Albuquerque's Environmental Story
Educating For a Sustainable Community
Albuquerque's Natural Environment
Mini-Environments
Both the geological and natural history of Albuquerque have played a major
role in determining the many diversified mini-environments we live in:
- Differences in topography influence air quality, average annual temperature,
and amount and seasonal distribution of precipitation.
- Slope and rock type in an area help to determine water availability and
vulnerability to flooding.
- Soil characteristics, in addition to all of these other physical factors,
help to regulate the types and amounts of vegetation in an area.
- Plant life determines the kinds and quantities of animals an environment
can support.
People interact with the natural factors in their mini environments, often
without any awareness of the relationships which exist. And people are often
puzzled by provocative questions about the widely differing conditions which
occur within the 163 square miles (in 1995) which make up our city.
- Why do the "scattered showers" predicted by the weatherman never
seem to reach gardens in some parts of the city and almost always fall on
others?
- Why might one "backyard farmer" get better results for the same
effort than another person in a different part of the city?
- Why is it harder to lay the foundation for houses in some parts of the
city than in others?
- Why might someone on Rio Grande Boulevard know that many fireplaces are
being used on a winter night while someone across the river on Coors Boulevard
might not?
- Why is the temperature in the Valley usually several degrees cooler in
the nighttime and several degrees warmer in the daytime than in the Heights?
- Why do cottonwood trees grow naturally in the Valley and not on the Mesa
just a few miles away?
- Why is it more important for some houses in the Sandia foothills to carry
flood insurance than others?
- Why should Albuquerque's sanitary landfill sites not be in the Valley?
Clues to answers for these questions can be found in the "Three-Dimensional
View of the Rio Grande Trough in the Albuquerque Region" and in the Ecological
Profiles that follow.
(Up to Section I, Back to
Hidden Geology, On to Mountain Uplands)
Copyright © 2008, Friends of Albuquerque's Environmental Story