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Spark, an answer for your Dam question.
I think...
Very little.. The dams are constructed upriver from the known
historic range of the Chinese alligator, which was always restricted to the
middle lowland parts of the yangste valley up to about Dongtinhu Lake SW of
Wuhan in Hunan Province. Changes in drainage, flood regime etc. downstream
of the the new dam will not have any appreciable effect because the
alligator has been extinct in most of the range for the last 100 years or
more. The few very small surviving populations occur in Anhui Province in
the vicinity of Hefei in intensively managed agricultural ponds and are
unlikely to be affected.
Equally the new reservoir formed by the dam is unlikely to provide suitable
habitat and there are no plans I am aware of to introduce the species into
this habitat.
Perhaps the best effect might be a general one that overall increased
prosperity in China will facilitate conservation of natural resources and
wildlife and may indirectly improve the situation for conservation of
Chinese alligator.
The more threat is the new reservoir that will be created by the last part of the Dams because the water will flood many factories and housings and whatknot causing polution.. This may or may not reach the habitat of the alligators..
Xain
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