content increase until at

the end of the web chain.

References:

Overexploitation - National Wildlife Federation. (2016). Nwf.org. Retrieved 27

November 2016, from http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/threats-to-

wildlife/overexploitation.aspx

Habitat Loss - National Wildlife Federation. (2016). Nwf.org. Retrieved 27 November

2016, from http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/threats-to-wildlife/habitat-loss.aspx

Invasive Species - National Wildlife Federation. (2016). Nwf.org. Retrieved 30

November 2016, from http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/threats-to-wildlife/invasive-

species.aspx