Pollution Flashcards
Definition of pollution?
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance or energy
Types of Pollution? + our focus
• Chemical • Radiation • Thermal • Noise • Light • Biological We will focus on chemical pollution.
Types of Chemical Pollutants, organic and inorganic?
• Organic Chemicals o Plastics o Other organics o Oil spills o Sewage
• Inorganic Chemicals o Air pollutants
o Plant nutrients
o Toxic metals
o Radionuclides
What are most plastics and other synthetic organic chemicals are made from?
Oil
How does fossil fuel form?
From partially decayed organic matter that is subjected to high heat and pressure for long periods of time.
Plastics are synthetic polymers meaning?
Long chains of repeating organic subunits.
Persistent Organic Pollutants?
Most organic molecules are metabolized by decomposers. Some synthetic organics are not decomposed, instead they persist in the environment.
What are two primary and secondary pollutants from factories?
Sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide.
Combined with the water in the atmosphere tun into sulfuric acid and nitric acid -> acid rain
CFCs destroy ozone in a multistep process?
Destructive cycle, repeated many times by continuing to bind to different atoms.
The “ozone hole”?
A vast area of thinned ozone density in the stratosphere over the Antarctic region.
What has the phaseouts of ozone-depleting substances since 1987 led to?
Halted the growth of the Antarctic ozone hole.
What causes toxic algae bloom?
An abandoned of nutrients, mostly phosphorus and nitrogen.
Where can radioactive metals be found and how are they realized into the environment?
In many natural minerals. Mining and industrial processes may release them into the environment.
Many endocrine-disrupting substances mimic the chemical structure of hormone molecules. How does this work?
Like a key similar enough to fit into another key’s lock, the hormone mimic binds to a cellular receptor for the actual hormone, causing the cell to react as though it had encountered the actual hormone.
Biomagnification, DDT becomes highly concentrated in fish-eating birds such as ospreys, how?
Organisms at the lowest trophic level take in fat-soluble compounds such as DDT from water. As animals at higher trophic levels eat organisms lower on the food chain, each organism passes its load of toxicants up to its consumer, such that organisms on all trophic levels bioaccumulate the substance in their tissues.
