Environmental science test 3

Asian Brown Cloud

A 2-mile -thick cloud of ash, acid, aerosol, dust, and smog that covers the Indian subcontinent for much of the year.

What is twice as frequent in countries with high pollution levels?

Lung and heart diseases, infant mortality, and miscarriages.

Air pollution

A general term for smoke, haze, dust, odors, corrosive gases, noise, and toxic compounds that are found in air and adversely affect human and environmental health.

Point source

Discharge pollution from specific locations, such as drain pipes, ditches, or sewer outfalls such as factories, power plants, sewage treatment plants, underground coal mines, and oil wells.

Fugitive or nonpoint-source emissions

Those that do not go through a smokestack

Conventional or criteria pollutants

The pollutants that contribute the largest volume of air quality degradation and are considered the most serious threat to human health and welfare

Primary pollutants

Released in a harmful form

Secondary pollutants

Becomes hazardous after reactions in the air

Sulfur dioxide (SO2)

Colorless, corrosive gas that damages both plants and animals.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx)

Highly reactive gases formed when heat combustion initiates reactions between atmospheric nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2)

Ground level ozone

Highly reactive oxidizing agent that damages eyes, lungs, and plant tissues, as well as paint, rubber, and plastics. Secondary pollutant.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

Interacts with ozone to produce smog as a variety. Contributes to the formation of ozone and other photochemical oxidants.

Lead

The most abundantly produced metal air pollutant, impair nerve and brain functions. Produced via smelting of metal ores, mining, and burning of coal and municipal waste.

Particulate material

Dust, ash, soot, lint, smoke, pollen, spores, algal cells, and many other suspended materials like aerosols.

Carbon monoxide (CO)

Colorless, odorless, but highly toxic gas produced mainly by incomplete combustion of fuel (coal, oil, charcoal, wood, gas). Inhibits respiration in animals by binding irreversibly to hemoglobin in blood.

Unconventional pollutants

Compounds that are produced in less volume than conventional pollutants but are especially toxic or hazardous. Asbestos, benzene, mercury, PCBs, vinyl, chloride.

Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP)

Chemicals that cause cancer, nerve damage, disrupt hormone function, and fetal development. Emitted by chemical-processing factories and include benzene, toluene, xylene, and other volatile organic compounds.

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

Designate allowable levels for criteria pollutants in ambient air

The Clean Air Act

Established in 1963 as the first US legislation aimed to improve air quality. Federal grants to state to control emissions. Allowed states to set and enforce their own air quality standards.

Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)

To help inform communities about toxic substances produced and handled in their area.

Where do airborne metal originate from?

Combustion of fuel, especially coal.

Ozone hole

Chemical reactions of CFCs and HFCs with atmospheric gases.

Montreal protocol

The first of several major international agreements on phasing out most uses of CFCs by 2000.

Temperature inversion

A situation in which stable, cold air rests near the ground, with warm layers above

Heat island

Temperatures in cities are frequently 3-5 C (5-9 F) warmer than in the surrounding countryside

Dust dome

Tall buildings create convective updrafts that sweep pollutants into the air. Stable air masses created by this heat island over a city concentrate pollutants.

Haze blob

Huge regions are affected by pollution. 2,000 miles across covers much of the eastern U.S. in the summer, cutting visibility as much as 80%.

Particulate removal

Uses filters to trap particulates in a mesh of cotton cloth, spun glass fiber, or abestos-cellulose

Sulfur

Emission reduction can occur by switching from soft coal with a high sulfur content to low-sulfur coal.

Nitrogen oxide

Can be reduced in both internal combustion engines and industrial boilers by as much as 50% by carefully controlling the flow of air and fuel.

Cap-and-trade system

The EPA sets maximum emission levels for pollutants. Facilities can then buy and sell emission “credits” or permitted allotments of pollutants.

What is essential for life?

Water

What is water needed for?

Agriculture, industry, transportation, and a host of other human uses,

Hydrologic cycle

Distributes water across the globe. Water evaporates from moist surfaces, falls as rain or snow, passes through living organisms, and returns to the ocean.

Precipitation

Water evaporates from moist surfaces, falls as rain or snow.

Transpiration

Plantes take up moisture and release water vapor from leaf pores.

Evapotransipiration

The combined process of evaporation and transpiration, which are more active in hot than cool climates.

Residence time

The length of time water typically stays in a compartment (water body, atmosphere or ground system).

What percent of water can we access?

Only about 0.02% of thee world’s water is in a form accessible to us and to other organisms that rely on freshwater.

Groundwater

Originating as precipitation that percolates into layers of soil and rock. Makes up the largest compartment of liquid, freshwater.

Zone of aeration

Shallow layer of soil containing both air and water.

Zone of saturation

Lower soil layer with pores filled with water.

Water table

Top of zone of saturation that supplies most wells.

Aquifer

Geological layers that contain water. Consist of porous layers of sand or gravel or crack or porous rock that prevent seepage, water seeps more or less horizontally through the porous layer.

Recharge zones

Areas where surface water filters into an aquifer

What can contaminate drinking water?

Urban or agricultural runoff in recharge zones.

How long does it take for a river to dry up?

Most rivers would begin to dry up in weeks or days if they were not constantly replenished by precipitation, snowmelt, or groundwater seepage.

Discharge

How we compare the sizes of rivers. The amount of water that passes a fixed point in a given amount of time. This is usually expressed as liters or cubic feet of water.

Wetlands

Bogs, swamps, wet meadows, and marshes. Play a vital and often unappreciated role in the hydrologic cycle.

Virtual water

Water used in the production of crops such as alfalfa and milk; often exported overseas from water-scarce areas.

Water withdrawal

The total amount of water taken from a water body.

What is used for natural gas and oil production?

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking)

What uses the greatest domestic water?

Toilets

Drought

An extended period of consistently below average precipitation that has a substantial impact on ecosystems, agriculture, and economics.

Subsidence

Sinking of the ground surface, follows water withdrawl.

Saltwater intrusion

Occurs in areas where saltwater deposits are left from ancient oceans, and overuse of freshwater reservoirs often allows saltwater to intrude into aquifers used for domestic and agricultural purposes.

Watershed

All the land drained by a stream or river.

pollution

Any physical, biological, or chemical change in water quality that adversely affects living organism or make water unsuitable for desired uses.

Nonpoint sources

Have no specific location where they discharge into a particular body of water, including runoff from farm fields and feedlots, golf courses, lawns and gardens, construction sites, logging areas, roads, streets, and parking lots.

Pathogenic

disease-causing organisms

Coliform bacteria

bacteria of the colon and found in feces. Present in a water sample, infectious pathogens are usually assumed to be present also.

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)

The amount of dissolved oxygen consumed by aquatic microorganisms.

Oligotrophic

Rivers and lakes that have clear water and low biological productivity. (olig=little, trophic=nutrition)

Eutrophic

Waters are rich in organisms and organic materials (eu=trophic, well-nourished)

Cultural eutorphication

Human activities can greatly accelerate eutrophication

What is cultural eutrophication mainly caused by?

Increased nutrient input into a water body.

Dead Zones

Areas in water bodies, like oceans and lakes, where low oxygen levels cause a lack of marine life, often due to nutrient pollution and algal blooms.

Thermal pollution

Effluent (waste) from cooling systems of power plants or other industries, alters water temperature.