The Role of Human Activity on Biodiversity Loss: The White Rhino as a Case in Point
Introduction
The introduction section will provide a background for the study by explaining its objectives, the hypotheses, the problem statement and the study justification. An overview of the paper will also be provided in the introduction section.
Literature Review
The literature review section provides a background for the study objectives based on past research. Its aim is to provide a theoretical framework from which data analysis and discussions can be conducted in the context of the primary research for the study. Various studies will be used for reference including Milner- Gulland (2012); Flandroy et al. (2018); and Committee on International Science’s Task Force on Global Biodiversity (1989).
The literature review begins from the perception that while biodiversity is useful for human existence, humans have caused biodiversity loss through their activities (Alho, 2012).
Discussion
The discussion section will synthesize information obtained from varied resources to determine the answer to the research question. The proposed study will be conducted through a combination of secondary and primary approaches to qualitative research. The discussion will be fragmented into 3 sections based on the study hypotheses.
The first section will provide a discussion of what biodiversity is a background on how human activities have impacted on biodiversity in the past. It will begin from the hypothesis that humans interact with living organisms in different ways and that the two are mutually beneficial to each other. This will be founded on the hypothesis that humans gain from biodiversity through their activities as reported by Diaz et al. (2006).
The second section of the discussion will describe the relevance of the white rhino as a case example of the interactions between humans and wildlife and how human activities contribute to wildlife extinction. This section will begin with the recognition of the hypothesis that humans exacerbate extinction as posited by Bull and Maron (2006).
In the third section of the discussion, the objective of the research will be to explore whether the hypothesis that humans mediate speciation is actually true as discussed by Alho (2017). The section will help in providing counter arguments to the hypothesis that humans cause extinction. Through this section and the previous ones, it will be possible to conclude on whether the extinction of the white rhino was a result of human activity or an outcome of nature.
Conclusion
The section provides a final summary of the contents of the paper by bringing together concepts from the literature review and those from the primary study, and eventually making deductions that can be generalized based on information from the other sections.
References
Alho, C.J.R. (2012). The importance of biodiversity to human health: An ecological perspective. Estudos Avancados, 26(74). Retrieved from www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0103-40142012000100011&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en
Bull, J.W. & Maron, M. (2016). How humans drive speciation as well as extinction. Proceedings of Biological Sciences, 283(1833). Retrieved from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4936035/
Diaz, S., Fargione, J., Chapin III, S. & Tilman, D. (2006). Biodiversity loss threatens human well- being. PLoSOne. Retrieved from journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0040277
Flandroy, L., Poutahidis, T., Berg, G., Clarke, G., Dao, M.C., Decaestecker, E. et al. (2018). The impact of human activities and lifestyles on the interlinked microbiota and health of humans and of ecosystems. Society of the Total Environment, 627, 1018- 1038. Retrieved from www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718303413
Milner-Gulland, E.J. (2017). Interactions between human behavior and ecological systems. Philosophical Transactions B, 367(1586), 270- 278. Retrieved from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3223800/
Committee on International Science’s Task Force on Global Biodiversity (1989). Loss of biological diversity: A global crisis requiring international solutions. A Report to the National Science Board. Retrieved from www.nsf.gov/nsb/publications/1989/nsb0989.pdf