Word: ecosystems
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Less evident is the damage to the desert. Although many think of it as a lifeless place, the desert is actually a teeming, though fragile, ecosystem. Home to a variety of spiders, snakes and scorpions as well as larger creatures like camels, sheep and gazelles, it is literally held together by microorganisms, which form a thin surface crust. This crust catches the seeds of sparse shrubs and prevents surface soil from blowing away. Once it is disturbed -- by the maneuvers of a million soldiers, say -- recovery can take decades. The Libyan desert still shows tank tracks laid down in World...
...step-on-the-gas philosophy. The most controversial by far will be a call for Congress to permit oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an ecologically sensitive area that has been closed to drilling since it was established in 1960. Environmental groups, fearing irreversible damage to the ecosystem, are promising to fight that proposal with an all-out campaign that could turn into this year's version of the bitter Robert Bork confirmation battle. "We'll fight to the end," says Sierra Club spokesman Marty Hayden. "There's no compromise on ANWR...
...danger is vastly greater, though, for the billions of creatures that inhabit the Persian Gulf. The gulf waters, shores and islands are dotted with coral reefs, mangrove swamps and beds of sea grass and algae, brimming with birds, sea turtles, fish and marine mammals. This complex ecosystem, already pushed to the limits of survival by years of pollution, is now threatened with total collapse by the inexorable spread of the smothering, toxic...
...danger to livestock. The strain of brucellosis found in bison may not be virulent enough to pose a significant risk to domestic cattle. "They're making policy without data," charges biologist and bison researcher Jay Kirkpatrick. Says Pacelle: "If people want to graze cattle on the Yellowstone ecosystem, they need to assume some limited risk...
...months, closing some public grazing lands altogether and creating a livestock-free zone around the park. There are also humane, if artificial, ways of controlling the herds, such as using cattle dogs to keep the bison in the park. Cattlemen oppose a plan to reintroduce wolves to the Yellowstone ecosystem to help restore a natural predator for the bison on the ground that the wolves would soon be preying on cattle herds...