Resource depletion is the consumption of a resource faster than it can be replenished. Natural resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources. Use of either of these forms of resources beyond their rate of replacement is considered to be resource depletion.

Resource depletion is most commonly used in reference to farming, fishing, mining, water usage, and consumption of fossil fuels.

Major causes of resource depletion are:

Population growth: With the increase in population the depletion of natural resources will also increase. It is because of the necessary activities of man. Man overexploit natural resources for his comforts. This can ultimately lead to the scarcity of these resources in the near future.

Deforestation: Due to the deforestation cause the decrease in rainfall and amount of firewood. Due to this, 200 crores people suffer from the scarcity of water. Besides this, man is over consuming the available source of water.

Over consumption: Today the number of motor vehicles is increasing day by day. This needs a huge amount of petroleum and diesel. One liter of petrol will be burned out when a motor car runs about 10 km distance. How many of such vehicles!

Only human constitute the steadily increasing resource: when human population increases, the use of natural resources also increases. Man overexploits the natural resources for his comfort. This may lead to scarcity of these resources in the near future. This can ultimately threaten the existence of life on earth.

Man is a virus that destroys the resources, as cancer destroys the humans. Humans destroy the natural resources of the entire world.

Natural calamities: natural calamities like flood and drought cause a mass depletion of natural resources. Example: a landslide named Jure landslide swept away a hill consisting a village within it in 2014 in Nepal.

Pollution: pollution is one of the most destructive causes of the depletion of the natural resources, example: Pollution in Bagmati and Bishnumati rivers in Kathmandu has led to depletion in number of fish and aquatic species.

Climate change: With increasing global warming, species and ecosystems are likely to shift from lower to higher latitude and altitude. Temperature decreases by altitude at the rate of 5-10 degree Celsius/km across various mountains of the world. Species need to migrate upward in order to survive. Now due to climate change replacement of dominant species by more heat-loving species may occur. And also the replacement of climax species by pioneer species having adaptation capacity for wider range of environment occurs.

source:https://en.wikipedia.org