Habitat Loss

HIPPO

By Tim Gault

H.I.P.P.O

There are many threats to biodiversity today. The biggest ones can be remembered by using the acronym H.I.P.P.O.: Habitat Loss, Invasive Species, Pollution, Human Population, and Overharvesting.

Habitat loss

This occurs when a particular area is converted from usable to unusable habitat. Industrial activities, agriculture, aquaculture, mining, deforestation, and water extraction are all central causes of habitat loss. This includes deforestation for wood for cooking food and habitat fragmentation, the loss of large units of habitat.

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Invasive Species

When an animal or plant moves into a new area, it can affect the resident species in several different ways. New species can parasitize or predate upon residents, compete with them for food, bring unfamiliar diseases, modify habitats, or disrupt important interactions.

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​Pollution

The discharge of toxic synthetic chemicals and heavy metals into the environment has a huge impact on species abundance and can lead to extinctions. It’s important to remember that substances that are “natural” can become pollution when they are too abundant in a certain area.

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Human Population​

While the impacts that each human has on biodiversity varies widely depending on the types and amounts of resources that he or she uses, overall, increasing populations have lead to increasing threats to biodiversity.

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Overharvesting​

This includes targeted hunting, gathering, or fishing for a particular species as well as incidental harvesting such as bycatch in ocean fisheries. Ocean fisheries have been particularly vulnerable to overharvesting during the post-WWII period because of technological developments like refrigeration, sonar, larger nets, and onboard processing.

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