Ecologies and Enviroments Essay

Submitted By ChiChi1234
Words: 1123
Pages: 5

Describe your local and surrounding ecologies and environments. Ecology is the study of living organisms and their relationship to their environment and each other. Types of ecology include population ecology, community ecology and behavioral ecology. Any situation in which living organisms and their relationship to their environment and each other is being studied could be considered ecology. Ecology is of the highest importance to all species including us. Like us, all other animals depend on this earth for everything such as food, water and shelter. Everything on this earth depends on something else, but ecology is so dynamic that even the smallest disorder can upset everything.
[http://www.caryinstitute.org/discover-ecology/definition-ecology]
An environment is a collection of all the animals and plants in a specific area of land or water. Environments are wetlands, deserts, grasslands, forests, and oceans. Scientists also refer to environments as ecosystems. Many people use the two terms interchangeably, for example, “desert environment” or “desert ecosystem.” Each environment has its own characteristics such as climate, soil, water make-up, plant and animal life.
Environments are always changing. Day by day as weather, temperature, and daylight change, an environment also changes. Seasons are an example of how an environment can change. Your environment may have seasons very different from the environment somewhere else on earth live in.
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/environment]

My local environments can be categorized as the suburbs of Maryland. It may look different from other environments until you examine it closely; suburbia environments have animals, plants, lakes, and trees just like other environments.
Maryland has a wide range of climates, due to local difference in elevation, proximity to water, and protection from colder weather due to downward slope winds. The eastern half of Maryland lies on the Atlantic Coastal Plain with very flat landscape and very sandy or muddy soil. This region has a humid subtropical climate with hot humid summers and a short, mild to cool winter.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/Maryland]
List the specific factors that distinguish your local ecology and environment.
Maryland has a large food production sector. A large component of this is commercial fishing; the largest catches are the blue crab, striped bass and oysters.
Maryland has large areas of fertile agricultural land in its coastal and piedmont zones, though this land use is being encroached upon by urbanization. Agriculture is oriented to dairy farming for nearby large city milks heads plus specialty perishable horticulture crops, such as watermelons, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes peas and squash. The southern counties of the western shoreline of Chesapeake Bay are warm enough to support tobacco which has existed since early Colonial times.
[http://en.wikipedia.orgMaryland]

Discuss how human activities have affected your local ecosystems.
Human well-being is highly dependent on ecosystems and the benefits they provide such as food and drinkable water. When people just drink a can of soda, beer or juice throw it on the ground, don’t even bother picking it up; dump garbage in a hole to burn or bury it under the soil. When they burned it they’d pollute the air, and when they buried it something bad in the garbage could’ve gotten into the root system of a tree/plant and killed it such as oil or contaminated water.
Cutting down trees to build homes and businesses have altered the environment of the forest, and taking animals out of their desert or arctic habitats have also changed the natural ecosystem, which means that reproduction and food availability for animals is becoming few.
In order to preserve the natural ecosystem that occurs in bodies of water you can follow fish and game regulations in your area and only fish in designated areas. It is also a good idea to take shorter