Unit 8 Blog

UNIT 8 BLOG

Suggested Vocabulary:

groundwater recharge - a hydrologic process where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater.

floodplain - an area of low-lying ground adjacent to a river, formed mainly of river sediments and subject to flooding.

Levee - an embankment built to prevent the overflow of a river.

Dike - a long wall or embankment built to prevent flooding from the sea.

Desalinization - is the removal of salt and other impurities from seawater to produce fresh drinking water.

Distillation - the action of purifying a liquid by a process of heating and cooling.

Reverse Osmosis - a process by which a solvent passes through a porous membrane in the direction opposite to that for natural osmosis when subjected to a hydrostatic pressure greater than the osmotic pressure.

Point Source of Pollution - a distinct location from which pollution is directly produced

Non-point Source of Pollution - a diffused area that produces pollution

MCL - medial collateral ligament (MCL) is a wide, thick band of tissue that runs down the inner part of the knee from the thighbone (femur) to a point on the shinbone (tibia) about four to six inches from the knee.

Clean Water Act - (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution.

Safe Water Drinking Act - (SDWA) is the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans' drinking water.

Types of water pollution- You should know the source and the potential human/ecological health effects of each:

Lead - Paint, dust, soil, drinking water, air, cosmetics, consumer products, imported candies. Effects include: slow deterioration of the nervous system (including the brain) and kidneys. 

Mercury - volcanoes, forest fires, cannabar (ore) and fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. Effects include: impaired neurological development.

Arsenic - ground water, mineral ore, and geothermal processes. Effects include: cancer in the skin, lungs, bladder, and kidney.

Acid deposition/Mine drainage - industrial plants, burning of fossil fuels, and mines. Effects include: water can become toxic and dangerous to consume or drink.

Pesticides - agricultural land but released in forms like sprays, liquids, sticks, powders, crystals, balls, and foggers. Effects include: kill plants and other organisms living in the ecosystem.

Pharmaceuticals - in drinking water supplies through sources such as industries, hospitals, medical facilities, households, veterinary drug use, and agricultural areas. Effects include: feminization of male fish, delayed sexual development, embryo mortality, structural and neurological damage, abnormal hormone levels.

Hormones - thyroid stimulating hormone also endocrine disrupting chemicals. Effects include: decrease in reproduction, mood swings. 

PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls. Effects include: cancer at a very lethal level.

PBDEs - polybrominated diphenyl. Effects include: severe damage to the brain or nervous system.

Oil - Oil wells, and drilling rigs. Effects include: Contamination and fast removal of many species.

Solid Waste - Main source is humans. Effects include: the filling up of landfills and air pollution/land pollution

Thermal - geothermal power plants. Effects include: natural colder waters and changes in temperature.

Freshwater Resource Discussion

Underground aquifers, lakes, rivers and wetlands provide many ecological and economic benefits to their surrounding ecosystems.  Discuss both the ecological and economic benefits of each freshwater-ish source (I get that wetlands are not always freshwater... but they are super important!) giving at least two example for each.  Also give at least one example of how human activity can be harmful to each of these resources.

Aquifers: Aquifers are a body of permeable rock that can contain or transmit groundwater. They have proven to be extremely beneficial to agricultural and public use by means of protecting pollutants. Local governments allows farmers to take advantage and use the resource for irrigation. The aquifers also provide clean, healthy, and pure water for many people. This not only helps sustain the human population but also the plant life evolving in many ecosystems. They also act as substitutes to helping farmers where land is too dry. A negative effect includes an increase in salinity and decreasing natural sources of water.

Lakes: Lakes are a large body of water surrounded by land. They are a primary home to many plants and animals. Lakes are used for many economic reasons because it provides waters communally and also for entertainment and recreation use. It also increases biodiversity and also provides food and fiber to neighboring ecosystems. Although lakes can be positive and distribute nutrients to other places, it also leads to negative effects such as pollution, eutrophication and an increased amount of algae blooms resulting in decreased amounts of clean and sustainable oxygen levels. 

Rivers: Rivers are a large natural stream of water flowing in a channel to the sea, a lake, or another such stream. They are usually used for means of transportation, easy access to available goods and a push towards fertile soil. Many species of animals and plants also grow in this environment and there are many monumental importances of rivers because they are the origin or start of what early civilizations considered "body of water." Negative impacts include the disturbance of a fine and developing ecosystem through the factors of pollution, dam building, home building, improper riddance of trash and contamination with other toxic chemicals. 

Wetlands: Wetlands are land consisting of marshes or swamps; saturated land. They work as a natural water filter and are not exactly a 100% freshwater source but are essential to the environment. They store nutrients and soil by trapping and holding the water. Due to decreased amounts of deposited sediments, the water is much cleaner and does not hold or contain high levels of toxic waste and materials. Wetlands result in increased amounts of erosion, and water drainage.

Water Diversion Discussion

Water is not always where we need it to be.  For thousands of years, humans have diverted water for their own needs via dams, dikes, and aqueducts.  Discuss 3 water diversion projects by first explaining the location of the source and then where the water ended up.  Next, for each example, discuss the ecological benefits and costs as well as the economic benefits and costs for each project (feel free to reference the work you did on your dam project if you would like or find some new examples that we haven't discussed!).

Colorado River 

The Colarado river is situated in the United States of America and many states such as Nevada, Arizona, and California border around it. Two lakes are interconnected with the river including the Mead Lake and Powell Lake. Biodiversity also exists here in that many aquatic and land species either in or out of the sea. The economical costs are increasing because the River continues to constantly keep drying up resulting in government and other volunteers to contribute to continue sustaining the river. The region is becoming a desert because of its dry and slow breakdown of the land. However the rapid building of dams around the area is kind of proving to being beneficial and helpful in keeping the river from deteriorating and completely disappearing. 

Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is bordered by 2 former Soviet nations: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with supporters that move water in and out such as the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. This sea has many uses ranging from fishing to transportation and even agriculture. It was once an recurring sea of growth but has become tamed and limited due to surrounding areas with an increased amount of salinity. It's biodiversity has declined and is also continuing to deplete. The government, however, is doing. The government, through economic and financial terms, is literally doing whatever it can to save the live of the Aral Sea. The restoration and refurbishing plans are still intact and continuing today.

Salton Sea
The Salton Sea is situated in Southern California where it is supported by the Whitewater River and New River. These rivers increase the seas biodiversity and allow for more species to develop and and a sustainable growth of healthy plant life. The Sea is primarily used to house many species but the people living around the sea demand a high level of good quality water which could be derived from the sea or body of water. Increased salinity amounts have killed off many species and has resulted in huge financial debt for surrounding corporations, industries, and government near the sea. 

Water Quality Discussion

When we were at Parr park, we did several water quality tests to access the health of the ecosystem.  Discuss each test and what the test indicates about the quality of the water we tested including potential sources of the pollutant associated with the test.  In addition to tests humans can run on the water itself, there are many species that can be studied that give an indication of the health of an ecosystem.  These species are known as indicator species.  Give an example of a biological indicator species and explain how changes in its morphology or population numbers gave scientists an indication that something just wasn't right in the area.  Make sure to discuss what scientists believe to be the cause of this species change.   

Being at Parr Park involved conducting many tests to test water quality, pressure, and overall health of the surrounding environment. We conducted many tests such pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, and phosphate tests to observe and record the water quality in our selected region of the creek. At first the pH measured 8, which resulted in the water being more basic which might have been caused by sediments and/or other elements around the water. However based on previous knowledge, the water pH should have been 7 because water is always neutral. The thermometer measured temperature of the water and due to the outside weather condition being cold the water also resulted in being cold that day. Dissolved Oxygen test basically measures the amount of gaseous oxygen that has been dissolved in the water by pressure. This came out to be measured in completely different units and conversion will occur in class. The next two tests include phosphate test and nitrate test. Phosphate tests measure how much phosphate is present in a sample of water. Increased amounts lead to depleting oxygen resulting in the destruction of the living species in the environment. The Nitrate test is extremely similar to the phosphate test in that if there are gig levels of nitrate then there will be a depletion in the oxygen levels as well. Fecal Coliform was included as one of tests as well measuring the amount of coliform bacteria that is present in the environment. High quantities result in contaminated animal waste. 

Bioloical indicators are aquatic plant and animal life that are susceptible to specific types and levels of pollutants. Many organisms require a specific range of physical and chemical parameters to flourish in a surface water. An example include Fish, algae and benthic macro invertebrates. If there are increased amounts or decreased amounts of biological indicators than scientists will believe that there has been an increase/decrease in fish, algae or benethic macro invertebrates.

Water Conservation Discussion

Only 3% of the world's water is freshwater, of that 3%, less and 1% is available for human use.  The 3 largest consumers of freshwater are agriculture, industry and household use, in that order.  Give at least two suggestions for how each consumer listed above could make changes to better conserve this valuable resource.     

Agriculture

To conserve water through farmers, farmers must change their farming/irrigating practices to be more beneficial and improving. Such as drip irrigation becomes more efficient and useful. Even using modern technology or improved tools can make better changes to conserving the resources. Zai planting pits can also be hang dug and and help benefit the soil fertility mainly in arid and dry regions. 

Industry

To conserve water through industry, manufacturing business can buy less in order to produce less in factories resulting in decreased amounts of labor and not as much demand for water. Also efficient use of machinery can also result in less water use. Industries such as the fishing industry can find more efficient ways to store fish rather than in water which becomes dirty and filled with chemicals. 

Household Use

To conserve water through household use, people can of course use conventional methods by boiling and then refrigerating the water by removing the germs, bad nutrients, and killing the unhealthy molecules in the water. Other actions include turning off tap water and decreased times in showers/ decreased use of air conditioning. Reusing, Reducing, and Recycling also helps conserve water in many ways. 

BIG Picture Discussion

This is where you will make the four BIG PICTURE connections to the ENTIRE UNIT. Please tie in information you learned in your reading (chapters 9 and 14), from completing your assignments, the documentaries we watched and from your labs.  There is not an exact length that I am expecting other than it should definitely be at least a paragraph for each section, should be thorough and show understanding of the topic.  Remember to be specific in your examples.  Do not just say "there are laws that govern this" or "people destroy the Earth."  Give me the names of the laws, what they regulate and who enforces them.  Tell me what humans are doing to destroy the earth.

Human Impact: 

Water is extremely essential for humans and the growth of many plants and animals. Humans can gain water and its use from many resources such as aquifers, rivers, lakes, and seawater. Water makes a huge impact on humans because it is high in demand. Everyone including families, industries, and farms all need water for different uses whether it be personal or business related. One problems exists however, and that includes the fact that freshwater is becoming rare and harder to find resulting in a lower stability and sustainability for humans and their growth. 

Environmental Impact:

Water has a huge impact on the environment. Water is used to be filled in rivers, seas, and oceans. It also can be used to plant natural life. Water is this one organic thing that is needed as a resource. Water usage ranges from public drinking, to agricultural use in order to grow crops. Water, environmentally, also increases biodiversity making a positive impact but negative when increasing salinization and eutrophication. 

Economical Impact:

Water is economically a necessity and its demand is constantly on the go. High end corporations such as aquafina or nestle make bottle water for consumer use. They mass produce water bottles in order to have a more high end way to organize the build up of pure and simple water. Economically in Sea's like the Aral Sea and Salton Sea governments and surrounding areas are working extremely hard to provide for refurbishing and restoring plans to bring back life into bodies of water. However, these plans result in high amounts of economic funds being given just rehabilitate rivers and arid lands. 

Governmental Legislation: 

Water, through governmental legislation has been passed in many different acts. Examples include the Federal Water Pollution Act of 1948 to provide clean water, Sage Drinking Water Act of 1974 which acted as a way to level or record the maximum contamination leveling the surface and ground water. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 declares certain polluters responsible for oil spills and other contamination problems. Many of these governmental legislations are usually passed in order to analyze the quality of water and also the restore the cleanliness of surface, ground, and regular water. These acts act as barriers to reduce pollution and other harmful ways that water can be effected.