Practice AP Environmental Science questions on wetland and mangrove services, flood protection, water purification, habitat, and threats.
Read the following article from the Fremont Daily Times and answer the questions that follow.
Fremont Daily Times
Scientists Discuss Threats from Plastic Pollution
In testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Dr. Duke Ewoldsen, an eminent toxicologist, discussed a new water pollutant that threatens aquatic life: microbeads. Ewoldsen noted that while posing a different threat than more conventional water pollutants such as nitrates, phosphates and PCBs, tiny beads of plastic contained in many products, especially cosmetics, now threaten plankton and small fish that ingest the particles because they mistake them for food. The microbeads cannot be digested and can fill or block the digestive tracts of the fish, leading to starvation. In addition, surfaces of these small spheres can adsorb organic pollutants such as PCBs and dioxin.
When asked about steps to reduce this threat, Ewoldsen noted that the beads are so small that they are not easily removed by wastewater treatment plants and thus often enter aquatic ecosystems in wastewater discharges.
Coastal ecosystems are threatened by other human activities in addition to wastewater disposal. Mangrove swamps are one such threatened ecosystem.
Provide one reason why mangrove trees are being removed by humans.
Identify one ecosystem service provided by intact mangrove ecosystems.