Posts Tagged ‘ecology’
Bloomin marvellous
An unusually snowy winter, and weeks of heavy rainfall in south east USA has resulted in the Mississippi River flooding to record levels. As a response, US engineers have released the rising waters onto the floodplains surrounding the river, in order to save the heavily populated regions further downstream. The economic costs of such an action are huge – some reports put the cost at $295 million a day. Ecologically, there is more bad news. River water naturally contains large amounts of sediments that have eroded as the river travels downstream. This sediment is incredibly rich in nutrients, and as…
