Ecosystems

An ecosystem is " all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with
 which they interact; a community and its physical environment" ( Campbell).
The building of a dam can have many effects on an environment. Some of which may seem insignificant and small to people.
This however does not mean that is is insignificant to the organisms in that environment.
All to often people believe that just a change in the way a river flows will not effect the environment that much.
Dams not only effect animals and plant life but humans too!!!!
Please look at the following:
http://www.antonnews.com/greatneckrecord/1997/12/11/opinion/letters.html
This article includes information on the construction of the Three Gorges dam and its positive and negative aspects.
Small excerpt:
  • "It would prevent the recurrent catastrophic floods that have devastated China's major agricultural breadbasket for several millennia" (Kane).
  • "Its reservoir will provide needed water for farms and cities during drought periods. Its 26 turbines would generate 18,200 megawatts of electrical energy, the equivalent of 18 nuclear power plants -- more than any other dam in the world" (Kane).
  • "Failure of the Three-Gorges Dam would release a monstrous flood, greater than most pre-dam ones, that would destroy the Gezhou Dam 30 miles downstream via a domino effect; while drowning millions of people on the fertile floodplain and in Shanghai"( Kane)
  • "China's coastline will undergo severe erosion if deprived of its normal Yangtze deltaic sediments"(Kane).
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