Honors project: Biosphere

Ilaria Noonan
 Area of development: Stonewater neighborhood
The Stonewater Neighborhood ,which is located on Yardley
Drive, is a recent area of development in Wake Forest. In
late 2015 they started construction of the first phase, to
make room to build the new homes they had to cut down a
tremendous amount of trees that were once a part of the
forest that surrounded Wake Forest and Rolesville.
 Human impact and structures
● Human impact: the impact that humans have the environment around them which includes
changes to biophysical environments and ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural
resources, which can be caused directly or indirectly
● Biodiversity: the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

When building a new neighborhood humans disrupt the ecosystems and

the environment all around them. The structures that are built such
as mailboxes, houses, community centers, pools, and roads are causing
pollution and a lack of biodiversity. While homes are much more
energy efficient than they used to be, none of the houses in The
Stonewater neighborhood are equipped with solar panels or wind
turbines. Biodiversity is threatened when putting in a new
neighborhood, when space is cleared animals lose their homes and they
move or die and the area lose all of its biodiversity.
 Lithosphere
● Lithosphere: Land structure, soil make up, etc.
● NEGATIVE IMPACTS: When a new neighborhood is made they
have move and take away soil which can cause unnatural
erosion. By removing layers of the soil it becomes unable
to hold water which makes it harder to grow any plants on
that land. Removing soil can also cause the subsoil to be
exposed. Subsoil has very bad chemical properties which
make it hard to grow grass and trees.
● POSITIVE IMPACTS: When soil is in the same place for to
long than it gets compacted and that makes it hard to grow
plants, this is one positive to the lithosphere when
building neighborhoods.
Erosion caused by clearing the soil This plot of land was covered in
for the next phases of Stonewater trees before they cut them down to
start the neighborhood
 Hydrosphere
Hydrosphere: all the waters on the earth's surface, such as lakes and seas,
and sometimes including water over the earth's surface, such as clouds.

In the new development of stonewater neighborhood there is a

large runoff pond that they created to stop the water from
flooding the area. The water is able to go in to a drainage
system and flow into the pond, this cause less water build
up and helps the environment. This pond also give
opportunity for new life, fish, frog, and other aquatic
animals have a place to live and this creates biodiversity
in the neighborhood area.
 These are
pictures of the
pond the water
will flow into
The drainage systems and the inside of
put in place to help the water
the rain water not drainage system
overflow
 Atmosphere
Atmosphere: The blanket of gas on the surface of a planet (global climate
change, etc.)

The atmosphere is affected when building new neighborhoods

because of the pollution from humans and the machines. While
building the neighborhood, workers are discarding wrappers
and other trash all over the land. The machines that assist
in building the homes produce gases that pollute the air.
These gases can be linked to global warming and destroying
the ozone layer of the atmosphere.
 Trash that has been
Above are the machines that are producing throw on the ground by
harmful gases. workers polluting the
soil.
 WHat is happening??
● Biosphere: the regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of
the earth (or analogous parts of other planets) occupied by living
organisms.
● According to the definition above the biosphere is all the spheres occupied by living
things, they all work together to create earth as we know it. New developing areas
like Stonewater Neighborhood have both negative and positive effects on the spheres.
The hydrosphere is impacted positively by the neighborhood because it provides a pond
for new life and stops flooding. The lithosphere is affected both positively and
negatively, while building new homes is causing unnatural erosion,it is making the
soil less compact and easier to grow new life. The atmosphere is mostly negatively
affected by new developments, humans and machines are the main cause of pollution and
neighborhoods bring more of both. Even with pollution in the air there are still
people who live in neighborhoods such as Stonewater that do work to make their homes
more eco friendly and help the environment. Although there are many upsides to urban
neighborhood living we should still think, every neighborhood was once a forest full
of life, with animals like foxes,deer,and turtles, who had their homes taken away to
give us our and this causes a lack of biodiversity and more global warming.
Mla Citations:
● Global Climate Change , NASA, climate.nasa.gov/causes/.
● www.dictionary.com
● DeJong-Hughes, J. Soil Compaction: Causes, Effects and
Control, University of Minnesota, 2001,
www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/soils/tillage/soil-comp
action/.
● Temperate Deciduous Forests, PBS, 2017,
www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep8c.htm.