Water Transparency Protoco

Many people try to understand and measure water transparency however doesn't know what exactly to know. Well first we know about most naturally thing in this planet "Water". In suspended particles in our water behave similarly to dust in the atmosphere as in our water. Reduce the depth to which light can prenetrate. The sunlight provides the energy for photosynthesis. Transperency decreases with the presence of molecules and particles that can absorb or scatter the light.  Nevertheless a researcher haves to remember there are the different types of wtersuch as "hard" water lakes. "Hard" water lakes with lots of suspended CaCO particles preferentially scatter blue-green ligh, where as lakes  with organic materials appear more green or yellow. Colored organic material can come from in situ productions such as detritusand biota or from inputs into the water body.  If pheraphs the body of water is shallow or flowing, then you need to use a transparency tube. To measure transparency cannot directly be compare to the Secchi diskand transparency tube measurements between different sites.

Then comes in play of temperature which allows scientists to better understand other hydrology measurements such as dissolved oxygen, pH and conductivity. Temperature influences the amount and diversity of aquatic life. Lakes that are cold and have little plant life in winter, bloom in spring and summer when temperatures rise and the nutrient rich bottom waters mix with the upper waters.

Warmer water can be fatal for sensitive  species such as trout or salmon, which require cold oxygen-rich conditions. Warmer water tends to have lower levels of dissolved oxygen.  Making water temperature so important for understanding local and gobal weather patterns. However the water temperature change differently than air temperatures because water  has a higher heat capacity than air. Water also helps to change air temperature through the processes of evaporation and condensation.

pH
pH measures the acid content of water. The pH scale which is measured from 0.0-14.0 pH units  is  logarithmic scale of the hydrogen ion concentration. Solutions with a pH greater than 7.0 are classified as basic and ones with a pH less than 7.0 as acidic.  In fact, lakes and streams have pH values that  reange between 6.5 and 8.5. Pure water  that is not ion contact with air has a nuetral pH value of 7.0. Water with impurities may also have a pH of 7.0 if acids present are in balance with the bases.

pH however affects most chemical and biological processes in water. It haves a strong influence on what can live in the water such as certain organisms have certain pH ranges they prefer or require. Salamanders, frogs and other amphibian life are examples that are sensitive to extreme pH levels.

Dissolved Oxygen Protocoles
Dissolved Oxygen Protocol measurses the amount molecular oxygen dissolved  on water. It doesn't unfortunatly measure the amount of oxygen  in the water oxygen. Roughly two out of ten air molecules are molecular oxygen. The amount of dissolved oxygen in the water determines what can live there. Affecting the solubility of dissolved oxygen include water temperature, atmospheric pressure and salinity. Once the solubility is dissolved from oxygen salinity increases.

Aeration  occurs when water is mixed with air just like waves, riffles, and waterfalls. Water may become supersaturated, meaning that the dissolved oxygen levels are greater that its solubility. The extra dissolved oxygen would eventually be released back into the air  or removed though respiration. Most organic matter in aquatic ecosystems is non-living and it is collectively referred to as detritus. The  organic matter can be produced in situ  or enter  water bodies  from the surrounding land.

Nitrate
Nitrogen  have many chemical forms in water bodies such as dissolved molecular nitrogen, organic compounds and numerous inorganic forms like ammonium and  nitrate. Nitrate a usual the most important inorganic form of nitrogen because it is an essential nutrient for the growth and reproduction of many algae and other  aquatic plants. You usually find nitrite in waters with low dissolved oxygen levels called suboxic waters.

Many people such as weirdos would often call nitrogen a "limiting nutrient" because of the weird reason of the low amounts, plants use up all the available nitrogen in the water and cannot grow or reproduce anymore.  Limiting the amount of plants in the water. Usually when excess amount of limiting nutrient is added to a lake or stream the water becomes highly productive which causes tremendous growth of algae and other plants. This would be called eutrophication. Resulting excess plant growth that can taste and odor problems in lakes used for drinking water.

Freshwater Macroinvertebrates
Macroinvertebrates are small animals without a backbone that can be seen without a microscope. They  live around  living and dead  vegetation on the surface  or in the sediments of bodies of water. They can populate ponds or streams in multiple numbers. Making them a great importance to the food chain. Macroinvertebrates can tell us a lot about the conditions within a water body however they are very sensitive to changes in pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, turbidity ad other changes in their habitat.

Opposing mountain top removal

Then you have the people who oppose mountain top removal. They have points when telling about the effects of mountain top removal. With mountian top removal the drepee would contaminate the drinking water, forceful blasting, increases flooding and unsafe  sludge and slurry impoundments. The areas where mountain top removal occur experience high attrition rates turning  communties into ghost towns. The created tensions in communities, turning neighbor against neighbor. Lets not forget the coal slurry which is a byproduct of washing and processing coal with water and chemicals. It is highly toxic and can leach into groundwater supplies. There is sixty different chemicals are used to wash coal, not to mention the heavy metals naturally present in the coal.

Then comes blasting that is required to removal the mountiantop . It is often a annoying part of events to residential dwelings all the time. It causes the air to  be cover in coal dust and some gets destoryed buildings like houses and bridges . Then comes the most rist of Sludge impoundments that is filled with coal sludge throw the empty valley and protect by one big bridge to keep it away from the residents homes, however if the bridge would have break the entire communties can be wiped out in a matter of minutes - buried underneath a wave of toxic sludge. Making the reasong of why so many people wanting to stop the coal mining industry to digging and blasting around their homes .

Hyper link: Http://appvoices.org/end-mountiantop-removal/community/

Favouring Mountaintop removal

Here are the favouring of mountain top removal would have to say. With their high pride and understanding the market value of collecting the coal many of them makes a point the mountain top removal is more efficient and safer than underground mining. This also brings them to have the knowledge of the free market economics that would be available. This adds a question of "What if someone can't afford the basic necessities ?" as a response to a person who favours would say that the goal of making available basic necessities in inextricably tied to the free market and taking advantage of our nature-given resources. As for the dramatic changes of the ecosystem, favourers would stick their noses up in the air and say that to adapt to changing environments all the time and when compared to the actual benefits of this form of mining, the impacts are worth taking . Moreover, in a free market setting, most , if not all, externalities created by these disturbances in the local ecosystem could be handled through litigation and the court system.

Favourers puts emphasis that a coal company would only invest in a mining venture if both the expected marginal benefits of doing so exceeded the expected the expected marginal costs  of any other potential mining operation. Do they actually know that ? Well of course because of the opportunity cost. Any wise entrepreneur weighs the expected profits for any investment against all other opportunities and will choose the most profitable . Ending with their decussion.

Hyper link: Http://www.thedaonline.com/

formations of coal

Coal haves different formations. The formations are peat, ligniten bituminous, anthracite, and coke.
Coal is forn=med from the remains of swamp plant from 300-400 million years ago which dead plants and animals become buried in the swamp. Since there was no oxygen the plants didn't rot which formed a peat.

Peat is a slowly decaying plant matter found in bogs moors and muskegs.  Acidic and anaerobic conditions prevent it completely decaying. In most rural aera people of the rural Europe use peat as a heat souce which very low value compared to coal.

 Lignite which sometimes called "brown coal" are found in Alaska and some Western stateshaves low carbon concentration and low heat value.

Bituminous is the most common form of coal. The carbon value is highly variable and heat value ranges from 10,000-15,000 BTU/lb.

 

 

Anthracite is the results from the netamorphosis of bituminous coal. It is the highest carbon content and heat value. Most anthracite comes from Northeastern Pennsylvania. It haves a low smoke and high heat values makes anthracite popular for home heating in the northeastern U.S.

 

Finally coke, coke it when bituminous coal is heated to 2000 in the absence of oxygen. Water tart gas and other volatiles are driven off to leave a high carbon fuel. The by-products of coking are collected for energy production. Cike is primarily used as a heat source in the steel industry.

 

Different types of mining

Thoughout our history i society develop from living to caves to developing transportation,  from gardening to coal mining. We start five methods of underground mining, so we can use for energy source for the time. Those methods are :
Drift mining & Shaft Mining

Drift mining: is where the coal seam intersects the surface. The mine enters the seam in a horizontal direction following the coal

Room & pillar mining and continous mining and longwall ming.



Room & pillar mining: is nearly half the coal is left behind to support the mine roof. The pillars can "squeeze" putting pressure on adjacent pillars leading to roof collapse.

Continuous Mining: Is a machines use that can be used with drift or room & pillar mines. One miner can operate it to a rotating steel drum with tungsten carbide teeth to mine 5 tons of coal per minute Shaft Minging: Is a common method accessing a coal seam in which elevators provide access to mines.

Continuous mining machines are paired with conveyor systems to transport the coal from the mine as it is mined

Longwall mining: (a.k.a retreat mining) is highly effecient. When coal is removed, the machine retreats allowing the roof to fall behind it. It extract much more of the coal than room & pillars mines

Excel conclusion graph

Climate Change

Predict what the effects of aerosols may have on climate change

Dramamtic changes on climates has been developed to noticeable changes to the world. Temperatures are warm in the winter and the summer becomes more hotter than it is. Creating more heat waves thoughout the summer. Many scienctist believe that aerosols are the reason why the climate temperatures are higher while others believe it is not, but what causing the climate temperatures to change are the greenhouse gases. To explain which one is causing the climate change, a person must know what each one does and their effects.

One must know that one of the effects of most of the change is because of the urban heat island effect. The urban heat island effect is when temperatures are a few degrees higher in cities than they are in their  surrounding rural areas. Studies from Environmental Protection Agency found that in U.S. cities the temperatures are 10 degrees fahrenheit higher making that a few degrees can make  a huge difference. Since temperatures are 10 degrees higher the demand for air conditioning rose in dramatic percentages of 95% higher in the summer time which cause higher energy bills. The energy of power plants being transfered  to cities  increases the greenhouses gases.  The effect of urban heat island effect concerns when objects can absorb  and reflect light. It depends on the color of an object of what kind of light it reflects such as a green object reflects a green light and absorbs  all the visible colors of light. The color of the green object will reflect the green wavelength of color back to our eyes.As for darker colored objects become excellent absorbers of light. They absorb  almost all the light. When objests absorb light it converts that light to thermal energy and emits  back out as heat. Making that darker colored objects that absorb more light produce more heat. As for wearing a white t-shirt on the other hand, will help reflect the sunlight and keep a person or an object cooler.

With that in mind, many scientist develop ways to reduce the urban heat island effect. One of the ways is changing to roof coloring and also adding grass and plants on the roofs. The roof coloring would be known as white roofing. The experiment of white roofing  was develop in New York City when they found out the results that with the white covering on most buildings  measured at 42 degress Fahrenheit cooler that the traditional black roof. Remarkable it lowered most of the temperature of New York. The testing of white roofing was promoted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his efforts  to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emmissons by 30% in 2030.  Proving that whte roofing surface reduce peak rooftop temperature to a typical black roof by 43 degrees fahrenheit.

Now about aerosols, aerosols are tiny particles that suspended in the air. They originate from volcanos, dust, storms, forest, grassland fires, living vegetation and sea spray. Also humans play a role of creating aerosols also by burning fossil fuels  and tge alteration of natural surface cover.  10% is completely made by humans in the most concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere, especially downwind industrial sites, slash and burn agricultral regions and overgrazed grasslands. Aeroslos become very important to our understanding of what they do.  Many scientist that care about aerosols and disagree about the warming about the climate is aerosols, would know that aerosols tend to cause cooling of the Earth's surface immediatelybelow them than warming it. Most aerosols reflect the sunlight back into spac. They have what is called a direct cooling effect by reducing  the amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface. Its like a matheical equation compostion of aerosols particles leads to refective properties of the underlying surface. IT is believed  that aerosols are "indirect" effect on the climate by changing properities of clouds. However it is ver difficult to form clouds without small aerosol particles acting as "seeds" to stat the formation of clouds droplets. The contretation increases with in the cloud , the water in the cloud  gets spread over many  more particles, each of which is correspondingly smaller. Smaller particles fall more slowly in the atmosphere  and decrease the amout pf rainfall. With smaller droplets it will reflect more sunlight and since clouds last longer. because it takes more time for small drops tp coalesce into drops that are large enough to fall to the ground. Both effects increase the amount of sunlight that is reflected to space without reaching the surface/

So forth, the arugment will continue in if aerosols warm the Earth, but what can you do, they are scientist, they know everything right .

Cite:
McGrath, Jane. "What Is the Urban Heat Island Effect?" HowStuffWorks. DiscoveryCompany, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2013.

"Reducing the Urban Heat Island Effect: Bright Is the New Black as New York Roofs Go Cool." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 07 Mar. 2012. Web. 04 Feb. 2013.

Hardin, Mary. Kahn Ralph. "Aerosols &Climate Change"