Ecosystem Effects of Human Behavior on Ecosystem

Ecosystem

Effects of Human Behavior on Ecosystem

Humans often have the ability to remake an ecosystem entirely, disturbing every aspect of it to the extent that the ecosystem can be changed so much that it is destroyed. This paper examines one ecosystem that has been significantly damaged by human behavior and then projects what future human behavior might bring to this environment.

The ecosystem that I will examine is that of the Owens Valley in central California. This area has been the subject of a number of studies about environmental change (and harm) as well as decades of political rancor. This last is an essential part of the discussion about the fate of many ecosystems, and one that is too often ignored when assessing environmental change. In the case of the Owens Valley, the political climate of California must be considered a key element of the environment.

The abiotic feature of Owens Valley include its geographic elements. Even before most of its water was diverted to Southern California via a series of aqueducts it was an arid region (Reisner, 1993, p. 24). The Sierra Nevada mountain range creates a rain shadow over the valley, which results in the mountains' preventing the valley from receiving the ocean-driven humidity from the Pacific. The valley actually lies between a pair of mountain ranges: The Sierra Nevada on the west and the White and Inyo mountains to the east.

Some of the Sierra peaks reach over 14,000 feet, which accounts for the size of the rain shadow, and the Owens River bed testifies to a once-deep lake that no longer exists (Reisner, 1993, p. 19). The rivers in the area were also once deep. What is left is an endorheic basin, which is a water body that has no outflow to the sea, rivers, or other bodies of water (Reisner, 1993, p. 20).

Among the other important abiotic features of the ecosystem is its temperature: The ground temperature can surpass 150 degrees and the valley and there are frequent dust storms that poison the air with up to four million tons of alkali dust each year (Reisner, 1993, p. 26). In its current, human-altered state, it has been barely able to support life. While the valley is still a very long way from its original state (that is, before the early 20th century when water was first diverted to Los Angeles) it is beginning to rebloom (Erie, 2006, p. 43).

Even a decade ago, the Owens Valley was the home to the most minimal amount of wildlife: The political fights in California that allow Southern California to drain water from the rest of the state had nearly killed the valley off. While it was always a sere ecosystem, it was always an ecosystem with each part in balance with the other parts.

Human draining of the lake to supply Los Angeles has altered the ecosystem so that the Paiute (the original people of the place) would no longer recognize it. This is an essential point: Not all human interactions with an environment are harmful to that ecosystem. And even human interactions that have once been harmful can change over time: In the last few years some of the water that had been diverted from the Owens Valley has been allowed to remain, resulting in a slow return of wildlife to the valley (Prather, 2008).

Among the key biotic elements that exist in Owens Valley are a number of bird species. This is to be expected in any ecosystem that has a low degree of resources, either because this is the natural state of the ecosystem or because (like the Owens Valley) the ecosystem has been stripped of its natural resources and diversity (Erie, 2006, p. 51).

Birds can relatively easily fly in and out of the Owens Valley, giving them access to a wider range of resources than species that are less mobile do. Among the bird species that have been seen in the valley since it began to retain some water are ducks, geese, and other aquatic species and shorebirds including American avocets, eared grebes, dunlin, and least sandpipers.