It's All About the Water

Submitted by Allen Dale on Mon, 2017-07-10 00:00

It is hard to find any ecological service that we are provided that does not revolve around water. Everything on earth, including us is made of water and cannot service without it.  With this in mind it is easy to say that water is the ecological service I value the most.  Everything I love to do is around water. THere is one aquatic insect, the Mayfly that live the larval stage that takes up to two and one half years under water where it preys on other aquatic insectics, is preyed upon by other insects and is an important food source for fish. If it makes through the larval stage and emerges out of the water it only lives for one day out of the water. Water is that one abiotic factor that no other biotic factor can do without. What's not to love about that?

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Allen Dale's picture

Why do you think that water is considered an ecological service?

I think that water is the ultimate ecological service.  It may be second only to oxygen.  Water is the foundation on which EVERYTHING stands.  We could be selfish and look at it from the human standpoint and how dependent we are upon it.  Our daily functions of drinking, bathing, etc or physiologically as our bodies are 60% water, any less and our major organs cease to function.  But if we look at the ecological service of water in a less instrinsic way and take on a more altruistic view, water supports life around us, under our feet and soaring above us.  Every food web begins with some type of autotrophic organism.  That autotroph is dependent upon a simple chemical equation of which H2O is a primary input compound.  If you were to take away the ability to photosynthesize, food webs cease to exist. We cease to exist.  ALL life ceases to exist.

Allen Dale's picture

 

Today was full of a lot of mind blowing information but the one of the things that really made me think was how much we all rely on irrigation. I know that irrigation is important, I mean all plants need water to grow. But I had now idea that fruits and vegetables that 65% are grown for our consumption are grown in only 17 states and all 17 of those states rely on irrigation. If that isn't mind blowing enough, Rick Martin, the manager of Arrow Rock Dam told us today about the tap dance that goes on every morning behind the scenes. Rick said that every morning is spent on the phones making sure that the people that need water are getting it in the right amounts. I grew up going to my grandparents farm in the summer in Colorado. Every night while we were there my brothers and I would go out with our grandpa to irrigate his fields. I never really thought about where that water came from. As far as I knew it came from the canal. One of my classmates mentioned how intimidating it is to think about the amount of work goes into the decision that go into getting every stake holder the amount of water they need and are asking for.

Question for digi learners: Have you ever really thought of what it takes to satisfy all the stake holders out there the water they are entitled to?

Think about it this way, too...how do you make sure that every person that has water rights get an equal amount of water.  There has to be a pretty delicate balance that goes on there as well.  There shouldn't be a problem when there is enough water to go around.  But we have all been seen the news reports when they open the canals later in the spring or shut them down earlier in the fall than usual.  When water is more scarce, there has to be a delicate balance between who gets the water and how much they get.  What if farmer A has 10 fields and Farmer B has 2 fields, all of equal size.  If water is scarce, does Farmer A still get water for all those fields or does he have to cut back production so Farmer B can produce anything at all?  I have to admit, I really don't understand irrigation allocation very well at all.  Allen, did they talk about these issues at all?