The Physiological Effects of Pollutants Essay

Rain washes the pesticides that are used in our Australians households and then become run-off in drains and sewers. They then make their way into nearby water bodies, wether that be creeks, rivers or even oceans and settle within the soil by sticking to small particles, including tiny living organisms like phytoplankton (M. Barwick, 2003, pp. 471-502). Small fish consume these tiny organisms, which may then be eaten by a larger organism and this continues until the top order consumer is reached. The concentration that first began in the phytoplankton and has multiplied sufficiently as it moves along the food chain. The amount of the pesticide has reached a highly toxic level in the top order predator, whether that is birds or even humans. As a result of the biomagnification of pesticides and other chemical the marine environment and the organisms that live within it are heavily affected. The build up of heavy metals, for example, it interferes with the formation of red blood cells, creates liver and kidney implications and forms reproductive defects in many organisms. This hinders an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce and can create a decline in species

The alligator is one of the largest living reptiles today. In North America, they inhabit freshwater swamps or wetlands in the south, from Texas to North Carolina. Distinguishing features include the fourth mandibular tooth, the long, broad snout, and the thick, scaly skin. Like some other reptiles, alligators have temperature-dependent sex determination, which is a non-genetic way of determining the sex ratio of offspring produced. Unlike other reptiles, alligators exhibit parental care; they nest-guard, and even offer evidence of maternal care for juveniles after hatching. Through the reviewing of multiple experiments conducted on Alligator mississippiensis, evidence is provided for the temperature-dependent mode of sexing and maternal

Chemicals harm the growth of plants and animals, chemicals can lead animals to death. Many of the water animals

This analysis of case studies from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the case study to predict the effects of pesticides on aquatic systems and the waterfowl that uses them. Comparing the two processes of these case studies, along with analysis of the assessments. Describing the case study on the effects of pesticides in aquatic ecosystem, the risk assessment correlated to observed field studies and evaluate the importance of this type of correlation in general for all risk assessment efforts. Breaking down the ecological and social

Oxygen depletion will create stress which can take years to recover. These HABs can also suppress mammalian immune functions which results in mass mortalities of dolphins and manatees. This can be seen by a significant reduction in manatee lymphocytes in cell culture that are exposed to these toxins. With all of this evidence of the negative impacts of these toxins, it shows the need to recognize these biotoxins as significant stressors within south-west Florida coastal ecosystems.

Amphibians are especially susceptible. While the study focused on green frogs as a common North American amphibian species, the same results are predicted for toads, newts, and salamanders. Further studies will investigate whether these phytoestrogens are even affecting the reproduction of birds and mammals.

Lab Report: Owl Pellet Kirsten de Jong September 19, 2015 1. An owl pellet is made up of portions of things which an owl can’t digest. The pellet can contain things like feathers, bones, fur, and teeth, these things have very little nutritional value to the owl. These things are tightly formed together in the owl’s stomach, which is then spit out by the owl every 12 hours producing two every day.

Similarly the article about the amphibians claimed that the cause of the deformities could have been a result of pollutants ending up in natural waters. Baker states in her article that “there are 30,000 septic tanks in the area which contaminate the water with nutrients, and evidence shows that the nutrient loading is harming the seagrass and fish.”(Baker, 1999, 1) Baker also states “ that further from the shore where the nutrients are diluted, however, the effect is unclear”(Baker, 1999, 1) The human impact on its environment is one of the biggest culprits for harming not only amphibians but other species as well.

The topic of Dr. LaFleur’s presentation centered on the endocrine system and other difficulties faced by residents of Louisiana. Due to the fact that Dr. LaFleur is a professor of biology, his presentation was very informative and supported by many years of research. Of all the topics touched upon during the presentation, there were a few that definitely stood out to me. For instance, I found it very interesting to learn that tributyltin, a chemical used in the paint of boat hull’s, can cause female snails in contaminated waters to grow male body parts. Another interesting point we came upon focused on the insecticide known as DDT. Despite the fact that DDT has been banned in the U.S. for a while now, it can still be found in a lot of inland

The Great Lakes, though fairly clean, are contaminated with some deadly chemicals that have slipped by human filtration into the lakes. These emerging chemicals have been determined to pose some health risk to humans and surrounding ecosystems and are used by society, but are unregulated or inadequately regulated retardants (Miller-Branovacki, Lindsay, "Water Resources and Urban Waste Water (Week #8)"). More specifically an emerging contaminant is one which is not historically widely distributed, nor a concern, however are now persistent and bioaccumulative making them a concern for the environment. The three major categories for emerging contaminants are; endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), Pharmaceutical and personal care

The purpose of this article is to explain an investigation attempting to correlate negative behavioral effects observed in adult male fighting fish, Betta splendens, with exposure to waterborne phytoestrogens. The phytoestrogens the B. splendens were exposed to were genistein, equol, β-sitosterol, and 17 β-estradiol. Behavioral effects of exposure were analyzed by monitoring spontaneous swimming movements, amount of time it took to react to an alleged intruder, amount of aggression toward that alleged intruder, likelihood of building a nest whilst among a female B. splendens and the area of said nest. This study was conducted given there has been no research done on the behavioral biomarkers resulting from waterborne phytoestrogens as an environmental contaminant to aquatic species, even though these animals are the highest probability of experiencing phytoestrogen exposure in their natural habitats. Additionally, when considering phytoestrogens’ ability to cause reproductive and developmental malfunction in fishes, waterborne phytoestrogen’s presence in sewage treatment plants’ liquid waste, runoff from agricultural areas utilizing manure and wood pulp mills ' liquid waste is concerning.

It is written by environmental zoologists Theo Colbum and John Peterson Myers, and science journalist Dianne Dumanoski. Of course, these authors are well qualified by education and experience to write such an extremely timely and thought-provoking book that is far more that just "a scientific detective story", as it claims. The book traces many highly disturbing effects of the widespread use and global distribution of specific modern synthetic chemicals which, even in exceptionally low amounts, may acutely disrupt and impair standard and expected hormone function. This is not something we can take lightly, for hormones orchestrate many things: they are the vital chemical messengers in our bodies; they orchestrate crucial stages of growth and development; and, most importantly, they form specific features of sexual differentiation to brain organization and maturation. Granted, these are not exactly well-known issues that beg the attention of the common passerby; rather, the prominence of these issues are often ignored or concealed by the US Food and Drug Administration, which takes no action to curb the use of drugs that manifest such chemicals. But why is this? OSF suggests that administrations like the FDA ignore hazards like these because most of these chemicals have no observable effects on adults. However, at relatively low levels of contamination, they may have calamitous consequences to the unborn; in  animals, they can result in disorientation of nesting and mating; and in humans they have been linked to low sperm counts and learning and behavioral

The last endocrine disrupting chemical I will discuss is Triclosan. The chemical found in Triclosan is Triclocarban. The products that contain this endocrine disruptor are personal care products and antimicrobial products such as soaps and Colgate Total toothpaste. In (Greenfield’s 2016) view, "The effects Triclosan has on animal and human tissue is early puberty, poor sperm quality, infertility, obesity, cancer, impaired learning and memory exacerbate allergies and weakened muscle function." Even though most people try to prevent the health issues associated with Triclosan, the chemical is still exposable because of the people that still use it. For example, once the toothpaste is used it goes down the drain which is connected to the waterways, food, and environment. In addition, Triclosan is in the toothpaste Colgate Total which makes it a dangerous product but it is very successful and would take a lot to get it took off the market completely to prevent health issues.

The chemicals that are sprayed on the ground, even household weed killers, have a tendency to wash into local streams and rivers with the first rain. This has caused many incidents of fish, numerous miles down a river, to be found dead due to the toxins in the water. Carson states that the best way to eliminate a pest problem is to use natural predators, which are non-toxic, and a better long-term solution then pesticides, since many pests will become immune to most chemicals.

Fry and Toone (1986) found when they inject fertilised seabird eggs with DDT and its metabolites. The male chicks produced have varying degrees of intersexuality depending on dosage, reproductive system with both male and female structures. The female chicks had a partial to full developed right oviducts, instead of just left functional structures. In the area where the eggs were collected, there was multiple female-female pairing and low hatchability of eggs. Males exposed as embryos to estrogenic pesticides showed decreased to no sexual behaviour. (Fry and Toone, 1981) Louis Guillette noticed that male alligators from Lake Apopka in Florida have vestigial penis, follicle-like testis and elevated estrogens/testosterone ratios and the female hatching’s ovaries were producing multiple egg follicles and eggs with several nuclei (Luoma, 1995, Guillette et al., 1995) The females also had above normal estrogens levels. When he and his colleagues did a similar injection study with DDT and DDE, they produced results similar to those found in the field. The reduction in penis length and the abnormal gonads made the hatchlings reproductively incapable. Both the bird and alligator studies were prompted by the contamination of large water bodies by organochlorins and the low breeding success of the animals living and feeding in these areas.