8.1:
● Point and nonpoint source pollution affect both ground and surface waters.
● Point source pollution: Enters environment from a single source and is clearly identified
(you can point to the source).
○ Wastewater treatment lants, electronic or car manufacturers, paper/pulp mill, oil
refineries, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO), leaking underground
gasoline storage tanks.
○ Clean Water Act requires industries of point sources to get a permit before they
can discharge effluent (waste) into water bodies.
■ Also, technology must treat effluent before it is discharged.
● Nonpoint source water pollution: Cannot be traced back to a single point or property.
Come from many sources accumulating over a wide area.
○ Agricultural and residential areas can have excess fertilizers, herbicides,
insecticides.
○ Water from rain, snowmelt, and irrigation running off into parking lots, roads, and
lawns can carry oil, grease, and toxic chemicals.
○ Sediment from improperly managed construction sites and crop/forest lands,
eroding stream banks, tilling, and overgrazing.
○ Animal waste from agricultural, industrial, or urban runoff.
○ Nonpoint sources are not regulated through permitting but managed through
programs encouraging partnerships between private landowners, businesses,
and governments.
8.2:
● Coral reefs are critical ecosystems. Cover less than 1% of ocean but support 25% of
marine animals.
● Destructive fishing practices:
○ Bottom trawling: scrapes nets along ocean floor, which breaks and crushes coral.
○ Marine debris (nets, traps, monofilament fishing lines): damage and injure reefs
and reef dependent organisms.
○ Overfishing: removes fish that maintain healthy algae populations in reef.
○ Cyanide fishing: sodium cyanide poured over an area to stun fish to catch them
easier poisons coral.
● Sedimentation (soil particles of rock, clay, sand): can bury coral, blocking sunlight
needed by symbiont for photosynthesis, killing coral. Also affects primary producers.
Predators using vision to hunt are also impacted. When sediment settles, it can disrupt
larvae and eggs of aquatic animals.
● Optimal range of tolerance is where reproduction, growth, and homeostasis is best.
● Zones of physiological stress (low and high) inhibits success of organism.
● Coral has a temperature tolerance of between 20-29 degrees Celsius.
● High ocean temperature causes coral bleaching (coral expels symbiont out of cells,
resulting in loss of food and color from chlorophyll pigment of algae).
● Dissolved oxygen (DO) is measured in ppm.
, ● Excess nutrients of nitrogen and phosphate from agricultural runoff causes algal bloom,
decreasing DO levels. This is a dead zone. Dead zone in Gulf of Mexico (low DO levels).
● Oxygen sag curve is a plot of DO levels vs. distance from pollution source, usually with
excess nutrients. Closer to pollution source, DO decreases and biological oxygen
demand increases. Away from pollution source, DO increases and biological oxygen
demand decreases. Middle DO is 0 and biological oxygen demand is high but starting to
decline since organisms are dying due to low DO levels.
○ Clean zone, decomposing (pollution event), septic zone, recovery zone.
● Oil spill risk comes from extracting and transporting petroleum.
● Largest spills include explosion of BP Deepwater Horizon drill rig in Gulf of Mexico in the
U.S. Another is 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.
● Oil spills can coat feathers of birds, preventing insulation and flying.
● Can coat fur of marine mammals, preventing waterproofing and homeostasis.
● Organisms living at ocean floor can die if ingesting oil or oil submersion because oil
sinks to ocean floor and is not broken up by wave of wind like on ocean surface.
● Oil spills can damage fisheries (fish and plankton), affect beaches, tourism, real estate.
● Heavy metals found in drinking water are: lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, copper, and
chromium. They can cause cancer and neurological issues.
● Mining companies use acid to release metals from ore. Acid mine drainage is point
source pollution for surface water and groundwater.
● Smelting, wastewater, and fossil fuel combustion release heavy metals in environment.
● Mercury poisoning happens when you eat fish, other aquatic animals,
● Mercury is used in many industrial processes, and ends up in wastewater.
○ Bacteria converts it to methylmercury, which is toxic.
○ This accumulates in organisms and biomagnifies in food chain.
○ It can cause neurological damage and birth defects.
○ Minimata, Japan was site of high mercury poisoning. Cats ate mercury fish.
● Plastic waste in waterways and the ocean is digested by wildlife. It can block the
digestive system and cause starvation. Can also entangle and suffocate animals.
● Microplastics release BPA that are endocrine-disrupting, and chemicals (pesticides) can
cling to tiny particles that are ingested by plankton and organisms.
8.3:
● Endocrine disruptors can be synthetic or natural chemicals:
○ Synthetic chemicals:
■ Industrial solvents/lubrients, byproducts.
● PCBs, PBBs, dioxins.
■ Plastics, plastizers
● BPA, phthalates.
■ Pesticides, fungicides, pharmaceuticals.
○ Natural chemicals in foods, like phytoestrogens in soy.
● Chemicals inferring with endocrine system and hormones is a disrupter.
● Point and nonpoint source pollution affect both ground and surface waters.
● Point source pollution: Enters environment from a single source and is clearly identified
(you can point to the source).
○ Wastewater treatment lants, electronic or car manufacturers, paper/pulp mill, oil
refineries, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO), leaking underground
gasoline storage tanks.
○ Clean Water Act requires industries of point sources to get a permit before they
can discharge effluent (waste) into water bodies.
■ Also, technology must treat effluent before it is discharged.
● Nonpoint source water pollution: Cannot be traced back to a single point or property.
Come from many sources accumulating over a wide area.
○ Agricultural and residential areas can have excess fertilizers, herbicides,
insecticides.
○ Water from rain, snowmelt, and irrigation running off into parking lots, roads, and
lawns can carry oil, grease, and toxic chemicals.
○ Sediment from improperly managed construction sites and crop/forest lands,
eroding stream banks, tilling, and overgrazing.
○ Animal waste from agricultural, industrial, or urban runoff.
○ Nonpoint sources are not regulated through permitting but managed through
programs encouraging partnerships between private landowners, businesses,
and governments.
8.2:
● Coral reefs are critical ecosystems. Cover less than 1% of ocean but support 25% of
marine animals.
● Destructive fishing practices:
○ Bottom trawling: scrapes nets along ocean floor, which breaks and crushes coral.
○ Marine debris (nets, traps, monofilament fishing lines): damage and injure reefs
and reef dependent organisms.
○ Overfishing: removes fish that maintain healthy algae populations in reef.
○ Cyanide fishing: sodium cyanide poured over an area to stun fish to catch them
easier poisons coral.
● Sedimentation (soil particles of rock, clay, sand): can bury coral, blocking sunlight
needed by symbiont for photosynthesis, killing coral. Also affects primary producers.
Predators using vision to hunt are also impacted. When sediment settles, it can disrupt
larvae and eggs of aquatic animals.
● Optimal range of tolerance is where reproduction, growth, and homeostasis is best.
● Zones of physiological stress (low and high) inhibits success of organism.
● Coral has a temperature tolerance of between 20-29 degrees Celsius.
● High ocean temperature causes coral bleaching (coral expels symbiont out of cells,
resulting in loss of food and color from chlorophyll pigment of algae).
● Dissolved oxygen (DO) is measured in ppm.
, ● Excess nutrients of nitrogen and phosphate from agricultural runoff causes algal bloom,
decreasing DO levels. This is a dead zone. Dead zone in Gulf of Mexico (low DO levels).
● Oxygen sag curve is a plot of DO levels vs. distance from pollution source, usually with
excess nutrients. Closer to pollution source, DO decreases and biological oxygen
demand increases. Away from pollution source, DO increases and biological oxygen
demand decreases. Middle DO is 0 and biological oxygen demand is high but starting to
decline since organisms are dying due to low DO levels.
○ Clean zone, decomposing (pollution event), septic zone, recovery zone.
● Oil spill risk comes from extracting and transporting petroleum.
● Largest spills include explosion of BP Deepwater Horizon drill rig in Gulf of Mexico in the
U.S. Another is 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.
● Oil spills can coat feathers of birds, preventing insulation and flying.
● Can coat fur of marine mammals, preventing waterproofing and homeostasis.
● Organisms living at ocean floor can die if ingesting oil or oil submersion because oil
sinks to ocean floor and is not broken up by wave of wind like on ocean surface.
● Oil spills can damage fisheries (fish and plankton), affect beaches, tourism, real estate.
● Heavy metals found in drinking water are: lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, copper, and
chromium. They can cause cancer and neurological issues.
● Mining companies use acid to release metals from ore. Acid mine drainage is point
source pollution for surface water and groundwater.
● Smelting, wastewater, and fossil fuel combustion release heavy metals in environment.
● Mercury poisoning happens when you eat fish, other aquatic animals,
● Mercury is used in many industrial processes, and ends up in wastewater.
○ Bacteria converts it to methylmercury, which is toxic.
○ This accumulates in organisms and biomagnifies in food chain.
○ It can cause neurological damage and birth defects.
○ Minimata, Japan was site of high mercury poisoning. Cats ate mercury fish.
● Plastic waste in waterways and the ocean is digested by wildlife. It can block the
digestive system and cause starvation. Can also entangle and suffocate animals.
● Microplastics release BPA that are endocrine-disrupting, and chemicals (pesticides) can
cling to tiny particles that are ingested by plankton and organisms.
8.3:
● Endocrine disruptors can be synthetic or natural chemicals:
○ Synthetic chemicals:
■ Industrial solvents/lubrients, byproducts.
● PCBs, PBBs, dioxins.
■ Plastics, plastizers
● BPA, phthalates.
■ Pesticides, fungicides, pharmaceuticals.
○ Natural chemicals in foods, like phytoestrogens in soy.
● Chemicals inferring with endocrine system and hormones is a disrupter.
