BIOLOGY 304
      APPLIED ECOLOGY
 

LINKS                                        Assignments for Biology 304

 

ACID RAIN

  • From the Scout Report "Acid Rain Revisited"

    The results of a long term study of the effects of acidic deposition in the Northeast were published in _Bioscience_ this week, and they suggest that forests, lakes, and streams of the Northeastern US are not recovering from the toxic effects of acid rain despite significant cuts in the power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide -- two major contributors to the problem. "Acid rain," more accurately called acidic deposition, causes toxic forms of aluminum to concentrate in soil and water, vital calcium and magnesium to be leached from trees, and surface waters to become inhospitable to aquatic biota. The study showed that, after 30 years of federally mandated air emission reductions, sulfur dioxide emissions have decreased while nitrogen oxide emissions have remained the same and that acidic deposition-related problems continue to plague New York and New England.  For a good introduction to the study and its implications, visit the _New York Times_ online (1) (free registration required). The principal contributors to the study are with the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (2) of New Hampshire. At the Hubbard Brook site, readers can access a report entitled "Acid Rain Revisited" (.pdf), a summary of the _Bioscience_ paper (MS Word), and a brief factsheet (.pdf). A list of participants and a project overview/timeline are also presented. A principal advisor to the Hubbard Brook Project is Dr. Gene Likens of The Institute of Ecosystem Studies (IES), Millbrook, NY. The IES Website (3) provides research overviews and ecosystem description for a broad range of ecologic topics and geographic locations, including the Hubbard Brook study. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Website's Issues section (4) furnishes basic information about the definition and causes and effects of acid rain and offers educational materials. For information on the Clean Air Act, legislation intended to curb acidic deposition by restricting power plant emissions, visit the EPA's Programs and Regulations section (5). From there, readers can access the full text of the original Clean Air Act, the full text of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, or a shorter overview. The 1993 publication "The Plain English Guide To The Clean Air Act" is also accessible here. Another interesting government publication on the topic comes from the US General Accounting Office. The March 2000 report "Acid Rain: Emissions Trends and Effects in the Eastern United States" (6) gives a table of fiscal allowances used by the 25 states participating in the 1995-1998 acid rain reduction and also gives data on chemical deposition. Findings described in the General Accounting Report are similar to those in the Hubbard Brook report. 
    For data collected on acid rain, go to the US Geological Survey's site, On-line data and reports on acid rain, atmospheric deposition and precipitation chemistry (7), where a plethora of data tables, summaries, maps, and plots from around the country are available. Isopleth maps available from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (8) are a good visual aid for understanding pollution deposition. Arranged by year, from 1994-1999, these .pdf or .gif maps show deposition and concentration of a variety of elements and compounds and pH measurements in the lower-48 states (the entire NADP Website was described in the September 1, 1999 _Scout Report for Science & Engineering_). Research on the effects of acidic deposition is taking place at many institutions around the country, including Pennsylvania State University. A report from Penn State's Environmental Resources Research Institute (ERRI) discusses aquatic ecosystems in particular (9). Finally, many articles on acid rain mention the decline of sugar maple trees in response to acidic deposition. An educational resource on the life history of the sugar maple comes from Cornell University's Sugar Maple Research and Extension Program (10). Note: Sites 4 and 7 appeared in the April 15, 1999 _Scout Report for Science & Engineering_. [HCS]

    1. "Harmful Effects of Acid Rain Are Far-Flung, a Study Finds" http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/26/nyregion/26RAIN.html 
    2. The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation [.pdf, MS Word] http://www.hbrook.sr.unh.edu/hbfound/hbfound.htm 
    3. Institute of Ecosystem Studies http://www.ecostudies.org/ 
    4. Environmental Issues: Acid Rain (EPA) http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/acidrain/ 
    5. Programs and Regulations: Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 http://www.epa.gov/airmarkt/arp/regs/caaa.html 
    6. "Acid Rain: Emissions Trends and Effects in the Eastern United States" [.pdf]     http://www.gao.gov/archive/2000/rc00047.pdf 
    7. On-line Data and Reports on Acid Rain, Atmospheric Deposition and     Precipitation Chemistry http://bqs.usgs.gov/acidrain/ 
    8. Isopleth Maps [.pdf] http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/isopleths/ 
    9. "The Effects of Acidic Deposition on Aquatic Ecosystems in Pennsylvania" [.pdf]     http://www.research.psu.edu/erri/publications/acidep.pdf 
    10. Sugar Maple     http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/maple/Life%20as%20a%20maple%20tree/life_as_a_maple_tree.htm 

    Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-2001. The Internet Scout Project  (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ ), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.

  • Acid rain status      
  • Acid Rain 2000     
  • http://esa.sdsc.edu/acidrainfactsheet.htm
  • Acid Precipitation Project
  •  

  • Biological Remediation

    1. Bioremediation: Nature's Way to a Cleaner Environment http://water.usgs.gov/wid/html/bioremed.html 
    2. Bioremediation and Phytoremediation Glossary http://members.tripod.com/~bioremediation/ 
    3. Phytoremediation http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/1998/bioremediation/ 
    4. Bioremediation Discussion Group     http://www.bioremediationgroup.org/BioReferences/Home.htm 
    5. Phytoremediation http://www.ecological-engineering.com/phytorem.html 
    6. Phytoremediation     http://www.mobot.org/jwcross/phytoremediation/
    7. Chicken Compost Biofilter Clears the Air     http://www.wpi.org/Initiatives/init/aug97/ 
    8. Wastewater Treatment Principles and Regulations http://ohioline.osu.edu/aex-fact/0768.html 

    This week's Topic In Depth focuses on the use of biological organisms to reduce environmental contamination. 

    From the US Geological Survey, the first site (1) is a general introduction to bioremediation and includes links to several examples of successful bioremediation projects. Next (2) is a glossary of terms related to biological remediation. The third site is an educational  resource (3) developed to teach high school students about environmental contamination and the use of plants to remove pollutants. The Bioremediation Discussion Group (4) includes a useful "archive of technical papers on bioremediation." The next two Web sites are specific to the process of phytoremediation, which uses plants to remediate contamination (5) (6 ). The next site (7) gives an example of an application using microbes from chicken compost to reduce air pollution. Lastly, this fact sheet (8) from the Ohio State University Extension Service focuses on bioremediation specific to wastewater treatment.

    From The NSDL Scout Report for the Life Sciences, Copyright Internet ScoutProject 1994-2002. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ 


Restoration Ecology   While not a panacea, the emerging field of restoration ecology provides an important tool for environmental conservation and contributes greatly to our understanding of ecology.

From The NSDL Scout Report for the Life Sciences, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2002. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

 

 


 

 

                                      

TOPIC ASSIGNMENTS  for Biology 304   
Our overall goal for the sprint toward the exam through chapters 12, 13, and 14
is to review the major concepts of ecological theory to see how they apply to
environmental issues.      Read p. 400.                  
  • Populations Review  
  • Agriculture  
    • Read Core 220 Food  assignment
    • Read Textbook pp. 417b-437

                               key figures -->

     

    		   ( <--projections for
     2020 and 2050)

    •  

     
  • Human Pollution, part 1: 
    Corpses, sewage, agriculture and industry:  What do they do to food webs, the carbon cycle, and other cycles?
    • How are global warming and the carbon cycle connected?
    • global warming links
    •  
    • answer questions #1, 2, 6, 8
    		  

     

  • Pollution continued
    • Acid Rain, Ozone, nukes, etc.
    • Read pp. 457-68
    • Do you think restoration ecology can work?
    • See Ecological Society's Policy News
    • Also answer questions 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10
    • more Links
       
  • Conservation Background
    • Read Textbook Chapter 14
    • Species endangered
      & rare (3 definitions). 
    • Effects of
      • habitats frag
      • introduced aliens
      • effective pop sizes
    		 also consider box 14.2 (p. 479)
    and fig. 14.5 (p. 482)
    • Connections to community properties 
    • Review some characteristics of communities and ecosystems:
      • diversity, richness, evenness
      • relative abundance of dominant types (but not density or demography of the populations)
      • spatial and temporal structures (e.g., zonation, canopy layers, patches and gaps, maybe flowering and fruiting and leaf-shedding seasons but not phenology or life-history characteristics of the populations )
      • ranges of resources/conditions (= niche axes for the species) 
      • average niche breadth and overlap (but not the niche itself)
      • heterogeneity of structures and resources and conditions
      • food web trophic levels, links, connectance, control
      • productivity, efficiencies (which can also apply to the populations)
      • mineral cycling rates and reservoir concentrations, leaks
      • stability
    • Management of Conservation Areas (or why you take CORE)
    • BIOPLAN

    Also see Box 14.3 and the decision tree on fig. 14.11
    • Answer questions 1, 2,  5, 6, 7, 9, 10
    		              and especially #3
    •  

  • Conservation Case Study
  •  
  • GENERAL ENVIRONMENTAL LINKS


 

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