BIOLOGY FOLIO

CHAPTER 9 : ENDANGERED ECOSYSTEM

NAME : MUHAMMAD SUHAIL BIN SHAHIMI

CLASS : 4 EPSILON

TEACHER : MISS HARTINI BINTI ABDUL MUTALIB

LIST OF CONTENTS

No. CONTENT PAGE1. INTRODUCTION2. OBJECTIVE3. HUMAN ACTIVITIES THAT

ENDANGER AN ECOSYSTEM

A) CauseB) Source

4. GREENHOUSE EFFECT AND THE THINNING OF THE OZONE LAYER

5. STEPS TO MAINTAIN A STABLE ENVIRONMENT

6. CONCLUSION7. REFERENCE

INTRODUCTION

An environment that is healthy and

beautiful is everyone’s dream.

However, irresponsible activities

have upset the balance in

environment and caused many

environmental problems as well as

endangering the ecosystem. The

earth can only be a place if

development activities are planned

with great care.

OBJECTIVES

THE REASON THE PAPERWORK IS BEING DONE IS DUE TO SEVERAL OBJECTIVES AS SATTED BELOW :-

To instill awareness among humans about the significance of preservation and conservation of the ecosystem

To make human realize how bad are the effects of human’s activities towards the environment

To increase efforts on creting a safer environment for ourselves and for the future generations

To deduce the time for the depletion and destruction of the environment due tovarios environmental problems caused by human beings

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, i would like to introduce myself. I, Muhammad Suhail bin Shahimi from 4 Epsilon and i am glad indeed to be studying biology which is the most intriguing subject ever. I now, have completed a paperwork or a folio on the topic ‘Endangered Ecosystem’ based on the last chapter in the form 4 biology syllabus.

Nevertheless, i felt relief and grateful of having such wonderful companions who are my lovely biology teacher, Miss Hartini, my parents,

my helpful friend and my siblings. I would to thank the mentioned people who have been very supportive and helpful in giving me extra information, tips and ideas to make this work a satisfying piece.

Not to forget, my headmaster, Encik Sabuddin b. Hj. Sani, for giving us, the students, this opportunity to do this folio. Last but not least, thank you once again for all the commitments and supports. May all of you have a good day!

_HUMAN ACTIVITIES THAT

ENDANGER AN ECOSYSTEM_

Human activities that threaten the ecosystem

The world’s population might reach to 10 billoins in the next fifty years. Hence, when there are increments in the number of the world’s population , it generally means

that there is an increasing demand for shelter, food, medicine, transport and raw materials.

Today, due to expectation of modern living and industrial revolution, the world has to confront the destruction of forests to build more houses, to being use as plantation areas and build roads, just to fulfill human’s needs.

Unplanned developments and mismanagement of ecosystem give rise to vast amounts of environmental crisis. Among those environmental problems are greenhouse effect, global warming, pollution, soil erosion, landslide, flashflood and ozone depletion.

The human activities that we are talking about are like agriculture, burning or combustion, industrialization, urbanization and last but not least, deforestation.

THE IMPACT OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES

TOWARDS THE ECOSYSTEM

DEFORESTATION

Large agriculture of forests are cleared for extracting timber of fuel wood, agriculture needs, and for the sake of urbanization. The impacts are enourmous and outrageous. Let see what are the drawbacks of deforestation.

DEFORESTATION CAUSED :

-soil erosion

-landslides

-flashfloods

-extinction of flora and

BURNING CAUSED :

-various types of pollutions

-greenhouse effect

FARMING, INDUSTRIALISATION AND URBANISATION CAUSED :

-pollution

Lanslide In Mexico

Soil erosion flow is blocked. Thus, water flows inland and causes flash floods in, flash floods and landslides

When it rains for a long time especially during rainy seasons, the top layer of soil loosens and slides down, thus causing landslides.

Soil erotion

learing of trees causes the loss of tree leaves that protect the soil from a massive impulsive force of heavy raindrops

and also causes the loss of tree roots that hold the soil in place.

The wide exposure to the raindrops forces, give arise to soil erosion. Here, the top layer of soil is easily being washed away by heavy rainfall. The eroded soil, is then, deposited in rivers or streams.

Flash Flood

During heavy rains, rainwater flows harshly into rivers because there is a non-existence of retention of water by plant roots as well as proper water catchments areas.

Due to silting in the rivers, the water flow is blocked. Thus, water flows inland and causes flash floods in low areas.

In addition, soil erosion contributes in the depletion of minerals in the soil, causing the land trouble to be used as a place of cultivation.

FARMING

In order to fulfill the demands of today’s food supplement, large areas of lands have been used and will be used for farming purposes.

Excessive use of land for farming and stock rearing lead to infertile land and may expose the soil to erosion by wind or heavy rainfalls.

Inorganic fertilizers usage in farming also results to eutrophication.

URBANISATION

Industrialisation give off industrial waste and heated waste water causing water pollution and thermal pollution.

Toxic gases released by industries contribute to a major concerning problem ; air pollution.

THE GREEN HOUSE EFFECT

What is a green house effect?

The greenhouse effect is a process by which radiative energy leaving a planetary surface is absorbed by some atmospheric gases, called greenhouse gases. They transfer this energy to other components of the atmosphere, and it is re-radiated in all directions, including back down towards the surface. This transfers energy to the surface and lower atmosphere, so the temperature there is higher than it would be if direct heating by solar radiation were the only warming mechanism.

This mechanism is fundamentally different from that of an actual greenhouse, which works by isolating warm air inside the structure so that heat is not lost by convection

Who discovered the green house effect??

JOSEPH FOURIER

The greenhouse effect was discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824, first reliably experimented on by John Tyndall in 1858, and first reported quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896.

If an ideal thermally conductive blackbody was the same distance from the Sun as the Earth, it would have an expected blackbody temperature of 5.3 °C. However, since the Earth reflects about 30% (or 28%]) of the incoming sunlight, the planet's actual blackbody temperature is about -18 or -19 °C, about 33°C below the actual surface temperature of about 14 °C or 15 °C.] The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual temperature and the blackbody temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect.

What is the example of green house effect?

Global warming, a recent warming of the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere, is believed to be the result of a strengthening of the greenhouse effect mostly due to human-produced increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases

FLOOD

MELTING OF POLES

THE THINNING OF OZONE LAYERThe ozone layer protects the Earth from the ultraviolet rays sent down by the sun.  If the ozone layer is depleted by human action, the effects on the planet could be catastrophic.

Ozone is present in the stratosphere.  The stratosphere reaches 30 miles above the Earth, and at the very top it contains ozone.  The suns rays are absorbed by the ozone in the stratosphere and thus do not reach the Earth.

Ozone is a bluish gas that is formed by three atoms of oxygen.  The form of oxygen that humans breathe in consists of two oxygen atoms, O2.  When found on the surface of the planet, ozone is considered a dangerous pollutant and is one substance responsible for producing the greenhouse effect.

The highest regions of the stratosphere contain about 90% of all ozone. 

In recent years, the ozone layer has been the subject of much discussion.  And rightly so, because the ozone layer protects both plant and animal life on the planet.

The fact that the ozone layer was being depleted was discovered in the mid-1980s.  The main cause of this is the release of CFCs, chlorofluorocarbons.

Antarctica was an early victim of ozone destruction.  A massive hole in the ozone layer right above Antarctica now threatens not only that continent, but many others that could be the victims of Antarctica's melting icecaps.  In the future, the ozone problem will have to be solved so that the protective layer can be conserved.

_STEPS TO MAINTAIN A STABLE ENVIRONMENT_

• There are many steps can be taken to maintain the balance of nature such as:

a) Enforcement of the environmental laws • Environment quality act, 1974 - Controls and prevents the pollution of the environment - Controls the type of licensing, content and quality of environment - Tests and examines the samples of substances and gas from industries

• Natural forestry act, 1984 - Aims at protecting and preserving our forests and wildlife

• Pesticides act, 1974 - Aims at controlling the use of pesticides

• Protection of wildlife act, 1972 - Aims at protecting wildlife animals, birds and plants

• Fisheries act, 1985 - Aims at controlling marine pollution

b)Use of technology

• Use modern equipments and

chemicals to control oil spills.

• Recycle rubbish

• To look for methods to do research

• Change organic rubbish to biogas

• Use less polluting and clean fuels in motor vehicles.

• Control and treat the toxic and dangerous waste before disposing

c) Education • To increase the awareness and sensitivity of the individual to the environment.

• To provide the basic knowledge of environmental problems and effects of pollutions.

• To teach the public the necessary skills to protect and maintain a healthy society.

• To help the individuals to become responsible and sensitive to the environment.

d)Preservation and conservation of the ecosystem.

• Force the development companies to replant the forest trees after deforestation.

• Remaining the mangrove swamps area so that the ecosystem is protected.

• Restore the mining and used land for agriculture.

• Put effort in rivers cleaning to ensure there is sufficient supply of water in future

e)Practice of biological control.

• A method of controlling the animal pests by using natural predators instead of using chemical substances.

• Factors to choose the animals predators.

1.The animals predators do not bring any infection or disease.

2.the animal predators do not eat the other organisms in the same habitat.

f) Efficient use of energy and use of renewable energy

• Energy plays an important role in our life

• Non-renewable energy will be exhausted in one day. For example, coal, oil and fossil fuels

• Solar energy can be used as a substitute of fuels

• Renewable energy, such as solar energy,

wave power and tidal power areenvironmental friendly and need to bedeveloped.

_CONCLUSION_

The effects of unplanned development and mismanagement of the ecosystem can lead to damaging consequences such as soil erosion, flash floods, landslides, eutrophication,pollution global warming, ozone depletion,climatic changes and loss of biodiversity. There are four types of pollution which are air, water, thermal, and noise pollution. Greenhouse gases released by various human activities can trap heat in the atmosphere and raise the Earth’s average temperature. Such an overall rise in the Earth’s temperature can leads to global warming. The thinning of ozone layer is mainly due to the accumulation of chloroflurocarbons(CFCs) in the atmosphere. Sustainable development must take into consideration of proper management of the ecosystem to ensure a balance of nature is maintained.

REFERENCES

• Biology form 4 textbook.

• Focus Ace SPM Biology Reference boo