biomagnification and friends

Biological magnification (DDT, PCBs)

• Idea that a pollutant that enters into an ecosystem at the bottom trophic level becomes significantly more abundant in its issues (?) of the higher trophic levels

  • DDT: insecticide for mosquitoes, accumulate in water at low levels, biomagnification because of build up of consumption

  • PCBs: toxic chemicals associated with agriculture, fossil fuels?

CFCs and ozone depletion

• CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons): industrial chemical largely used in refrigerant

  • Peak of manufacturing and use in 80 and 90s

  • When released, accumulate in the atmosphere, attach to oxygen molecules and break ozone layer

    • Protects from the sun, UV rays, so we literally don't die

restoration ecology

• Take damaged pieces of land or but habitats and using scientifically supported approaches to try and restore the habitat to its pre-human condition and pre-human function

• Steps

  • Physical reconstruction: go in with heavy equipment to rebuild the area to what would have naturally occurred there

  • Biological restoration:

    • Bioremediation: utilizing microbes to decontaminate a site

    • Biological augmentation: adding native things and allowing them to rebuild the ecosystem

      • Plants first, animals either come naturally or are introduced

how to find scientific literature (specifically literature types??)

• Primary literature: researched presented are those who conducted the research

• Secondary: using the original authors interpretations to draw conclusions

  • Found in scientific journals,

Discussions of kolbert ch.5

• Anthropocene, world worked through gradualism, use graptolites to see change

• Evidence of anthropocene: changes in sea level, carbon changes, materials in lithosphere, nuclear bomb testing

• No anthropocene officially declared because complicated to define a start date, could possibly ignore years or evolution, change at geological level happened in very short time

Marie Maynard Daly

Marie Maynard Daly was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D in Chemistry in America. She represents the community of black female medical scholars whose research and contributions to the field are still being used to this day. Marie Maynard Daly discovered much of the foundations of how doctors treat modern cardiovascular health today. For instance she discovered how high levels of cholesterol affect the heart. She was overlooked at the time due to her race and gender, but her works have been widely accepted in the modern