APES Unit 8 - Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution

Aerate

To put air or a gas into a liquid.

Algal bloom

A rapid increase in the population of algae in a waterway.

Anthropogenic

Human-induced changes on the natural environment.

Bioaccumulation

An increased concentration of a chemical within an organism over time.

Biomagnification

An increased concentration of a chemical as it is passed up successive steps in a food chain.

Bioremediation

The use of living organisms to detoxify and restore polluted and degraded ecosystems.

BOD

Biological oxygen demand, amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic decomposers to break down organic materials.

Cholera

An acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of contaminated water or food.

Clean Water Act

1972 law that set maximum permissible amounts of water pollutants that can be discharged into waterways with the goal to make surface waters swimmable and fishable.

Composting

The process of helping biodegradable wastes to decompose naturally.

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)

1980 law that established federal authority for clean-up of hazardous substances that have been spilled or improperly disposed of; commonly known as the Superfund Act.

Confined aquifer

A groundwater storage area trapped between two impermeable layers of rock.

DDT

A powerful insecticide that is also poisonous to humans and animals and was banned in the 1970s due to its harmful environmental impact.

Deepwater Horizon

A 2010 oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the explosion and sinking of an oil rig and is the largest marine oil spill in history.

Deep-well injection

Drilling a hole in the ground down below the water table to hold waste.

Delaney Clause of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

1958 amendment that prohibits carcinogenic food additives.

Dioxins

A group of highly toxic chemical compounds formed when polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are heated or burned, also formed as by-products in the production of herbicides.

Dose response curve

A graph of the magnitude of an effect of a drug as a function of the amount of drug administered.

Dysentery

An infection of the intestines marked by severe diarrhea that is spread through contaminated food and water.

Effluent

Water flowing out into a body of water after processing.

Endocrine disruptors

Chemical pollutants that have the potential to substitute for, or interfere with, natural hormones.

Epidemiology

Branch of medical science concerned with the incidence, distribution, and control of diseases that affect large numbers of people.

Eutrophication

A process by which nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased growth of algae.

E-waste

Discarded electronic equipment such as computers, cell phones, television sets, etc. that often contains heavy metals.

Exxon Valdez

A 1989 oil tanker accident in Prince William Sound, Alaska that spilled millions of gallons of oil into the sound and was the largest marine oil spill at the time.

Fat-soluble

Substances that are able to be absorbed into fat and are stored within it.

Fecal coliform

Bacteria that are found in excrement or sewage contamination occurring naturally in the digestive tract of human beings and animals that are used as an indicator of sewage contamination in water.

Gray water

All of the relatively clean wastewater that drains from washing machines, sinks, dishwashers, tubs or showers and can be reused for non-sanitary purposes.

Groundwater

Water that fills the cracks and spaces in underground soil and rock layers.

Hazardous Waste

Any material that can be harmful to human health or the environment if it is not properly disposed of.

Hypoxic

Having a low level of oxygen.

Infectious

A disease that is caused by a pathogen and that can be spread from one individual to another.

Leachate

Polluted liquid produced by water passing through buried wastes in a landfill.

Lethal dose (LD50)

dose at which 50% of test animals die

Malaria

A disease that causes flu-like symptoms that is transmitted by mosquitoes that carry parasites.

Mangroves

Coastal ecosystems inhabited by salt-tolerant trees and help maintain the health of coastal environments.

Materials-recovery facilities (MRF)

A recycling facility were items are sorted, cleaned, shredded, and prepared for reprocessing into new items.

Mercury

A heavy metal that causes neurological damage.

Methylmercury

A form of the heavy metal mercury that can accumulate in tissues and biomagnifies in aquatic ecosystems.

Mortality

Death rate within a population.

Nonpoint-source pollution

Pollution that comes from many sources rather than from a single, specific site.

Oligotrophic

A condition of a lake characterized by low nutrients, low productivity, and high oxygen levels in the water column.

Organic

Substances that are carbon-based and make up living things.

Oxygen sag curve

A graph showing the concentration of dissolved oxygen in a river into which sewage or some other pollutant has been discharged plotted against the distance downstream from the sewage outlet.

Parts per million (PPM)

A method of expressing low concentrations; 1 ppm is equivalent to 1 milligram per liter.

Pathogen

A bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease.

PCBs

Synthetic chemicals containing chlorine that are used in the manufacture of plastics and other industrial products and can accumulate in the tissue of animals and persist in the environment.

Persistent

Remaining in the environment for a long time.

Phytoplankton

Microscopic, free-floating, autotrophic organisms that function as producers in aquatic ecosystems

Point-source pollution

Pollution that comes from a single specific location.

POPs

Persistent organic pollutants; chemical compounds that remain in the environment for a long time.

Primary treatment

The first stage of sewage treatment that physically removes most particulate material from raw sewage using filtration and gravity.

Range of tolerance

The limits to the abiotic conditions that a species can survive in.

Recycle

The process of converting used materials into usable material for manufacturing new products.

Red tide

A discoloration of seawater caused by a bloom of toxic dinoflagellates.

Reduce

To use less resources.

Remediation

Return a contaminated area to its original state.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

1976 law for managing non-hazardous and hazardous solid waste through a cradle to grave system.

Reuse

Using a resource over and over again in the same form.

Runoff

Water that moves across the land surface and into surface waterways.

Safe Drinking Water Act

1974 law that set maximum contaminant levels for pollutants in drinking water that may have adverse effects on human health.

Sanitary landfills

An engineered ground facility designed to hold municipal solid waste with as little contamination of the surrounding environment as possible.

SARS

Severe acute respiratory syndrome, a respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus.

Secondary treatment

The biological treatment of wastewater using microorganisms to break down organic wastes.

Septic system

A small-scale wastewater treatment system used by a single home or business.

Sewage

The solid and liquid waste from homes and other buildings that goes down drains into a sewer or septic system.

Sludge

Solid waste material that settles out from wastewater.

Surface impoundment

A pond that has a sealed bottom which stores liquid waste and facilitates evaporation.

Synthetic

Not naturally produced; made by artificial processes.

Tertiary treatment

The final stage of wastewater treatment involving disinfection, removal of nutrients, and/or fine filtration.

Thermal pollution

A temperature increase in a body of water that is caused by human activity and that has a harmful effect on water quality and on the ability of that body of water to support life.

Threshold dosage

Level below which the toxic effects are not observable.

Tolerance

The diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug or pesticide, requiring larger and larger doses to achieve the same effect.

Toxin

A harmful poison that comes from living things.

Trophic levels

The hierarchical levels of the food chain through which energy flows from primary producers to primary consumers, secondary consumers and so on.

Tuberculosis

An airborne infectious disease that can affect almost all tissues of the body, but especially the lungs.

Unconfined aquifer

A groundwater storage area located above a layer of impermeable rock and is replenished by surface water that drains from directly above it.

UV light

Invisible electromagnetic radiation that lies beyond violet and has higher energy and shorter wavelengths than visible light does.

Vectors

An organism that transmits disease by conveying pathogens from one host to another.

Wastewater

Any water that has been used by humans, including sewage, showers and sinks, dishwashers and washing machines, industrial processes, and storm water runoff.

Water filtration

The process of cleaning water by running it through different layers of rocks and chemicals.

Water purification

The process of treating wastewater and turning it into water that can be used again.

West Nile virus

A virus that primarily lives in birds and is transmitted by mosquitoes but can affect humans as well.

Wetlands

Ecosystems such as swamps and marshes in which vegetation is surrounded by standing water during at least part of the year.

Zika virus

An emergent viral disease spread by mosquitoes