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Properties of water and their significances
Properties of water and their significances
Properties of water and their significances
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Recommended: Properties of water and their significances
Background
Water is one of the world’s most important natural resources. It is an essential
part of life because it not only sustains life but it harbors many forms of it as well.
Therefore, it would be in one’s best interest to make sure this source does not become
contaminated and make it useless and harmful. There are several different organisms and
chemicals that can be produced that will harm other, and bigger, organisms.
A major component of the chemicals and organisms that emerge from contaminated
waters is nitrogen. Several organisms play different roles in the nitrogen cycle. The
nitrogen cycle occurs in bodies of water especially in those that have the necessary and
beneficial bacteria that break down any waste into nitrates that can be consumed by many
organisms. There are other harmful bacteria, however, that are denitrifying bacteria that
reduce nitrate into gaseous nitrogen that is not helpful to any organisms. The denitrifying
bacteria turn helpful nitrates into harmful ammonia and nitrites. Ammonia, which is a
form of nitrogen, harms organisms such as fish. Ammonia is also a major contributor to
prolific algae growth. Algae is a unicellular organism that grows off of a great supply of
water, light, and nutrients that can be found in bodies of water such as ponds. These
components come from the sun, the water, and nutrients that can be found in fish and
plant waste, minerals in the soil, etc.
Another harmful bacteria that is produced in stagnant water is purple sulfur bacteria that
use hydrogen sulfide that ultimately produces sulfur. This can be oxidized into sulfuric
acid. Sulfuric acid is a very strong mineral acid and a constituent of acid rain. Sulfuric
acid is a very harmful substance to...
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...” 2006 Jul 25
www.creativfountains.com/Pumps?supa_vac?supa_vac_cleaner/pond_vacuum_cleaner.ht
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News. March 8, 2006. July 24, 2006.
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Nbii. July 24, 2006. http://westnilevirus.nbii.gov/
info. July 24, 2006. http://www.infoforhealth.org/pr/m14/m14chap5_4.shtml
wiki. July 19, 2006. July 24, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagnant_water
usgs. March 13, 2006. July 24, 2006. http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/characteristics.html
#DOpdf. July 24, 2006. www.usace.army.mil/inet/information/usace-docs/armytm/tms-
662/entire.pdf
Bacteria Growth- www.textbookofbacteriology.net/growth.html 7-24-06
Ammonia- www.certifiedaquascapecontractor.com/pond-filtration.php 7-24-06
Pond Scum- www.answers.com 7-24-06
Bacteria Specimens and Nitrogen Cycle- www.wikipedia.com 7-24-06
Effects of Blooms- www.research.myfwc.com 7-24-06
Nitrogen and nitrates relate to Hypoxia via the process of eutrophication. Since Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient in most waters, the added input of nitrate causes massive growth in algae. The algae rapidly consume all available N, and once the nutrient is limited again, the alga dies en masse. As the alga decomposes, oxygen is depleted in the water. This lowers dangerously lowers the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, which harms living organisms in the area. Small organisms and organisms that are immobile or unable to escape low-oxygen areas are particularly vulnerable. Hypoxia and resulting “dead zones” are harmful to local fishing and shrimping industries and algal blooms hurt the tourism industry. Hypoxia has lead to a decrease of about 25% in the brown shrimp habitat, forcing shrimping operations further offshore. As the hypoxia issue continues to grow, negative human effects will only increase. Since nitrate runoff from ag. has been proven to be the dominant source of hypoxia, policies could be enacted to effectively deal with “point-source” pollution. This makes enacting environmental policy more easily adapted, possibly included in past policy such as the Clean Water Act.
the source of life, in this instance it has killed a man in his quest
The bottom of the chain and the trophic level that depends upon by all others is the primary producers. These primary producers consist of autotrophs, which are capable of deriving their food and energy source without consuming organisms or substances taken from other organisms. In the Arctic lake of Alaska, one of it’s primary producers consists of aquatic plants and algae. These aquatic and algae contain chlorophyll, which means that they can use light energy from the sun to synthesize glucose and other organic compounds, that they can use for cellular respiration and building material for growth. In other words, called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis requires light energy, but some autotrophs use chemosynthesis, which means they can convert nutrients to organic compounds without light in the presence.
Because of farm fertilizer, an excess quantity of nitrogen and phosphorus can be wash down becoming runoff into rivers. From this, marine algal blooms cause the water to turn green from the chlorophyll (Reed, 2011). Eutrophication then becomes a dilemma in the system causing either an increase of primary production or an expansion of algae. An enormous expansion of phytoplankton on the water’s surface is then established. At the same time the water column is also stratified, meaning things such as the temperature and salinity are not sync from top to bottom. The seasonal warm surface water has a low density forming a saltier layer above while the cooler and more dense water masses near the bottom layer is isolated from the top cutting off oxygen supply from the atmosphere (Overview, 2008).
In mammals, ammonia excretion is unsuitable for disposing of nitrogenous waste on land. Mammals would have to urinate profusely to eliminate ammonia because of the toxicity, which would have to transport through the animal to be excreted in an extremely dilute solution. However...
Rain is naturally acidic, due to the CO2 dissolved in it, however when sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen react with the rain water they form sulphuric, and nitric acids which make the rain strongly acidic. SO2 + ½O2 + H2O → H2SO4 It may also take the form of snow or fog. The sulphur dioxides and oxides of nitrogen come mainly from industry. Acid rain is currently a subject of great controversy because of widespread environmental damage for which it has been blamed, including eroding structures, injuring crops and forests, and threatening or depleting life in freshwater lakes.
Water: Water is the most important aspect of life on Earth, whether it be for us humans or microbes. Alcamo’s Microbes and Society states that the “microbial cytoplasm is water based”. From this we can see that water absolutely must be present for the microbe to continue its life. Microbes also depend on water to dissolve essential substances that they need to survive.
Often in organisms substances must be in solution and water is the solvent. Plants can only obtain mineral salts in solution so require water to live. Also human digestion will only dissolve soluble foods, meaning large starch molecules must be broken down into soluble sugars. Also many organisms living in water spend most of their lives underwater, yet they require oxygen to live and respire, and as water is such a good solvent the required oxygen gas is dissolved in the water and the organisms can use it. Water is the most abundant component in any organism, proving its
Use of pesticides & other fertilizers infuse nitrogen oxide into the water bodies acidifying the water which kills the plants and aquatic animals living in
ECOSYSTEMS: Microbes obtain energy from their environment. Like humans, many microbes do this by eating plant and animal material. A typical microbe buffet consists of waste from humans and other animals, dead plants and animals, and food scraps. Bacteria, fungi and algae all take part in decomposing — or breaking down — this waste material. Without them, the world would quickly be overrun with discarded food scraps, raw sewage and dead organisms.
I am particularly surprised how the agricultural industry inflicts these problems on themselves, by excessive use of sewage systems and pollutants which find their way to local rivers [Fig 1.]. The trophic state (i.e. the natural nutrition factors) and biodiversity of lakes and rivers are greatly effected by the main nutrients involved, nitrates and phosphates. The transition occurs mainly between a mesotropic state, with an average biological productivity to a eutrophic state where there is a larger production of organisms due to high nutrient concentrations. Tropical reservoirs in particular often become eutrophic.
..., shelter, material, and oxygen needed for all living things to; have cells, able to reproduce, use energy, maintain homeostasis, respond and adapt to the environment, grow and develop, have a life span, evolve over time, and are interdependence.
Water is the most vital part of life. Water is needed from humans, to plants and other organisms, and to do basically everything. Water allows our bodily functions to work and to remove waste from our bodies. Plants need water to grow, and humans need plants to gr...
life. It is a good thing. Algal blooms include sea scum, whale food, and sea sawdust. Algal blooms are bundles of fine threads, rusty brown, they have a fishy smell, and are common in August through December -.
...eochemical cycles. By increasing the amount of crops that are removed from the soil and the subsequent soil erosion, phosphorus levels in the soil have dropped. The phosphorus lost from the soils travels to aquatic ecosystems which then can cause massive algal blooms. The increased use of nitrogen based fertilizers has also altered that cycle. The fertilizers add high levels of nitrates to the soil, and in natural ecosystems, nitrates will undergo denitrification and be returned as atmospheric nitrogen. This is not the case because the nitrate levels exceed the levels of denitrification that bacteria can handle. Additionally, much of the denitrifying bacteria is found in marshes and wetlands, which are currently being destroyed at incredible rates. In some areas, the excess nitrate has made it into the ground water system and contaminated the drinking water system.