Stressors on Citizens and Ecosystems: Alleviation Tactics

Abstract

Stress on human populations can be defined by as a biological term. It is the psychological result of internal (physiological) reactions to external forces [1]. Stress evolves from a failure or inability of humans to adapt to change or respond at the right moment to emotional or physical threats whether actual or imagined. Contrasting responses may be to fight for what one judges to be right or to flee from a real or perceived threat to fight another day. Animals show the same reaction. Stress (psychological pressure) is caused by one or a combination of physical, chemical, biological, economic, or sociopolitical changes that imperil environmental vitality, sustainability, and stability. Stress on ecosystems results from a disruption that affects their ability to support the life and natural resources they contain. This is a consequence of an evolving or sudden, sometimes prolonged change in one or more factors such as temperature, precipitation or lack of it (floods, droughts), water salinity, pH, and influx of matter toxic ingested by organisms.