Measuring Environmental Change Flashcards
What 2 things can measure environmental change? (general)
Living indicators or non-living indicators
What are indicator species?
Organisms that are very sensitive to changes in their environment and so can be studied to see the effect of human activities
Explain how and why lichen is used as an indicator?
Air pollution can be monitored by looking at particular types of lichen that are very sensitive to the concentration of sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere (and so can give a good idea about the level of pollution from car exhausts/power stations)
The number and type of lichen at a particular location will indicate how clean the air is.
Explain how and why mayfly larvae is used as an indicator?
Some invertebrate animals are good indicators for water pollution because they’re very sensitive to the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water.
Mayfly larvae indicates that the water is clean
Explain what causes a change in oxygen levels in rivers
If raw sewage is released into a river, the bacterial population in the water increase and use up oxygen.
What is used to indicate high levels of pollution in rivers?
rat-tailed maggots and sludgeworms
Describe how satellites are used to measure environmental change?
Measure the temp of the sea surface and the amount of snow and ice cover. These are modern, accurate instruments and give us global coverage
Describe how automatic weather stations are used to measure environmental change?
They tell us the atmospheric temperature at various locations. They continue thermometers that are sensitive and accurate - they can measure to a high resolution
Describe how rain gauges are used to measure environmental change?
Measure rainfall to find the average rainfall changes year on year
Describe how dissolved oxygen meters are used to measure environmental change?
Measure the concentration of dissolved oxygen in water, to discover how the level of water pollution is changing
