Glossary

Ablation A process of wearing away of a rock or glacier

Acid rain Rain made acid by pollutants, particularly oxides of sulphur and nitrogen.

Alternative energy Renewable and non-renewable energy resources that are alternatives to the fossil fuels.

Anthropogenic - connected with the study of human race, esp. of its origin, development, customs and beliefs.

Atmosphere The mixture of gases that surrounds the earth.

Beneficiation Process of increasing the concentration of desirable properties in minerals, improving them in quality and value.

Biochemical cycle The cycling of a chemical element through the biosphere; its pathway, storage location, and chemical forms in living things, the atmosphere, oceans, sediments, and lithosphere.

Biological diversity Used loosely to mean the variety of life on Earth, but scientifically typically used to consist of three components: 1. genetic diversity – the total number of genetic characteristics; 2. species diversity; and 3. habitat or ecosystem diversity – the number of kinds of hsbitats or ecosystems in a given unit area. Species diversity in turn includes three concepts: species richness, evenness, and dominance.

Biomagnification Also called biological concentration. The tendency for some substance to concentrate with each trophic level. Organisms preferentially store certain chemicals and excrete others. When this occurs consistently among organisms, the stored chemicals increase as a percentage of the body weight as the material is transferred along a food chain or trophic level.

Biosphere Has several meanings. One is that part of a planet where life exists. On Earth it extends from the depths of the oceans to summit of mountains, but most life exists within a few meters of the surface. A second meaning is: the planetary system that includes and sustains life, and therefore is made up of the atmosphere, oceans, soils, upper bedrock, and all life.

Biota All organisms of all species living in an area or region up to and including the biosphere. E.g. “the biota of that aquarium.”

Climate The representative or characteristic conditions of the atmosphere at particular places on Earth. Climate refers to the average or expected conditions over long periods; weather refers to the particular conditions at one time in one place.

Competition The situation that exists when different individuals, populations, or species compete for the same resource(s) and presence of one has a detrimental effect on the other.

Contamination Presence of undesirable material that makes something unfit for a particular use.

Conventional energy source Sources of energy such as coal and oil that provide most of our energy at the present.

Deforestation The process of cutting down forests.

Depletion Reduction greatly of the quality, size, power or value of smth.

Dose response The principle that the effect of a certain chemical on an individual depends on the dose or concentration of that chemical.

Ecological niche The general concept is that the niche is a species “profession” - what it does to make living. The term is also used to refer to a set of environmental conditions within which a species is able to persist.

Ecological restoration Restoration of the land and water (rivers, wetlands, beaches, ect.) that utilizes ecological principals.

Ecosystem An ecological community and its local, nonbiological community. An ecosystem is the minimum system that includes and sustains life. It must include at least an autotroph, a decomposer, a liquid medium, a source and sink of energy, and all the chemical elements required by the autotroph and the decomposer.

El Nino Natural perturbation of the physical earth system that affects global climate. Characterized by development of warm oceanic waters in the eastern part of the tropical Pacific Ocean, a weakening or reversal of the trade winds, and a weakening or even reversal of the equatorial ocean currents. Reoccurs periodically and affects the atmosphere and global temperature by pumping heat into the atmosphere.

Energy An abstract concept referring to the ability or capacity to do work.

Enrichment Process of increasing the concentration of desirable properties in minerals, improving them in quality and value.

Excretion The process of removal of xenobiotic from the organism.

Extinction Disappearance of a life-form from existence; usually applied to species.

Food web A network of who feeds on whom or a diagram showing who feeds on whom. It is synonymous with food chain.

Fossil fuels Forms of stored solar energy created from incomplete biological decomposition of dead organic matter. Includes coal, crude oil, and natural gas.

Gaia hypothesis The Gaia hypothesis states that the surface environment of Earth, with respect to such factors as the atmospheric composition of reactive gases (for example, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and methane), the activity-alkalinity of waters, and the surface temperature, are actively regulated by the sensing, growth, metabolism and other activities of the biota. Interaction between the physical and biological system on Earth’s surface has led to a planetwide physiology that began more than 3 billion years ago and the evolution of which can be detected in the fossil record.

Gangue Valueless and undesirable material in an ore.

Geologic cycle The formation and destruction of earth material and the process responsible for these events. The geologic cycle includes the following subcycles: hydrologic, tectonic, rock, and geochemical.

Geothermal energy The useful conversion of natural heat from the interior of Earth.

Global warming Natural or human-induced increase in the average global temperature of the atmosphere near Earth’s surface.

Greenhouse effect Process of trapping heat in the atmosphere. Water vapour and several other gases warm the Earth’s atmosphere because they absorb and remit radiation; that is, they trap some of the heat radiating from the Earth’s atmospheric system.

Greenhouse gases The suite of gases that have a greenhouse effect, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapour.

Habitat Where an individual, population, or species exists or can exist. For example, the habitat of the Joshua tree is the Mojave Desert of North America.

Hazardous waste Waste that is classified as definitely or potentially hazardous to the health of people. Examples include toxic or flammable liquids and a variety of heavy metals, pesticides, and solvents.

Heavy metals Refers to a number of metals, including lead, mercury, arsenic, and silver that have a relatively high atomic number. They are often toxic at relatively low concentrations, causing a variety of environmental problems.

Hydrologic cycle Circulation of water from the oceans to the atmosphere and back to the oceans by way of evaporation, runoff from streams and rivers, and groundwater flow.

Hydrosphere A layer between the lithosphere and the atmosphere including all water recourses on the Earth.

Leakage An undesired flow of fluid.

Lithosphere An upper solid layer of the Earth including crust and the upper mantle.

Metabolite A substance involved in metabolism, being either synthesized during metabolism or taken in from the environment.

Mutation A chemical change in a DNA molecule. It means that the DNA carries a different message than it did before, and this change can affect the expressed characteristics when cells or individual organisms reproduce.

Nonrenewable energy Energy sources, including nuclear and geothermal, that are dependent on fuels, or a resource that may be used up much faster than it is replenished by natural processes.

Nuclear energy The energy of the atomic nucleus that, when released, may be used to do work. Controlled nuclear fission reactions take place within commercial nuclear reactors to produce energy.

Ore deposits Earth materials in which metals are accumulated in high concentrations, sufficient to be mined.

Ozone shield Stratospheric ozone layer that absorbs ultraviolet radiation.

Particulate Small particles of solid or liquid substances that are released into the atmosphere by human activities, including farming or burning fossil fuels. Particulates affect human health, ecosystems, and the biosphere.

Pollution The process by which something becomes impure, defiled, dirty, or otherwise unclean.

Precipitator A device fitted on smelter to catch harmful substances produced in the process of smelting.

Radioactive waste Type of waste produced in the nuclear fuel cycle; generally classified as high level or low level.

Renewable energy Alternative energy sources, such as solar, water, and biomass, that are more or less continuously made available in a time framework useful to people.

Reserve Known and identified deposits of earth materials from which useful materials can be extracted profitably with existing technology and under present economic and legal conditions.

Resource Reserves plus other deposits of useful earth materials that may eventually become available.

Risk assessment The process of determining potential adverse environmental health effects to people following exposure to pollutants and other toxic materials. Generally includes the four steps of identification of the hazard, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterisation.

Smog A term first used in 1905 for a mixture of smoke and fog that produced unhealthy urban air. There are several types of fog, including photochemical smog and sulphurous smog.

Solar energy Collecting and using energy from the sun directly.

Species diversity The variety of species in an area or on Earth. Includes factors such as abundance and dominance of species.

Species A group of individuals capable of interbreeding.

Spillage An instance or a process of spilling.

Sustainability Management of natural resources and the environment with the goals of allowing the harvest of resources to remain at or above some specified level, and the ecosystem to retain its functions ans structure.

Thermal pollution A type of pollution that occurs when heat is released into water or air and produces undesirable effects on the environment.

Tidal power Form of water utilizing ocean tides in places where favourable topography allows for construction of a power plant.

Toxic Harmful, deadly, or poisonous.

Toxicology A science dealing with biological mechanisms of toxicity and host defences against toxicity.

Waste anything rejected as useless, worthless in the production process, or useless product of metabolism.

Wastewater treatment Process of treating wastewater (primarily sewage) in specially designed plants that accept municipal wastewater. Generally divided into three categories: primary treatment, secondary treatment, and advanced wastewater treatment.

Xenobiotic A substance alien to an organism.

Laboratory works

LABORATORY WORK № 1

Determining quantity of anthropogenic contamination from city transport

Aim: To study the express-method of determining the degree of air contamination with toxic substances from exhaust gases of city transport.

Equipment: a clock, pens, note-books, a calculator.

Theoretical introduction

Internal combustion engines of cars are the principal source of atmospheric contamination in the urban areas. In particular, on the territory of the country the part of transport in the total emissions of pollutants in the atmosphere from all sources amounts 45%, in greenhouse gas emissions – approximately 10%, in harmful sewage discharges – nearly 3%.

The main harmful impurities contained in the exhausted gases are: carbon oxide, nitric oxides, various hydrocarbons including carcinogenic 3,4-benzopyrene, aldehides, sulphur dioxide. Besides, gasoline engines exhausts contain lead, chlorine, bromine, and sometimes phosphorus, whereas diesel ones - significant amount of smoke and soot particulates of ultramicroscopic size. Every gasoline vehicle passing 15 000 km, uses 4350 kg of oxygen and exhaust 530 kg of СО, 93 kg of hydrocarbons, 27 kg of nitrogen oxide. 75% of lead contained in high-antiknock fuel, comes to the atmosphere, i.e. every vehicle exhausts up to 1 kg of lead into air annually. In total, the exhausted gases of internal combustion engines contain more than 200 harmful substances.