ECOLOGY. INTRODUCTION.
Contents Ecology. Introduction………………………………………………………..5 Unit I. Ecological problems. Pollution………………………………………13 Unit II. Air Pollution…………………………………………………………18 Unit III. Water Pollution……………………………………………………..26 Unit IV Chemicals in the Environment……………………………………..35 Unit V. Radioactivity………………………………………………………....37 Unit VI Overpopulation………………………………………………………46 Unit VII Noise pollution………………………………………………………49 Unit VIII. Rubbish……………………………………………………………51 Unit IX.Indoor Pollution……………………………………………………..64 Unit X. Wildlife and animals protection…………………………………….68 Unit XI. Environmental Protection………………………………………....78 Unit XII. Industrial Ecology………………………………………………..102 Texts for supplementary reading…………………………………………..108 Check yourself……………………………………………………………….121 Cliches for resume and annotation…………………………………………136 Resume Example…………………………………………………………….142 English-Russian Environmental Dictionary……………………………….145 Bibliography………………………………………………………………….156
Введение ECOLOGY. INTRODUCTION. I. THE TERMS “ENVIRONMRNT, ECOLOGY, ECOSYSTEM” 1. Enrich your vocabulary:
Ecology was, until recently, a term used by only a few of our more sophisticated citizens. Then, with the dawning awareness that air pollution, water pollution, chemical pollutants, and overpopulation may be even more menacing to survival than racial conflict, riots, or even war, the word ECOLOGY crept into everyone’s lexicon. Conservation and the quality of environment became important political issues. The year 1970 marked the beginning of a decade that may well determine whether we survive or not. The mass media – radio, television, and the press – are now giving much greater coverage to conservation news. People turned a concerned eye on the ENVIRONMENT. “What’s it all about?”, they asked themselves. “And what can I do about it?” But what are we really talking about when we use words like ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY, or ECOSYSTEM? In the broadest sense, our ENVIRONMENT can be defined as our surroundings; it is made up of all the physical, social, and cultural aspects of our world that effects our growth, our being, and our way of living. Humans share environment with plants and animals. Just as humans interact with their environment, so do the other animals and plants. The organized body of knowledge which deals with the interrelationships between living organisms, whether animal or plant, and their environment is a relatively new science which we call ECOLOGY. The term is derived from two Greek words meaning a “study of the homes”, and it has been in use only since the 19th century, though the observation of plants and animals in their natural “homes” has been going on during thousands of years. ECOSYSTEM is a contraction of ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM. An ecosystem refers to a community of organisms and the relationships of those organisms to their environment. An ecosystem is dynamic in that its various parts are always in flux. Since each member of the ecosystem belongs to the environment of every other part of that system, any change in one alters the environment for all the others. And as those components react to the alteration, they in turn continue to transform the environment for the others. For example, a change in the atmosphere from sunshine to rain affects plants, soils and plant nutrients, so the plants may not be able to grow as well and the animals then may not be able to eat as much. On the other hand, the addition of moisture to the soil may help some plants grow, increasing the amount of shade beneath them and thus keeping other plants from growing. The concept of an ecosystem can be applied at almost any scale, in a wide variety of geographic locations, and under all environmental conditions where life is possible. Hence, a farm pond, a grass-covered field, a march, a forest, or a portion of a desert can be viewed as an ecosystem. Even the earth itself may be considered one large ecosystem. Ecosystems are found wherever there is an exchange of materials among living organisms and functional relationships between the organisms and their natural environment. Ecosystems are open systems with movement of energy and material across their boundaries. Although some ecosystems, such as a small lake or a desert oasis, have clear cut boundaries, the limits of many others are not as precisely defined. Often the transition from one ecosystem to another is obscure and occurs slowly over distance.
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