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Biodiversity:
Ecological Effects of Species Introductions and Extinctions
by Waterose et. al.
Ferns:
Surveys of fern flora in an area provide a valuable ecological tool for measuring environments at the micro level. The useful thing about ferns is that their occurrence is very reliable in the right conditions. They are an "indicator" of their optimal ecological niche. Each fern species has specific parameters for temperature, humidity, soil type, moisture, pH and light levels. This makes ferns very specific indicators of the ambient environmental conditions.
Diatoms:
Studies have been conducted to assess the potential utility of diatom assemblages as indicators of biological integrity and water quality in streams and rivers. Diatoms may be useful as a common assessment tool in comparing ecological conditions across a wide range of different resource classes such as wetlands, streams, rivers, estuaries, and forests.
Wetlands:
Wetlands play an integral role in watershed dynamics because they are
positioned in the landscape at the interface of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Wetlands are ecosystems with biological, geochemical and hydrological properties which are important at the landscape scale in nutrient dynamics, sediment movement and biodiversity. They can buffer the effects of terrestrial disturbances on a lake community.
Studies of subalpine wetlands in the Rocky Mountains have established their importance in biogeochemical, physical and biodiversity processes. A common problem faced in wetland research, but which is frequently ignored, is that many wetlands are connected by hydrologic mechanisms to a terrestrial watershed whose characteristics influence wetland structure and function.
Assessing ecosystem health can be very important for ensuring the protection of species that may be at risk. In the future this may contribute to the prevention of species extinction.
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