Silent Spring
What does a Silent Spring mean?
How do humans effect the environment?
What is cycling chemical elements?
What is Biological Magnification?
Human Impact
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“The earth’s vegetation is part of
a web of life in which there are
intimate and essential relations
between plants and animals.
Sometimes we have no choice
but to disturb these
relationships, but we should do
so thoughtfully, with full
awareness that what we do may
have consequences remote in
time and place.”
~ Rachel Carson Silent Spring
Human Impact
•Humans created pesticides such as DDT.
•These pesticides eventually created many problems in
the environment.
•Humans unintentionally infected bodies of water with
DDT.
•This DDT infected the animals in the water, eventually
leading to biological magnification.
•Humans disrupted ecosystems, causing all living things
within the ecosystem to become ill, endangered or
extinct.
The Cycling of Chemical Elements
•The transportation of minerals is done by various biochemical cycles. Such cycles are the water
cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and phosphorus cycle.
•
Water Cycle
• It influences rates of ecosystem processes, particularly primary production
and decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems.
• Because runoff and ground water, insecticides that are sprayed on land are
leaked into lakes and other bodies of water. This leads to the contamination
of the water and the death to many fish and anything that drinks out of the
water.
Carbon Cycle
Carbon is
essential to all
organisms..
photosynthetic
organisms use
CO2 during
photosynthesis
and convert the
carbon to other
forms used by
consumers.