ESCI 2610 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Coastal Erosion, Soil Erosion, Lake Huron
14 Jun 2018
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Lecture 13 – Land-Water Ecosystem
Sources of Water Pollutants
Stress on water resources and soil quality. As world attention swings from oil as an
energy resource to renewable sources, water is going to be a basis of conflict. Big rivers
pass from one nation to another. Upstream nations might to exert excessive control over
the river flow. Human settlements in proximity to water and coastal zones.
Point Sources: factories, sewage treatment plants
Nonpoint Sources: airborne (aggregates of cars and factories), waterborne (mining,
agriculture, cities). Nitrogen from chemical fertilizers, sewage, sediments. Phosphorous
from detergents, fertilizers, water treatment, and eutrophication.
Sediment and Toxic Chemical Pollutants
Sedimentation as water pollution. Effects on fish, shellfish, aquatic plants, coral reefs,
topsoil erosion ends up in coastal ecosystems. Siltation of damns, river discharge.
Urban and industrial
Basin areas in Lake Huron are defined by mud content
Deeper areas in Lake Erie have more mercury. More mercury in US side of Lake Ontario.
Impact of Human Activities in Coastal Zones
Coastal zones account for 10-30% of organic production in oceans. Transportation of
nutrients along with eroded soil from adjacent soils contributes to this. As well as ocean
upwelling. All this productivity assists marine fisheries.
In the context of global warming, sea level rise is related to this and natural disasters
related to coastal erosion. 1/3 world urban population are less than 60 km from the
coast. Input of nutrients from these human populations into coastal marine areas and
what that does to marine lifeforms. Marine litter.
Wetland areas provide useful effects to purifying water. Tropical mangroves along
coastal regions have an immense wealth of organisms in particular contributing to
fisheries in the hands of the poor. A lot of the contaminants and sediments coming
down to coastal regions inevitably has a negative effect on the mangroves. It’s bad for
the biota and fisheries.
The effect of pollutants on coral reefs. Pollutants have a negative effect on reef growth.
Global warming has a bad effect on the symbiotic effect on corals and microbes (in
particular algae). The algae which assist the process of food for corals do badly in these
warming waters. This is visible through the bleaching of corals as they lose their natural
colour. Sea level is rising and pH values are dropping so waters have greater acidity.
Increasing percentages of the coral reef systems are lost (5-10%).
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Document Summary
As world attention swings from oil as an energy resource to renewable sources, water is going to be a basis of conflict. Big rivers pass from one nation to another. Upstream nations might to exert excessive control over the river flow. Human settlements in proximity to water and coastal zones. Nonpoint sources: airborne (aggregates of cars and factories), waterborne (mining, agriculture, cities). Phosphorous from detergents, fertilizers, water treatment, and eutrophication. Effects on fish, shellfish, aquatic plants, coral reefs, topsoil erosion ends up in coastal ecosystems. Basin areas in lake huron are defined by mud content. Deeper areas in lake erie have more mercury. More mercury in us side of lake ontario. Coastal zones account for 10-30% of organic production in oceans. Transportation of nutrients along with eroded soil from adjacent soils contributes to this. In the context of global warming, sea level rise is related to this and natural disasters related to coastal erosion.
