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Biology 2 > Pollution of Air, Water & Soil > Flashcards

Pollution of Air, Water & Soil Flashcards

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1
Q

What was known about pollution before the industrial revolution?

A
  • Hunter gatherers - Nomads invented chimneys to remove smoke from living quarters
  • Growth of large settlements - Greek/Romans noticed smoke and sewage problems
  • Shelters had poor ventilation so increased incidence of smoke related illnesses
  • Eleanor of aquitane (1157) described ‘pollution’ as ‘undurable’
  • Coal burning banned in London by royal proclamation
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2
Q

How did the industrial revolution affect the pollution?

A
  • Air pollution problems resulted in increased incidence of some diseases (e.g. rickets) linked with light penetration to earth’s surface
  • ‘stinking fogs’ co-incided with peak rates of mortality
  • Not helped by high density housing or populations being defined to valleys
  • Sulphur emissions increased dramatically
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3
Q

What was done to help prevent sulphur pollution?

A
  • First Public Health Act (1848) and later ones in 1866 & 1875
  • Formation of Alkali Inspectorate focussed on curbing emissions from emerging chemical industries
  • Robert Angus Smith - first Alkali Inspector. He was the first to introduce the term ‘acid rain’
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4
Q

What were the effects of the industrial revolution?

A
  • Damaged vegetation and species numbers
  • Selected pollutant resistant species, which scape our urban environments to date
  • Smoke damage to buildings
  • Acid deposition
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5
Q

Where was smog first seen and what effects does it have?

A
  • LA and many US cities
  • Damages ozone concentrations and vegetation
  • Smoke harms buildings
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6
Q

What factors effect the fate/dispersion of pollutants?

A
  • Chemical and physical nature of the pollutant
  • Height and extent of emissions
  • Wind speed
  • Temperature
  • Weather
  • Atmospheric chemistry
  • Nature of receptor ‘surface’
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7
Q

Why does the type of vegetation make the effects of pollution vary?

A

-Different vegetations have different surface areas, therefore different vegetations are considered

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8
Q

How can pollutants enter the leaf?

A
  • Stomata

- Solutes can enter via the cuticle

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9
Q

What is the simplest way of testing for pollutants?

A
  • Bubble pollutant through a solution of hydrogen peroxide
  • Alkali gas would just neutralise the hydrogen peroxide
  • Hydrogen peroxide oxidised the the acidic gas to form a acidic solution
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10
Q

What is passive sampling?

A
  • Based on deposition of gas on an absorbant surface

- Cheap, no power required, easily transported, useful for human health assessments, relative ease of analysis

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11
Q

What are the advantages of passive sampling?

A
  • Cheap
  • No power required
  • Easily transported
  • Useful for human health assessments
  • Relative ease of analysis
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12
Q

What are the disadvantages of passive sampling?

A
  • Commonly poor quality-control
  • Long-term averages?
  • Wind-speed dependent
  • Not very accurate, high variability and not very sensitive
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13
Q

What are the drawbacks to state of the art technology?

A
  • Cost - £10,000 - 20,000
  • Requires power
  • Frequent calibration required
  • No ‘real time’ instruments available
  • Interpolation needed - inevitably
  • Doesn’t show any biological impact
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14
Q

Describe biomonitoring and bioindicators?

A

-Use lichens to map ambient SO2 concentrations

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15
Q

What are the advantages of Biomonitoring?

A
  • No power requirement
  • Cheap
  • Demonstrates biological effects
  • Intergrates effect associated with pollutant dose
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16
Q

What are the disadvantages of biomonitoring?

A
  • Different surfaces can effect the lichens present

- Effects may be historical as lichens take decades to cover

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17
Q

What are tar spots?

A
  • Spots on tree leaves which are correlated with SO2

- More frequent in the tree

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18
Q

Describe mapping of symptoms of pollutants

A
  • Mapping various symptoms of pollution

- E.g Tabacco

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19
Q

Describe pollution pollution collectors

A
  • The use of plants as accumulators

- Put out to collect pollutants then analysed

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20
Q

What are transplants of sensitive taxa? E.g tobacco

A

-Expose plants to pollution, then go back and measure the rate of pollution

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21
Q

What are problems with using tabacco as a pollutant meaurement?

A
  • Not useful for colder climates
  • Visible symptoms not related to yield
  • Relationship between injury and ozone does is complex
  • Ozone conc cannot be estimated from injury score
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22
Q

Describe NC-S and NC-R mesurements

A
  • NC-S and NC-R clovers are grown in the environment
  • The biomass ratio is then compared to ozone conc in a graph
  • Problem is that ozone may affect different species in different ways
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23
Q

What is oxidative stress?

A
  • Caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS)
  • Free oxyradicals - ‘Any species capable of independent existence that contains one or more unpaired electrons’
  • Oxyradicals are formed by loss of a single electron from a non-radical species, the gain of a single electron via a non-radical or via the rupture of a covalent bond
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24
Q

How do plants prevent damage from ROS/AOS?

A
  • Natural product of metabolism and plants have evolved armourt of defences to combat AOS
  • These must be overwhelmed for pollutants to result in ‘damage’
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25
Q

List equations which neutralise ROS/AOS

A
  • O2 + 2e- -> H2O2

- O2 + 3e- -> 2H20

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26
Q

What substrate is good at neutralising ROS/AOS

A

-Vitamin C (Ascorbate)

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27
Q

Describe the Ascorbate-glutathione cycle

A
  • Ascorbate moves to Dehydro-ascorbate turning H2O2 to H2O

- 2H2O converts 202- into H2O2 and O2

28
Q

How does ozone effect plants?

A

-It reduces the production of RNA for rubisco small subunit

29
Q

How many generations can it take for ozone resistance or sensitivity to show?

A

-4 generations

30
Q

Why do we need to provide plants with sulphur?

A
  • Crops evolved in 1960s when SO2 levels were high

- Plants now sulphur deficient as SO2 levels have decreased again

31
Q

How much does ozone pollution cost the US and Europe per annum?

A
  • £6-10 billion in crops lost
  • Significant variation in ozone sensitivity
  • Oxidant pollution appears to be a driving shift in the composition of native herbaceous vegetation
32
Q

What are the symptoms of ‘new forest decline’?

A
  • Yellowing of tops of tree branches, Mg deficiency

- The premature dropping of needle in older branches

33
Q

What was first said to be the main cause of ‘new forest decline’?

A
  • Ph of soils decreasing (more acidic) therefore more Al is released into the soil causing symptoms
  • Ozone is the cause as decline is shown to be in a greater number in areas with increased ozone
34
Q

What is the main cause of ‘new forest decline’?

A

-A combination of different pollutants

35
Q

How many types of forest decline are there?

A
  • 4

- Rehfuess et al 1989

36
Q

What four scopes of water pollution are there?

A
  • Episodic - accidents
  • Point - source
  • Chronic - multi-point source
  • Diffuse - field/urban run-off (non-point)
37
Q

What are the two forms of water pollution?

A
  • Non-accumulating - biodegradable

- Accumulating - persistent non biodegradable

38
Q

Define ‘Bio-Accumulation’ and ‘Bio-Magnification’

A
  • An organism absorbs a pollutant at a rate greater than which it is lost
  • Increase in concentration of a substance that occurs in a food chain
39
Q

Define Eutrophication

A
  • The over fertilising of crops causing a biological acitivity
  • Enrichment of lakes rivers and sea waters with nutrients N and P (but also Si, K, Ca, Fe, Mn)
40
Q

Describe the natural process of eutrophication

A
  • Natural and slow process

- Production very slowly exceeds consumption

41
Q

List processes which contribution to cultural eutrophication

A
  • Natural/fertiliser run-off
  • Sewage
  • Nitrogen compounds produced by cars
42
Q

What is the principle of limiting factors?

A

-Rate of ecological process determined by the environmental

factors present in least supply relative to demand

43
Q

List all 5 trophic categories

A
  • Ultra-olgiotrophic - non-biological
  • Oligotrophic -some biological activity
  • Mesotrophic - (intermediate state)
  • Eutrophic - biologically very productive
  • Hypereutrophic
  • biologically very productive with almost all species
44
Q

What is BOD?

A
  • Biochemical oxygen demand

- pollutants decrease O2 levels therefore cause absent of fish

45
Q

Define ‘Hypoxia’

A

-Low O2 levels from pollution

46
Q

What are the three zones of stratification in summer?

A
  • Epilimnion - top
  • Thermocline - middle
  • Hpolimmion - bottom
47
Q

What are the effects of eutrophication?

A
  • Penetration of light is diminished, O2 is depleted
  • Changes in species composition
  • Plant biomass increases
  • Anoxia
  • Increase of sedimentation
48
Q

What are the human impacts of Eutrophication?

A
  • Injurious to health as algal growths can release toxins

- Blocking of commercial waterways

49
Q

Why is precipitation’s pH around 5-6?

A

-CO2 dissolves into H2O

50
Q

What problems does acid rain cause?

A
  • Decline of fish populations
  • Lake acidification
  • Forest decline
51
Q

What is natural acidification of freshwater?

A
  • Action of atmospheric carbonic acids, forming humic acids by litter decomposition and podzolisation
  • Land use change, reduced animal grazing and increase nitrogen fertiliser
52
Q

Which tree is the most acidifying?

A

-Pine tree

53
Q

What is a critical load?

A

-The highest deposition of acidity that will not cause chemical changes leading to long-term harmful effects

54
Q

What is the mineral titration theory?

A
  • Base-rich oils have high buffering capacity

- Acidic organic soils have little buffering capacity, runs directly into soil

55
Q

What is the order by which minerals buffer?

A
  • Carbonate pH 6.2-8
  • Silicate weathering pH 6.2-5
  • Cation exchange pH 5-4.2
  • Aluminium pH 4.2-3
  • Iron pH >3
56
Q

Whats difference in Loch Chon catchment and Loch Kelty catchment?

A
  • Chon is Norway spruce, whereas Kelty is Sitka
  • Chon has podzolic soils, Kelty has gleyed clay soils
  • Chon has Reduced viable fish population, whereas Kelty has no fish population
  • pH of Chon is 4.7, pH of Kelty is 4.1
57
Q

Why is there more Mg2+ in Loch Kelty then in Loch Chon?

A

-Rain is more acidic so Mg2+ is leached from leaves

58
Q

What is Preferential elution?

A
  • The rapid melting of acid snow in the spring causing pH to drop
  • Can cause problems with fish hatching as occurs during hatching time
  • Invertebrate communities are changed
59
Q

How are invertebrate communities affected by acidification of water?

A
  • Less diversity but greater abundance
  • Mayflies, caddis flies vulnerable
  • Ca deficiency so shells unable to form
60
Q

How are fish communities affected by acidification of water?

A
  • Ca deficiency cause skeleton deformity
  • Decrease in reproductive success
  • Sodium potassium deficiency disrupts osmo-regulation
  • Aluminium hydroxide ppt on gill mucus membranes
61
Q

How is acid rain being reduced?

A
  • Limestone scrubber - used to take SO2 and Hg out of coal

- Liming of lakes - very expensive, 1000 tons used at Loch Fleet, kills sphagnum

62
Q

What are the sources of toxic elements?

A
  • Geochemical - Mineral weathering
  • Anthropogenic - Metal mining, Agricultural materials, fossil duel combustion, metallurgical industries, electronics, sewage sludge and waste disposal
63
Q

What pH releases toxic metal?

A

-Acidic pHs

64
Q

Why is Pb so bad?

A
  • Non-essential, can accumulate in the human body

- Sources include mining and smelting, paint, petrol, shooting, landfill electronic equipment

65
Q

Why is Cd so bad?

A
  • Non-essential, more labile and less strongly absorbed

- Sources include mining, sewage sludge, phosphate fertilisers, landfill

66
Q

Cd in japan

A
  • Cd in rice field due to Zn/Cd mine nearby, rice main part of diet
  • Zn phytotoxic

Biology 2 (10 decks)

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