Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Craig A Still
Introduction:
As human populations grow the impact that they make on the world around them grows
as well. Around the world the growing impact of the human race affects and changes the natural
environments that exists around us. Global warming is a notable example of this effect. As
industry grows, more and more byproducts are trapped in our atmosphere, trapping heat and
gradually increasing the earths temperature. In my home state of Oregon, the story is no
different. As population grows the human impact that is changing natural environments also
grows. One of the places where these impacts are having the largest repercussions can be found
in aquatic and riparian habitats.
Riparian and aquatic habitats are integral parts of Oregons wildlife. Both habitats are
extremely biodiverse and serve functions that are very important to habitats around them. For
some background information, a riparian habitat is the ecosystem that exists between a body of
water (more specifically fresh water) and the adjacent bank. It is often packed with hydrophilic
(water loving) vegetation and a home to a broad
array of unique flora and fauna. In relation to the
aquatic habitats they surround, riparian habitats
serve extremely vital purposes. For one they are
extremely good at holding the bank together with
their complex system of roots. This means they
play a key role as erosion buffers and in the
reduction of river energy. They can also act in bio
filtrating, keeping sediment and other harmful things out of rivers, lakes, and other bodies of
water. With aquatic habitats you come to the bodies of water themselves and the organisms that
exist inside these bodies of water. Not only do these habitats provide many of the nutrients
needed in riparian habitats, they themselves are homes to a myriad of different species. From fish
to water plants to micro-organisms an uncountable amount of life exists in every aquatic
ecosystem. Unfortunately the effects of human populations greatly affect both of these habitats in
various ways, impacting all of the life that exists in these two kinds of ecosystems.
Ecosystems that have existed for thousands of years are now being rapidly changed by
the ways in which mankind has relatively quickly changed this earth. These changes have a
only spoke with a habitat specialist. This limited the scope of information that I received and
may not have provided me with all of the data.
Results:
When I was gathering the data for my survey the Idea was just to figure out some of the
general ways in which Oregonians are affecting the environment through local recreation. I
asked a series of eight questions just to determine how people are using the natural water ways
around them. From this survey got some surprising results. For example I found that swimming
in a natural water source was a much more common activity than fishing. This implied that
fishing, as a recreational activity (not an industry), was having less of an impact on natural water
ways then fishing. The other important and somewhat surprising set of results that I found
through my survey was the data I gathered on recreational boating activity. Of my participants I
found that about 52% of them owned or had access to a boat. Of the people who said they had
access to a boat the distribution between motor, sail, and row boats was fairly even. Going into
the survey I thought that the distribution would definitely be weighted towards motorboats but I
was pleasantly surprised to see that many people were using boats that have less of an impact on
natural aquatic habitats. Through these results I was able to get a very general picture of how
people around the state are impacting aquatic and riparian habitats through everyday recreation.
My interview, on the other hand, provided me with some very specific results that I do
not think I could have found anywhere else. We started out by talking about some of the more
obvious effect that humans have imposed upon aquatic and riparian habitats, mainly river
reshaping and diversion. For many years people in Oregon have been modifying and diverting
rivers. For example many farmers have diverted natural waterways in Eastern Oregon to provide
better irrigation and or drainage. What usually happens to waterways like rivers when they are
modified in this way is that they straighten
out and become shorter. Naturally a river
tends to wind and meander in ways that
reduce the speed and energy of said river,
but when you take out these natural bends
then the river no longer has this energy
outlet (Germond). This means that the
speed of the water increases along with the energy of the river, which causes a greater rate of
erosion. These effects greatly threaten the habitats of many aquatic species as their rivers become
faster, shorter, and filled with sediment that is eroding off of the banks. From this point, I was
also told about other effects of diverting rivers. My interviewee showed me how diverting rivers
destroyed riparian habitats by removing the water source that they need to survive. We also
explored the effects of dam creation and the formation of reservoirs and how that kind of river
diversion created completely new environments that many species could not survive in.
After discussing the more obvious effects humans are having on habitat, we then moved
on to discuss some things most people never think about. These effects are just mundane things
that happen every day but have a great cumulative effect on aquatic and riparian habitats. One of
the things we discussed was the effects of copper being washed into our water systems. Every
time the brakes of a car are used, some copper gets scraped off of those brake pads. This copper
ends up on the road and eventually gets washed off of the road and into a ditch. Eventually the
water with the copper in it gets washed through the drainage system and back into natural water
ways. This copper is a problem because it doesnt mix well with Salmon (Germond). More
specifically the copper messes with key sensory outputs that Salmon use to warn other Salmon
about predators (Brown, Aimee).
Another problem that my interviewee informed me about was the effect of waste water
being treated and put back into the natural system. Depending on how well this water is treated
various levels of chemicals like Nitrogen are put back into natural aquatic systems which can
have varied effects on water quality and habitat destruction. Finally we covered a very specific
example involving trout and culvers. When a road is constructed over a stream a culver is placed
under it to facilitate the continuing movement of the stream. Many of these culvers were not
constructed with the native trout, who live in said streams, in mind. These can lead to a
restriction of a trouts habitat, and disaster if the trout tries to swim through a culver where
perhaps the water is too low.
Habitat loss affects many species, but, as an example, I decided to research and highlight
some of the more specific effects of habitat loss on Salmon. Salmon, as a species, have been
to decrease. This is bad news for fishes and other animals who like to live in cold oxygen rich
water. Another way in which global warming is affecting our earth is that it dramatically
increases the frequency of precipitation events (Brown, Cheryl). This means that there are far
more droughts and floods than there used to be. These events are very bad news for riparian
biological communities who rely on soil quality and are not accustomed to this variation in
saturation. This all leads to the decline and even possible extinction of species that are less
adaptable to these changes. As these species die off ecosystems will be dramatically changed in
often irreparable ways. As of now global warming is on track to dramatically change the
biospheres of both aquatic and riparian habitats in ways that we can barely imagine.
Finally Invasive species are a huge threat to already fragile aquatic and riparian
biological communities. An invasive species is a species that is introduced into a nonnative
environment where it can take over an ecosystem and outcompete native organisms (USDA).
These species are usually transported by
humans in some way and can have terrible
consequences for the ecosystems into which
they are introduced. For example to the left
you can see an entire beach covered in zebra
mussels, an invasive species that is
somewhat common in Oregon. What an
invasive species usually does to an
ecosystem is decrease biodiversity through basic out competition of other species. These kinds of
invasive species can take over food supplies and habitats, and are usually able to reproduce
quickly and excessively. This threat to biodiversity threatens to narrow and change the
biospheres of riparian and aquatic Oregon.
Discussion:
From the evidence I gathered in my results it is clear to me that riparian and aquatic
habitats are being changed, and not for the better. Biodiversity is being threatened left and right,
and for every species lost a niche goes unfilled creating a biological void that can impact
biodiversity even more. Whether these threats come from the destruction of habitat or just
common things that are part of all of our lives effort simply has to be put into discovering and
mitigating these effects. The most important thing to take away from this report is the fact that a
threat to biodiversity somewhere is a threat to biodiversity everywhere. If we want to keep this
earth beautiful and livable everyone needs to actually care enough to put in the work. Whether it
is supporting politicians who are not willing to ignore climate change or simply just turning off
lights that are not being used, everyone has a part to play in saving an environment that we have
ignored for so long.
Appendix A: Survey Questions
1. How often do you go fishing (year round)?
2. When you go fishing what do you most often fish for?
3. In the summer, how often do you swim in a natural body of water (rivers, lakes, etc.)?
4. Do you own or have access to a boat?
5. How often is this boat used?
6. If you said yes to question 3 what kind of boat is it (motor, sail, or man powered), and
where do you use it? (Optional)
7. During the summer, how often do you camp near a lake or river?
8. How often do you camp on or near the Oregon coast?
Appendix B: Interview Questions
1.
Which species are the most important for aquatic and riparian habitats and why?
2.
What are some current trends in aquatic ecology (such as wildlife population trends, and
habitat destruction/growth trends)?
3.
Which waterways are most effected by population growth, and how are these areas
changing?
4.
Which species (flora or fauna) are being most effected by population growth and how?
5.
Why are these waterways and species more effected by population growth then others?
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
How does government regulation help or harm riparian and aquatic wildlife?
13.
How do invasive species effect wildlife in and around Oregons water ways?
14.
15.
What sorts of volunteer groups work to improve aquatic and riparian environments?
16.
Brown, Aimee. "Copper Increases Predation Risk to Salmon, Other Fish." Copper Increases
Predation Risk to Salmon, Other Fish. N.p., n.d. Web. Feb. 2016.
Brown, Cheryl A. "Effect of Climate Change on Water Temperature and Attainment of Water
Temperature Criteria in the Yaquina Estuary, Oregon (USA)." Estuarine, Coastal and
Shelf Science 169 (2016): 136. Print.
Crook, David A. "Human Effects on Ecological Connectivity in Aquatic Ecosystems: Integrating
Scientific Approaches to Support Management and Mitigation." Science of The Total
Environment 534 (2015): 52. Print.
Fierro, Pablo. "Rainbow Trout Diets and Macroinvertebrates Assemblages Responses from
Watersheds Dominated by Native and Exotic Plantations." Ecological Indicators 60
(2016): 655. Print.
"Forests and Fish." Protecting Aquatic Habitat in Oregons Forests The Oregon (n.d.): n. pag.
Oregon Forest Resources Institute. Web. Feb. 2016.
Germond, John. Telephone interview. 19 Feb. 2016.
"Invasive Species: Animals." Invasive Species: Animals. USDA, n.d. Web. Feb. 2016.
useful. There is honestly so much information out there if you are just willing to look for it. This
kind of exploration helped me with SLO number 2, finding and evaluating information. I was
able to learn what kinds of research are most effective when it comes to gathering information
for an analytical report.
When considering audience, and SLO #1, it was honestly so hard to write this report just
to my stated group (ODFW). Quite honestly ODFW already knows all of this information
because their job is to study Oregons wildlife and habitats. So all that I wanted to do was
communicate the information that I had gathered to a more general audience that may not be
aware of it. But I did my best to follow my rhetorical situation and write my paper in a way that
could also be given as just a cumulative report to ODFW. As far as revisions go I decided to
include a lot more specific information that could be linked directly to my resources. This change
was recommended by my peer reviewer and I decided to accept the recommendation because I
thought it would add to the ethos of my paper. The more that you can show you are following
your research directly, the more likely someone is to take your paper seriously. I also decided to
include a few more visuals as the beginning of the original paper had very few. As far as
revisions go that was about it. I just focused on making my paper more specific and more
visually friendly.