Human Impact: Back Bay to the Science Museum Dam

Team R Bioblog.
Many residents of Boston are not aware of how many structures in their city, many of which are taken for granted, have major environmental impacts. In our video, we travel to three locations that are frequently overlooked in terms of their environmental impact on the city of Boston. Our first destination is Back Bay. Back Bay was originally a swamp before residents of Boston began to fill it in around 1860 to make room for the expanding city. The filling in of Back Bay caused extensive habitat fragmentation -- any organisms that inhabited the swamp were forced out or killed by the change. The urban area is now unable to support a biologically diverse population. Our second destination is The Boston Museum of Science. The museum itself acts as a dam of the Charles River. It was thought that a dam on the river would create a basin for recreation for city residents. The result is the wide Charles River basin. While the dam on the Charles provides a convenient area for recreation, it has extensive environmental impacts as well. Dams affect the quality of water because the river is not able to naturally cleanse itself. Organisms that inhabit the river are affected by the poor water quality as well as the decrease in water flow. Our third destination is a large sand, salt, and gravel pit near Interstate 93 and the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. The materials stored here are used to keep the roads in Boston drivable during the winter months. However, not only does the area itself cause extensive habitat fragmentation, the effects of salting roads changes the chemistry of groundwater which limits the survival of many organisms who are not used to this change. These three areas in Boston highlight the environmental impact humans have through building cities. The examples shown in the movie are only a few among many of the major contributors to environmental degradation in the city of Boston.
Holly Moore
Ross Thuotte
Tom Samph
3/20/08

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Team
• CGS
• Natural
• Science

[SamuelHammer]

thanks guys i really enjoyed this!