Antarctica is the world's southernmost continent and largest cold desert. Antarctica's ecosystem was very natural, beautiful, rich, and abundant. Antarctica was completely covered with thick layers of white ice sheets and glaciers, making it the coldest continent. There was an abundance of sea life consisting of whales, penguins, fishes, and more. However, due to the continent's cold climate, there was little vegetation on land, but the deep waters contained species such as phytoplankton that were able to photosynthesize, which is a significant species because it feeds the core food source of marine life in Antarctica, krill. However, fast forward to present day, Antarctica's breathtaking scenery is quickly deteriorating due to the invasion of human activity on the continent.
(Source: Researchmatters, 2006)
Human Impact on Ecosystem
The human impact on the Antarctic ecosystem is very BAD! Due to increasing exploration on Antarctica, the ecosystem has been deteriorating immensely. During early exploration of Antarctica, it was noted that were was an abundance of sea life such as whales, seals, penguins, and a variety of fish species. The discovery of massive amounts of marine animals led to many countries further exploring Antarctica in order to hunt these species, nearly driving them to extinction. Whaling and sealing were highly practiced, which led to the decrease of these species. Overfishing is also a huge problem in the Antarctic waters, especially with the harvesting of krill, since krill is the main food source for much of Antarctica's marine life and if taken out of the food chain, other species will go extinct as well.
The overharvesting of marine life is not the only detrimental human impact on Antarctica's ecosystem. Increasing human activity on this continent, such as tourism, scientific activities, oil exploration, and mining has lead to the problem of pollution. Scientists are constantly exploring Antarctica for bioprospecting to develop new drugs to benefit society. Although this is a great idea, it has had a negative impact on the continent. Billion dollar businesses of oil and mining has also contributed greatly to pollution in Antarctica because of its non-environmentally friendly practices. In addition, tourism has influenced Antarctica negatively, polluting the continent by leaving behind human traces of trash. Pollution caused by human activity has ultimately led to global warming and ozone depletion. As a result, the climate as changed drastically, where the climate has warmed throughout the years. The increase of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere has changed the composition of the ocean, where oceans are becoming more acidic and thus, harming marine species. The increasing temperature on Antarctica has also caused the loss of ice shelves, leading to a decrease in the population of krill, which affects much of the marine animals on the continent. Human activities on Antarctica has led to the fragmentation and habitat destruction of marine life and drastic climate change that will continue to persist unless humans change their ways.
