SEKOLAH MENENGAH SAINS TUANKU MUNAWIR 2012

ENDANGERED ECOSYSTEM

Title: endangered ecosystem name: haikal adib form: 4 iota biology teacher: pn. Airin Bt. Abu bakar

Content
Introduction Objective Impact of Human Activities and Unplanned Development and Mismanagement of Ecosystem Greenhouse Effect and the Thinning of the Ozone Layer Steps to Maintain a Stable Environment Conclusion

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IntroductioN
Nowadays, we always are alerted by the way earth is threatened than before. Our mother earth has survived from many natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruption, earthquake and etcetera but even then, none of these catastrophes has caused a lot of damages than human do by the activities carried by human themselves. In attempt to fulfill their growing need of over increasing population, human destroy natural habitats that is house of millions species of flora and fauna and at the same time, they pollute our beautiful ecosystem.

The figure shows one of the sources of air pollution.

ObjectivE
Evaluating human activities that endanger an ecosystem. Understanding the greenhouse effect and the thinning of the ozone layer.

Realising the importance of proper management of development activities

and the ecosystem.

The figure shows one of the sources of thermal pollution.

Impact of human activities and mismanagement of ecosystem

Deforestation
In what ways human activities affect the ecosystem? What impact do these activities have on ecosystem? One of the human activities that affect ecosystem is deforestation. The example of forest is rainforests. They play an important role in our environment as a regulating climate. They are known as the carbon sink because they can absorb vast amount of carbon dioxide gas. They also served as water catchment areas. Without proper management, soil erosion can happens. The absence of plant root system make the soil structure is unstable and causes the landslides. The eroded soil that carried by river turn the river to sedimentation river and can cause flashflood. Deforestation also cause the lost of biodiversity. The destroyed forest causes the lost habitats of animals and they will face extinction. The diagram below shows one of the endangered species.

The figure shows one of endangered species.

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Eutrophication
In intensive farming, farmers always use an inorganic fertilizer which contains nitrates and phosphates. When these organic substances are use excessively, the soluble inorganic nutrients will not stay in soil but quickly leached out and ending at the lake or river and lead to eutrophication. The rapidly increasity of human populations also increased the domestic and industrial waste. Dumping rubbish poses a great danger as in will absorbed into the soil and ends up at the river, making the river is dirty and not safe for animals.

The diagram shows sources of Cultural Eutrophication.

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Pollution

Air Pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particular matter or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms or cause damage to the natural environment into the atmosphere. Pollutants enter air at the different sources, but fossil fuel burning contributes the most to air pollution. Burning of fossil fuels in the combustion engines of vehicles and electrical power station release a large amount of carbon dioxide. Human activities such as open burning cause severe smog and haze. Industrial plants and industries release carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide can combine with water vapour in atmosphere to form nitric acid and sulphuric acid respectively.

The diagram shows how acid rain is formed.

Water Pollution
Water pollution mainly caused by eutrophication. The enrichment in lakes and rivers with nutrient from farm cause rapid growth and resulting the population of explosion of algae and bloom. The density of algae may be so high the light intensity in water is greatly reduced and cause the death of algae and plants. The death of plants and algae and the subsequent decomposition of these organisms by bacteria and fungi lead to oxygen depletion in water. The soil erosion cause the landslide and sediment the flowing river and final lead to flash flood which can destroys flora and fauna habitats especially the endangered species that is facing extinction. Industrial waste can include heavy metals such as lead, mercury and radioactive waste which also find their way to the river or lakes. The dumping of these sources can cause the toxicity of food chains and the radioactive chemicals from industries can cause cancer.

Thermal Pollution
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Thermal pollution occurred when water temperature affects the rate of solubility of oxygen in it, when temperature increase and the solubility of oxygen in water become low. For example, oxygen is used as cooling agent in some industrial process and cooling tower of electrical power stations. This hot water produced is discharged into nearby lake or source of water. Thermal pollution occurs when there is excessive heat which released into environment, harms living things. For some species of animals, sudden increasing in heat can lead to death and has negative effect in environment and may descript the entire ecosystem.

Noise Pollution
Noise pollution can cause by many factors such as the sound of airplanes engines, car engines, industrial machines and etcetera. The noise levels should not exceed 55 decibels (dB). According to World Health Organization (WHO) prolonged exposure to noise level at or above 80 dB can cause deafness. Excessive exposure to noise is considered as health risk because noise can contribute to development and aggravation of stress related problems such as high blood pressure, coronary disease, ulcers, depression and headaches.

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Traffic jams is one of the source of noise pollution.

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The Greenhouse Effect and the Thinning Of Ozone Layer

The Greenhouse Effect
When sunlight enters earths atmosphere, some of it solar radiation is reflected back to the space but most of it trapped in earth by greenhouse gasses. In the same time, the greenhouse radiates heat in form of infrared radiation back to the earth. These greenhouse gases act as glass panel of greenhouse; hence in term of greenhouse effect, without it all living things in earth will die due to cold.

The diagram shows greenhouse effect.

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Type of greenhouse gases: Carbon dioxide gas Chlorofluorocarbon Methane Nitrous Ozone

Scientists believe that the burning fossil fuels and other human activities such as deforestation contribute to increase of carbon dioxide gases in atmosphere, causing the greenhouse effect become bigger and known as global warming. Last 40 years the Earths average temperature had increased by 0.2 oC 0.3 oC. In Malaysia, the temperature is rising at 0.18 oC every decade. In the absence of emission control, carbon dioxide concentratations are projected to be 30 150% higher than todays levels and the Earths average temperature may rise between 1.5 oC to 45 oC by 2100.

The Thinning Of Ozone Layer

The ozone layer is a region in the stratosphere, situated between 17 and 25 kilometres above the Earths surface. The destruction of ozone layer mainly due to the increasing levels of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere which is a group of chemical compounds that contain chlorine, carbon and fluorine. These gas are use as coolants in air conditioners and refrigerators, as propellants in aerosol cans and as foaming agents in the making of Styrofoam packaging.

The figure shows a satellite image of the Antarctic ozone hole. The dark blue region on the image is actually an ozone hole.

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Steps To Maintain a Stable Environment

To save our forests, we need to take a few steps. Firstly, enforce a strict law to those who do illegal logging. Besides that, we can do a campaign on Earths Day by collecting money to rebuild the destroyed forest. Replantation the each of the tree is going to cutting down. Measure the diameter of a mature tree to make sure that it is suitable for logging. Recycle the paper to reduce the intake of trees to make a paper. To reduce air pollution, used unleaded petrol than the lead one. The industrial plants should build a taller chimney and put a catalytic converter to change carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide in vehicles. To reduce water pollutions, enforce a strict law against the people who dumping rubbish, chemicals and toxic into water. Last but not least, reduce the usage amount of aerosol used to reduce the ozone depletion and avoid open burning frequently. Dispose waste at the convenient place. LOVE OUR EARTH!

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Conclusion
As a responsible citizen, we need to take care of our Earths which is getting old from the day to day. If the Earths is destroyed, where we are going to live? Where? There are no such places that will be same as the Earths. A small effort on our part will go a long way to create a cleaner and healthier environment. Politicians need to do what they need to do to save our peaceful Earths. What can we do? Recycle the material that can be recycled. Dont dump rubbish everywhere. Follow the container disposal instruction. Do you want our future generation lived in a bad environment where all the people need to wear a mask so that they can breathe properly? Surely no. Lets gather our hand together to preserve and reserved our nature.

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