Pollution Biology

1. ES 4207: Pollution Biology: 2 Credits ; 2 hours per week
Section A
Concepts: Pollution vs resources: cycling of material: Tolerance
ranges: Carrying capacity: Bioaccumulation: Air pollution –
responses of plants and animal, monitoring air pollution by plants
(e.g., lichens), control of air pollution by plants.
Class test: 1/2
Final Exam:

2. Introduction to the most common pollutants in the environment,
including chemical composition, occurrence, dispersion, in
addition to uptake, biotransformation, distribution and excretion
of environmental pollutants (heavy metals, pesticides,
carcinogens and other industrial products) in organisms (plants,
animals and human) and to disturbing effects of chemical
compounds at population and ecosystem level

3.  Healthy ecosystems rely on interactions between the living portions of the
environment and its non-living components
 However, human activities can cause significant disturbance as a result
of the accidental or deliberate introduction of pollutants into the
environment. https://www.una-orlando.org/pollution-resource-depletion-
and-environmental-destruction.html
 These disturbances can cause significant alterations in the interactions
between the various components that make up the ecosystem.
 The main focus could be on the effects of these pollutants and how they
can be assessed using physicochemical and biological endpoints.
 Particular attention could be placed on describing (1) what pollution is
and how/why it is harmful at multiple levels of biological organization, (2)
what the root sources and causes of pollution are, (3) what happens to
pollutants (chemical, biological and physical) when they enter the
environment, and (4) how each pollutant class affects individual and
community health over acute to chronic exposure periods.

4.  The course may focus on a variety of anthropogenic stressors in outdoor
and indoor environments such as –
(1) chemical agents including ozone, asbestos, radon, smoke, nanoparticles,
heavy metals, chlorination by-products, pesticides, petroleum
hydrocarbons and endocrine active chemicals;
(2) physical stressors including radiation, heat and noise; and
(3) food/water-borne stressors such as bacteria, viruses, algae/biotoxins and
parasites.

5. -Carrying capacity of our environment
-Bioaccumulation
-Bioavailability
-Bio-magnification
-Bio-monitoring
-Effects of air pollution
-Factors of effect
-Length of time to expose
-Types of pollution
-Concentration of pollutant
-Effects of air pollution on animals
-Mechanism of CO with haemoglobin
-Effects of air pollution on plants
-Disease caused by air pollution
-Bio-indicator and Characteristics of bio-indicator
ES 4207: Pollution Biology: 2 Credits ; 2
hours per week
Section A
Concepts: Pollution vs resources: cycling of
material: Tolerance ranges: Carrying capacity:
Bioaccumulation: Air pollution – responses of
plants and animal, monitoring air pollution by
plants (e.g., lichens), control of air pollution by
plants.

6. Carrying capacity-
Carrying capacity is the number of organisms that an ecosystem can
sustainably support
An ecosystem’s carrying capacity for a particular species may be
influenced by factors as its ability to regenerate the food, water, atmosphere,
and other necessities that the organisms need to survive
In population biology, carrying capacity is defined as the environment's
maximal load

7.  Ecosystems cannot exceed their carrying capacity for a long period of
time. In situations where the population density of a given species
exceeds the ecosystem’s carrying capacity, the species will deplete its
own source of food, water, or other necessities, and will soon begin die
off.
 The species population can grow until it reaches that line, at which point
resources will not be sufficient to allow it to continue to grow over the
long-term:

8.  An example of a situation in which the carrying capacity of an
environment is exceeded is the example of deer in North America
 After the widespread elimination of wolves – the natural predator of North
American deer – the deer reproduced until their need for food plant
species exceeded the environment’s ability to regenerate their food
plants. In many areas, this resulted in large numbers of deer starving until
the deer population was severely reduced
 Humans have managed to increase the Earth’s carrying capacity for
human life using technological inventions such as agriculture and
genetically modified crops, which have a greater ability to produce food in
some environments than natural crops
 Still, some scientists fear that humans may exceed the Earth’s carrying
capacity for humans, and encourage the use of contraception to decrease
birth rates in order to prevent human populations from exhausting their
sources of food and other vital resources