How might the increase in human population have an impact on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed?
1 Answer
An increase in human population will increase the pollution stress on Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Explanation:
The more people that live along the watershed the more water will be pulled out of the watershed for human combustion, farming, and landscaping. This means less fresh water will be left for the streams, rivers, wildlife, and groundwater.
The people will also contribute to pollution with, waste water, runoff of pesticides, oil, rubber from tires, salt ,and deicers in the winter, and trash.
All of the waste will flow into Chesapeake Bay with less fresh water to dilute the waste. The water quality in the bay will deteriorate with an increase in human populations. The bays like Chesapeake Bay are brackish a mixture of fresh and salt water. An increase in human population will increase the salt levels in the bay as the among of fresh water is decreased. This will change the ecology of the bay with some species not being able to adapt to the increase in salt concentration.
An increase in human population along the water shed will result in an increased stress on the ecosystem of the watershed. It is conceivable that the stress will cause an ecological collapse of the environment of the watershed of the bay.
