Unit 2: Thermal Pollution Flashcards
What can cause thermal pollution?
Deforestation, energy generation, natural events, runoff, soil erosion, manufacturing or industrial plants.
What effect does thermal pollution have on organisms in an ecosystem?
Change in temperature can kill many species because they are already adapted to a certain temperature, this is called thermal shock.
How does variation in water temperature affect the concentration of dissolved oxygen?
Warmer water holds less oxygen.
Define thermal pollution
Non-chemical water pollution that occurs when human activities cause a substantial change in temperature of water.
One solution to thermal pollution is putting water in ______ _______, letting it ________, then putting it back into its _______ ________
Holding ponds, cool, natural source.
What is a closed system for solving thermal pollution?
When industries cool water they heated up, then heat it up again.
Examples of the effects of thermal pollution.
Decreased fecundity, decreases DO, increased metabolism of organisms, loss of biodiversity, thermal shock.
Solutions to thermal pollution
Cooling ponds, cooling towers, reuse hot water to heat buildings, recycle the water.
How does soil erosion affect water temperature?
It increases solids which absorb more heat, decreasing the water temperature.
How does runoff water affect water temperature?
It can heat up on black tar then go into bodies of water and increase the temperature.
What are natural thermal polluting events?
Geothermal activity and volcanoes.
