Environmental Chemistry Flashcards
What are nutrients used for?
Nutrients are used for energy, growth, bodybuilding, and cell repair.
Why is it important to understand the impact of our actions on the environment?
To make informed choices to lower our impact.
What are the two types of nutrients?
Organic and Inorganic
What are organic nutrients and what are the four main groups?
Organic Nutrients contain carbon. The four groups of organic nutrients are carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and vitamins.
What are Inorganic Nutrients and what are the two main types?
Inorganic Nutrients don’t contain carbon, they are minerals or elements, and are found on the periodic table. The two types of nutrients are macrominerals and trace elements.
Explain what the four main groups of organic nutrients do and what are their sources?
- Carbohydrates - Energy Production - Bread, rice, vegetables, pasta.
- Proteins - Building/repair of the body - Chicken, eggs, beans, nuts.
- Lipids - Energy Storage - Oil, dairy, meat, nuts, avocado.
- Vitamins - many roles - Fruits/vegetables, the sun.
What are macrominerals and trace elements and what is the difference?
- Macrominerals - 100 mg/day or more
- Trace Elements - less than 100 mg/day
What are the important vitamins and what are they responsible for?
Vitamin A - needed for healthy eyesight
Vitamin B (several) - responsible for Metabolism
Vitamin C - connective tissue
Vitamin D - bone structure
Vitamin E - healing cuts and bruises
Vitamin K - blood clotting
What are examples of trace elements and what are the responsible for?
-Sodium - Nerve impulses
-Potassium - Nerve impulses
-Iron - Red blood cells
What are deficiencies?
When a person doesn’t get enough of a nutrient, deficiencies can occur.
Which fertilizer is designed for grass? For potatoes? For roses?
A. 30-8-10
B. 10-5-20
C. 5-15-4
A. - Grass because it is high in nitrogen
B. - Roses because it is high in potassium
C. - Potatoes because its high in phosphorus
What are the advantages of fertilizer?
-Better yields
-Crops grow faster
-Increase food production
-Improves quality of soil
What are the disadvantages of fertilizer?
-Expensive/more work
-Could disrupt the balance of N.P.K. (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium)
-Reduce biodiversity
-Increase in algal blooms
What are the three categories of a pesticide and briefly describe them.
- Herbicide - Kills weeds
- Fungicide - Kills molds/fungus
- Insecticide - Kills insects/spiders/mites
What is DDT?
DDT was originally thought to be an amazing advance in medicine. It was proven to be invaluable in the fight against insect borne diseases, and was thought to be 100% safe.
What is a food chain?
Shows the transfer of energy from producers to many levels of consumers. Remember, food chains are parts of food webs.
What is biomagnification?
Biomagnification is the accumulation of harmful chemicals through a food chain.
What is Biological Control?
An alternate form of pesticide/herbicide in which an organism is introduced to control the pest/weed population.
What are the properties of acids?
-Dissolve in water (soluble)
-Taste sour
-Neutralize bases
-Turn Litmus Paper red
-Conduct electricity
-pH less than 7
What are the properties of bases?
-Dissolve in water
-Taste bitter
-Neutralize acids
-Turn litmus paper blue
-conduct electricity
-Are slippery to touch
-pH greater than 7
What are neutral substances?
These aren’t acidic or basic, don’t change the colour of litmus paper, and have a pH of 7.
What is the pH used for?
Used to compare the acidity of substances.
What is acid rain?
When organic compounds burn, oxides of sulfur, nitrogen, and carbon are released into the atmosphere, where they combine with water and form acid.
Why doesn’t Western Canada have as many problems with acidic lakes?
Western Canada doesn’t have as many problems with acidic lakes because they have more limestone than those in Eastern Canada.
What are two ways humans control emissions and briefly describe.
- Catalytic Convertors - Prevents emissions from cars
- Scrubbers - Prevent emissions from factories.
What are the similarities between acids and bases?
-Conduct electricity
-Change the colour of litmus paper
-Soluble in water
How do we know if the air we breathe, the land we live on, or the water we drink is polluted?
-Lack of living organisms
-Taste it
-How it looks
-Smell it
-Feel it (in lungs or eyes)
What is a pollutant?
Anything physical, chemical, or biological that may cause harm to living things.
What are the different categories of pollutants?
Physical, Chemical, and Biological pollutants.
What are examples of physical pollutants?
-Heat - temperature, hot water pollution
-Restrain living things (pop can rings, nets)
-Garbage
What are examples of chemical pollutants?
-Acid rain
-Chemicals into the air, water
-Smog
-Pesticides
-Excess fertilizer
What are examples of Biological pollutants?
-Viruses
-Bacteria
-Parasites
What is Pollution?
A change in the environment that is harmful to living things.
What are concentrations?
These show how much of a substance is dissolved in a solution.
What are 3 ways to express concentration?
- Percent
- Parts per Million
- Parts per Billion
20% means?
20/100
20 PPM means?
20/1,000,000
20 PPB means?
20/1,000,000,000
What does PPT mean?
Parts per Trillion
Define Toxicity.
Toxicity is the ability of a chemical to cause harm to an organism.
What is the difference between acute toxicity and chronic toxicity?
Acute Toxicity occurs when serious symptoms show after one exposure (eg. cyanide). Chronic Toxicity occurs when symptoms show after accumulation over many exposures (eg. Mercury).
What does LD50 stand for?
Lethal Dose 50. Remember, the lower the LD50, the more deadly.
What is the LD50 of Salmonella?
What is the LD50 of DDT?
Salmonella: 12 PPM
DDT: 400 PPM in rabbits
What is the LD50 of Tetanus Bacteria?
LD50=0.000005 PPM
What are Persistent Pollutants and what is an example?
Accumulate in the environment and, either break down slowly or not at all. Ex. Pesticides, Petroleum Products, Heavy Metals.
What are Non-Persistent Pollutants?
Do not accumulate in the environment, and break down easily by bacteria or other natural reactions.
What is a point source and what is an example?
-Immediate source of pollution
-Ex. Smoke stack, drainpipes
What is a non-point source and what is an example?
-Emissions have to travel
-Ex. Golf courses, fields, construction sites
How do Algal Blooms happen?
-Fertilizer will run off into water
-Algae will grow rapidly
-Algae will die due to lack of nutrients
-Bacteria increases in numbers to decompose the algae
-Bacteria use up oxygen
-Life in the water dies due to lack of oxygen
What does NIMBY stand for?
Not in My Back Yard
What is Leachate?
“Garbage juice”
What are sanitary landfills?
-Regular garbage dumps
-Use clay or plastic liners
What are secured landfills?
-Include many layers of gravel or plastic under and over the landfill
-Has toxic waste, Hazardous waste, flammable waste, corrosive waste, and poisonous waste
Air pollution in the southern hemisphere is due mostly to what?
-Volcanoes
-Forest Fires
Air pollution in the northern hemisphere is mostly due to what?
-Factories
-Vehicle Emissions
-Human Activity
What are the two main sources of water pollution?
- Runoff
- Sewage
What are the three stages of sewage treatment and briefly describe them.
- Primary - large particles removed
- Secondary - bacteria produce sludge out of small particles (removed)
- Tertiary - effluent moves through ground soil (lagoon)
What is an aquifer?
Underground reserve of water.
What are the four R’s and briefly describe each.
Reduce - Use less disposable stuff
Reuse - Reuse materials (plastic containers for food storage)
Recycle - Send a product to be re-purposed (tires into playground covering)
Recover - Obtain useful materials from waste (methane from landfills)
What is Bioremediation? What are bioreactors?
Using living things like bacteria to clean pollutants. Bioreactors are container tanks that hold these bacteria at the right conditions.
