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.
