Air Quality
How air quality can be measured.
What is measuring how polluted the air is?
Measuring the levels of CO2 , CO and ozone etc.
The pH values of a neutral substance, a acid substance and a basic substance.
What is 7 for neutral, 6 or lower for acid, and 8 or higher for basic?
Atmospheric gases that trap heat.
What are greenhouse gases?
Chemicals that kill pests.
What is pesticides?
The unit of measurement used to describe very small concentrations of a substance, equivalent to one milligram per litre.
What is parts per million (ppm)?
The major ones are carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and nitrous oxide.
What are greenhouse gases?
Animals that do not have a back bone.
What are invertebrates?
Pollutants are carried to the Arctic by this manner
What are air and water currents?
These three numbers on a bag of fertilizer (e.g., 10-15-20) represent the percentage of these elements.
What are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (the NPK ratio)?
Daily Double!!! (you can bet up to 2x the money you have)
The type of chemical reaction that occurs when an acidic substance is mixed with a basic substance to produce water and a salt.
What is neutralization?
A region of Earth's atmosphere that absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation.
What is the ozone layer?
A source of pollution that has a single identifiable source of air, water, thermal, noise or light pollution.
What is point source pollution?
The term given to the cause of average temperatures around the world changing
What is global climate change?
Pollution will decrease the quality of the water, resulting in _______________
What is less diversity of organisms and less life?
any alteration of the environment producing a condition that is harmful to living things
What is pollution?
The chemical composition of air.
What is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% other chemicals (argon etc)?
Organisms such as mayfly nymphs and stonefly larvae whose presence or absence is used to determine the health of an aquatic ecosystem.
What are biological indicators?
The process by which the concentration of a chemical increases as it moves up the food chain, often affecting top predators the most.
What is biomagnification (or bioaccumulation)?
The lethal dose to kill 50% of animals
What is LD50?
What does the level of dissolved oxygen depend on?
Temperature, turbulence, amount of photosynthesis and the amount of organisms using oxygen.
This is caused by a chemical reaction that begins when compounds like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the air. These substances can rise very high into the atmosphere, where they mix and react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals.
What is acid rain (precipitation)?
Acidic deposits that build up in ice and snow during winter. When the snow melts in the spring, the acid water will go into the aquatic systems
What is spring acid shock?
Occurs in the environment because living things (earthworms, bacteria and fungi) are actively breaking down organic substances,
What is Biodegradation ?
Using specialized plants to "clean up" contaminated soil by sucking up toxins through their roots.
What is phytoremediation?
things such as hairspray and fire extinguishers that are change into chemicals from UV rays and break down the Ozone layer.
What are CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons)?