Reflection on Harriman & Biodiversity at Different Scales
When I began this project, I chose Harriman State Park because it was already a familiar place. Having grown up near the park and spending lots of time hiking, camping, and working seasonal jobs there, I was under the impression that I understood the landscape fairly well. However, exploring Harriman specifically through the lens of biodiversity changed how I see a place that I've known for most of my life, as I began to realize just how interconnected the forests, lakes, wetlands, soils, geology, wildlife, and human activities within the park are, and how biodiversity is shaped by the physical conditions and ecological relationships across a landscape. Looking at Biodiversity Locally At the local scale, biodiversity is closely ties to the characteristics of individual habitats. Soil type, geology, topography, moisture, and climate influence the vegetation communities that can establish in different parts of Harriman, while those communities provide habitat and resources for other ...