Science 1 Essay

Submitted By mrsshan29
Words: 730
Pages: 3

The ecosystem that I chose to write about in my area is the Brackenridge Park. Brackenridge Park is a 343- acre public park in San Antonio, Texas. It was created in 1899 from land donated to the city of George Washington Brackenridge. The park is the home to the San Antonio Zoo, Japanese Tea Garden, Train ride, restaurants, bars and a golfing range. There is more than enough amazing things to do and things to do at the park. There are tons of trails for hiking and jogging. There are even places to barbecue if you like. The park is so popular that when it is very rare that if one visits the San Antonio area, they are sure to stop by here. The major functional and structural functions of this park is almost like any other. Public pressure for recreation has increased research and resource monitoring in not just this park but in national parks of ecosystem structure that has led to costly mistakes- such as predator control and fire suppression. Even though this park is one of the most popular in the area, there are still few concerns. Some raise the issue that barbecuing can be very dangerous to the trees for the most part. Because of all the trees, there is not a lot of open space to enjoy as you would at home but people are very cautious and do it anyway. This was a concern mainly to the hikers and joggers. There are many ways in which humans may be affected by the cycling of matter in the ecosystem. One of the biggest ways is of the cycling of carbon. This is one of the ways in which nature recycles matter through the global environment. Being that this concerns the global environment, I feel as though humans can be affected. Humans cause environmental problems by influencing the carbon cycle in two ways. Firstly, the removal of forests has caused depletion in plants and trees that absorb carbon dioxide. Humans cause great carbon emissions to the atmosphere, which take place during industrial processes, such as coal and oil combustion. These processes serve the generation of energy. As a result of these effects, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have greatly increased. Being that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, this means that increasing carbon dioxide levels in air support the green house affect. Having much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will cause the earth to warm up. Humans also cause environmental problems by interfering with the phosphorus cycle. Phosphates can be used on farmland as fertilizers. On most of the locations the phosphate supply is moving, causing phosphate levels of surrounding land-soils and groundwater to become too high. On farmland where phosphates are applied as fertilizers, plants do not absorb all phosphate. When this happens, the phosphates end up in water and stream towards lakes and reservoirs, where they cause