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Humans and The Environment IGCSE BIOLOGY 0610

This document discusses several human impacts on the environment including deforestation, climate change, acid rain, eutrophication, pesticides, chemical waste, plastics, and female contraceptive hormones. It then covers various methods of environmental conservation like sustainable resources, recycling, sewage treatment, conserving forests and fish stocks, and protecting endangered species through restricting hunting and habitat protection.

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nikki
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114 views29 pages

Humans and The Environment IGCSE BIOLOGY 0610

This document discusses several human impacts on the environment including deforestation, climate change, acid rain, eutrophication, pesticides, chemical waste, plastics, and female contraceptive hormones. It then covers various methods of environmental conservation like sustainable resources, recycling, sewage treatment, conserving forests and fish stocks, and protecting endangered species through restricting hunting and habitat protection.

Uploaded by

nikki
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Humans and the

environment
Food Production
Habitat Destruction
Effects of deforestation
Soil erosion Flooding

Climate change
Greenhouse gases
Sources of greenhouse gases:

• Deforestation
• Burning fossil fuels
• Automobiles
• Factories and industrial chimney wastes
• Refrigerators and air conditioning systems
• Farming activities
Acid Rain
Causes and effects of acid rain
Nuclear fall-out
• Accidents at nuclear power stations
release radioactive substances into
the atmosphere. Eg. Fukushima
nuclear disaster (2011), Japan

• Exposure to these radiations will


cause radiation sickness, burns etc

• It also increases the mutation rates


leading to cancer
Eutrophication
• Sewage and fertilizers are the two main sources of
pollution to decrease the oxygen level in water
• Fertilizers contain nitrates and phosphates which is
washed away by rain water into the nearby lakes or
ponds
• Algae rapidly grow from nitrates and form a
blanket on the water surface, blocking off light into
the lake
• Submerged plants die to lack of light
• Bacteria rapidly reproduce feeding on the organic
matter and respires aerobically using up oxygen
from the lake.
• Organisms inside the lake are therefore deprived of
oxygen and eventually die, and the food web gets
disturbed
Pesticides
• These are the substances that kills
organism that damages crops
• They also kill other harmless animals
• Eg. DDT. It was used to kill mosquitoes but
it remained in the environment, absorbed
into food chains. Bioaccumulation of DDT
then ended up killing a lot of animals that
it wasn’t meant to harm.
Chemical waste
• Inorganic waste disposed into
the water bodies
• Metal compounds like lead,
aluminium, cadmium, and
mercury are poisonous to living
organisms.
• Bioaccumulation of these metals
can lead to serious problems
that affect our central nervous
system Water contaminated with oils and chemicals
Non-biodegradable plastics

• Most of the plastics are non-biodegradable.


• They cannot be broken down by decomposers
• In marine habitats:
• Animals often try to eat plastic or become caught in it, leading to injuries and
death
• As the plastic breaks down it can release toxins that affect marine organisms
• Once it has broken down into very small particles, it is commonly ingested by
animals and enters the food chain
• On land:
• Plastic breaks down releasing toxins into the surrounding soil and as such
the land is no good for growing crops or grazing animals
Female contraceptive hormone
• Oestrogen is sometimes excreted by women
through urine and it will enter the sewage.

Impacts of Oestrogen :
• Oestrogen in water can make the male Male fish producing eggs
hormone testosterone less effective
• They make the males to produce fewer
sperms
• They can even make the male organism to
change into female
Conservation of resources
Sustainable resources:
A sustainable resource is one which is produced as rapidly as it is removed
from the environment so that it does not run out
Eg. Fish, wood etc

Non-sustainable resources:
These are the resources that cannot be rapidly replaced back. It takes a very
long time to be replaced.
Eg. Fossil fuels.
Recycling things
Recycling of glass

• Glass is made from sand ( silicon oxide),


lime (calcium oxide), soda ( sodium oxide)

• Best glass is made from pure sand by heating to high temperatures and
releasing a lot of CO2

• Used glass can be crushed, and melted at high temperatures to make


new glass. This releases less CO2 than making new glass
Recycling Plastics
• Plastics are made from fossil fuels
• Reusing plastics can reduce the number of fossil fuels
Recycling paper
Sewage Treatment
Sewage:
Sewage is an untreated organic waste material produced along with
household or industrial waste material.

Dumping untreated sewage can lead to problems like:


• Eutrophication
• Pathogens in untreated sewage may kill aquatic organisms
• Water borne diseases can spread rapidly and infects people who drink
that polluted water. Eg. Typhoid, cholera
Screening of Raw sewage
Trickling Filters
Activated sludge
Conserving Forests

We can use the forests sustainably by:


• Government can refuse to grant licenses to companies who want to cut
down the valuable forest.
• Selective felling
• Coppicing
• Replanting of trees
• Primary forest should be conserved
• Educating people about the importance of growing trees
Conserving Fish Stocks
• Imposing quotas will help to control the number of fish caught
• Restocking is a technique used to increase the number of fish
population of a particular species, breed them in large numbers in fish
hatcheries and release them.
Endangered species
• A species whose numbers have fallen so low that
it is at risk of becoming extinct
• Mass extension events is where a large number
of species become extinct at a particular time
• Habitat destruction is done by
1. Hunting
2. Pollution
3. Introduced species
Conservation of endangered species

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