BIO 381 final

thyroid, pituitary gland, pancreas, ovary, testes

endocrine disrupting compounds

those that occur naturally, and those that occur synthetically

• 1. mimicking or antagonizing the effects of hormones
• 2. altering the pattern of synthesis + metabolism of hormones
• 3. modifying hormone receptor levels

EDCs indirectly interact with the endocrine systems that control bodily functions, resulting in excessive amounts or suppression of hormones

~38 000

87 000

• steroidal pharmaceutical substances
• personal care products
• nonsteroidal pharmaceutical substances

herbicide, also a potent endocrine disrupter that's active at low ecologically relevent concentrations

bisphenol A, the substance that leaked out of the rat cages in that lab, caused abmormalities in chromosomes/meiosis

increase, volume

• Lake Apopka (Florida), dicofol and DDT
• - had affects on alligators

• component of anti-fouling paints 
• - causes "imposex" in a range of male gastropods
• - endocrine disruption believed to involve suppression of enzyme aromatase (converts androgens to estrogens)

conditions in which male sex organs (penis and vans deferens) are superimposed in a female gastropod, effectively preventing the animal from reproducing

• domestic and industrial effluents may cause feminization in fish
• - incl. high levels of vitellogenin in blood of male fish
• - occurance of oocytes in testes of presumed male fish

a protein synthesized in blood of male fish under estrogenic stimulation and secreted into the blood stream for incorporation, as the precursor for some of the yolk proteins, into developing oocytes

steroids derived from human excretion

condition where an individual is intermediate in sexual characteristics b/w a normal male and a normal female

synthetic steroid ethinyl estradiol (1.5ng/L)

methyltestosterone, (suppression of vitellogenesis, sex reversal of female to males)

• used in birth control pills
• found downstream of sewage treatment plants
• more persistent than other estrogens 
• induces vitellogenin production in male fish at low ng/L
• acutely toxic to aquatic organisms at mg/L

• Males: display intersex, primary-stage oocytes among remnants of testicular tissue
• Females: ovaries had atretic follicles

• Chisso Corporation Factory in Minamata, Japan 
• opened in 1932 
• pumped 500 tons of effluent per hour into Minamata Bay
• people ate the fish out of the bay, got mercury poisoning aka "Minamata Disease"

coal burning, gold mining (in poor regions mercury still used for gold panning, gold sticks to the mercury)

• 1. Hg(0) 
• 2. Hg(II)
• 3. MeHg

• Elemental mercury, most prominent in atmosphere
• reduced form, quite volatile (can be gaseous)

• Ionic mercury, oxidized
• comes out of atmosphere in rain
• primarily found in plants, soils, lakes

Methylmercury, bioaccumulates and biomagnifies

• 1. microbial methylation of Hg(II) to methylmercury
• - done primarily by sulphate-reducing bacteria in anaerobic environments like lake sediments or saturated wetland peat
• 2. photoreduction of Hg(II) or methylmercury into Hg(0)
• - sort of a good process, done primarily by UV radiation

Canada: 0.5ppm Hg (or 0.5 micrograms Hg per g food)

0.2 micrograms per kg of bodyweight

contaminated fish

Mercury Experiment to Assess Atmospheric Loading in Canada and the US

all the mercury experimentally loaded onto the watershed, including the isotope and its impurities

all mercury that is not spike mercury

• Conifer: 183 days
• Deciduous: 108 days (shorter bc leaves break down more readily)

destruction of methylmercury

Intensity and/or duration of drought, increase of tropical cyclone activity

wet areas getting wetter, dry areas getting drier

declining

declining

increasing/warming

rising, due to thermoexpansion of water and melting glaciers/icecaps

• CO₂ rising, pH lowering
• - as atmospheric CO₂ increases, it diffuses into the ocean and ocean CO₂ levels rise, then the ocean becomes more acidic

• measurement of the capacity of a gas or other forcing agents to affect that energy balance, thereby contributing to climate change 
• - shows how different chemicals/things we know affect climate change are changing the radiative forcing of the earth

• Well-mixed greenhouse gases
• - CO₂
• - CH₄ 
• _{- halocarbons}
• -N2O

• mineral dust, sulphate, nitrate, organic carbon, black carbon
• do negative radiative forcing

• 1. change in continental land surface air temps
• 2. Arctic and Antarctic September sea ice extent
• 3. Upper Ocean heat content in the major ocean basins

RCP2.6 means human activity levels if we "get our act together", RCP8.5 represents if we continue with business as usual

• natural fluctuations in solar output (SWR)
• aerosols (SWR)
• clouds (SWR, LWR)
• ozone (SWR, LWR)
• greenhouse gases and large aerosols (LWR)
• surface albedo changes (SWR)

reflect light away

absorb heat and light

troposphere, warming

90%, oceans

• thermoexpansion of water
• melting glaciers and icesheets
• changes in storage and usage of water on land

lower, so the higher the salinity of the water, the faster it will warm

• 7%, degree celcius
• therefore the warmer the air, the moister

• acidified ocean
• shifts the bicarbonate cycle
• decreases pH over time

when atmospheric CO₂ exchanges across the air-sea interface, it reacts w/ seawater through a series of 4 chemical reactions that increase the concentrations of the carbon species: dissolved carbon dioxide, carbonic acid (H₂CO₃), and bicarbonate (HCO₃^-)

• CO₂ <-> CO₂
• CO₂ + H₂O <-> H₂CO₃
• H₂CO₃ <-> H⁺ + HCO₃^-
• HCO₃^- <-> H⁺ + CO₃^- 

• - carbon (increasing)
• - global mean sea level (increasing)
• - upper ocean heat content (increasing)
• - high salinity minus low salinity (increasing)

34 years, downward, 3.8% per decade

Antarctic, decrease, 1.5%

• for a given climate, the ELA has a specific altitude (ELA1), due to temperature increases ELA shifts to a new altitude (ELA2)
• after the glaciers readjust to the new ELA, some glaciers have shrunk and some have completely disappeared

increasing permafrost temps up to 2°C, increase in active layer thickness

decreases throughout the year, largest decreases (53%) in June

• contracting winter ice duration, delays in autumn freezeup
• - evidence of recent acceleration of both across the NH

melting to glaciers major contributer to sea level rising

• arctic sea ice extent declines at rate of 3.8% per decade
• extent of thick multiyear ice in arctic declined at rate of 13.5%/decade

continuing collapse and retreat of ice shelves along Antarctic peninsula

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets lost mass and contributed to sea level change over the last 20 yrs

• Land uptake (photosynthesis- respiration)
• ocean invasion: seawater buffer
• reaction w/ calcium carbonate
• silicate weathering

fertilizer (Haber Bosch process)

• rapidly distributed b/w atmosphere, upper ocean, and vegetation
• carbon continues to be moved b/w the different reserviors of the global carbon cycle (soils, deeper ocean, rocks)
• depending on how much CO₂ is released, bw 15% and 40% will remain in the atmosphere for up to 2000yrs

cooling

warming

aerosols, cloud-condensing nuclei

2 to 3 times greater

from fossil fuels and biofuels, if you deposit it on snow packs it changes the albedo really quickly so there's more melting going on compared to if there were no emissions of black carbon

CO₂, CH₄, halocarbons