Ocean Acidification Infographic

   The increase of CO2 emissions has created a negative effect on the ocean. Causing the pH level to go down and the ocean water to become more acidic. Due to ocean acidification it has negatively altered the habitats of coral reefs, causing it to become bleached and unusable by many species, therefore decreasing biodiversity. As a result of this, a negative impact on the fishing economy has occurred, making it more difficult for fishermen to fish and make a living. If trends do not change the ocean’s environment will become hostile to life.   

Kahn, Brain. “Hot Oceans Are Killing Coral Reefs Around the World.” Climate Central. Climate Central, 8 Oct. 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.

In this picture it compares the before and after of acidification in oceans. As shown, when the pH level becomes more acidic it can cause coral bleaching within reefs. Coral reefs are one the most diverse ecosystems in the world and when they are damaged like this it can cause many negative effects to the species.

The Gold King Mine Blowout

The Gold King Mine Blowout

Introduction:

In the Rocky Mountains, The Gold King Mine created a devastating environmental problem that affected the area with toxic pollution leaked into the Animas river. The gold and silver mine consisting of subsurface tunnel systems had been collecting toxic water since it was shut off in 1991. The collected water and toxins were then released into the Animas suddenly August 5 just last year. (Jonathan, HCN)

Background

     On August 5th 2015 Gold king Mine experienced one of the worse spills of the year. Contaminating rivers and streams along Colorado and parts of New Mexico and Nevada. Even though, today the mine has been abandoned for decades, the mine has become a hazardous “blowout”.

Figure : Miners work inside the Gold King Mine, 1899.

       Gold King mine was first active in the late 1880’s for its extraction of gold and silver. First claimed by Willis Z. Kinney for seeing its potential for being an economic success . Using a type of mining called subsurface, which creates tunnels and shafts to reach the mineral deposit. Gold and silver being a high commodity for uses like jewelry and and other luxaries items had a high demand to be sold. Over the lifetime of Gold King Mine has produced about $150,000,000 (The Gold King Mine: From An 1887 Claim 2015). However, the mining was ceased in the 1920’s and over the years ownership of the mine been has shifted multiple times. Today the owner of the mine is Todd Hennis and was under his ownership that this spill occurred.

Figure : Gold King Mine Spill Water & Sediment Sample Locations

Figure : Picture depicting precipitation seeping into the Gold King mountain creating a freshwater spring (Gold King Mine water was headed for the Animas, anyway 2015).

Discussion

At that time during what was considered the mining golden age the main method of extraction was subsurface mining. This method involves drilling a hole into the ground creating a shaft and tunnels underground where miners can extract the precious metals kept underground. Sometimes these metals are hard to remove so it requires the use of a solvent to dissolve the rocks until only the metals remain. This creates a huge environmental issue in the form of acid drainage in order to keep the mines clean and safe for their employees they have to pump all of that water out. Unfortunately that 

means that most of this acidic water ends up outside in our environment, this disrupts an aquatic ecosystems pH levels by raising them to a level that that ecosystem is not used to(For Dummies). In some cases the water also ends up becoming part of the groundwater and seeps into our soil and raises the pH level of the soil meaning that plants have a harder time growing and in sometimes cannot grow at all. In our case the Gold king mine had been shut down for around 15 years, since the mine was closed the water was not pumped out for 15 years creating a large acid mine drain deposit that the EPA underestimated. Upon investigation of the mine they breached a small hole in the mine's entrance releasing an estimated 3 million gallons of acid mine drainage into the Cement Creek one of the Animas rivers tributaries(Superfund Research project). The impacts of this event were enormous and felt throughout most of the Silverton Durango area as well as parts of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, 12 Native American tribes that live along the river were also impacted by this spill. One of the impacts was agriculture many of the farmers in that area depend on water they divert from the river to irrigate their crops. The spill caused the water to have a mix of chemicals that were toxic to the crops they were growing and as a result the irrigation system had to be shut off. Another issue that the drainage caused was that fish in the spill zone were contaminated with the metals that were in the water, thankfully there was no real change to the fish population as Joe Lewandowski, the spokesperson for the Colorado parks and wildlife stated that the fish population did not look any different from what it did that summer(Denver Post). And one more major impact that the spill had was on the drinking water. The water was so polluted that people in the areas affected went a few days without clean drinking water.

Figure : EPA to Blame for ‘Preventable’ Gold King Mine Spill

Conclusion:

 Due to years of lack of regulations, the Gold King Mine blowout was bound to happen. Though this mining site has been inactive for decades, these mining companies created the environment that caused the spill and contaminate miles of streams and rivers. Overall this issue was much avoidable if only to take steps of draining the polluted water properly. 

   

LINKS

Romeo, Jonathan. "Gold King Mine Owner: I Won’t Let Gladstone Get Stolen from Me." Durango Herald. 1 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20151028/NEWS01/151029576/Gold-King-owner:-I-won%E2%80%99t-let-Gladstone-get-stolen-from-me

http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-08/documents/goldkingminewatershedfactsheetbackground.pdf

http://www.hcn.org/articles/acid-mine-drainage-explainer-animas-pollution-epa-gold-king

Thompson, Jonathan. "Gold King Mine Water Was Headed for the Animas, Anyway." - High Country News. High Country News, 28 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.

http://www.hcn.org/articles/acid-mine-drainage-explainer-animas-pollution-epa-gold-king

Chief, Karletta. "Understanding the Gold King Mine Spill." Superfund. University of Arizona, 1 Nov. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

http://www.superfund.pharmacy.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/u43/gold_king_mine_spill.pdf

Spooner, Alecia. "Ecological Effects of Subsurface Mining." Dummies. Environmental Science For Dummies. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/ecological-effects-of-subsurface-mining.html

"The Gold King Mine: From An 1887 Claim, Private Profits and Social Costs." Colorado Public Radio. American Public Media, 17 Aug. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

  http://www.cpr.org/news/story/gold-king-mine-1887-claim-private-profits-and-social-costs

"EPA to Blame for 'Preventable' Gold King Mine Spill." Us News. 22 Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/10/22/epa-to-blame-for-preventable-gold-king-mine-spill-interior-dept-finds

   

Biodiversity Hotspots: MesoAmerica

Introduction

Biodiversity is the various amounts of interconnected species in an area. High levels of biodiversity help environments flourish and provide resources and services for life in the area. The Biodiversity hotspot we selected was Mesoamerica, an area that contains dry forests, swamps, mangrove forests, coniferous forests at high altitudes, and to the east of the mountains there are subtropical wet forests and rain forests.

 

Background Information

 Figure 1: Mesoamerican Biodicersity Hotspot Map

In the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot the region contains a multiple of different countries. Some of these countries include Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rico, Panama and Honduras. Since this region has many countries there is a big mixture of cultures. Though the main nationality of Mesoamericans is pre-Columbian with a variety of spanish dialects there is also a big mixture of native cultures. These include cultures like Aztec, Mayan, Olmec and Teotihuacan which all originated near the Mesoamerican region.

 Mesoamerica is the third largest Biodiversity hotspot in the world. With that being said, this hotspot has more than a diversity of vegetation and animals. Throughout this area the region varies from tropical forests to dry arctic zones in the high mountains. Having swamps , beaches and highlands to lowlands. All through these areas it can show the variety of areas within Mesoamerica. These different biomes can be categorized into five main geographic areas: the Mayan region, Oaxacan zone, the central Highlands, West Mexico, and the Gulf Region(The Mesoamerican Center 2015).

    Since Mesoamerica is located in mid latitude (between 10 and 22N) the region has earned the name “Middle America”. Due to this hotspot being near the equator the hotspot has characteristics of a tropical forest throughout the region. However the climate can change from lowland to highland.

     

Figure 2: Peten Lowlands (Lowland Mesoamerica)

Figure 3: Oaxaca, Hierve El Agua (Highland Mesoamerica)

Mesoamerican Food Web & Table of Species Richness

Figure 4: Coral Reef Food Web

Figure 5: Tropical Forest Food Web

These food webs depicts the two main ecosystems in the Mesoamerican region, tropical forests and coral reefs.  Though the Mesoamerican Hotspot has a variety of different ecosystems these two have the biggest impact on the region. Coral reefs having the biggest influences with economical services (because of the variety of different fish species). While tropical forests uses environmental services with the large amounts of vegetation across the region.

Figure 6:  Species Richness Table

In this table the biodiversity of Mesoamerica is greatly shown here. Each section of this table conveys the species richness of vegetation throughout the ecosystem. Even though this table is a small sample of the region's vegetation, it still gives an overall overview of the hotspot richness and growth. Due to this observation from this table researches can see the total amount of the vegetation and how it is expected to grow.

Discussion

Mesoamerica is classified as a biodiversity hotspot because of its extensive amount of wildlife around the area. It has species of trees and plants that are endemic to the land and are found nowhere else. These plants and trees are used for economic purposes such as for logging, and getting timber, as well as for agriculture reasons such as producing coffee. Many of the animals in that area are also endemic of the 440 mammals in Mesoamerica over 65 of those are endemic, that’s around 15 percent (Conservation international 2015).

In Mesoamerica, the ecosystem provides many natural economic and ecological services to it’s environment. The Mesoamerican reef offers a majority of these services. Over 60 types of coral create a reef that provides a home for over 500 species of fish, greatly increasing biodiversity in the area. Various species of sea turtles attract the world's largest congregation of whale sharks which provide for ecotourism, and are indicator species since they live where there’s an abundance of plankton. Between one to two million people rely on the resources and services provided by the area’s marine ecosystems for food and income And on the shores, Mangrove forests on the coat help protect the land areas from erosion and flooding from storms (WWF.org, 2015).

Due to economic reasons the Mesoamerica has experienced some of the worst deforestation and habitat degradation in recent years from 1980 to 1990 the annual deforestation rate has been 1.4% and it is estimated that at least 80% of the areas habitat has been destroyed or seriously altered. People of Mesoamerica add to the degradation of the land due to their ways of living they are farmers and rely heavily on agriculture for food and income. They also depend on mining for employment to sustain their families (Conservation international 2015). The issues of climate change and over fishing  have changed the underwater ecosystems of Mesoamerica and are threatening  plants and animals that call the ocean their home. Plant migration in the ocean is an essential part to animal migration. With the changing climates the migration patterns that most marine life had become used to has changed and some species that relied on those plants are now struggling to survive. Over fishing has also been a problem in the Mesoamerica region for example the spotted spiny lobster has been on the rapid decline with increasing demand for the lobster.

Coral reef in Mesoamerica  located on the coast of Belize. Part of the
Mesoamerican Barrier Reef system.

 

Conclusion

The Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot is one of the most important region in the world. Everyday the Mesoamerican reefs gives food and and other important nutrients to millions of people. Without these economical and environmental services human populations that depend on these services will not be able to sustain itself. If we do not take the precautions in preserving this important ecosystem the effects can be catastrophic to not only Mesoamerica, but the global. We all depend on Biodiversity Hotspots and even if we lose one, we all suffer.

Worked Cited

Figure 1: "Mesoamerica." CEPF. Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, 1 Apr. 2012. Web. http://www.cepf.net/where_we_work/regions/central_america/mesoamerica/Pages/default.aspx13 Dec. 2015.

Figure 2: "Peoples, Geography and Languages." Historymuseum. Canadian Museum of History, 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/maya/mmc11eng.shtml

Figure 3:"Around Oaxaca." Curves and Levels Mesoamerica. Shadow, 12 Oct. 2009. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

http://shadowdetail.typepad.com/mesoamerica/around-oaxaca.html

Figure 4: "Great Barrier Reef Food Web." Great Barrier Reef. 13 Dec. 2015. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.

http://www.greatbarrierreef.com.au/information/great-barrier-reef-food-web/

Figure 5:"Tropical Rainforest Biome." Tropical Rainforest. Blogger, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.

http://lo2fosho.blogspot.com/2011/01/limiting-factors-of-tropical-rainforest.htm

Figure 6:  "Revista Mexicana De Biodiversidad." ScieoLo. Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, Del. Coyoacán, México, Distrito Federal, MX,, 1 Aug. 2006. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?pid=S1870-34532012000400018&script=sci_arttext

McGinley, Russell. "Biological Diversity in Mesoamerica." Biological Diversity in Mesoamerica. 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. <http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150625/>.

Shah, Anup. "Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?" - Global Issues. 19 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. <http://www.globalissues.org/article/170/why-is-biodiversity-important-who-cares>.

Imbach, Pablo, Bruno Locatelli, Luis Molina, Philippe Ciais, and Paul Leadley. "Climate Change and Plant Dispersal along Corridors in Fragmented Landscapes of Mesoamerica." Mesoamerica Hotspot. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Mesoamerica." Ecology and Evolution. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 13 July 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3790540/>

"Mesoamerican Reef." WorldWildlife.org. World Wildlife Fund. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

http://www.cepf.net/Documents/final.mesoamerica.northernmesoamerica.briefingbook.pdf