Water is absolutely vital to sustain an ecosystem. Without water, plants can't grow, and without plants, animals can't live. Simple as that. Right now in the United states, an ecosystem is drying up, and more disturbingly, this ecosystem used to be one of the United State's wettest: the Colorado River Basin. The river has lost so much water that it hasn't reach its endpoint (the Sea of Cortez) since 1998. Without any water reaching the Sea of Cortez, the Colorado River's delta has simply dried up. The water wasn't the only thing to leave the river delta: all the flora and fauna of the river delta left with the water.
How can the Colorado River Basin be restored?
Currently, farmers that tap the Colorado River are experimenting with using crops that require less water. Farmers that are farther from the river but still use it for irrigation could theoretically slash their water use in half by watering their crops with underground pipes. Also the Mexican and American governments are cooperating with each other in order to make it so the Colorado River flows into the Sea of Cortez again under an agreement known as the "Minute 319." These efforts are a good start, but more still needs to be done to restore the Colorado to what it was more than a century ago.
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The Colorado River Basin (Photo: http://www.centralbasin.org/blog/2014/02/14/stretching-the-colorado-river/)
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The Colorado River from an earlier time (Photo: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/americannile/)
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The Colorado River as of 2011 (Photo: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/americannile/)
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The dried up delta of the Colorado River (Photo: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/americannile/)