Uniformity in diversity

The latest studies also prove that the presence of human settlements at the sites discouraged speciation, making it easier for hybrids to survive.

Is human activity blocking new species from evolving? It would seem so. Researchers from the University of British Columbia, University of Bern, Switzerland, and McGill University in Montreal reportedly found three-spine stickleback fishes following the same evolutionary path in different lakes in western Canada -- with all of them sharing similar features. New species usually evolve when old species split apart and some mutate to get new physical characteristics not shared by the rest. Given the findings, scientists now fear that speciation may be running in reverse. Similar transformations found in Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Islands also showed that the bird populations were diverging on similar lines.

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The latest studies also prove that the presence of human settlements at the sites discouraged speciation, making it easier for hybrids to survive. The introduction of signal crayfish into the lakes, for instance, apparently disturbed the habitats of the sticklebacks, driving them into more contact, leading to interbreeding. These findings are not surprising, but deeply disturbing since much of the world’s biodiversity is made up of fragile young species that are threatened by the successfully exploding human population. Biologically speaking, human beings have been too successful at the expense of other species. Ever since he began intensifying food production 10,000 years ago, man has just as steadily been wiping out species after species. Man has survived and prevailed by exploiting all ecosystems and other resources such as oil, natural gas and minerals.

It’s only now, with six billion (and counting) people crowding Earth and driving out biodiversity that human activity’s destructive impact on the world’s food chains has been acknowledged. As the findings now suggest, human activity may also be inhibiting growth in the diversity of a species. At this rate, biologists’ worst fears that human impact could wipe out a fourth of the world’s remaining species in the next 50 years may not be misplaced.