Humans

 

In the current day there are many speculations regarding the ecological role of Homo sapiens or modern humans. Many say that humans are an invasive species, an invasive species means an organism that is not native to an area and has negative effects on that area such as with that areas habitat, the native species living within that area etc. As stated previously in the Human description section, Homo sapiens are thought to be native to Africa, which they migrated out of for thousands of years and now populated most places in the world. In the past the ecological role of the human was much like those of other mammals. There was a time where Homo sapiens were very low on the food chain because of their lack of physical strength in comparison to other predators and their inability to defend themselves due to the lack of tools. At this time humans were thought to be gatherers and did not have a large impact on the African ecosystems. As humans evolved they began to use tools and engage in societies. Theses tools allowed for them to have an advantage over large predators, mainly carnivorous species. This in turn allowed Homo sapiens to evolve to be hunter-gatherers. As hunter-gatherers Homo sapiens would have had a larger impact on the African ecosystems because of their abilities to gather meats and hunt persistently. This would’ve caused a larger impact on carnivorous species population size.  Homo sapiens are also rumored to have caused the species Homo erectus to become extinct.  As Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa they began to form larger societies and millions of years later they’re at the top of the food chain, but the world is much different. The Anthropocene epoch refers to the chronological time in which human activity was said to have a large impact on the Earth. Many evolutionists use this term to describe when humans began having impacts that caused things such as animal extinctions and destruction of earths ecosystems to occur. Some even claim we are still in an Anthropocene (Stromberg, 2013). However scientists explain that we are currently in the Holocene epoch, which is a worldwide extinction event of many species that began around 10,000 BC. This event is said to have been brought on by the rise of Homo sapiens as a species. The species that have suffered extinction during this time include, large mammals and other undocumented species. Many argue that this event was brought on by modern humans however some argue that it is a continuation of an extinction event during the ice age and has nothing to do with humans at all (Holocene Extinction Event, 2013). Modern humans are currently thought to be more like invasive species than they were millions of years previously. Modern humans now have the largest carbon footprint of any other species since the industrial evolution. They intrude ecosystems more often and on larger scales with new technology and architecture in order to create new cities and areas where other humans can populate.  Along with this, innovation and building takes up many of the world’s natural resources. Global warming and green house gas emission is a world issue because of access pollution created by modern humans, which causes the temperature on Earth to rise. This in turn then causes habitats such as the polar icecaps to melt and certain species to be on the verge of extinctions. Because Homo sapiens were not native to any parts of the world except Africa when they first appeared, and when they evolved and migrated out of Africa they began harming the environments in which they migrated to and the entire world they can be considered an invasive species. However as knowledge of these issues is gained, modern humans are putting plans into action of how to slow down these processes such as global warming from happening (How do human CO2 emissions compare to natural CO2 emissions, n.d).