exam 3, water pollution, field trip, energy

Question 1

What are limiting nutrients and how do they impact eutrophication and hypoxia?

Answer 1

• Scarcest nutrients in a population that stop the growth of the rest, regardless of the others’ abundance
• P and N limitations in lakes and oceans cause eutrophication
• Hypoxia in the Sound

Question 2

How does stream-floodplain reconnection improve water quality?

Answer 2

Stream-floodplain reconnection promotes denitrification, bank stability, and restoring riparian zones which provide buffers for pollutants in waterways

Question 3

What is denitrification and how can stream restoration enhance it?

Answer 3

• Denitrification is the conversion of nitrate into nitrogen to remove it from waterways
• NO3 → NO2 → NO → N2O → N2
• Stream restoration enhances riparian zones which facilitates denitrification

Question 3

How does acid rain affect water quality and alkalinization of streams and rivers?

Answer 3

• Acid rain turns bodies of water acidic which reduces the water quality
• As a result, the alkalinity of bodies of water goes down so efforts must be taken to increase alkalinity to counteract the acid rain (lake liming)

Question 4

What is the Clean Water Act? What does it protect?

Answer 4

• Legal statute to reduce direct pollutant discharge into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage runoff
• Protects the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of waterways for shellfish, fish, wildlife, and recreation

Question 5

What are ecosystem services?

Answer 5

Benefits that humans receive from nature that underpin food, water, security, health, and economy

Question 5

How did acid rain affect water quality, fish, and trees?

Answer 5

• Decreases water quality, turning water acidic and creating health problems for fish( fish gills crusted over, reproductive cycles were interrupted)
• Trees were denied nutrients and were unable to grow
• Birds didn’t have enough calcium so eggshells were weakened

Question 6

What is acid rain and how did the acid rain problem improve?

Answer 6

• Rain that’s made acidic when SO2 & NOX are released into the environment and interact with water and become part of the precipitation
• The problem was improved through lake liming, but long-term only a full stop of acidic output will resolve the issue

Question 7

How and where does coal form?

Answer 7

1. Dead plants decay in swamps
2. Get buried
3. Get compressed until all water & organic gases are removed
4. Concentrated carbon (coal) left behind

Question 8

How and where does oil form?

Answer 8

1. Ancient plankton & marine algae in anoxic conditions are preserved
2. Pressure compresses it
3. Lithification turns it into black shale (source rock)
4. As temp rises, kerogen turns to oil and is released

Question 9

How and where does natural gas form?

Answer 9

1. Organic matter in rocks (?) is broken down by bacteria
2. Everything but methane is broken down
3. Methane stays behind as volatile short-chain hydrocarbons float on top of oil