Week 11: Ecosystems are Strong and Fragile

Ecosystems are defined as “a dynamic collection of plants, animals and their physical environment interacting through a variety of processes and operating as a unit”. Plants and trees take energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil and provide food for the animals and other life forms. Similarly, animals consume one another and their decaying carcasses become nutrients for the soil and the subsequent plantlife that it supports, bringing the life cycle full circle. For this reason, an ecosystem is “self-sustaining, consuming and producing both organic materials and energy”. It is this perpetual cycle of interdependence that gives an ecosystem its inherent strength. And yet…an ecosystem is a web of inter-related species and life forms which, is just a fragile as a spider’s web, if one of the strands is removed from the original structure.

Take the Yellowstone National Park for example. It “holds the planet’s most diverse collection of hot springs and geysers…while also being a refuge for hundreds of wildlife species”. From the natural resources of the land to the abundance of flora and fauna, Yellowstone truly “constitutes on the of earth’s most diverse and dynamic natural regions”.

And yet, Yellowstone is also a fragile ecosystem. Why? Because as large as it is, it is also an island in a sense. As vast as it is, it is cut-off from the larger ecosystem of which it is also a part, including the vital wetlands and wilderness complex of Idaho and Montana that surround it. This effectively fragments the larger landscape, and ultimately this isolation can lead to the loss of plant and animal species for future generations. Paradoxically, the capacity for balance is in our hands…but, may be beyond our reach -if- we are not responsible stewards of the larger ecosystem of which Yellowstone is a part.