What are some of the ways in which humans alter the natural vegetation?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: The health of vegetation is affected by climate, soils and human activities. Without humans, climate would have the strongest control on vegetation. Climate controls soil formation and plant growth so strongly that, with the exception of agricultural areas, world vegetation and soil patterns correspond closely to world climates. Humans, however, have had profound influences on ecosystems in most of the world's land areas, including the 37 percent of world land area (except Antarctica) that is cropland or permanent pasture.
By our actions, we are contributing to the continuous increase in the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere. We are also changing the types of vegetation that grows in certain areas through our choice of crops to grow and types of practices we engage in, including monoculture, the application of chemical fertilizer and gene modification. Currently, about 8 percent of global photosynthesis takes place in agricultural lands.
By our consumption patterns, we are playing an even larger role in shaping the characteristics or fate of entire species and vegetation types. We do this in the decisions we make on what we consume either directly or indirectly by ourselves and our domestic animals.
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