Introduction
Governments and international organizations raise their attention to environmental issues as the consequences of human activities become severe for nature. Indeed, climate change air and water pollution result from expanding population, industrial development, and hazardous emissions. Ecology, the essential science to consider when elaborating nature protection programs, explores the continuous relationships between organisms and interactions in their environment (Phelan, 2021). How microorganisms adapt to natural conditions from an ecological perspective affected by human intervention might be studied in a specific place, such as Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. The unique blend of bacteria, flora, and fauna between sand and the Atlantic Ocean is an example of how ecology applies to the natural spots adapted by people. This paper aims to discuss how the basic chemicals, such as water, carbon, and nitrogen, cycle through the ecosystem of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, considering the biome, plants, and animals inhabiting there.
Myrtle Beach Ecosystem
Myrtle Beach is attractive to tourists because of various recreational activities, sightseeing spots, and opportunities to spend time next to the water. The place has a developed ecosystem of human-created objects and wildlife and is important for the economy and nature of South Carolina. Furthermore, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (2021) claims that the “beach is a sensitive environment that supports a variety of plants and animals” (para. 2). Myrtle Beach is inhabited by aquatic species, such as jellyfish and sea turtles, herbs, including salt myrtle and ferns, and organisms that thrive in sand and ocean water. The area’s ecosystem is built on the continuing interaction between animals and plants with their surroundings, weather changes, chemical cycles, and cataclysms natural for ocean shores.
Myrtle Beach’s infrastructure influences the ecosystem because human intervention is present in water, sand, and wildlife. Indeed, buildings fill the space for the plants to grow and improve air quality, garbage pollutes sands and disrupts its biome, and animals are eliminated from their surroundings for people’s safety. As a result, winds and waves that change the environment might also severely influence the unstable ecosystem, threatening the species crucial for the food chain and sustainability (Phelan, 2021). In South Carolina, beaches stretch for approximately 60 miles, allowing the wildlife to adapt and move to less human-inhabited places. From an ecological perspective, the area has an alive and continuously evolving variety of interactions between species, impacting the fundamental cycles, such as decomposition and combustion.
Basic Chemicals Cycle
Basic chemical cycles are vital for the beach environment because they allow the species to thrive and sustain the ecosystem. The hydrologic circulation that contains evaporation, condensation, and precipitation is prevalent in the nature of Myrtle Beach as the ocean water becomes vapor to maintain the atmosphere for animals and humans to breathe. Sunny yet windy weather conditions are common for the area, forcing condensation and precipitation that might also be influenced by human intervention in the ecosystem (Pastore et al., 2019). Myrtle Beach has relatively high humidity because of the water cycle and its influence on wildlife.
Carbon cycles through the Myrtle Beach ecosystem because the ocean is an essential absorbing organism that assists in maintaining balance in the atmosphere. The area is densely inhabited by humans and does not have sufficient plants as filters; thus, the produced carbon dioxide acids the surface waters, harming marine life (Lacroix et al., 2021). The carbon cycle is highly influenced by industrial intervention, and in Myrtle Beach, it is disrupted because of artificial adjustments to natural conditions, such as the elimination of plant or animal species, water pollution, and emissions from activities and machines.
Nitrogen circulation is also a basic chemical process that involves surface, water evaporation, inhabitants, and visitors of Myrtle Beach. The cycle affects such microenvironments as sand or coastal biomes, water microbes, air contents, and plants. Moreover, organic and inorganic nitrogens interaction in coastal areas disrupts the decomposition; thus, the cycle regulation is necessary to prevent the food chain from damaging (Gómez et al., 2018). Nitrates are dangerous for ocean water because they threaten marine biodiversity, which is already vulnerable in Myrtle Beach due to broad human intervention into the ecosystem.
The Biome, Plants, and Animals
Humans adapted Myrtle Beach to be a recreational place, and a variety of its biome, plants, and animals are saved to maintain the natural environment. Indeed, the sand and water microbes, such as Staphylococcus, live and reproduce there, and the area regulations are developed to reduce harming them via water pollution or plastic garbage leftovers (Pastore et al., 2019). Animals and marine species are essential to Myrtle Beach’s ecosystem and food chain; thus, jellyfish, flying squirrels, alligators, and woodpeckers represent the wildlife and are protected. Plants, such as coastal dunes, ferns, sea oats, and myrtles, participate in the carbon cycle and might be artificially seeded in the area to purify the environment.
Conclusion
Ecology explores interactions between organisms within their environment, and studying the Myrtle Beach ecosystem demonstrated how interdependent they are. Furthermore, human intervention influenced what species survived in the area and the variety of plants prevalent on the coast. The basic chemical processes, such as hydrologic, nitrogen, and carbon circulations, are significant environmental factors because the ocean participates in every cycle. While Myrtle Beach is a recreational place with a high density of tourists, its biome, plants, and species have sufficient conditions to survive and reproduce, supporting the ecosystem.
References
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Lacroix, F., Ilyina, T., Laruelle, G. G., & Regnier, P. (2021). Reconstructing the preindustrial coastal carbon cycle through a global ocean circulation model: Was the global continental shelf already both autotrophic and a CO2 sink? Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35(2), e2020GB006603. Web.
Pastore, D. M., Peterson, R. N., Fribance, D. B., Viso, R., & Hackett, E. E. (2019). Hydrodynamic drivers of dissolved oxygen variability within a Tidal Creek in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Water, 11(8), 1723.
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