Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Glossary
Dredging - To take, catch or gather with a dredge; remove sand, silt and mud from the bottom of a river ocean or sea
Compensatory - Serving to compensate, as for loss, lack or injury
Amelioration - To make things better or more tolerable;to grow better
Disturbances - Upsetting or disorganizing something which was previously in a calm and well- ordered state.
Proliferation - Increase of new parts, things by rapid production
Deformities - A deformity is a part of someone's body which is not the normal shape because of injury or illness, or because they were born this way.
Unsanitary - Something that is unsanitary is dirty and unhealthy
Protozoans - Protozoans are very small organisms which often live inside larger animals.
Compensatory - Serving to compensate, as for loss, lack or injury
Amelioration - To make things better or more tolerable;to grow better
Disturbances - Upsetting or disorganizing something which was previously in a calm and well- ordered state.
Proliferation - Increase of new parts, things by rapid production
Deformities - A deformity is a part of someone's body which is not the normal shape because of injury or illness, or because they were born this way.
Unsanitary - Something that is unsanitary is dirty and unhealthy
Protozoans - Protozoans are very small organisms which often live inside larger animals.
Some pictures
An healthy aquatic ecosystem is one that has a wide variety of organism without the presence of polluted water and dead organisms.
Reflection
After what I had done researching on this research topic, I had decided to come to a conclusion. One important thing that a person will need to know is that everything in an ecosystem is related to one another. Any problems affecting one of the components of the aquatic ecosystem will lead to other problems occurring, it is a continuous chain of problems. Thus, it is important
for us, human beings to maintain the health of the ecosystem. Human beings had depended on aquatic ecosystems for many years, thus it is our duty to protect them and continue using them for our basic needs.
Aquatic organisms and the ecosystem represent a substantial part of the earth's biological diversity. The association of man and aquatic ecosystem can be found back many centuries ago. It is not surprising that the first sign of civilizations and villages are traced to wetland areas, as aquatic ecosystems provide food and water for the people living near them. The flood plains of the Indus, the Nile delta, and the Fertile Crescent of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided man with all his basic necessities. Water is required for various purposes like drinking and personal hygiene, fishing, agriculture, navigation, industrial production, hydroelectricity generation and recreational activities. The wide variety of aquatic ecosystems can be profitably used by humans for various needs and for environmental amelioration. Ever-increasing population and industrialization have inflicted serious environmental pressures on these ecosystems and have affected them to such an extent that their health had been affected greatly over the past few years.
Therefore, I feel that there is a need for everyone to do their part in protecting and ensuring that aquatic ecosystem will remain healthy. Affecting the health of an aquatic ecosystems can be caused by many human activities. The release of chemical waste from factories can kill and wipe out many species of organisms. Global warming can also leads to the extinction of aquatic organisms.
As I had said earlier, changes in the temperature can kill the organisms as they are not suited and could not adapt to the temperature change in such a short time. Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans. Global warming causes the temperature of Earth to rise over the years because of what we call the greenhouse effect. It is being caused by the release of harmful gases like carbon monoxide into the environment by factories. Humans can thus be said to have caused global warming.
Imagine that all the freshwater on Earth is being polluted by our activities, how can we still survive, without freshwater for drinking and bathing, let alone those aquatic organisms? With all the fish dead in aquatic ecosystems, there will be definitely a shortage of food around the world. Therefore, I felt that my research had helped me in understanding the importance of saving aquatic ecosystems and through the research, I had also gained knowledge about the causes and effects of having an unhealthy aquatic ecosystem.
for us, human beings to maintain the health of the ecosystem. Human beings had depended on aquatic ecosystems for many years, thus it is our duty to protect them and continue using them for our basic needs.
Aquatic organisms and the ecosystem represent a substantial part of the earth's biological diversity. The association of man and aquatic ecosystem can be found back many centuries ago. It is not surprising that the first sign of civilizations and villages are traced to wetland areas, as aquatic ecosystems provide food and water for the people living near them. The flood plains of the Indus, the Nile delta, and the Fertile Crescent of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided man with all his basic necessities. Water is required for various purposes like drinking and personal hygiene, fishing, agriculture, navigation, industrial production, hydroelectricity generation and recreational activities. The wide variety of aquatic ecosystems can be profitably used by humans for various needs and for environmental amelioration. Ever-increasing population and industrialization have inflicted serious environmental pressures on these ecosystems and have affected them to such an extent that their health had been affected greatly over the past few years.
Therefore, I feel that there is a need for everyone to do their part in protecting and ensuring that aquatic ecosystem will remain healthy. Affecting the health of an aquatic ecosystems can be caused by many human activities. The release of chemical waste from factories can kill and wipe out many species of organisms. Global warming can also leads to the extinction of aquatic organisms.
As I had said earlier, changes in the temperature can kill the organisms as they are not suited and could not adapt to the temperature change in such a short time. Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans. Global warming causes the temperature of Earth to rise over the years because of what we call the greenhouse effect. It is being caused by the release of harmful gases like carbon monoxide into the environment by factories. Humans can thus be said to have caused global warming.
Imagine that all the freshwater on Earth is being polluted by our activities, how can we still survive, without freshwater for drinking and bathing, let alone those aquatic organisms? With all the fish dead in aquatic ecosystems, there will be definitely a shortage of food around the world. Therefore, I felt that my research had helped me in understanding the importance of saving aquatic ecosystems and through the research, I had also gained knowledge about the causes and effects of having an unhealthy aquatic ecosystem.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Restoring the health of an aquatic ecosystem
Can we, human beings restore the health of an aquatic ecosystem? It takes time and is dependent on the nature of the disturbance, how much it had been damaged. The effects of dredging, for example, may last from one to several years, but many of the displaced organisms such as fish can re-establish themselves. In other cases, more severe disturbances (e.g., dam construction) causes local extinction of already endangered species. These ecosystems are unlikely to recover naturally but with the help of humans, they may still recover.In many cases, there are mechanisms that exist and allow us to help restore ecosystem health or minimize detrimental impacts caused by human use. Following are some of these mechanisms that can help to resort the health of an aquatic ecosystem.
Integrated resource planning: This approach ensures that relationships among land use, development, water flows, water quality, and aquatic ecosystems are considered prior to an area's land use designation.
Technology: Measures to improve the quality of waste discharges and to lower both water demands and effluent loading are being implemented in response to environmental and water use concerns.
Environmental monitoring: Monitoring of chemicals in water, sediment, and organisms helps to identify potential ecosystem problems and to track existing problem.
Compensatory measures: For example, a fish hatchery operation can produce young fish that a disturbed habitat can no longer supply, the fish will then live there and compensate for the loss of the dead ones.
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