Background
Elephants are the biggest mammals on earth, and they are found in the terrestrial biome. There are three identified species of elephants globally, including Asian Elephant, African Bush Elephant, and African Forest Elephant. The names are mainly derived from the geographical regions that they are mostly found. In Africa, these large mammals live on the savanna. Among the three species, two are found in Africa, including the Loxodonta cyclotis , the forest elephant, and the savanna elephant (Boer, 2019). Their main habitats are often the grasslands or savannas. Elephants also live in the deserts and mountains throughout the African continent. Almost half of the continent is covered with savanna. The savanna is characterized by receiving rainfall between 20 to 50 inches every year. The temperatures of these regions range from 60 to 70 degrees Celsius.
An ecosystem is a geographic region consisting of animals, plants, and other living and non-living organisms, including landscape and weather, which depend on each other, forming a good life. Elephants are herbivores, and they feed on tree leaves, grasses, shrubs, vines, and bark of trees. The social bond that the elephants have incorporated with high intelligence helps them survive throughout their lives (UNEP, 2019). As the largest terrestrial mammals, African elephants play an essential role in balancing the ecosystem. Elephants maintain biodiversity in many ways; this includes trampling forests and denser grasslands, thus creating room for smaller species to co-exist. They make water holes by digging dry riverbeds during low rainfall periods, which can also aid other wildlife animals (UNEP, 2019). Elephants disperse seeds through their dung as they travel long distances in search of food.
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Biomes
The earth is made up of different biomes. Apart from the savanna/grassland, other biomes include deserts, forests, aquatic, and tundra biomes. Desert is the driest biomes compared to the different biomes. These biomes receive only 50 centimeters of rainfall in a year and are characterized by high temperatures (Dotson, 2019). Very few animals and plants can survive in these conditions, such as cacti and reptiles.
The aquatic biome is the largest on the earth's surface as it covers about 70 percent of the earth's surface. This includes the fresh water and the marine. The aquatic biome plays an essential role on the planet as it provides most of the rainfall experienced on earth (Dotson, 2019). This biome is the most diverse containing a lot of species in it.
Tundra is the coldest biome on earth, and the diversity of species is limited in this biome. Tundra receives lesser rainfall compared to some deserts. However, the tundra remains wet due to less evaporation caused by cold temperatures (Dotson, 2019). Plants such as lichens and mosses are adapted to such conditions by the growing seasons.
Another biome is the forest which covers an average of 1/3 of the terrestrial ecosystem. This biome is highly diverse and contains a variety of species, including animals and plants (Dotson, 2019). The Forest biome plays an essential role in animals' survival as it gives out oxygen that animals breathe and takes carbon dioxide given out by animals.
Threats
The population of African elephants has been declining from 12 million in the past century to about 400,000 today (Fulton, 2018). The major threat for the African elephants in the ivory trade has highly affected their population, especially the forest elephants (Fulton, 2018). The ivory trade encourages poaching, which became illegal after an internal agreement to ban commercial trade in elephant ivory (Fulton, 2018). Poaching cases dropped after the banning but later, poaching cases began to rise again. This led to stubborn ivory markets such as the US, Thailand, UK, China, and Hong Kong being pushed to ban illegal trades that encourage poaching.
Another threat includes habitat loss which is high contributed by the expansion of human settlements, infrastructure construction like roads, fences, etc., and agricultural development. Loss of habitat has led to elephants coming into contact with humans, which has led to the destruction of properties and crops by elephants and even sometimes human casualties (Fulton, 2018). Animal-human conflict often results in negative impacts on the elephant population. Furthermore, overgrazing is also a threat to elephant existence. This will encourage the elimination of grasses in the regions, leading to less food available for the elephants (Fulton, 2018). Soil erosion can be experienced in such areas hence hindering the future growth of grass.
Effects of Biodiversity on Increase and Decline of Elephant Population
Elephants are essential to the environment in a variety of ways. For instance, they eat a lot of vegetation that also contains seeds. They carry the plant materials in their gut and let them out as dung. The vegetation materials can be dropped far away from where they were consumed initially (UNEP, 2019). Seeds can germinate in the dung since the dung contains a lot of nutrients. This process enables plants' growth in new areas, creating new habitats and food for elephants and other animals. Elephants also help keep the ecosystem healthy as their dung serves as fertilizers to plants and food to insects like dung beetles.
Elephants also dig holes in holes to access underground water. They dig with their, trunks tusks, and feet and create gaps that can tap water from underground (UNEP, 2019). Other animals can also consume the water. Nevertheless, elephants also transform their environment by clearing vegetation, and this enables light to reach the lower-lying vegetation allowing them to grow (UNEP, 2019). Species depend on different plants; therefore, the lower-lying vegetation growth provides new niches for organisms to settle, thus promoting species diversity.
The decline in the elephant population is mainly due to poaching. Many conservation organizations have made efforts to discourage poaching and the ivory trade from slowing down the decline. Human land usage has also affected elephants as wildland is being degraded (UNEP, 2019), interfering with the elephants' migratory routes.
Population Models that can Increase or Decrease Elephant Population.
Scientists came up with models that can hl describe the population growth over time. The models are the exponential growth model and the logistic growth model. In exponential growth, the growth rate is proportional to the quantity available (Boer, 2019). The population of elephants grows as the resources (forage and water) are available. Availability of resources positively affects the elephants' population growth. However, in the logistic growth model, the population rises over time is due to the presence of individuals existing to reproduce regardless of resource availability (Boer, 2019). The elephant population is often determined by resource availability, that is, forage and water. However, at low levels of resources, the population growth of elephants is exponential. Though, the increase will reach a threshold where production and consumption of vegetation are the same.
How Community Population Relate to the Proposal
The proposal uses the available information to determine what is good for the communities and the elephants living close to the communities. This also includes the need to make it hard for poaching to take place as well as the ivory trade. The proposal aims at providing awareness to the communities on the importance of protecting the elephants. Also, it emphasizes the communities upon supporting elephant sanctuaries and different researches done concerning the conservation of elephants. Improvement of the livelihood of communities living close to the elephants' habitat is necessary to discourage the ivory trade of elephants' hunting. Also, implying strict measures to control the ivory trade.
References
Boer, F. (2019). Elephant Population Management. Siyabona Africa . https://www.krugerpark.co.za/
Dotson, D. (2019). Biome: Definition, Types, Characteristics, and Examples. https://www.sciencing.com/biome-difinition
Fulton, W. (2018). The Population Growth and Control of African Elephants in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Arts and Humanities Commons . 26-32. https://www.epublications.regis.edu/theses
UNEP, (2019). The Struggle to Sustain Africa’s Elephant Population. Environmental Rights and Governance . https://www.une.org/news-and-stories
