Comparing The Utah Lake And Rocky Mountains's Aquatic Ecosystem

In the great state of Utah, there are many ecosystems that work together in order to create this wonderful state. Utah has many aquatic ecosystems to include: the Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake and the northern river otter to name a few. Utah also has the Rocky Mountains, which are a terrestrial type ecosystem, these two ecosystems are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Utah’s greatest areas. Utah is home to many gorgeous areas to explore, the focus of this paper will be on the Utah Lake and the Rocky Mountains and their ecosystems and how they interact with each other. Within these two ecosystems there are many endangered species which live and thrive, the June sucker lives in the Utah Lake and currently on the federally endangered species list. First, we will explore the Rocky Mountains of Utah and their importance to the wildlife that inhabit this ecosystem. The Rocky Mountains span across four states: Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, these mountains are home to many plants and animals. The Rocky Mountains have one of the last remaining populations of grizzly bears, with in the lower 48 states (Nature Serve, 2013). The Rocky Mountains experience long periods of cold through most of year, and with the high elevation comes snow throughout most of the year with the cold temperature. With this type of climate it is hard to imagine the types of
plants that would be able to survive, however, there are multiple types of plants that are able to survive. Since these plants have adapted to the climate most of them are shrub-like entities towards the higher elevations. At the higher elevations the trees start to become a mixture of Douglas-fir and aspen. While towards the bottom of the Rocky Mountains it is covered in either ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, or Rocky Mountain juniper (Nature Serve, 2013). At the bottom of the Rocky Mountains usually lay large tree forests, flowers and grass, as the elevation increases, the less abundant these plants are. The biggest threat to the Rocky Mountains ecosystem is humans, as humans destroy the trees, kill the animals and mine within the mountains. This is a big threat to the ecosystems survival, with the humans disruption of the mountains there is a chance the ecosystem can collapse. It is imperative that we as a population do our part in ensuring the safety of this ecosystem and not let it go to waste. Along with the Rocky Mountains, Utah has a wonderful lake called Utah Lake that has a great ecosystem just like the Rocky Mountains. Utah Lake was once a large body of water filled with many different types of fish and plants, as the years moved on human’s interactions with the lake have caused these fish and plants to become extinct. The Utah Lake is managed by the United States Forest Service and covers approximately 95,000 acres. There is an island in the middle of the lake called Bird Island which has some trees and can actually become completely covered in water if there is enough water within the lake. The lake is home to walleye, white bass and different types of catfish (State of Utah, 2013). These are highly sought after fish for fisherman and gamesman, which is a threat to the Utah Lake’s ecosystem. The June sucker, or Chasmites liorus, is considered a federally endangered species, the June sucker’s home is in the Utah Lake and is under protection. The June sucker is a rostrally-orientated sucker which allows it to collect zooplankton from within the water rather than a bottom-feeder, which most suckers are classified (State of Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife Resources, 2011). The June sucker has succumbed to an endangered species, not directly because of human activity, but because of being preyed upon by other fish such as the common carp. This is indirectly because the lake was polluted by humans throughout the years causing a decline in the natural occurring fish, such as the walleye and catfish, and only the carp were able to survive. Since humans decided to use this lake as a dumping ground for their sewage humans have indirectly caused a decline in the June sucker population. Since the carp is a natural predator to the June sucker a plan has been implement by the state to remove as much carp as possible, at one point 6 million pounds of carp was removed by commercial fishing crews (Stark, 2009). Utah is home to many other ecosystems, the Rocky Mountains and Utah Lake are but a scratch in the enormous circle of life which makes up Utah.
The Rocky Mountains are a great place to visit to see the natural beauties the world can offer us, just like the Utah Lake. However, as we can see with human interactions we can destroy these ecosystems and even worse destroy our environment. Humans have already put multiple species extinct, and continue to put more on the endangered list, it is up to us to become more proactive in our efforts to ensure more species do not become extinct like the June
sucker.

References:
Stark, M. (2009). Utah Lake 's carp catch could reach 6 million pounds. Retrieved from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705335970/Utah-Lakes-carp-catch-could-reach-6-million-pounds.html

State of Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife Resources. (2011). Utah Sensitive Species List. Retrieved from http://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/ucdc/ViewReports/SSL_20110329.pdf

Nature Serve. (2013). Utah-Wyoming Rocky Mountains Ecoregion. Retrieved from http://www.landscope.org/explore/natural_geographies/ecoregions/Utah-Wyoming%20Rocky%20Mountains/

State of Utah. (2013). Great Salt Lake. Retrieved from http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/the_land/greatsaltlake.html

State of Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife Resources. (2011). June Sucker. Retrieved from http://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/search/Display.asp?FlNm=chaslior