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Пермский государственный технический университет

F. R. Khabibrakhmanova

Ecology: Some Problems of Environmental Pollution.

Учебное пособие по английскому языку

для студентов I и II курсов

технических вузов

Пермь 2009

Рецензенты:

канд. пед. наук, доц. каф. ИЯЛиМК ПГТУ

И.В. Перлова;

канд. филол. наук, доц. Зав. каф. Иностранных языков Пермского филиала Нижегородской академии МВД России

И. А. Баринова

Ф. Р. Хабибрахманова

«Ecology: Some Problems of Environmental Pollution». Учебное пособие по английскому языку для студентов I и II курсов технических вузов. Перм. гос. техн. ун-т. Пермь, 2009. 107 с.

Предназначено для аудиторной и внеаудиторной работы студентов I и II курсов технических вузов. Представляет собой сборник текстов и статей по теме «Ecology: Some Problems of Environmental Pollution», отобранных на основе оригинальных английских и американских источников. Они адаптированы (сокращены), разбиты на шесть тематических разделов и сопровождаются специальными упражнениями на понимание содержания текстов и работу с новой лексикой. Каждый раздел содержит тематический глоссарий (Important terms) и перечень интересных фактов (Fast facts) для повышения мотивации студентов в изучении экологических проблем.

Данное учебное пособие рекомендовано для студентов технических вузов.

© Пермский государственный

технический университет, 2009

Введение

Учебное пособие «Ecology: Some Problems of Environmental Pollution» представляет собой сборник текстов по различным экологическим проблемам, составленный на основе аутентичных материалов для обучения информативному иноязычному чтению будущих специалистов по техническим специальностям, а также включает в себя систему упражнений, направленных на понимание содержания текстового материала, отработку лексико-грамматического материала по теме и практического применения этого материла в коммуникативных ситуациях профессиональной сферы деятельности.

Проблемы защиты окружающей среды напрямую касаются любой технической специальности, поскольку основными источниками загрязнения являются промышленные предприятия, сельскохозяйственные и даже проектные организации. Поэтому тематическое соответствие проблем, представленных в текстах, техническим специальностям обусловливает наличие в них содержательной информации, понятной, интересной и полезной будущим специалистам, а также готовит будущих инженеров к решению как глобальных экологических проблем, так и к решению экологических задач отдельных промышленных предприятий и организаций.

Пособие состоит из шести разделов: «Introduction. History of Ecology as a Science in Brief» (Введение. Краткая история экологии как науки), «The Problems of Air Pollution» (Проблемы загрязнения воздуха), «The Problems of Water Pollution» (Проблемы загрязнения воды), «The Problems of Soil Pollution. Noise Pollution» (Проблемы загрязнения почвы. Шумовое загрязнение), «Some Problems of Information Pollution» (О некоторых проблемах информационного загрязнения) и «Environmental Organizations» (Организации по защите окружающей среды). Каждый раздел включает в себя ряд текстов соответствующей тематики, перечень ключевых слов (Important Terms), ряд интересных фактов по теме раздела (Fast Facts), а также специальные предтекстовые упражнения, направленные на прогнозирование содержания текста (What do you think…is?; What do you think the text tells us about? и др.), текстовые упражнения на формирование, закрепление и отработку лексических навыков студентов (Choose the key words from the texts to characterize…; Choose the words from the text to complete this summary of the text; Complete the following sentences according to the context и др.), на понимание содержания текста (Match these headings to paragraphs; Complete the table below with answers from the texts и др. ) и формирование навыков говорения (Can you think of any more solutions to…; Prove the statements…).

В процессе обучения информативному чтению на английском языке на основе предложенных материалов предполагается целенаправленное формирование у студентов следующих умений:

  • определять основную мысль текста в процессе чтения;

  • обобщать и группировать отдельные факты в смысловые части;

  • выделять новые информационные единицы;

  • усваивать новую информацию посредством выполнения специальных устных и письменных упражнений;

  • фиксировать новую профессиональную информацию в виде выписок и перевода на родной язык;

  • творчески перерабатывать полученную информацию, делая литературный перевод отдельных отрывков текстов в соответствии с нормами русского языка и профессионально-техническими особенностями (подбор русского эквивалента к английскому тексту);

  • аргументировано доказывать или опровергать некоторые утверждения, данные в упражнениях на основе материалов текстов.

Ecology: Some Problems of Environmental Pollution.

Unit I. Introduction.

History of Ecology as a Science in Brief.

Nature is not a place to visit, it is our home…”

Gary Snyder, poet

Before you read Texts 1 and 2

  • How do you understand the statement given in the quotation of this unit?

  • What do you think ecology is?

  • What does this science study?

  • What do you think to be ecologically educated means?

  • When did ecology as a science start?

As you read Texts 1 and 2

  • Choose the key words from the texts to characterize ecology as the science and study.

  • Find out the facts to describe the main points of the development of this science.

Text 1. Definition of Ecology.

The term oekologie (ecology) was coined in 1866 by the German biologist, Ernst Haeckel from the Greek oikos meaning "house" or "dwelling", and logos meaning "science" or "study". Thus, ecology is the "study of the household of nature". Haeckel intended it to encompass the study of an animal in relation to both the physical environment and other plants and animals with which it interacted.

A contemporary definition of ecology is: the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions that determine distribution and abundance. This definition encompasses not only the plants and animals that Haeckel recognized but microscopic organisms such as Bacteria, Archaea and protozoa, as well. The interactions that determine an organism's distribution and abundance are processes that include energy flow, growth, reproduction, predation, competition and many others. Ecology has been defined variously as “the study of the interrelationships of organisms with their environment and each other,” as “the economy of nature,” and as “the biology of ecosystems.”

So, ecology is the study of the relationships between organisms and their environment. Some of the most pressing problems in human affairs—expanding populations, food scarcities, environmental pollution including global warming, extinctions of plant and animal species, and all the attendant sociological and political problems – are to a great degree ecological.

Text 2. Historical Background.

Ecology had no firm beginnings. It evolved from the natural history of the ancient Greeks, particularly Theophrastus, a friend and associate of Aristotle. Theophrastus first described the interrelationships between organisms and between organisms and their nonliving environment. Later foundations for modern ecology were laid in the early work of plant and animal physiologists.

In the early and mid-1900s two groups of botanists, one in Europe and the other in the United States, studied plant communities from two different points of view. The European botanists concerned themselves with the study of the composition, structure, and distribution of plant communities. The American botanists studied the development of plant communities, or succession. Both plant and animal ecology developed separately until American biologists emphasized the interrelation of both plant and animal communities as a biotic whole.

During the same period, interest in population dynamics developed. The study of population dynamics received special impetus in the early 19th century, after the English economist Thomas Malthus called attention to the conflict between expanding populations and the capability of Earth to supply food. In the 1920s the American zoologist Raymond Pearl, the American chemist and statistician Alfred J. Lotka, and the Italian mathematician Vito Volterra developed mathematical foundations for the study of populations, and these studies led to experiments on the interaction of predators and prey, competitive relationships between species, and the regulation of populations. Investigations of the influence of behaviour on populations were stimulated by the recognition in 1920 of territoriality in nesting birds. Concepts of instinctive and aggressive behaviour were developed by the Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz and the Dutch-born British zoologist Nikolaas Tinbergen, and the role of social behaviour in the regulation of populations was explored by the British zoologist Vero Wynne-Edwards.

While some ecologists were studying the dynamics of communities and populations, others were concerned with energy budgets. In 1920 August Thienemann, a German freshwater biologist, introduced the concept of trophic, or feeding, levels, by which the energy of food is transferred through a series of organisms, from green plants (the producers) up to several levels of animals (the consumers). An English animal ecologist, Charles Elton (1927), further developed this approach with the concept of ecological niches and pyramids of numbers. In the 1930s, American freshwater biologists Edward Birge and Chancey Juday, in measuring the energy budgets of lakes, developed the idea of primary productivity, the rate at which food energy is generated, or fixed, by photosynthesis. In 1942 Raymond L. Lindeman of the United States developed the trophic-dynamic concept of ecology, which details the flow of energy through the ecosystem. Quantified field studies of energy flow through ecosystems were further developed by the brothers Eugene Odum and Howard Odum of the United States; similar early work on the cycling of nutrients was done by J.D. Ovington of England and Australia.

The study of both energy flow and nutrient cycling was stimulated by the development of new materials and techniques—radioisotope tracers, microcalorimetry, computer science, and applied mathematics—that enabled ecologists to label, track, and measure the movement of particular nutrients and energy through ecosystems. These modern methods encouraged a new stage in the development of ecology—systems ecology, which is concerned with the structure and function of ecosystems.

After you read Texts 1 and 2. Answer these questions:

  1. What is the origin of the term ecology?

  2. What are the most prominent names, linked with the science of ecology?

  3. What was their contribution to the science?

  4. What other sciences is ecology based on?

Before you read Texts 3 and 4

  • Do you think ecological problems concern the sphere of your speciality?

  • What do you think the means and ways of investigations in ecology are?

  • Do you think ecological problems concern just scientists and specialists?

Text 3. Areas of Study.

Ecology is necessarily the union of many areas of study because its definition is so all-encompassing. There are many kinds of relationships between organisms and their environment. By organisms one might mean single individuals, groups of individuals, all the members of one species, the sum of many species, or the total mass of species (biomass) in an ecosystem. And the term environment includes not only physical and chemical features but also the biological environment, which involves yet more organisms.

In practice, ecology is composed of broadly overlapping approaches and further divided by the groups of species to be studied. There are many, for example, who specialize in the field of “bird behavioral ecology.” The main approaches fall into the following classes.

Evolutionary ecology examines the environmental factors that drive species adaptation. Studies of the evolution of species might seek to answer the question of how populations have changed genetically over several generations but might not necessarily attempt to learn what the underlying mechanisms might be. Evolutionary ecology seeks those mechanisms.

Political ecology is the study of how decisions made by governments around the world, the development of the world economy, and the way people live affect the environment.

Physiological ecology asks how organisms survive in their environments. There is often an emphasis on extreme conditions, such as very cold or very hot environments or aquatic environments with unusually high salt concentrations. Physiological ecology looks at the special mechanisms that the individuals of a species use to function and at the limits on species imposed by the environment.

Behavioral ecology examines the ecological factors that drive behavioral adaptations. The subject considers how individuals find their food and avoid their enemies.

Population ecology, or autecology, examines single species. One immediate question that the subject addresses is why some species are rare while others are abundant. Interactions with other species may supply some of the answers. Consequently, population ecology shares an indefinite boundary with community ecology, a subject that examines the interactions between several to many species. Species abundances vary both from year to year and across the species’ geographic range. Population ecology asks what causes abundances to fluctuate.

Biogeography is the study of the geographical distribution of organisms, and it asks questions that parallel those of population ecology. Some species have tiny geographical ranges, being restricted to perhaps only a few square kilometres, while other species have ranges that cover a continent. Some species have more-or-less fixed geographical ranges, while others fluctuate, and still others are on the increase. Biogeography also considers the ranges of many species, asking why, for example, species with small geographic ranges are often found in special places that house many such species rather than scattered randomly about the planet.

Community ecology, or synecology, considers the ecology of communities, the set of species found in a particular place. Because the complete set of species for a particular place is usually not known, community ecology often focuses on subsets of organisms, asking questions, for example, about plant communities or insect communities. A fundamental question deals with the size of the “set of species”—that is, what ecological factors determine how many species are present in an area.

Conservation biology seeks to understand what factors predispose species to extinction and what humans can do about preventing extinction. Species in danger of extinction are often those with the smallest geographic ranges or the smallest population sizes, but other ecological factors are also involved.

Ecosystem ecology examines large-scale ecological issues, ones that often are framed in terms not of species but rather of measures such as biomass, energy flow, and nutrient cycling. Questions include how much carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere by terrestrial plants and marine phytoplankton during photosynthesis and how much of that is consumed by herbivores, the herbivores’ predators, and so on up the food chain. Carbon is the basis of life, so these questions may be framed in terms of energy. How much food one has to eat each day, for instance, can be measured in terms of its dry weight or its calorie content. The same applies to measures of production for all the plants in an ecosystem or for different trophic levels of an ecosystem. A basic question in ecosystem ecology is how much production there is and what the factors are that affect it. Not surprisingly, warm, wet places such as rainforests produce more than extremely cold or dry places, but other factors are important. Nutrients are essential and may be in limited supply. The availability of phosphorus and nitrogen often determines productivity – it is the reason these substances are added to lawns and crops – and their availability is particularly important in aquatic systems. On the other hand, nutrients can represent too much of a good thing. Human activity has modified global ecosystems in ways that are increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, a carbon source but also a greenhouse gas, and causing excessive runoff of fertilizers into rivers and then into the ocean, where it kills the species that live there.

Text 4. Methods in Ecology.

Because ecologists work with living systems possessing numerous variables, the scientific techniques used by physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and engineers require modification for use in ecology. Moreover, the techniques are not as easily applied in ecology, nor are the results as precise as those obtained in other sciences. It is relatively simple, for example, for a physicist to measure gain and loss of heat from metals or other inanimate objects, which possess certain constants of conductivity, expansion, surface features, and the like. To determine the heat exchange between an animal and its environment, however, a physiological ecologist is confronted with an array of almost unquantifiable variables and with the formidable task of gathering the numerous data and analyzing them. Ecological measurements may never be as precise or subject to the same ease of analysis as measurements in physics, chemistry, or certain quantifiable areas of biology.

In spite of these problems, various aspects of the environment can be determined by physical and chemical means, ranging from simple chemical identifications and physical measurements to the use of sophisticated mechanical apparatus. The development of biostatistics (statistics applied to the analysis of biological data), the elaboration of proper experimental design, and improved sampling methods now permit a quantified statistical approach to the study of ecology. Because of the extreme difficulties of controlling environmental variables in the field, studies involving the use of experimental design are largely confined to the laboratory and to controlled field experiments designed to test the effects of only one variableor several variables. The use of statistical procedures and computer models based on data obtained from the field provide insights into population interactions and ecosystem functions. Mathematical programming models are becoming increasingly important in applied ecology, especially in the management of natural resources and agricultural problems having an ecological basis.

Controlled environmental chambers enable experimenters to maintain plants and animalsunder known conditions of light, temperature, humidity, and day length so that the effects of each variable (or combination of variables) on the organism can be studied. Biotelemetry and other electronic tracking equipment, which allow the movements and behaviour of free-ranging organisms to be followed remotely, can provide rapid sampling of populations. Radioisotopes are used for tracing the pathways of nutrients through ecosystems, for determining the time and extent of transfer of energy and nutrients through the different components of the ecosystem, and for the determination of food chains. The use of laboratory microcosms – aquatic and soil micro-ecosystems, consisting of biotic and nonbiotic material from natural ecosystems, held under conditions similar to those found in the field – are useful in determining rates of nutrient cycling, ecosystem development, and other functional aspects of ecosystems. Microcosms enable the ecologist to duplicate experiments and to perform experimental manipulation on them.

After you read Texts 3 and 4. Answer these questions:

  1. What are the most interesting areas of ecology personally for you? Why?

  2. Can information technology be applied in ecology? How?

  3. What are some other methods, applied in ecology for solving problems?

Before you read Texts 5 and 6

  • Look at the title of the text 5. What do you think the text tells us about?

  • For the text 6: what is your vision of the ecological crisis problem?

Text 5. Ecology and Evolution.

Ecology is closely allied with its sister discipline evolution. The two disciplines often appear together, such as in the title of one on the most highly cited journals in the field “Trends in Ecology and Evolution”. Ecology and evolution are scientifically connected because they both study hierarchy, networks, relations, and kinship among genes, cells, individuals, communities, species, and the biosphere. There is no sharp dichotomous boundary that separates the two disciplines and they differ more in their areas of applied focus than in their shared scientific philosophies on nature. Both disciplines find and explain unique properties and processes operating in different ways according the spatial or temporal scales being considered. Ecological theory is not necessarily invoked in evolutionary research, such as what role it played in the major transitions in the history of life. Evolution is concerned primarily with the nature of change through the guiding principals of natural selection, inheritance, and differential survival. While the boundary between ecology and evolution is not always clear, it is understood that ecology studies the abiotic and biotic factors that influence the evolutionary process.

Text 6. Ecological Crisis.

Generally, an ecological crisis occurs with the loss of adaptive capacity when the resilience of an environment or of a species or a population evolves in a way unfavourable to coping with perturbations that interfere with that ecosystem, landscape or species survival. It may be that the environment quality degrades compared to the species needs, after a change in an abiotic ecological factor (for example, an increase of temperature, less significant rainfalls). It may be that the environment becomes unfavourable for the survival of a species (or a population) due to an increased pressure of predation (for example overfishing). Lastly, it may be that the situation becomes unfavourable to the quality of life of the species (or the population) due to a rise in the number of individuals (overpopulation).

Ecological crises vary in length and severity, occurring within a few months or taking as long as a few million years. They can also be of natural or anthropic origin. They may relate to one unique species or to many species, as in an Extinction event. Lastly, an ecological crisis may be local (as an oil spill) or global (a rise in the sea level due to global warming).

According to its degree of endemism, a local crisis will have more or less significant consequences, from the death of many individuals to the total extinction of a species. Whatever its origin, disappearance of one or several species often will involve a rupture in the food chain, further impacting the survival of other species.

In the case of a global crisis, the consequences can be much more significant; some extinction events showed the disappearance of more than 90% of existing species at that time. However, it should be noted that the disappearance of certain species, such as the dinosaurs, by freeing an ecological niche, allowed the development and the diversification of the mammals. An ecological crisis thus paradoxically favoured biodiversity.

Sometimes, an ecological crisis can be a specific and reversible phenomenon at the ecosystem scale. But more generally, the crises impact will last. Indeed, it rather is a connected series of events, that occur till a final point. From this stage, no return to the previous stable state is possible, and a new stable state will be set up gradually.

Lastly, if an ecological crisis can cause extinction, it can also more simply reduce the quality of life of the remaining individuals. Thus, even if the diversity of the human population is sometimes considered threatened, few people envision human disappearance at short span. However, epidemic diseases, famines, impact on health of reduction of air quality, food crises, reduction of living space, accumulation of toxic or non degradable wastes, threats on keystone species (great apes, panda, whales) are also factors influencing the well-being of people.

Due to the increases in technology and a rapidly increasing population, humans have more influence on their own environment than any other ecosystem engineer.

After you read Texts 5 and 6. Answer these questions:

  1. How are ecology and evolution connected?

  2. Do you think there are some differences between ecology and evolution?

  3. What are the reasons of occurring the ecological crisis problem?

  4. What is the length of ecological crisis?

  5. What spheres of environment does it cover?

  6. What events can ecological crisis lead to?

  7. Does this problem concern you personally? In what way?

Fast Facts

  • Every ton of paper recycled saves 17 trees!

  • The garbage in a landfill stays for about 30 years.

  • Approximately only 10 percent of every landfill can be cleaned up.

  • Each person throws away approximately four pounds of garbage every day.

  • One bus carries as many people as 40 cars!

  • More than 1/3 of all energy is used by people at home

  • Most families throw away about 88 pounds of plastic every year

  • We each use about 12,000 gallons of water every year

  • 1/3 of all water is used to flush the toilet.

  • The 500 million automobiles on earth burn an average of 2 gallons of fuel a day.

  • Each gallon of fuel releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.

  • Approximately 5 million tons of oil produced in the world each ear ends up in the ocean.

  • The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a traditional light bulb for four hours

  • For every 2000 pounds of paper (1 ton) recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water free from chemicals.

  • Recycled paper requires 64% less energy than making paper from virgin wood pulp, and can save many trees

  • The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years

  • Earth is 2/3 water. But all the fresh water streams only represent one hundredth of one percent.

  • 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year

  • It takes 90% less energy to recycle aluminum cans than to make new ones

  • 5 billion aluminum cans are used each year

  • 84 percent of all household waste can be recycled.

  • Computers pose an environmental threat because much of the material that makes them up is hazardous. A typical monitor contains 4-5 pounds of lead.

  • Ivory comes from dead elephants, its best not to buy it.

  • Fur coats often come from endangered animals, it's best not to buy them.

  • One gallon of motor oil can contaminate up to 2 million gallons of water. So dispose of properly!

  • Here is an example of the water we use everyday: 3-7 gallons for toilet, 25-30 gallons for tub, 50-70 gallons for a 10 minute shower, 1 washing machine load uses 25-40 gallons, 1 dishwasher load uses 9-12 gallons

  • Here is an example of how long it takes some things take to break down: plastics take 500 years, aluminum cans take 500 years, organic materials, take 6 months, cotton, rags, paper take 6 months.