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CHAPTER 3
3.5 ECOLOGY
(ENVIRONMENTAL
CONSERVATIONS)
POLLUTION
Air pollution

the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials

that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or
damages the natural environment, into the atmosphere.
Carbon monoxide - is a colourless, odourless, non-irritating but very
poisonous gas. It is a product by incomplete combustion of fuel such as
natural gas, coal or wood. Vehicular exhaust is a major source of carbon
monoxide.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) - a greenhouse gas emitted from combustion but is
also a gas vital to living organisms. It is a natural gas in the atmosphere.
Water that evaporates from earth is neutral (pH 7) and it becomes weak
acid when mixed with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Acid rains are more acidic than ordinary with the presence of air
pollutants, like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
What's the impact of acid rain?
Deteriorates building that is made of rock
Acidification of soil and lakes
Separation of poisonous minerals such as aluminum and
mercury from the surrounding ground, increasing the risk of
contamination to lakes/water sources
Deteriorates trees and forests

Water pollution

Water cycle:
Evaporation: changing of water from liquid to gas
Transpiration: Release of water vapor from plant leaves
Condensation: changing of vapor to liquid (cooled down)
Precipitation: Water that returns to the earth (water droplets in
clouds become large enough and there comes the rain).
We can classify major sources that lead to water pollution to the
following categories:
1. petroleum products

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2. synthetic agricultural chemicals

3. heavy metals

4. hazardous wastes
5. excess organic matter
6. sediment
7. infectious organisms
8. air pollution
9. thermal pollution
10. soil pollution
Water pollution : Eutrophication, Oil pollution

Soil contamination

Revered to as soil pollution, land pollution involves the following

mechanism:
Deposition of solid waste
Accumulation of non-biodegradable materials
Toxification of chemicals into poisons
Alteration of soil chemical composition (imbalance of chemical
equilibrium to soil medium)
Degradation of terrestrial ecosystem deforestation Soil erosion and
desertification (The gradual conversion of fertile land into desert.)
Pesticides e.g. DDT, Persistence: (pesticides or other pollutant that is
not readily broken down and can persist for long periods, causing
damage in the environment
We can classify major sources that lead to land pollution to the following
categories:
Agriculture
mining and quarrying
sewage sludge
dredged spoils
household
demolitions and constructions
industrial

DEFORESTATION

Rates of resource harvesting and waste generation deplete nature faster

than it can regenerate.
Loss of forest is serious for many reasons:
a. Loss of Topsoil: Rapid degradation of nutrient rich top soil.
Heavy rainfall and high sunlight quickly damage the topsoil in
clearings of tropical rainforests. When these rainforests are cut
and burnt, nutrients are released in the form of ash.
b. Desertification
c. Global warming

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EXCESS OF NITROGEN

Human activities are having profound effects on the cycling of nitrogen.

We convert about 4 x 107 tons of dinitrogen (N2) into nitrates each year
in the commercial production of fertilizers, an amount almost equal to
the amount fixed by soil bacteria each year.
Commercial fixation of nitrogen is unlikely to have a significant effect on
the amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere because this reservoir is so
large.
The addition of nitrogen to soils does alter, however, the distribution of
nitrogen on the surface of the earth.
Commercial fertilizers are added to agricultural soils to replace the
nitrogen in the organisms that are harvested and removed.
Without the addition of fertilizers, farmers would have to rotate their
crops with legumes or let their fields lie fallow every third or fourth year
in order to allow the natural addition of ammonia by nitrogen-fixing
bacteria.
Much of the harvested nitrogen becomes human and animal wastes in
sewage and feedlots, and eventually it enters aquatic ecosystems as
sewage is released directly into rivers or as the nitrogen leaches through
the soil to the ground-water.
Nitrogenous compounds leached in the groundwater may then be
abundant in irrigation and drinking water, where they can cause a
serious form of anemia (methemoglobinemia) in babies.
Nitrogenous compounds added to lakes may cause blooms of
phytoplankton. Such cultural eutrophication eventually depletes
the lake of oxygen gas.
The phytoplankton forms such a thick layer that some are unable to
receive light for photosynthesis and they die.
The dead organisms are decomposed by detritivores, which use up the
oxygen supply in the process. The addition of nitrogen to lakes causes
cultural eutrophication less often, however, than the addition of
phosphorus.
We add nitrogenous compounds to the air by burning fossil fuels. Large
quantities of NO (nitrogen dioxide) are released from vehicles, because
the combustion of gasoline produces temperatures that are sufficiently
high to form NO from N2.
Most of the NO is converted to NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) in the atmosphere
by combining with ozone (NO + O3 = NO2 + O2).
NO2 is a brown gas that is highly toxic to humans and a major
component of smog in some urban areas. It combines with water
vapor in the atmosphere to form nitric acid (HNO3), which forms
approximately 30% of the strong acids in acid precipitation.

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Another consequence of the release of NO from vehicles is that it causes

the conversion of ozone (O3) to oxygen gas (O2) in the
atmosphere.
Ozone protects the earth from excessive amounts of ultraviolet
radiation, which is destructive to organic molecules.
The NO released from supersonic jets is especially abundant and
removes considerable amounts of ozone from the atmosphere.
For each 1% reduction in ozone, about 2% more ultraviolet radiation
reaches the earths surface.

How CFC depletes the ozone layer?

CFC molecule, consisting of one atom for each fluorine and carbon and 3
chlorine atoms, is hit by the UV rays.
2. One chlorine atom breaks apart. It will hit ozone (O3) and takes one
oxygen atom away to create chlorine monoxide, thus leaving one
oxygen molecule (O2).
3. Another oxygen atom breaks the chlorine monoxide and takes the
oxygen atom away, leaving one chlorine atom, leaving no ozone
molecule. Process repeats.
1.

CONSERVATION

Restoring degraded areas is an increasingly important conservation

effort.
Restoration ecology applies ecological principles in developing ways to
return degraded areas to natural conditions.
Biological communities can recover from many types of disturbances
through a series of restoration mechanisms that occur during ecological
succession.
The amount of time required for such natural recovery is more closely
related to the spatial scale of the disturbance than the type of
disturbance.
The larger the area disturbed, the longer the time required for recovery.
However, communities are not infinitely resilient.
Restoration ecologists work to identify and manipulate the processes
that most limit the speed of recovery, in order to reduce the time it
takes for a community to bounce back from disturbance.
Natural disturbances such as periodic fires of floods are part of the
dynamics of many ecosystems and need to be considered in restoration
strategies.
Restoration ecology is a new discipline, there is still much to learn.
Many restoration ecologists advocate adaptive management
experimenting with several types of management to learn what works
best.

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The key to adaptive management (and the key to restoration ecology) is

to consider alternative ways to accomplishing goals and to learn from
mistakes as well as successes.
The long-term goal of restoration is to speed the reestablishment of an
ecosystem as close as possible to the predisturbance ecosystem.

Bioremediation:
a. Bioremediation is the use of living organisms, usually
prokaryotes, fungi, or plants, to detoxify polluted ecosystems.
b. Restoration ecologists use various types of organisms to
remove many different types of toxins from ecosystems.
c. For example, some plants adapted to soils containing
heavy metals are capable of accumulating high concentrations
of potentially toxic metals.
d. Restoration ecologists can use these plants to regenerate
sites polluted by mining and then harvest the plants to remove
the metals from the ecosystem.
e. The bacterium Pseudomonas has been used to clean up oil
spills on beaches.
f. Genetic engineering may become increasingly important as
a tool for improving the performance of certain species as
bioremediators.
Biological augmentation:
a. In contrast to bioremediation, which is a strategy for
removing harmful substances, biological augmentation uses
organisms to add essential materials to a degraded
ecosystem.
b. Augmenting ecosystem processes requires determining
what factors, such as chemical nutrients, have been removed
from an area and are limiting its rate of recovery.
c. Encouraging the growth of plants that thrive in nutrientpoor soils often speeds up the rate of successional changes
that can lead to recovery of damaged sites.
d. An example is the rapid regrowth of indigenous plants
along side roads in Puerto Rico after colonization of the areas
by a nonnative plant that thrives on nitrogen-poor soils.
e. The rapid built up of organic material from the nonnative
plant enabled the indigenous plants to recolonize the area and
overgrow the introduced species.
In situ conservation:
a. Setting up natural parks in which they are managed to prevent
the deterioration of the environment.

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b. E.g.: Taman Negara conserve many endangered species

such as the Malayan Tigers, Sumatra rhinoceros, Malayan sun
bear, tapir, gibbons
c. Also a store for many species such as the giant trees,
climbers, apiphytes, palms, ferns and mosses
d. Forest park in Malaysia: Endau Rompin park, Mount Kinabalu
park, Mulu national park.
Ex situ conservation:
a. It is a way to collect and transfer the flora and fauna to smaller
areas so that they can be better conserved.
b. These are in the forms of zoos, sanctuaries, aquaria, botanical
gardens, research institutions, gene and germplasm banks.

EXERCISE

1. Chemical pesticides such as DDT do the greatest harm to top predators

such as ospreys and eagles because
A. these animals are often exposed to chemical spraying.
B. their metabolism is particularly sensitive to very low concentrations of
pesticides.
C. these animals are usually exposed to more than one pesticide at a time.
D. pesticide concentrations become magnified as these substances move
through food chains.

[AS/APR 2007/BIO200]

2.
A.
B.
C.
D.

The greatest threat to global biodiversity is

natural disasters such as storms.
pollution.
human alteration of habitats.
overexploitation of natural resources.

3.
A.
B.
C.
D.

Deforestation
retards soil erosion.
has no effect on the extinction of biological species.
releases carbon dioxide that may contribute to global warming.
promotes the preservation of tropical birds.

[AS/OCT 2007/BIO200]

[AS/OCT 2007/BIO200]

4. Possible properties of modern insecticides are listed below. Which

property would help keep environmental pollution caused by the
insecticides at the lowest level?
A. Extremely poisonous

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B. Broken down by soil bacteria

C. Easily washed into lakes and rivers
D. Accumulates in the bodies of predators
[AS/OCT 2007/BIO200]

5. Greenhouse effect is a phenomenon where

A. the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has steadily
increased.
B. the carbon dioxide and other gasses trap the longer wavelengths of
infrared light or heat, radiating from the surface of earth.
C. the atmosphere acts like the glass of gigantic greenhouse surrounding
the earth.
D. the increasing of carbon dioxide concentration that leads to global
warming.

[AS/APR 2008/BIO200]

6. The loss of ozone layer has serious implications for the quality of the
environment because
A. ozone (O3) protects organisms from ultraviolet radiation that can cause
cancer.
B. a depleted ozone layer causes rainwater to have a lower pH that kills
plant life.
C. loss of ozone layer causes the sun's rays to get trapped in the
atmosphere and increase global temperatures.
D. a depleted ozone layer can interact with toxic chemicals to increase
their effect on organismal health.
[AS/APR 2008/BIO200]

7. Name two greenhouse gases and explain how greenhouse gases

contribute to global warming. (5 marks)

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[AS/APR 2006/BIO200]

8. Describe the consequences of deforestation. (5 marks)

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9. List down the causes of eutrophication of a lake. (4 marks)

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10. Explain briefly how global warming affects agriculture. (4 marks)

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11.Describe the undesirable effects of air pollution. (6 marks)

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[AS/OCT 2007/BIO200]

12. Explain how water may be polluted by agricultural practices. (6 marks)

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[AS/OCT 2007/BIO200]

13. Explain how the process of stratospheric ozone depletion occurs due to
the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). (5 marks)

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[AS/APR 2008/BIO200]

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14. Describe the significant problems that may be caused by ozone

depletion. (5 marks)

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[AS/APR 2008/BIO200]

Environmental conservations

Water pollution
i. Eutrophication
ii. Oil pollution

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Degradation of terrestrial ecosystem

i. Deforestation
ii. Soil erosion and desertification
Pesticides and environment eg. DDT
i. Ecological characteristics toxicity, persistence and
specificity
Conservation Biology & Restoration Ecology

~Campbell,Reece (2008), 8th edition, Benjamin Cummings (Pg:1248,

1260, 1261)

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