The South Texas Ecosystems

Turtle glass and manatee glass are the two major plants of South Texas Seagrass bed. Manatee and turtle dominate because of high evaporation of low rainfall to the bay and tolerance to salt. Common animal species inhabiting seaweeds include fish, sea turtle, shellfish, and waterfowl. They are adapted to living in this ecosystem as a direct food source, habitat, and seagrass bed field as nursery. The ecological significance of seagrass bed fields is that they play an important role as producers and seed beds of many species.

Some human activities pose a threat to wetland ecosystems. Development along the American Gulf coast has reduced the habitats of wetlands in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Large-scale development in South Florida has reduced the amount of water flowing through Everglades. Wildlife such as Florida Panthers is on the verge of extinction due to habitat reduction. The swamp of the Donna National Park in Andalusia, Spain, is greatly influenced by human activities along the Guadalquivir River and the Guadera River. River water is drained and transported to expand agricultural production, salt extraction and tourism facilities. Due to the reduced water supply to the ecosystem, the area of ​​the wetland of Doana has been reduced from 150,000 hectares (370,600 acres) to only 30,000 ha (74,100 acres).

Texas is big. The same can be said about South Texas. Indeed, the economic scale of the region reached $ 190 billion in 2016, which was larger than the whole of Oklahoma. In addition to its size, the regional economy of South Texas is also diverse. Especially since crude oil price plummeted at the end of 2014, the economic performance of the community varies greatly. During the shale oil boom between 2010 and 2014, the unemployment rate declined across South Texas. In the case of very low crude oil prices, the overall unemployment rate in the region rose by almost 2% in the past two years. The majority of South Texas depend on oil and gas production in particular, so employment growth slows significantly between 2014 and 2015 and then returns to the historic level of about 1% in 2016 It was.

In 2016, the economic results in the South Texas region were affected to varying degrees by low crude oil price. Mining is playing a relatively important role in this area. In this area's mining industry, approximately 30,000 people work mainly in exploration of oil and natural gas. Oil and gas mining is only 1.5% of the region's labor force, but the sector's position index is over 3 and emphasizes the industry's role in the regional economy compared to other countries. The location index measures the concentration of each industry within the region compared to the national average. The location of the mining including the oil and gas industry is more than one in most counties and cities in southern Texas. Kennedy County has a reading volume of 105, followed by 78 in La Salle County.