Changes In Ecosystems

Raul Ocampo M.
Gimnasio La Montaña
Ecology
October 31-2012

2nd Unit Evaluation

I.
Colombia is a country that enjoys of having several different kind of ecosystems. One of these types ofecosystem are the paramos, which are áreas of highlands that usually consist of relatively flat terrain. Colombian paramos are located in high zones of the Andes mountain chain mountains. The paramo’sground and vegetation store big amounts of water that comes from precipitation, which allows territories around the paramos to have more water on summer. On the Colombian paramos we can find animals ofevery class, the most famous are the bear of glasses and the condor, and also different type of flowers which have adapt to the hostile cold climate of these áreas. Humans have damage thesebeautifull ecosystems by introducing cattle in big amounts, planting potato and poppy and destroying the ozone layer. This three factors cause loss of organic matter, changes in the soil structure, loss ofplant species due to climatic changes, retention of wáter and alteration of biochemical cycles. If this ecosystems are destructed it would bring serious difficulties for Colombian people in therms ofobtaining potable water. A solution to protect these paramos would be to créate national parks that cover all the territorio of the paramo so that it’s wáter and species well-being could be guaranteed.The gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American and the Island of Cuba. The gulf of Mexico has more than 228 species of birds from which 112 are acuatics, 50 aremarines and 62 are terrestral, also it serve as home to 29 species of marine mammals, 28 species of whales and dolphins, and 5 species of marine turtles.. The gulf also counts with several wetlands whichserve of home to thousands of fish and invertebrate animals. Unfortunately, there jave been several spillages of petroleum on this área, this has caused the species that inhabit the gulf to be in...