Group 4 – LAND AND WATER POLLUTION

Justine Sarah LeeMc Aldhen Barba

Ralph Kevin Bongay

Soil Pollution• Soil pollution is defined as the build-up in soils of persistent toxic

compounds, chemicals, salts,radioactive materials, or disease causing agents, which have adverse effects on plant growth and animal health.

• Soil is the thin layer of organic and inorganic materials that covers the Earth's rocky surface.

• The organic portion, which is derived from the decayed remains of plants and animals, is concentrated in the dark uppermost topsoil.

• The inorganic portion made up of rock fragments, was formed over thousands of years by physical and chemical weathering of bedrock. Productive soils are necessary for agriculture to supply the world with sufficient food.

Soil can be polluted because of:

• Seepage from a landfill• Discharge of industrial waste into the soil• Percolation of contaminated water into the soil• Rupture of underground storage tanks• Excess application of pesticides, herbicides or fertilizer• Solid waste seepage

The most common chemicals involved in causing soil pollution are:• Petroleum hydrocarbons (mixtures of Hydrocarbons in crude oil• Heavy metals• Pesticides• Solvents

Effects on Plants

• The effects of soil pollution are: not enough oxygen in the soil, acidy soils that may burn the plant, bugs will go and start an infestation in the soil, it effects plants growth, the soil pollution eats away at the nutrients and becomes a bigger soil polluter, not enough drainage, new soil diseases develop every year, not enough moisture in the soil.

Effects on Animals

• The effects in living organisms may range from mild discomfort to serious diseases such as cancer to physical deformities; ex., extra or missing limbs in frogs.

• Can alter metabolism of microorganisms and arthropods in a given soil environment; this may destroy some layers of the primary food chain, and thus have a negative effect on predator animal species

• Small life forms may consume harmful chemicals which may then be passed up the food chain to larger animals; this may lead to increased mortality rates and even animal extinction.

Effects on Ecosystem