BIOL 1500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Cellular Respiration, Habitat Destruction, Eutrophication
6 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Habitat loss is a major threat to biodiversity. Grasslands and forests are destroyed to make room for farms. Deforestation, the removal of trees, has several implications: forests provide habitats for many species. Also, trees absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, and release oxygen and water into the atmosphere. Pollution is any chemical, physical, or biological change in the environment that harms living organisms. In a process called eutrophication, excessive nutrients ultimately lead to oxygen-poor water that cannot sustain much life. How it works: when nutrients are high, algae thrive, decomposers carryout cellular respiration as they consume dead algae, cellular respiration uses o2, lack of o2 kills fish and other o2- dependent (obligate aerobes) organisms. Air pollution also causes many types of damage. This city is plagued with smog, visible air pollution. Burning fossil fuels release sulfur and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, where they mix with water and form acids.
