Endangered Species In The United States

Endangered Species in the United States

Introduction

Healthy ecosystems provide adequate food production and enable medical research advancement. The loss of ecosystems, including the plants and animals which inhabit them, would be devastating to the human population. Ecosystems provide “provisioning services” to people’s everyday lives (Ecosystem Services). This includes clean drinking water, wood, fuel, food, and medical benefits for the entire human population (Ecosystem Services). Ecosystems also provide “regulating services” that include pollination, decomposition, water and air purification, as well as flood control (Ecosystem Services). When humans change the ecosystem, the ecosystem has a direct impact on the human population in return

The biggest danger to species becoming endangered, or even extinct, is human development and growth. For example, Loggerhead sea turtles have been considered a threatened species since 1978 (Top 10 US Endangered Species). With over half of the world’s population living within 150 miles of the shoreline, these sea turtles face beach nesting site destruction, nesting interferences, and bycatch death by commercial fishing nets (Top 10 US Endangered Species). Most loggerhead sea turtles nest along the Florida coast. The human population in Florida has doubled within the last 30 years, making it increasingly difficult for the turtles to find nesting grounds (Top 10 US Endangered Species). Some species naturally have small ranges and population sizes. This makes them even more vulnerable to extinction. The Lange’s metalmark butterfly only lives in the Antioch Dunes in the San Francisco Bay (Top 10 US Endangered Species). After the 1906 fires, the city was rebuilt using materials from the dunes, causing many species specific to the area to become extinct (Top 10 US Endangered Species). Lange’s metalmark butterfly is one of the most endangered species in the United States (Top 10 US Endangered Species). This butterfly used to have a population size of 250,000 (Top 10 US Endangered Species). By the year 2006, the number dropped to only 45 butterflies (Top 10 US Endangered Species). Due to conservation efforts, the population number has steadily risen to 150 individuals. However, it is still considered critically endangered (Top 10 US Endangered