Johnathon tolentino4/ms.green
Alpine🌾
Human impacts in the alpine
Human Impacts:
In addition to the cutting down of pines comes the problem of global warming. Alpine environments get less snow every year, which results in loss of water vital for the environment. Animals that enjoy the cold alpine weather have to move higher and higher up mountains in order to stay at their preferred temperatures. As the animals move up the mountains, there is less of their habitat, as the mountains are cone shaped. Eventually the animals will not have enough habitats to live in. Also by limiting the amount of water at the top, there is less water that flows to the basin of the mountain. This water is in many cases the lifeline to the diverse ecosystems at the base of the mountain. By cutting down trees to create ski slopes and tare-forming land for infrastructures like buildings and highways, humans are increasing the rate at which the water is going down to the basin of the mountain. Once the water is drained the surrounding community of animals don't have enough water to last them throughout the whole year, and in affect the populations start to die off. This is happening in human developments as well. The Colorado river for example, once was a mighty river that supplied water to vast ecosystems down stream. Because of the development in the mountains, the flow rate and the intake of water to the Colorado river decreased dramatically. In other words instead of a constant rate of water that would have been provided from the mountain streams, glaciers and underground aquifers, this is reduced to a short peak period with excessive amounts of water and a long period with minimal amounts of water.
Also because of deforestation and global warming the snowy, white peaks of mountains are being melted at a rapid pace. Without these peaks the solar radiation that would otherwise be deflected into space is being stored in the dark spots and rocks, which is warming the earth. This is also an example of a positive feedback loop.