CENG 4710 Environmental Control

Module 3 Effects of anthropogenic activities on the environment

Module 3 Learning Outcomes

Be able to show the effects of anthropogenic activities on the atmospheric environment Be able to show the effects of anthropogenic activities on the aquatic environment Be able to show the effects of anthropogenic activities on the land environment

Topics
Effects of Anthropogenic Activities on the Atmospheric Environment Acid Rain; Particulates Effects of Anthropogenic Activities on the Aquatic Environment Chemicals, Coral Reefs; Oil Spills; Eutrophication; Algal Bloom Effects of Anthropogenic Activities on the Lithosphere Deforestation; Desertification; Sand Storms

Effects of Anthropogenic Activities on the Atmospheric Environment

Acid Rain

Acid Rain
The term acid rain or more accurately acid precipitation is commonly used to mean the deposition of acidic components in rain, snow, dew, or dry particles. Acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere, undergo chemical transformations, and are absorbed by water droplets in clouds. The droplets then fall to earth as rain, snow, mist, dry dust, hail, or sleet. This increases the acidity of the soil, and affects the chemical balance of lakes and streams.

http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/102/arain.html

Acid Deposition
Wet deposition Dry deposition

Causes of Acid Rain

1. 2. Burning of fossil fuels Burning of forests, volcanoes, etc.

Effects on Forest Ecosystems

Acid rain can slow the growth of forests, cause leaves and needles to turn brown and fall off and die. In extreme cases trees or whole areas of forest can die. Forest decline has been seen in many parts of the world. It is manifested by increased mortality and reduced growth in the forest.

Effect of acid rain on a forest, Jizera Mountains, Czech Republic

Effect of Acidic Precipitation on Soils and Plant Growth

Some plants are tolerant of acidic conditions, while others are not. Acidic soils may affect microorganisms in the soil, which play important roles in plant growth. Acidity affects the availability of nutrients that are essential for plant growth and increases leaching of aluminum and mercury, which are toxic to plants at high levels. Nitrogen is a nutrient and at certain levels, nitrogen deposition from air emissions has increased growth of vegetation; however, at higher levels, excess nutrients can reduce plant growth.

Other Effects
Acidification of surface waters and soils. Widespread loss of fish populations. Damage to certain building materials and historical monuments. Weathering on ancient and valuable statues The sulfuric acid in the rain chemically reacts with the calcium compounds in the stones (limestone, sandstone, marble and granite) to create gypsum, which then flakes off. The inscription on old gravestones becomes completely illegible. Increased rate of oxidation for iron. Visibility is reduced by sulphate and nitrate in the atmosphere.

Particulates

Particulates
Particulates, alternatively referred to as particulate matter (PM), aerosols or fine particles, are tiny particles of solid or liquid suspended in a gas. Size ranges from <10 nm to >100 m in diameter. The notation PM10 is used to describe particles of 10 m or less PM2.5 represents particles less than 2.5 m in aerodynamic diameter - this range of sizes represent scales from a gathering of a few molecules to the size where the particles no longer can be carried by the gas. Sources of particulate matter can be anthropogenic or natural. Natural - originating from volcanoes, dust storms, forest and grassland fires, living vegetation, and sea spray. Anthropogenic - human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels; averaged over the globe, currently account for about 10 % of the total amount of aerosols in our atmosphere.

The composition of aerosol particles depends on their source. Wind-blown mineral dust tends to be made of mineral oxides and other material blown from the Earths crust; this aerosol is light-absorbing. Sea salt is considered the second largest contributor in the global aerosol budget, and consists mainly of sodium chloride originated from sea spray Other constituents of atmospheric sea salt reflect the composition of sea water, and thus include magnesium, sulphate, calcium, potassium, etc. Sea spray aerosols may also contain organic compounds, which influence their chemistry. Sea salt does not absorb light.

Aerosol pollution over Northern India and Bangladesh Photo: NASA

 Secondary particles derive from the oxidation of primary gases such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides into sulfuric acid (liquid) and nitric acid (gaseous). The precursors for these aerosols may have an anthropogenic origin or a natural biogenic origin. In the presence of ammonia, secondary aerosols often take the form of ammonium salts, i.e., ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate (both can be dry or in aqueous solution). In the absence of ammonia, secondary compounds take an acidic form as sulfuric acid (liquid aerosol droplets) and nitric acid (atmospheric gas). Secondary sulphate and nitrate aerosols are strong light-scatterers. - the presence of sulphate and nitrate causes the aerosols to increase to a size that scatters light effectively.

 Organic matter (OM) can be either primary or secondary, the latter part deriving from the oxidation of VOCs; organic material in the atmosphere may either be biogenic or anthropogenic. Organic matter influences the atmospheric radiation field by both scattering and absorption. Another important aerosol type is elemental carbon (EC, also known as black carbon, BC): this aerosol type includes strongly light-absorbing material and is thought to yield large positive radiative forcing. Organic matter and elemental carbon together constitute the carbonaceous fraction of aerosols.

 Sulphate aerosol has two main effects, direct and indirect. The direct effect, via albedo, is to cool the planet. The effect varies strongly geographically, with most cooling believed to be at and downwind of major industrial centers. The indirect effect (via the aerosol acting as cloud condensation nuclei, CCN, and thereby modifying the cloud properties) is more uncertain but is believed to be a cooling one.

 The chemical composition of the aerosol directly affects how it interacts with solar radiation. The chemical constituents within the aerosol change the overall refractive index. The refractive index will determine how much light is scattered and absorbed. Aerosols, natural and anthropogenic, can affect the climate by changing the way radiation is transmitted through the atmosphere. Direct observations of the effects of aerosols are quite limited so any attempt to estimate their global effect necessarily involves the use of computer models.

Solar radiation reduction due to volcanic eruptions

 All aerosols both absorb and scatter solar and terrestrial radiation. Absorbing - a significant amount of radiation is absorbed by the substance; but part of the radiation is scattered. Scattering radiation is reflected by a substance ; quantified in the Single Scattering Albedo (SSA), the ratio of scattering alone to scattering plus absorption (extinction) of radiation by a particle. The SSA tends to unity if scattering dominates, with relatively little absorption, and decreases as absorption increases, becoming zero for infinite absorption.

Percentage of reflected sun light in relation to various surface conditions of the earth

The albedo of an object is the extent to which it reflects light, defined as the ratio of reflected to incident electromagnetic radiation. It is a unitless measure indicative of a surface's or body's diffuse reflectivity.

Health Effects of Particulates

The effects of inhaling particulate matter include asthma, lung cancer, cardiovascular issues, and premature death. The size of the particle is a main determinant of where in the respiratory tract the particle will come to rest when inhaled. Larger particles are generally filtered in the nose and throat and do not cause problems, but particulate matter smaller than about 10 m, referred to as PM10, can settle in the bronchi and lungs and cause health problems.

 Similarly, particles smaller than 2.5 m, PM2.5, tend to penetrate into the gas-exchange regions of the lung, and very small particles (< 100 nm) may pass through the lungs to affect other organs. PM2.5 leads to high plaque deposits in arteries, causing vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis a hardening of the arteries that reduces elasticity, which can lead to heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems.

 There is also evidence that particles smaller than 100 nm can pass through cell membranes. Particles may migrate into the brain. It has been suggested that particulate matter can cause similar brain damage as that found in Alzheimer patients. Particles emitted from modern diesel engines (commonly referred to as Diesel Particulate Matter, or DPM) are typically in the size range of 100 nm (0.1 m). In addition, these soot particles also carry carcinogenic components (e.g., benzopyrenes) adsorbed on their surface.

In directives 1999/30/EC and 96/62/EC, the European Commission has set limits for PM10 in the air:

Phase 1 from 1 January 2005

Phase 2 from 1 January 2010

Yearly average Daily average (24-hour) allowed number of exceedences per year.

40 g/m

20 g/m

50 g/m 35

50 g/m 7

Affected areas
Most Polluted World Cities by PM Particulate matter, g/m3 (2004) 169 150 128 125 123 109 109 104 101 City Cairo, Egypt Delhi, India Kolkata, India (Calcutta) Taiyuan, China Chongqing, China Kanpur, India Lucknow, India Jakarta, Indonesia Shenyang, China

Effect of inhaled tobacco smoke on the respiratory structure of the lung

Effects of Anthropogenic Activities on the Hydrosphere

Pollution of the Aquatic Environment

Pollution of the Aquatic Environment

Toxic chemicals: the legacy of a chemical society

We are a "chemical" society, using hundreds of chemicals in our normal daily activities: washing, eating, house-cleaning, tending the lawn and garden, and driving. Of the almost 10 million chemicals known today, approximately 100 000 chemicals are used commercially. Most toxic chemicals are discharged directly into our waterways as waste, discharges from homes, agriculture and industry. Seepage Runoff

 The chemicals can cause problems with the taste, odor and color in water. Fish and wildlife can experience reduced fertility, generic deformities immune system damage, increased incidence of tumors, and death. Many chemicals are, even in minute amounts, toxic to human, plant and animal life. Pesticides, PCBs, and PCPs (polychlorinated phenols). The very qualities which make them desirable for use toxicity and persistence make them harmful to the environment.

Non-persistent (degradable)
Domestic sewage Fertilizers Some industrial wastes These compounds can be broken down by chemical reactions or by natural bacteria into simple, non-polluting substances such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen. The process can lead to low oxygen levels and eutrophication if the pollution load is high. But this damage is reversible.

Persistent (degrade slowly)

Some pesticides (e.g. DDT, dieldrin) Some leachate components from landfill sites (municipal, industrial) Petroleum and petroleum products PCBs, dioxins, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) Radioactive materials such as strontium-90, cesium-137, radium-226, and uranium (Fukushima!) Metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium This is the most rapidly growing type of pollution and includes substances that degrade very slowly or cannot be broken down at all; they may remain in the aquatic environment for years or longer periods of time. The damage they cause is either irreversible or reparable only over decades or centuries.

Others
Warm water from cooling towers (thermal pollution) Floating debris Garbage Foam These are examples not of chemical pollution, but of physical pollution which interferes mainly with the usability and/or aesthetic appeal of the water. In certain cases, thermal pollution can kill fish.

Plastic beads spill in Hong Kong water

Threats to the Coral Reefs

Water pollution petroleum products and chemicals are lethal to coral reefs. Raw sewage dumped into the sea brings an overload of nutrients. Algae take over the reefs, blotting out the sunlight corals need to live on. Fishing with explosives or cyanide in depleted fisheries to catch the fish that remain. The explosions send dead fish to the surface and destroy living reefs.

http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/students/coral/coral5.htm

Coral Bleaching
Coral bleaching is the whitening of coral colonies due to the loss of symbiotic zooxanthellae from the tissues of polyps. This loss exposes the white calcium carbonate skeletons of the coral colony. Corals naturally lose less than 0.1% of their zooxanthellae during processes of regulation and replacement. Bleaching in itself kills coral; but if they cannot recruit further zooxanthellae, they will be unable to get sufficient food to survive. However, adverse changes in a coral's environment can cause an increase in the number of zooxanthellae lost.

http://www.ringo.com/photos/

Coral Bleaching
Stresses or environmental changes that may cause bleaching - disease, excess shade, increased levels of ultraviolet radiation, sedimentation, pollution, salinity changes, and increased temperatures. Corals tolerate a narrow temperature range between 25o Celsius and 29o Celsius depending on location. Corals bleach in response to prolonged temperature change and not due to rapidly fluctuating temperatures.

Photo credit: Ove Hoegh-Guldberg Centre for Marine Studies University of Queensland 4072 QLD Australia

Pressure on Shore Ecosystems

A large and increasing percentage of the human population lives near the coast - pressure on the shore ecosystems. Mangrove swamps were destroyed in Louisiana (for oil and gas exploration) and in Indonesia (for shrimp farms and other aquaculture). The human shoreline inhabitants thus bore the brunt of Hurricane Katrina and the Indonesian tsunami. Boats leak (Exxon Valdez!). Oil rig leaks (Gulf of Mexico, Bohai!) Fishing gear gets lost. Construction, agriculture and forest clearing bring pollution and sediment to the coasts through rivers.

Oil & the Environment

Oil and the Environment

Exploration and drilling for oil - may disturb land and ocean habitats. New technologies satellites, global positioning systems, remote sensing devices, and 3-D and 4-D seismic technologies, make it possible to discover oil reserves while drilling fewer wells. The use of horizontal and directional drilling make it possible for a single well to produce oil from much bigger areas. Today's production footprints are only about one-fourth the size of those 30 years ago, due to the development of movable drilling rigs and smaller "slimhole" drilling rigs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgAkye6svgQ

 When the oil in a well is gone, the well must be plugged below ground. Rig-to-reefs" program - old offshore rigs toppled and left on the sea floor to become artificial reefs that attract fish and other marine life. Within six months to a year after a rig is toppled, it becomes covered with barnacles, coral, sponges, clams, and other sea creatures.

Oil Spills
Oil spilled into rivers or oceans can harm wildlife. When we talk about "oil spills" people usually think about oil that leaks from ships when they crash. Although this type of spill can cause the biggest shock to wildlife because so much oil is released at one time, only 2 percent of all oil in the sea comes from ship or barge spills. While oil spills from ships are the most wellknown problem with oil, more oil actually gets into water from natural oil seeps coming from the ocean floor. Or, from leaks that happen when we use petroleum products on land.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4itfAVq19U

Gulf of Mexico
The well leaked about 42,000 gallons of oil a day into the ocean.

Bohai (Oil Spill

Other Sources of Pollution from Petroleum

Gasoline is used in cars, diesel fuel is used in trucks, and heating oil is used for heating in homes. When petroleum products are burned as fuel, carbon compounds (CO2 ) are released into the atmosphere. The use of petroleum products also gives off pollutants - carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and unburned hydrocarbons - that help form air pollution. Many environmental laws aim at changing the make-up of gasoline and diesel fuel so that they produce fewer emissions.

These "reformulated fuels" are much cleaner-burning than gasoline and diesel fuel were in 1990.
Sulfur contained in gasoline and diesel fuel is also reduced dramatically so that they can be used with new, less-polluting engine technology.

Eutrophication
Eutrophication means an increase in chemical nutrients -- typically compounds containing nitrogen or phosphorus -- in an ecosystem. It may occur on land or in water. Often used to mean the resultant increase in the ecosystem's primary productivity -- in other words excessive plant growth and decay -- and even further impacts, including lack of oxygen and severe reductions in water quality and in fish and other animal populations.
The bright green water in the Potomac River estuary is the result of a dense bloom of cyanobacteria.

 Eutrophication is frequently a result of nutrient pollution such as the release of sewage effluent and run-off from lawn fertilizers into natural waters (rivers or coasts) although it may also occur naturally in situations where nutrients accumulate (e.g. depositional environments) or where they flow into systems on an ephemeral basis (e.g. intermittent upwelling in coastal systems). Eutrophication generally promotes excessive plant growth and decay, favors certain weedy species over others, and is likely to cause severe reductions in water quality .

 In aquatic environments, enhanced growth of choking aquatic vegetation or phytoplankton (that is, an algal bloom) disrupts normal functioning of the ecosystem, causing a variety of problems such as a lack of oxygen in the water, needed for fish and shellfish to survive. The water then becomes cloudy, colored a shade of green, yellow, brown, or red. Human society is impacted as well: eutrophication decreases the resource value of rivers, lakes, and estuaries such that recreation, fishing, hunting, and aesthetic enjoyment are hindered. Health-related problems can occur where eutrophic conditions interfere with drinking water treatment.

Ecological Effects
Many ecological effects can arise from stimulating primary production, but there are three particularly troubling ecological impacts:

decreased biodiversity
changes in species composition and dominance toxicity effects

Eutrophication is apparent as increased turbidity in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, imaged from orbit.

 Human activities can accelerate the rate at which nutrients enter ecosystems. Runoff from agriculture and development, pollution from septic systems and sewers, and other human-related activities increase the flux of both inorganic nutrients and organic substances into terrestrial, aquatic, and coastal marine ecosystems (including coral reefs). Elevated atmospheric compounds of nitrogen can increase soil nitrogen availability. Phosphorus is often regarded as the main culprit in cases of eutrophication in lakes subjected to point source pollution from sewage. The concentration of algae and the trophic state of lakes correspond well to phosphorus levels in water.

There are two common sources of nutrients and organic matter: point and nonpoint sources. Point sources Nonpoint sources

Effects of Anthropogenic Activities on the Lithosphere

Deforestation

The Driving Forces of Destruction

Logging for Tropical Hardwoods Fuel Wood and the Paper Industry Grazing Land Subsistence Farming Infrastructure building

Deforestation
Oil company illegally clearing rainforest in Ecuador, South America

Between May 2000 and August 2006, Brazil lost nearly 150,000 square kilometers of forest an area larger than Greeceand since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed.

Deforestation

Burning of Forests

Deforestation
Poor farmers use fire for clearing land and every year satellite images pick up tens of thousands of fire burning across the Amazon. Typically understory shrubbery is cleared and then forest trees are cut. The area is left to dry for a few months and Rainforest cleared for maize then burned. The land is planted with crops like bananas, palms, manioc, maize, or rice. After a year or two, the productivity of the soil declines, and the transient farmers press a little deeper and clear new forest for more short-term agricultural land. The old, now infertile fields are used for Plane view of deforestation small-scale cattle grazing or left for waste. in the Amazon

Threats to the World's Rainforests

Rainforests are among the most important and yet threatened ecosystems on the planet. Today, more than half of Earth's original rainforests have all been destroyed, victims of unsustainable agriculture, ranching, logging, mining and other destructive practices. These stresses have increased enormously in the last 50 years alone.

Threats to Rainforests
Less than seven percent remains of Brazil's Atlantic Forest which once covered 330 million acres - expanding urban areas, increased agricultural and industrial development. Chile's Valdivian Coastal Range - highway construction, overharvesting native trees for firewood and unsustainable logging - the loss of former home of the indigenous Mapuche people.

Threats to Rainforests, Indigenous People and Species

New technologies have been developed to assess the chemical makeup of plants - using medicinal plants identified by Indians makes research more efficient and less expensive. Drug development has returned to its roots: traditional medicine.

Tribal peoples of the rainforest - the key to finding new and useful tropical forest plants.
A single Amazonian tribe of Indians may use >200 species of plants for medicinal purposes alone.

The Medicine Man?

Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, an economist at Yale University, and Dr. Michael J. Balick, director of the Institute of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Gardens, estimate the minimum number of pharmaceutical drugs potentially remaining to be extracted from the rainforests. They estimate that there are at least 328 new drugs that still await discovery in the rainforest, with a potential value of $3 billion to $4 billion to a private pharmaceutical company and as much as $147 billion to society as a whole.

Desertification

Desertification
http://www.greenfacts.org/en/desertification/

Desertification is the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems (arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas) by variations in climate and human activities. Home to a third of the human population in 2000, drylands occupy nearly half of Earths land area. Across the world, desertification affects the livelihoods of millions of people who rely on the benefits that dryland ecosystems can provide. Current desertification is taking place much faster worldwide than historically and usually arises from the demands of increased populations that settle on the land in order to grow crops and graze animals.

Linear dunes of the Sahara Desert encroach on Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. The dunes border a mosque at left (photograph by Georg Gerster).

Impact of Desertification
A major impact of desertification is biodiversity loss and loss of productive capacity. Desertification has environmental impacts that go beyond the areas directly affected.

The social and political impacts of desertification also reach non-dryland areas.

Causes of Desertification
Deserts may be separated from surrounding, less arid areas by mountains and other contrasting landforms that reflect basic structural differences in the terrain. In other areas, desert fringes form a gradual transition from a dry to a more humid environment, making it more difficult to determine the desert border. These transition zones have very fragile, delicately balanced ecosystems. In these marginal areas human activity may stress the ecosystem beyond its tolerance limit, resulting in degradation of the land. By pounding the soil with their hooves, livestock compact the substrate, increase the proportion of fine material, and reduce the percolation rate of the soil, thus encouraging erosion by wind and water. Grazing and collection of firewood reduce or eliminate plants that help to bind the soil.

Sand Storms

Sand Storms
In large desert areas, sand dunes can encroach on human habitats. Sand dunes can move through saltation - sand particles skip along the ground like a rock thrown across a pond might skip across the water's surface. When these skipping particles land, they may knock into other particles and cause them to skip as well. With slightly stronger winds, particles collide in mid-air, causing sheet flows. In a major dust storm, dunes may move tens of meters through such sheet flows. Like snow, sand avalanches, falling down the steep slopes of the dunes that face away from the winds, also moving the dunes forward.

Prevention and Reversal of Desertification

Major policy interventions and changes in management approaches, both at local and global levels, are needed in order to prevent, stop or reverse desertification. Prevention is a lot more cost-effective than rehabilitation, and this should be taken into account in policy decisions.
The creation of a culture of prevention that promotes alternative livelihoods and conservation strategies can go a long way toward protecting drylands both when desertification is just beginning and when it is ongoing.

 It requires a change in governments and peoples attitudes. Building on long-term experience and active innovation, dryland populations can prevent desertification by improving agricultural and grazing practices in a sustainable way. Even once land has been degraded, rehabilitation and restoration measures can help restore lost ecosystem services. The success of rehabilitation practices depends on the availability of human resources, funds, and infrastructures. It requires a combination of policies and technologies and the close involvement of local communities.

Straw grids and vegetation irrigated by water from the Yellow River stabilize dunes in this part of China's Tengger Desert (shown at right) and protect a nearby railroad from windblown sand

From wasteland to vineyard. Ground water and underground channels help this vineyard flourish on land reclaimed from desert pavement in China's Turpan Depression

Module 3 Learning Outcomes

Be able to show the effects of anthropogenic activities on the atmospheric environment Be able to show the effects of anthropogenic activities on the aquatic environment Be able to show the effects of anthropogenic activities on the land environment