Secondary Resources
Rivers as ecosystems
Environment
All the abiotic conditions that surround the living organisms in the river e.g. current speed, water temperature, pH, amount of silt.
Habitat
The place where an organism lives e.g. under the rocks, in the reeds, in the river bank, in a river bank tree.
Population
All the members of a single species that live in a habitat e.g. populations of salmon, a population of crayfish.
Community
All the populations of different organisms that live together in a habitat.
Ecosystem
A community and the habitat in which it lives.
Biodiversity
The variety of different species living in a habitat. The greater the number of different species in a habitat, the greater its biodiversity.
Should we care about biodiversity?
Human activities are causing a rapid decline in biodiversity worldwide. At least 40 per cent of the world’s economy and 80 per cent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources. In addition, the richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to such new challenges as climate change.
Why is it important that we try to conserve biodiversity?
Do you think we are morally obliged to conserve biodiversity?
Try and list all the benefits we get from biodiversity.
Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity, a productive ecosystem provides a number of natural services for everyone:
Ecosystem services, such as
- Protection of water resources
- Soils formation and protection
- Nutrient storage and recycling
- Pollution breakdown and absorption
- Contribution to climate stability
- Maintenance of ecosystems
- Recovery from unpredictable events
Biological resources, such as
- Food
- Medicinal resources and pharmaceutical drugs
- Wood products
- Ornamental plants
- Breeding stocks, population reservoirs
- Future resources
- Diversity in genes, species and ecosystems
Social benefits, such as
- Research, education and monitoring
- Recreation and tourism
- Cultural values
Which of these services do we get from river systems?
Humans and Rivers
Water pollution is caused by the discharge of harmful substances into rivers, lakes and seas.
Some common pollutants of rivers are:
- Sewage
- Fertilisers washed off agricultural land
- Pesticides washed off agricultural land
- Sediment
- Detergents from urban areas which have
high levels of phosphate
Pollutants with high nutrient levels can cause eutrophication. The extra nutrients cause algae and other plants to grow faster. During the night the plants respire and when the plants die they are decomposed by micro-organisms. Both these processes use up oxygen and reduce the amount of oxygen available for fish and insects which may then die.
Lots of fish died in the River Ure a few years ago. Try and explain why this might have happened using the pictures below:
Indicator Species
Testing water chemistry can show whether a river is polluted but it only gives a snapshot. The animals in the river are responding to water quality throughout their whole life span.
Many aquatic invertebrate animals cannot survive in polluted water, so their presence or absence indicates the extent to which a body of water is polluted. They are good indicator species.
We can classify the invertebrates on how sensitive they are to pollution from 1 (very tolerant to pollution) to 10 (very sensitive to pollution). If we get lots of species with high scores then the water must be clean. Species with high scores include mayfly nymphs, stonefly nymphs, caddisfly larvae and dragonfly nymphs. Species with low scores include freshwater worms, leeches, freshwater hoglouse and blood worms. What score do you think each of the animals shown here should have?
