Exploring Oceans 3. How and in what ways do human activities pollute oceans?
- Created by: DanBish
- Created on: 08-05-22 21:54
View mindmap
- How and in what ways do human activities pollute oceans?
- Spread and effects of pollution
- Spread
- In 1992, a container holding thousands of plastic bath toys was swept off a ship in the Pacific
- This has inadvertently advanced understanding of the operation of ocean currents, as we can follow the toys
- Marine debris can enter the oceans from: rivers, beaches, discarding off ships in storms
- In 1992, a container holding thousands of plastic bath toys was swept off a ship in the Pacific
- Effects
- Marine debris can be persistent, potentially over many decades
- Can pose physical dangers to ships, as well as damage to ecosystems
- Larger marine creatures, like seals and sharks, can be entangled in discarded fishing nets and drown
- Many plastics do not biodegrade, instead breaking down into micro-plastics through photo-degredation
- This plastic are shipped around the world in vast quantities, and being so small and light can be easily spilled and dispersed
- Spread
- Accumulation of plastic - Great Pacific Garbage Patch
- Causation
- The great pacific garbage patch is a concentration of pollution in a gyre
- A gyre is a system of circular currents, formed by wind patterns and the rotation of the planet
- There are some locations with high concen-trations of relatively large debris - visible - although most pollution is micro-plastics, and isn't visible to the naked eye
- Formed by plastics and micro-plastics being caught in the North Pacific gyre, and being deposited in two principle areas of accumulation, one east and one west, with a lower-density zone just to the north
- The great pacific garbage patch is a concentration of pollution in a gyre
- Impacts
- Large pieces of plastic can become wrapped around animals such as seals, and strangle or drown them
- Smaller pieces are ingested by fish and birds.
- The plastic interferes with digestion, both physically and chemically
- Not only do the chemicals in plastics, but the pollutants they attract also harm organisms
- If chemicals / pollutants enter the marine food chain, then it could be transferred to humans through eating marine life
- Causation
- Spread and effects of pollution
Similar Geography resources:
Teacher recommended
Teacher recommended
Comments
No comments have yet been made