What's up ladies and gentlemen? This is the second blog post of the semester for Biology and Human Concerns. Since last week, I have learned about the biodiversity and the natural regions of Kentucky. Biodiversity is the connection of species living and working together in an ecosystem. Each one of the species included within an ecosystem has its own function that it must complete in order for itself and a dependent species to survive. Relationships within an ecosystem vary from mutualistic where both species benefit from each other to parasitism where one species benefits and the other species is hurt. We also talked about the threats to biodiversity. One big threat that was mentioned in class was coal mining. Since our discussion on coal mining, I strongly believe that coal mining is one of the leading causes of the destruction of ecosystems and ,in turn, biodiversity. Here is a picture of an example of coal mining.

In the picture it is possible to see a small speck of grass in the mid-upper left of the picture. Just imagine that the picture used to be full of grass, trees, animals, and insects all living together in harmony. After all the coal has been extracted from the area, the coal miners rebuild the land to make it look as if nothing ever happened. Soil is brought in to fill in the huge holes, grass is put down, and trees are planted but, in the end, man-made nature is not sufficient to keep biodiversity alive.