With the basics of what forests are and why they are important, today we will be taking a deeper look into how forests are polluted.
Some pollutants are naturally occurring – for example: weathering and abrasion of rocks, volcanic eruption, forest fires, and aerosol formation are responsible for the production of heavy metals within the ecosystem (Sidhu, 2016). However, anthropogenic activities exacerbate the impact of pollution in two ways: 1.) human activities and processes can increase the concentration of pollutants in the ecosystem, and 2.) human activities can also introduce new chemical compounds into the environment (Chen, 2020). Due to evolution, living organisms in ecosystems are adapted to naturally occurring levels of pollutants, but however, they are not adapted to the increased concentrations and newly introduced compounds. Hence, they are more vulnerable to these effects.
To understand pollution, it is important to look at it not in isolation but as part of a continuum. The transfer of pollutants occur from source to sink, and within this process, pollutants can be transported or even transformed through different spheres (Haygarth, P. M., Condron, L. M., Heathwaite, A. L., Turner, B. L., & Harris, G. P., 2005)
Put simply, the pollutant transfer continuum views the environment as a total system that goes through different stages, namely: Source –> Mobilisation –> Delivery –> Sink. This increases the complexity of understanding pollution. The next few blog posts will further dissect each stage of the pollutant transfer continuum in greater detail.
Till next time, see you!
References:
Chen, M. (2020). Basic pollution chemistry, and some important pollutant groups (II) [Powerpoint slides]. Unpublished manuscript, GE3246 Environmental Pollution, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Haygarth, P. M., Condron, L. M., Heathwaite, A. L., Turner, B. L., & Harris, G. P. (2005). The phosphorus transfer continuum: Linking source to impact with an interdisciplinary and multi-scaled approach. The Science of the Total Environment, 344(1-3), 5-14. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2005.02.001
Sidhu, Gagan Preet Singh. (2016). Heavy Metal Toxicity in Soils: Sources, Remediation Technologies and Challenges Submit Manuscript |. Advances in Plants & Agriculture Research. 5. 00166. 10.15406/apar.2016.05.00166.