In a 2-3 page paper, using APA-style formatting, define and discuss the concept

Question

In a 2-3 page paper, using APA-style formatting, define and discuss the concept of ecological services. Then, review the “Ecological Services of Rivers” outlined in Mini Lecture: Water Resources and Water Pollution. From the list, identify two services you believe are the most important and cite at least 3 reasons why. Also, choose two services that you think are most likely to decline due to human influence and cite at least 3 examples of the result of decline of those services. Grading Criteria Assignments Maximum Points Meets or exceeds established assignment criteria 40 Demonstrates an understanding of lesson concepts 20 Clearly presents well-reasoned ideas and concepts 30 Uses proper mechanics, punctuation, sentence structure, and spelling 10 Total 100

Grading Criteria Assignments Maximum Points Meets or exceeds established assignment criteria 40 Demonstrates an understanding of lesson concepts 20 Clearly presents well-reasoned ideas and concepts 30 Uses proper mechanics, punctuation, sentence structure, and spelling 10 Total 100

Explanation / Answer

Water is an very essential component for supporting life on this planet out planet contain 71% water where as only 0.024% is in usable form and rest are of no use to us as majority of it salty form in oceans. Water supports our daily life activities we cant even imagine a day without water. Well first life originated in water then with the gradually with the passage of time it has moved on the land when the condition was favorable for the life to be supported on the land. Our body is also composed of 60% by the water. Our water requirement is being meat by the fresh water resources such as river, lakes as well as from the ground water, due to our lack of the knowledge we are unknowingly damaging this very essential natural resource by polluting it, Naturally this great resource is being purified by the hydrological cycle, but unfortunately this is being disturbed by the reducing wetlands and forests.

Our requirement for water are being fulfilled by the rivers, lakes and the ground water. Ground water is a water that seeps into the subsurface by the pores in the soil and travels until it reaches impervious bedrock. It is an very important sources of fresh water. The top portion of the water also moves up and down based upon the weather and is known as the water table. The human activity also influence the water table in any area, by pumping more water from the subsurface it’ll deplete the water table in that region . The main sources of the fresh water are from the precipitation and the melting of the snow that flows into the lakes, wetlands, rivers and eventually into the oceans.

Water supplies:

Fresh water are the water that are being in the usable form which comes from the rivers water as well as from the ground water. Ground water are renewable form of water as long as this water are not contaminated or over withdrawn too quickly. Now a day an new trend of ground water is being seen in which the rate of withdrawal is more as compare to that of the rate of replenishment. Dam and reservoir are also an good effort to store the water but this also have some negative impact on the people and on the ecological services of river along with the displacing people.

Water from his reservoirs can be transfered to the areas where there is more requirement of water , this transfer system can be wasteful and harmful to the environment as by shrinking the water sources. Another option to get freshwater is desalinization which involve the removal of salt from the ocean or brackish water, well this is an expensive method as it requires energy for this, it also kills marine organism and increase the local salinity of the local ocean.

Sustainable water use

minimizing the water wastage can help us a lot in using the water in the proper way. Most of the water is lost by the process of evaporation, leaks in the water distribution system. Main cause of water wastage is it low cost as it being subsidized by the government, in order to minimized the cost of water for the general people, this subsidy should be removed and all the cost should be bored by the common people this’ll create an awareness about how to utilize water in more efficient way. Most of the agricultural practice uses the flood irrigation method which also causes an huge loss of water, instead new method of irrigation should be used such as Drip irrigation or sprinklers irrigation as this methods deliver water to the target plants and insure less water loss in the environment by evaporation. At home more water shaving appliance should be used especially at kitchen and bathroom, Practice of grey water should be used to water lawns and garden.

Ecological Services

Water resources provide important ecological and environment services this includes purifying water and air, reduces drought and flood risk along with food and fuel and support recreation. It’s economic value can be calculated which is just an numerical values n terms of figures. Well in order to continue to avail this services our natural areas must be healthy.

We cant find any other alternative for this natural ecosystem services which work silently and for free without charging any thing for this, well this could have saved trillions of dollars for us. Lets us take an example- In1993 when Mississippi River flooded it causes an enormous damage to the life and property totaling at around 12 billion dollars this was being caused by the destruction of the wetlands and by the alternation of the channels of the river.

Major portion of the world relies upon the natural medicinal products out of which

74% comes from plants

18% comes from Fungi

5% comes from bacteria

3% comes from vertebrate

There are numerous species such as bats, bees, flies, butterflies provide free pollinations services, again it’s value can be in the billions.

Along with the above mentioned services following are the services which are being provided by our ecology

Protect our earth from the harmful radiation of ultraviolet rays of the sun.

It help in the natural cycling and movement of nutrient.

Help in the detoxifying the decomposed wastes.

It help in maintaining the biodiversity.

Water pollution

Water pollution is an major issue of concern not on the local level but on the global level too, this can be caused by the human activities or by natural sources. Natural sources cause an local problem where as the human activities are causing an global scale impact. Water pollution sources are classified in two types

Point source pollution

Non point source pollution.

Point source pollution are the locations where the pollutant are entering into the water can be located or tracked. Where as the non point source are the area rather than the single point that which is difficult to track the exact location from where the pollution is entering into the water body this can be caused by the runoff , agricultural practice mining etc. water pollution have an wide impact on the human being. Fast moving water bodies have the ability to breakdown the wastes with bacteria. Standing water cannot clean themselves this can cause in the nutrient enrichment shallow bodies causing and killing other organisms.

Well in the most advanced nations the ground water are being treated tot the government standards but this technique are not available in all the countries.

Almost 40% of world people are living near the coast , wetlands, estuaries etc . Most of the marine pollution are being caused by the land pollution as
agricultural and sewage runoff and all the water finally drain into the ocean or sees. Oil also act as an pollutant and it contribute too in pollution.

Dealing water pollution:

Well there are laws and regulation to take care but the more importantly it’s being our awareness which can help us to short out the problem. General people should be made aware of this issue on the global scale so as this that every body should contribute something in order to solve the issue for the future generations.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.