Value of Riparian Ecosystems

Riparian areas hold rich biodiversity and their food webs can become quite complex. In addition to providing habitat, shelter, food, and water for the animals of riparian ecosystems, these systems also provide general benefits to the environment.

Riparian areas possess moist soil rich in organic matter replenished by periodic flooding. Unique physical features provide habitat for some biota that live nowhere else but along streams and rivers, some for their entire lives. Other species use riparian areas only at certain times of the day, in particular seasons, or in specific stages of their life cycle. Songbirds, for example, come and go, but they depend on riparian areas, perhaps because songbirds do not possess exceptional hunting skills and the density of plant and insect life along streams suits them. Many owls also station themselves in riparian areas for hunting nocturnal animals seeking water. Any predator gains an advantage by hunting in a locale where food comes to them rather than expending energy to find and stalk prey.

Riparian ecosystems also affect the neighboring land, especially in flat open countryside where vegetation next to the water offers an oasis from heat and a refuge from winter winds. The unique physical features of riparian areas create a microenvironment, a defined place that has its own climate. Riparian areas occur in low-lying places so they hold moisture and humidity longer than open spaces. The high moisture and shady conditions help these areas reduce extremes in temperature and humidity, partially explaining why many species use riparian habitat to raise offspring. The moisture and shade also moderates air temperature in the riparian area. Taken together, riparian areas offer stability in climate, temperature, plant life, and animal life. It is no wonder that animals living in sparse, arid conditions—on the plains or on the savanna, for instance—probably view riparian habitat as an important means of sustenance.

Humans have encroached to the very edge of many urban rivers and streams so that these ecosystems have been severely altered. Even regions with fewer people put pressure on the species that live only in riparian habitat. Livestock ranchers value riparian areas for watering their herds, which ruins the bank. From the 1700s through the 1800s, timber companies used fast-flowing streams to carry logs down mountains to sawmills,
and farmers have used them as an easy source of irrigation water and good soil for crops.

Even wild animals in arid regions can in time damage stream sides and riverbanks. Riparian habitats in Africa, for example, serve as places where elephants, rhinoceroses, and herds of hoofed animals come in to drink. These large animals need water, but as they visit the same sites by day or by night they do significant damage to the habitat.

Source of Information : Green Technology Conservation Protecting Our Plant Resources