User:CarmelaChristineAngela/sandbox

One of the problem in environment is Rain forest Destruction. The tropical rainforests of West Africa, Brazil, Latin America and Southeast Asia are some of the most important environmental regions of the world. They hold millions of unique plants, animals, and people. However, they are being destroyed rapidly for agriculture, mining and logging.

Causes of Rain Forest Destruction:


 * One of the main causes of is logging for timber. Millions of hectares are cut down every year, often illegally. The most valuable wood is taken and not replaced. Landless people move in along the new logging roads.
 * Mining companies are responsible for much deforestation. They cut down trees to extract gold and other minerals. Their activity often causes pollution.

Effects of Rain Forest Destruction:


 * A tragic effect of the loss of the rainforest is the extinction of plants and animals that could provide us with food, medicine or valuable products. Thousands of species disappear each year. This leads to a poorer world with less biodiversity.
 * One surprising result of the destruction of the rainforest is that soils and nutrients are washed away. When the trees are cut down, the soil is exposed to the heavy rain and quickly becomes infertile and useless. The forest cannot grow again, and the people who used the land have to move on.
 * One of the most serious effects is global warming. When the trees in the rainforest are cut down, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. This carbon dioxide acts as a blanket, trapping the sun’s heat and warming the planet. This can have huge consequences for the world’s climate.

We applied the cycle of Nitrogen Cycle to Rain Forest Destruction

The nitrogen cycle starts with the element nitrogen in the air. In fact, 80% of the air in our atmosphere is made of nitrogen. Most plants get the nitrogen they need from soil. Farmers use fertilizers to add nitrogen to the soil to help plants grow larger and faster. Nitrogen is a chemical element with symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a common normally colourless, odourless, tasteless and mostly diatomic non-metal gas. It has five electrons in its outer shell, so it is trivalent in most compounds. Two nitrogen oxides are found in the air as a result of interactions with oxygen. Nitrogen will only react with oxygen in the presence of high temperatures and pressures found near lightning bolts and in combustion reactions in power plants or internal combustion engines. Nitric oxide, NO, and nitrogen dioxide, NO2, are formed under these conditions. Eventually nitrogen dioxide may react with water in rain to form nitric acid, HNO3. The nitrates thus formed may be utilized by plants as a nutrient. The nitrogen cycle represents one of the most important nutrient cycles found in terrestrial ecosystems. Nitrogen is used by living organisms to produce a number of complex organic molecules like amino acids, proteins, and nucleic acids. The store of nitrogen found in the atmosphere, where it exists as a gas (mainly N2), plays an important role for life. This store is about one million times larger than the total nitrogen contained in living organisms. Other major stores of nitrogen include organic matter in soil and the oceans. Nitrogen in the air becomes a part of biological matter mostly through the actions of bacteria and algae in a process known as nitrogen fixation. Legume plants such as clover, alfalfa, and soybeans form nodules on the roots where nitrogen fixing bacteria take nitrogen from the air and convert it into ammonia, NH3. The ammonia is further converted by other bacteria first into nitrite ions, NO2-, and then into nitrate ions, NO3-. Plants utilize the nitrate ions as a nutrient or fertilizer for growth. Nitrogen is incorporate in many amino acids which are further reacted to make proteins. Nitrogen is the major component of earth's atmosphere. It enters the food chain by means of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and algae in the soil. This nitrogen which has been 'fixed' is now available for plants to absorb. These types of bacteria form a symbiotic relationship with legumes--these types of plants are very useful because the nitrogen fixation enriches the soil and acts as a 'natural' fertilizer. The nitrogen-fixing bacteria form nitrates out of the atmospheric nitrogen which can be taken up and dissolved in soil water by the roots of plants. When we cause nitrogen overload in an ecosystem, there are many drastic effects. Dumping of raw sewage contains nitrogenous wastes, along with urban runoff. When large amounts of nitrogen collect in a water body, eutrophication can result. This is an accumulation of excess nutrients which causes an algae bloom. The algae rapidly deplete all of the oxygen in the water, making it inhospitable for fish and other aquatic organisms. Eutrophication also brings about the deadly red tides. When plant communities are saturated with nitrogen, the soil can become acidified. This makes the soil inhospitable. Burning fossil fuels and wood contributes to a large amount of nitric oxide in the atmosphere. Nitric oxide can combine with oxygen gas to for nitrogen dioxide, which reacts with water vapor to form a strong acid (nitric acid). This can precipitate out of the atmosphere in the form of the deadly acid rain. The acid can damage trees and kill fish. The use of inorganic fertilizers and depleting nitrogen resources by overharvesting legumes (which have nodules in their roots formed by a symbiotic bacteria that fix nitrogen) and overmining nitrogen also alter an ecosystem. Nitrogen fixation is the process wherein N2 is converted to ammonium, essential because it is the only way that organisms can attain nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. Certain bacteria, for example those among the genus Rhizobium, are the only organisms that fix nitrogen through metabolic processes. Nitrogen fixing bacteria often form symbiotic relationships with host plants. This symbiosis is well-known to occur in the legume family of plants (e.g. beans, peas, and clover).

Ways of Preventing Rain Forest Destruction:

-> REFORESTATION. It is the process of replanting trees in diminished forests. It is the easiest way we can do.

-> RECYCLING. It is the process waste materials by undergoing a special treatment. By recycling we can save trees and decrease illegal logging.

http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/onlcourse/chm110/outlines/nitrogencycle.html http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9s.html http://eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/cycles7.htm http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=98 http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/nitrogen.htm

Performance Task In Science

Ma. Carmela Angela Laforteza Christine Joy DelRosario Angela Louise Sibal

2nd year – St. Peter of Verona