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FAJRI USMAN SEH110704 Assignment 1 SHEH 2105: Environmental Chemical Analysis

1. Environment is a dynamic system. Discuss. Answer: Environment can be stated as a dynamic system due to the fact that physical forces continuously change the surface of the earth through weather, action of waves, volcanoes and etc. At the same time, they release gases, vapor and dust into atmosphere. Chemical reactions high up in the atmosphere continuously produce ozone which protects us from harmful UV radiation from the sun. Living organisms also play a dynamic role through respiration, excretion, death and decay. 2. If a pollutant is discharged into the environment, what cause the effect on individual living organisms and global environment: The total amount discharged; Its concentration in the environments? Answer: Both, the total amount of pollutant discharged and its concentration in different regions of the environment. They are only different in scale; the total amount of pollutant discharged may probably cause a bigger scale effect on global environment. Meanwhile, its concentration in different regions of the environment will more likely cause the effect on individual living organisms. Materials are constantly being transported between the three spheres of the environment atmosphere, hydrosphere and litosphere. At each stage of the transportation, the concentration of the pollutants will be changed either by phase transfer, dilution or reconcentration. We have to understand the processes in order to predict where are the large concentrations of the pollutant are likely to occur; to assess the significance of measured concentrations of pollutants in different regions of the environment.

3. Discuss the importance of environment chemical analysis in environmental studies. Answer: The common purpose of environmental chemical analysis is to monitor and study the level of pollutants in environment. When you are performing pollution monitoring, a detailed analysis of pollution levels would be an essential part. Furthermore, environmental chemical analysis is obviously noticed as a necessary component of almost all stages for government or international agency to control a potential pollution problem which involved chemical analysis. It is important in stages ranging from identifying/recognizing the problem, monitoring to determine the extent of the problem, determining the control procedures, ensuring the control procedures are being implemented, until final monitoring stage to ensure the problem has been controlled.

4. Pollutants with lower molecular weight are more likely to dissolve in water whereas high molecular weight pollutants are more likely to accumulate in organisms. Discuss. Answer: Solubility in water decreases with increasing molecular mass. As water solubility decreases, the solubility in organic solvent increases. This increase in solubility is equally true if we consider solubility in fatty tissues in living organisms similar to the solubility in laboratory solvents. Therefore, any dissolved organic material will readily transfer into fatty tissue and particularly that found in organs in closest contact with aqueous fluids such as kidney. Another thing is the larger the solid surface area, the greater will be its ability to absorb the compound. Suitable pollutant is found in sediments the smaller the particle size (larger surface area), the greater the accumulation of organic pollutants in the sediments. These organics may then be ingested by organisms which feed by filtration of sediments (e.g. mussels, scallops, etc) lead to the bioaccumulation.

5. What would be the bio concentration of DDT if the concentration of DDT in the fat of a fish that lives in waters containing 0.01 ppb of DDT is 4.31 ppm? Answer: BC = Bioconcentration of DDT in the organisms body Bioconcentration of DDT in the environment = 0.01 ppb 4.31 ppm = 0.00001ppm 4.31 ppm = 0.00000232 ppm So, the bio concentration of DDT in the fat of that fish would be 232 x 10-8 ppm

6. What are bioconcentration and biomagnifications? Answer: Bioconcentration, according to International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, can be defined as a process leading to a higher concentration of a substance in an organism than in environmental media to which it is exposed. It is the concentration of a particular chemical in a biological tissue per concentration of that chemical in water surrounding that tissue. That is, a dimensionless number representing how much of a chemical is in a tissue relative to how much of that chemical exists in the environment. It is also known as Bioconcentration Factor (BCF)

This physical property characterizes the accumulation of chemicals, including pollutants, through chemical partitioning from the aqueous phase into an organic phase. This may occur as in gills of a fish, or cell walls of aqueous plants. In the context of setting exposure criteria it is generally understood that the terms "BCF" and "steady-state BCF"' are synonymous. A steady-state condition occurs when the organism is exposed for a sufficient length of time that the ratio does not change substantially. Tissues with BCF greater than 1,000 are considered high, and less than 250 low, with those between classified as moderate. Meanwhile, Biomagnification, also known as bioamplification or biological magnification, is the increase in concentration of a substance that occurs in a food chain as a consequence of: Persistence (can't be broken down by environmental processes), Food chain energetic, Low (or nonexistent) rate of internal degradation/excretion of the substance (often due to waterinsolubility). The following is an example showing how biomagnification takes place in nature: An anchovy eats zooplankton that has tiny amounts of mercury that the zooplankton has picked up from the water throughout the anchovies lifespan. A tuna eats many of these anchovies over its life, accumulating the mercury in each of those anchovies into its body. If the mercury stunts the growth of the anchovies, that tuna is required to eat more little fish to stay alive. Because there are more little fish being eaten, the mercury content is magnified. Biological magnification often refers to the process whereby certain substances such as pesticides or heavy metals move up the food chain, work their way into rivers or lakes, and are eaten by aquatic organisms such as fish, which in turn are eaten by large birds, animals or humans. The substances become concentrated in tissues or internal organs as they move up the chain.

7. Explain how the metal ions interact with sediments. Why the concentration of metal ions in the sediments may reduce after exposing to the acid rain. Answer: Metal ions may interact with sediments by Adsorption, Ion exchange (clay minerals are natural ion exchangers) Complex formation. The concentration of metal ions in the sediments may reduce after get exposed to the acid rain because solubility of metals increase with a decrease in pH. Some of the problems of acid rain in causing the death of fish have been attributed to toxic metals from soil. Solubility is also increase by formation of complexes with organic material such as soap powder (anthropogenic), humic acid, fluvic acid (natural). Oxidizing and reducing nature of water may lead to deposition or solubilization. Acidic -> Fe2+, alkaline oxidizing conditions -> precipitate as Fe(OH)3

8. Distinguish between laboratory analysis and field analysis. Answer: We can distinguish between laboratory and field analysis by knowing the advantages and the disadvantages of each respective type of analysis: The advantages of laboratory analysis are the fact that the analysis are performed under optimum conditions which lead to maximum and the single apparatus, as well as the one location will maximize the precision. Meanwhile, the advantages of field analysis can be in the form of instantaneous results, removals of errors due to sample storage, continuous monitoring which enabled by special equipments and the fact that it is suitable for reactive compounds which cannot survive in the transportation to the laboratory. Nonetheless, both types of analysis also have several disadvantages. In laboratory analysis, the disadvantages can be the time delay in producing results, the fact that the sample needs to be transported, and the occurrences of errors during sample storage (through reaction, loss of sample, and contamination). As for the field analysis, the disadvantages might be in terms of low accuracy and precision, the required complex instrumentations, and the possibility of results produced are far from optimum conditions.

9. Differentiate between environmental analysis and environmental monitoring. Answer: The difference between environmental analysis and environmental monitoring can be seen through their aims. The aims of environmental analysis are mainly to determine the background, natural, concentrations of chemical constituents in the environment and to determine the concentration of harmful pollutants in the environment. Otherwise, the aim of environmental monitoring is more to describe the processes and activities that need to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of the environment.

10. Describe the problems that may occur during sample storage. Answer: The problems may occur during sample probably due to the object is normally highly variable in temporal (time) and spatial (space) terms as regards to the measured quality which justify that careful selection of sampling times and location is necessary. Furthermore, it may due to the fact that the object is usually very complex as regards to sample nature, the sample collection and treatment vary widely depending on the types of analyses, interference reaching the sample during transport, and instability of the analytes.

11. What is the meaning of representative sample in environmental analysis? Answer: Representative sample can be defined as a subset of a statistical population that accurately reflects the members of the entire population in an environmental analysis. A representative sample should be an unbiased indication of what the population is like. Ideally, a researcher would have a Representative Sample, which is when your participants closely match the characteristics of the population, which helps you generalize your results from your small group of data to large groups of data.

The purpose of the representative sample is to provide information about a statistical parameter(s) (such as mean) of the population regarding some characteristic(s) (such as concentration) of its constituent(s) (such as lead). This process includes the following stages: (1) minimization of sampling bias and optimization of precision while taking the physical samples, (2) minimization of measurement bias and optimization of precision when analyzing the physical samples to obtain data, and (3) minimization of statistical bias when making inference from the sample data to the population.