Eutrophication

Too many nutrients, algae grows, there is no light, plants die, there is oxygen depletion

The primary causes for eutrophication are anthropogenic Detergents and fertilizer
However there is the case of natural causes.
Eutrophication will cause at the end the dead of many organisms in the body water, most of the times because the lack of oxygen.
This phenomena is specially harmful in slow moving water bodies.

How do we stop it?

• Controlling the runoff from crop fields and from urban areas
• Control the amount of fertilizers used in agricultural practices
• Develop buffer zones around body water. Growing plants around them. The plants will absorb the excess of nutrients
• Set water treatments on sewage sources.
• Oxygenize the water
• Drench the sediment off the water.

Indicator Species

Aquatic ecosystems
Oyster: They fed on organic material and pollutants in the water. They filter the water, removing the particles.
Vertebrate and invertebrate species: Found in rivers and streams. Can determine the grange pollution to kept in check.
Lilies: rivers, lakes, ponds and swamps. They absorb oxygen and sunlight. Indicate abundance of nutrients, which leads to eutrophication.

Mayfly larvae: Native specie that are adapted to live in certain biome. When its number decreases it is a very clear sign that the pollution levels are increasing. They reappear downstream as the effects of the discharge are diluted. This help to indicate the level of pollution in water.
Sludge Worm. Common in lakes and rivers. All fresh water ecosystems. They fed on the sediments and bacteria, hence a great population on them might indicate great pollution in the body water and oxygen-poor water. They indicate stagnant water unfit to drink.
Soil Indicator species
The plants that are found in certain soil might indicate the presence or absence of a specific substance.
Besides plants, there are many other indicators.
Birds eggs can be analyze to find out pesticide sin the soil.
Invertebrates:. Indicator species to identify the use of foreign soils, insecticides, pesticides, and other pollutants.
In Canada there are plans to use soil-living arthropods in order to quantify the pollution in the forests.
A good way to measure the healthiness of an ecosystem and to determine the presence of pollution is biodiversity. High biodiversity indicates a strong and healthy environment.

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Direct and Indirect Measurements

Direct sampling

• In situ. Actually, in the studied place.

Reliable and the best option because of the exact results gases
It is difficult to carry all of the instruments

• Ex situ. Off from the place where sample is established

Use of more methods and instruments, flexible
You cannot experiment instantly and so the sample could suffer some changes.
Shipping and handling is necessary.
When measuring pollution, direct measurements could be use to measure the concentration of:

• gases
• particulate matter
• pH
• dissolved oxygen
• biomass content
• salts
• conductivity
• turbidly

Most of the measurements are giving in units per area, or per
Indirect sample
These measurements are the ones where we measure one factor in order to study or get conclusions for other factor. They don’t really tell you the concentration, you need to interpret them.
Examples of it are

• Indicator species,  They define an specific area or a specific biome
• Biodiversity indexes
• Chromatography
• Spectroscopy

Natural BANK. Do u get the roll?

As in an economic system scheme, capital is related to all the valuable and useful resources that an entity (private company, NGO, and rollin') could have. The main purpose of an economic system is to produce and distribute (for an later consumption) of goods and services by the use of human and manufactured resources to satisfy people's needs and wants.

In contrast we have the NATURAL SYSTEMS, which have their own form of capital. NATURAL CAPITAL is as valuable than "economic capital". It gather all of the means needed to accomplish all of the ends. NATURAL CAPITAL includes

• the natural resources that have value and those that support life
• the natural processes that take place.

As in the economic system, NATURAL CAPITAL is also intend to produce an income.

e.x.

Photosyntesis ------------------------------> oxygen

water cycle -----------------------------> fresh water

nitrogen cycle -------------------------------> nutrients in the soil

biodiversity --------------------------------> stability, evolution, and rollin'

Natural capital might be classified in:

- renewable - replenishable

- non-renewable - recyclable

The Biodiversity Roll.

" Biodiversity is the variety of life

and its processes; and it includes the variety

of living organisms, the genetic differences

among them, and the communities and

ecosystems in which they occur.”

Biodiversity is the amount of the different species, plants and animals, that can be found within an ecosystem, biome or the entire Earth.

The biodiversity index help us to determine the amount of species in a given area. A very simple index goes as the following example:

the number of species in the area (numerator) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- the total number of individuals in the area (denominator )

= biodiversity index

The previous example is very basic. It might be used when little information is available and the experience of the analyst is limited. In order to carry out a better measurement of biodiversity is important to don't include only the number of species, but also the abundance of each specie.

In simple terms the main two aspects are the richness and the evenness.

Richness of species affect more directly the amount of biodiversity than the evenness.

The Simpsons Diversity index covers those two. It can actually refer to any one of 3 closely related indices:

where S is the number of species, N is the total percentage cover or total number of organisms and n is the percentage cover of a species or number of organisms of a species. In this form, D ranges from 1 to 0, with 1 representing infinite diversity and 0 representing no diversity.

Another widely used index is the Shannon index of diversity. It turns out to be poorer than other indices on most criteria:

p_i = the proportion of individuals of species i in the sample, p_i = n_i/N.

I_Shannon = H = - Σ p_i ln(p_i)

The importance of these indices lies on:

• Understanding community structure.
• Outline odd behaviors
• Identify the rarity and commonness of an specie within a community

References.

"How to Calculate a Biodiversity Index." American Museum of Natural Art, n.d. Web. 17 Aug 2010. .

http://www.wcsmalaysia.org/analysis/diversityIndexMenagerie.htm

http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/simpsons.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson_index

http://ma.caudillweb.com/documents/bridging/papers/yue.tianxiang.pdf

What's a key?

In the environmental studies, a key refers to a guide for the classification of organisms based on its specific and unique characteristics.

Keys might be dichotomus or polichotomus depending of how many variables do each one use for each branch of the classification.

The use keys make easier to place each new organism in a certain area and to understand the specifications of each species and how they differ form other. It might also make reference to evolution processes that species have underwent.