Question

Read An Introduction to the San Francisco Estuary.

Review the San Francisco Estuary Project's (SFEP) website.

Write a 1,200- to 1,400-word paper on the restoration of the San Francisco Estuary. Include responses to the following:

• Describe the San Francisco Estuary Project.
• How has population growth in the San Francisco Bay Area affected the estuary?
• How has the habitat fracture in the San Francisco Estuary been increased by human behavior?
• How is the project focusing on maintaining the biodiversity of plants and animals in the San Francisco Estuary?
• Assess the progress made in conserving the biodiversity of the San Francisco Estuary.
• How would you personally assess the progress? Is it working?

Answer 1

1) Let us first start with the meaning of estuary - The mouth of the river which joins the sea.

Basically estuary is a natural resource.

San Francisco estuary provides water to twenty million people for drinking in California.

It drains 40 percent of the state.

It also hosts a vast diversity.

Estuary enables to persue fishing, shipping and commercial activities.

The San Francisco Estuary project is collaborative regional program of resource agencies, non profits and many people from different fields working together to restore and enhance water quality and wildlife habitat.

2) The human activities has caused specific changes in ecosystem. The flow of the water from the estuary is greatly reduced by diversions to support irrigated agriculture.

Contaminants enter the estuary by human activities and pollute it.

Industrial waste, municipal waste, urban and agricultural waste enters the estuary and pollute it.

3) Habitat fracture is also known as fragmentation.

This is the process by which the loss of habitat results into isolated remnants.

Several factors are responsible for the fragmentation of habitat -

a) human activities

b) physical and chemical conditions caused by human activities.

c) Introduction of exotic species is also respnsible.

d) Pollutions caused by human activities.

4) San Francisco Estuary project is making great effort to restore the loss.

The estuary institute has made a strategy by allowing the marshes to move inland.

They took a step to restore the habitat which are natural so that the wildlife grows on its own and does not face any complications.

To protect the biodiversity, the institute have focussed on the temperature and the environment quality to restore the loss.

5) The progress done by San Francisco estuary project are -

a) They have established a regional wetland.

b) They have applied watershed scale approach to aquatic resource protection.

c) They are trying to restore the intertidal and subtidal habitats.

d) They have increased the efficacy of predator management.

e) They increased carbon sequestration via wetland management.

f) They have developed long term drought plans.

g) They have tried to reduce the use of water for landscaping around the estuary and they have tried to use the recycled water.

6) Yes, the progress is in the right direction according to me.

The restoration of biodiversity is very important because harming the nature leads to imbalance of the natural activities.

The estuary project has took a very good step to restore the loss of biodiversity.

The strategies of the project is appreciable.

Because loss of biodiversity is the the impairment of food webs and food chains.

This project not only restore biodiversity but it also improves livelihood.