The central Texas region was once home to diverse wildlife, but that diversity has been damaged by human migration and development. Exploration began almost as quickly as Europeans discovered the New World. Colonization began in the eighteenth century, with significant settlements increasing within a century. The state population grew vastly, with the area around Austin increasing to over one million today and rising. That population boom and development has had negative effects on the indigenous populations and the native flora and fauna. Many plants and animals in the region have been classified as endangered, with the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve system supporting eight endangered species.
Changes in Ecosystem Dynamics
The hydrologic cycle is the primary sustaining force behind the existence of life on this planet, though more obvious in areas like central Texas, which receive lower annual rainfall. The average is 30 inches per year, though some years are affected by drought, giving the region a desert-like appearance. The 2011 summer was one of the hottest and driest on record, but the record lows in lake levels are not completely due to lack of rainfall. Those reductions in the water supply are also a side effect of excessive commercial and industrial use. With preserves such as Balcones, we can see that over longer periods, the ecology does not go through the wild fluctuations that developed lands do.
The mining industry, for example, uses vast amounts of water to extract minerals like oil and natural gas. Extracting oil from the Canadian tar sands is highly energy-inefficient, with only about 10% crude by volume, but relying on large amounts of input energy and vast amounts of water, which returns to the environment in a polluted state. Natural gas is already a big extraction industry in many regions in Texas, with some developers looking to the preserved regions in the central part of the state. Natural gas fracturing also requires a great amount of water, which returns to the environment polluted with compounds required for pressure fracking. In looking to natural resources to solve our growing energy problems, we need to consider no only the environmental impact, but the net energy result.
Impact of Humans on Biogeochemical Cycles
By maintaining this preserve of nearly 30,500 acres, those species are able to be sustained, with the local ecology benefiting from cleaner air and water as well. Outside the preserve, efforts are also made to observe other species that are affected by human development. The Jollyville Plateau salamander lives mostly in watershed regions and natural drainage areas. In areas where watersheds are impacted by development, salamander populations reduce significantly.
Industrialized agriculture efforts provide the ability to raise more crops than through manual farming techniques of generations in centuries past, but also require significant amounts of both water and other natural resources, like oil. That increased need for the availability of those resources for life-sustaining food leaves the population reliant upon the availability and affordability of those resources to simply live. Before agriculture became industrialized and urbanized, a much greater portion of the population raised their own food. This paradigm shift has created a situation where a growing majority relies upon others to provide those nutrients we need to live.
Woodland areas like those wiped out for development and livestock grazing help to mitigate climate change. By preserving large areas of our environment from further alteration, we can also preserve biogeochemical cycles, maintaining a balance in the ecology. Even natural and managed burns can help to regulate and refresh the local environment, promoting subsequent growth after fires, making land fertile again. By maintaining a natural balance, the local ecology in Balcones can continue to cycle the elements and nutrients required for a healthy ecology throughout, promoting healthy lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere, which is necessary to support the biosphere.
Management and Restoration of the Ecosystem
Learning through observation and application of the scientific method help us to recognize the need to combat the degradation of our ecology. Those observations give us insight to the negative effects of our actions on our environment, leading to potential solutions to either conserve or preserve as needed to prevent additional damage. The Balcones Canyonlands Preserve is one such effort, setting large amounts of land aside, preventing development and overuse of it’s resources, in an effort to maintain the natural ecology required for both native species and the human population.
The central Texas region surrounding the capitol city has a wealth of research and knowledge gathered from observations and experiments in conservation efforts. Conservation groups, governmental agencies, and residents are working together to maintain large green spaces in developments, reducing waste, encouraging environmentally friendly alternatives to wasteful practices like transportation and water usage. Austin is a very green city in a time when green is a catch phrase, sometimes a marketing tool.
The Balcones preserve is just one example of how humans are making efforts to reverse past damages and minimize future impacts of development on our ecology. By promoting a healthy environment, we are working toward an ecology that can support our own existence while also promoting sustainability for other living organisms that share our ecological living space.
Further Reading
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