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This Environment Canada website describes how climate change is influenced by both natural and human factors. Natural causes include varied solar output, volcanic activity, and Earth’s orbit. Human factors include the burning of fossil fuels and the conversion of land for forestry and agriculture. This extremely educational site gives insight into the devastating effects of human caused climate change that could warm the planet to levels that have never been experienced in the history of human civilization. It is important to understand that there are natural changes to climate but humans are speeding up the process at rates never seen before. Climate change is due to the increased greenhouse gases, one of them being water vapour, relating this item to the theme.

Global climate change is influenced by both natural and human factors.

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Human activity is the main cause of climate change. People burn fossil fuels and convert land from forests to agriculture. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, people have burned more and more fossil fuels and changed vast areas of land from forests to farmland. Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

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This video by National Geographic puts the consequences of climate change into 4 categories: oceans, weather, food, and health. Increased temperatures cause ice sheets to melt and sea levels to rise, flooding coastal regions. This also makes the weather more extreme, making growing crops more difficult. Water supplies become diminished and new agricultural problems arise. People’s physical health can be affected due to the increase in smog that can lead to asthma, heart disease, and lung cancer. It is important to understand that climate change affects living things and natural systems in a variety of ways to realize the impacts of seemingly insignificant actions. This big idea was covered in the grade 10 science course in great detail as well as in the video. Sea levels are rising and seas are bodies of water, which relates to the theme.

Climate change affects living things and natural systems in a variety of ways.

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Causes and Effects of Climate Change | National Geographic

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In the video, the narrator explains that the coral reefs are bleaching because Earth’s temperatures are increasing for longer periods of time. This video opens our eyes to the “global bleaching event” that is occurring. Combined with El Nino, ocean temperatures stayed high, allowing the coral to continue bleaching. It is our responsibility to assess their impact on climate change and to identify effective courses of action to reduce this impact. The video accurately describes this and points out that the coral has a chance at becoming unbleached if we allow the ocean temperatures to decrease for a long enough period of time. The coral exists in the ocean which is filled with water, relating to the theme. This item is extremely important because it displays one of the many effects of climate change that could be reversed if action is taken to reduce the effects of climate change.

People have the responsibility to assess their impact on climate change and to identify effective courses of action to reduce this impact.

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25 MILLION Orbeez in a pool. Do you sink or float?

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25 MILLION Orbeez in a pool. Do you sink or float?

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Relevant parts: 0:10-1:00, 1:30-1:55, 2:20-3:40. Feel free to watch the whole thing but only those parts are relevant to the topic

In this video, Mark Rober was interested in how far he would sink if he jumped into a pool of 25 million Orbeez balls (superabsorbent polymer). He developed a hypothesis, designed and performed an experiment, and analyzed his observations and results. As a “firm believer in the scientific method,” he demonstrated strong scientific investigation skills and clearly explained why his hypothesis was wrong. He performed his experiment in a pool with Orbeez balls filled with water, relating to the theme of water. This item is significant because it accurately represents the scientific investigation skills necessary for each lab and is an essential part of the grade 10 science course.

Demonstrate scientific investigation skills in four areas: initiating and planning, performing and recording, analysing and interpreting and communicating.

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25 MILLION Orbeez in a pool- Do you sink or float?

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This is a picture I took of my periscope with my face reflected off the mirrors. The periscope allows you to see objects that are above your line of sight like my face. This periscope was made with 2 mirrors at a 45 degree angle to each other; since the angle of incidence must equal the angle of reflection, this allows the light rays to leave the periscope parallel but lower than the object. Periscopes are often used in submarines to see above the water while the submarine is submerged. This application allows society to benefit from its use in water. In the grade 10 science course, we learned about how society has benefited from the development of optical devices and technologies, a periscope being one of them.

Society has benefited from the development of a range of optical devices and technologies.

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B.C. doctor says perfect vision possible with Bionic Lens

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B.C. doctor says perfect vision possible with Bionic Lens

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This article describes a new invention by a British Columbian optometrist, Dr. Garth Webb. The Ocumetic Bionic Lens would allow patients to have perfect vision and never get cataracts since their natural lenses would be replaced. This is a significant contribution to the field of optometry and could change the lives of many people. Optometrists examine the eyes and other parts of the visual system. They also diagnose and treat visual problems and manage diseases, injuries, and other disorders of the eyes. They prescribe eyeglasses or contact lenses as needed. Optometrists such as Dr. Garth Webb regularly manipulate the properties of light with mirrors and lenses to fix the eyesight of their patients. The procedure includes having a saline solution with the lens flushed into the eye with a syringe, where it would unravel itself within 10 seconds. The solution contains water, which connects to the theme.

Identify and describe a variety of careers related to the fields of science under study, and identify scientists, including Canadians, who have made contributions to those fields.

Light has characteristics and properties that can be manipulated with mirrors and lenses for a range of uses.

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VANCOUVER -- Imagine being able to see three times better than 20/20 vision without wearing glasses or contacts -- even at age 100 or more -- with the help of bionic lenses implanted in your eyes.

Dr. Garth Webb, a British Columbia optometrist who invented the Ocumetic Bionic Lens, says patients would have perfect vision and that driving, progressive and contact lenses would become a dim memory as the eye-care industry is transformed.

Webb says people who have the specialized lenses surgically inserted would never get cataracts because their natural lenses, which decay over time, would have been replaced.

Perfect eyesight would result "no matter how crummy your eyes are," Webb says, adding the Bionic Lens would be an option for someone who depends on corrective lenses and is over about age 25, when the eye structures are fully developed.

"This is vision enhancement that the world has never seen before," he says, showing a Bionic Lens, which looks like a tiny button.

"If you can just barely see the clock at 10 feet, when you get the Bionic Lens you can see the clock at 30 feet away," says Webb, demonstrating how a custom-made lens that folded like a taco in a saline-filled syringe would be placed in an eye, where it would unravel itself within 10 seconds.

He says the painless procedure, identical to cataract surgery, would take about eight minutes and a patient's sight would be immediately corrected.

Webb, who is the CEO of Ocumetics Technology Corp., has spent the last eight years and about $3 million researching and developing the Bionic Lens, getting international patents and securing a biomedical manufacturing facility in Delta, B.C.

His mission is fuelled by the "obsession" he's had to free himself and others from corrective lenses since he was in Grade 2, when he was saddled with glasses.

"My heroes were cowboys, and cowboys just did not wear glasses," Webb says.

"At age 45 I had to struggle with reading glasses, which like most people, I found was a great insult. To this day I curse my progressive glasses. I also wear contact lenses, which I also curse just about every day."

Webb's efforts culminated in his recent presentation of the lens to 14 top ophthalmologists in San Diego the day before an annual gathering of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

Dr. Vincent DeLuise, an ophthalmologist who teaches at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, says he arranged several meetings on April 17, when experts in various fields learned about the lens.

He says the surgeons, from Canada, the United States, Australia and the Dominican Republic, were impressed with what they heard and some will be involved in clinical trials for Webb's "very clever" invention.

"There's a lot of excitement about the Bionic Lens from very experienced surgeons who perhaps had some cynicism about this because they've seen things not work in the past. They think that this might actually work and they're eager enough that they all wish to be on the medical advisory board to help him on his journey," DeLuise says.

"I think this device is going to bring us closer to the holy grail of excellent vision at all ranges -- distant, intermediate and near."

Pending clinical trials on animals and then blind human eyes, the Bionic Lens could be available in Canada and elsewhere in about two years, depending on regulatory processes in various countries, Webb says.

As for laser surgery, which requires the burning away of healthy corneal tissue and includes potential problems with glare, the need for night-time driving glasses and later cataracts, Webb says the Bionic Lens may make that option obsolete.

Alongside his Bionic Lens venture, Webb has set up a foundation called the Celebration of Sight, which would donate money to organizations providing eye surgery in developing countries to improve people's quality of life.

"Perfect eyesight should be a human right," he says.

DeLuise, who has been asked to manage the foundation, says funds would also be funnelled to some of the world's best eye research institutes.

"He has the technology that may make all of this happen," he says, adding several companies have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to develop a similar lens, though none have come close.

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B.C. doctor says perfect vision possible with Bionic Lens

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VANCOUVER -- Imagine being able to see three times better than 20/20 vision without wearing glasses or contacts -- even at age 100 or more -- with the help of bionic lenses implanted in your eyes.

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This is a picture/advertisement of my mother’s prescription swim goggles. Through the lenses, you can see that the objects (the house and tree) are smaller. These prescription goggles are for correcting near-sightedness or myopia. The lenses are diverging lenses and make the light rays diverge before they reach the eye, focussing the object. The characteristics and properties of light can be manipulated with lenses to correct vision, even when swimming. This picture is significant because understanding the properties and characteristics of light, mirrors, and lenses is a crucial part of the grade 10 science course.

Light has characteristics and properties that can be manipulated with mirrors and lenses for a range of uses.

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When Pee Meets Pool: The Dangerous Chemicals That May Form When Urine Mixes With Chlorine

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When Pee Meets Pool: The Dangerous Chemicals That May Form When Urine Mixes With Chlorine

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This article explains that urine and chlorine can react to produce harmful chemicals that could have negative effects on your health. Uric acid specifically, a byproduct of urine, will create cyanogen chloride when combined with chlorine. Another gas called nitrogen trichloramine can be produced which is linked to chronic health problems in swimmers. The products of the reactants can be predicted because chemicals react with each other in predictable ways. This connection is extremely important as predicting the reactions is a central part of the chemistry unit. Since the reactions occur in pools filled with water, this item is related to the theme.

Chemicals react with each other in predictable ways.

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We think that only little kids pee and poop in public swimming pools, but apparently adults do too - and it may be far more dangerous than we think.

According to a recent survey, one in five Americans have admitted to peeing in a public swimming pool. The same survey found that 43 percent of Americans have skipped taking a shower before going for a swim, 11 percent have swam with a runny nose, and 8 percent have swam with an open cut.

This doesn't sound encouraging. On top of that, a recent study out of the China Agricultural University and Purdue University found that urine mixed with chlorine could create dangerous chemicals that are harmful to human health. Uric acid in particular, which is a byproduct of urine, when combined with chlorine creates something called cyanogen chloride. This is a gas that could be harmful to the central nervous system, heart, and lungs when inhaled. According to the study, uric acid could be linked to 24 percent to 68 percent of this chemical byproduct in pools.

Another chemical called nitrogen trichloramine is also a byproduct of this union, which is a gas that has been linked to chronic health problems in swimmers.

It may not just be the urine in particular that could be harmful to swimmers' health, but also the overall "changes in pool water chemistry" that occur in a pool that is used heavily. According to another study completed in 2011, the water quality in a chlorinated indoor pool "deteriorated" significantly after a national swimming competition, which was a period of intense use. The trichloramine levels doubled just after one day, but increased fourfold throughout the whole competition.

According to the World Health Organization, the chemicals that are found in pools are derived from three different sources: the source water itself, the bather (dirt, urine, sweat, lotions), and whatever the pool's management puts into the water (disinfectants, pH correction chemicals). The WHO lists trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, chlorate, and nitrogen trichloride as "disinfection by-products." Swimmers typically are exposed to such chemicals by either inhaling the gases, absorbing them through their skin or swallowing water.

"No matter how easy it is to pee anonymously in the pool, swimmers should avoid doing so and take their children on frequent bathroom breaks," Dr. Chris Wiant, chair of the Water Quality & Health Council, said. "Pool operators should also monitor and maintain proper pool water chemistry, especially pH and chlorine levels, which [the CDC] calls 'the first defense against germs that can make swimmers sick.'"

Taking a shower before jumping into the pool goes a long way, even if you figure you'll shower afterwards. "The pre-swim shower removes a lot of the sweat, cosmetics and urine that can mix with chlorine to create irritants in pool water," Michele Hlavsa, chief of the CDC's Healthy Swimming Program, told CBS Cleveland. "These irritants, not the chlorine itself, cause red eyes when we swim and the strong chemical smell of some pools."

However, others have a different view about urine in pool water. Famous Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, for example, has admitted to peeing in the pool during long training sessions, and claims it's common for many swimmers. Peeing in the pool is fine as long as chlorine kills the germs, Phelps reportedly said.

Phelps' comment was actually backed up by scientists from the charity, Sense About Science (SAS). "In fact Michael, urine is essentially sterile so there isn't actually anything to kill in the first place," Stuart Jones, a biochemist, said, according to The Telegraph. "Urine is largely just salts and water with moderate amounts of protein and DNA breakdown products. ... [P]eeing in a swimming pool, even if all swimmers do it simultaneously, has very little impact on the composition of the pool water itself. An Olympic size pool contains over 2 million litres of water and a single urination is somewhere in the region of 0.2 litres. To have any significant effect on the overall composition of the pool water you'd need a serious amount of peeing!"

But to be safe, please take showers before you swim. And unless you're an Olympic swimmer with no bathroom break, just don't pee in the pool.

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When Pee Meets Pool: The Dangerous Chemicals That May Form When Urine Mixes With Chlorine

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We think that only little kids pee and poop in public swimming pools, but apparently adults do too - and it may be far more dangerous than we think. According to a recent survey, one in five Americans have admitted to peeing in a public swimming pool.

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The Flint Water Crisis: What's Really Going On?

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The Flint Water Crisis: What's Really Going On?

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During the flint water crisis, the water in Flint, Michigan had high levels of organic molecules called trihalomethanes. These molecules are similar to methane molecules (CH₄), but three of the hydrogen atoms are replaced with halogen (group 17) atoms—fluorine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine. Massive levels of lead were also in the water since oxidizing agents in water such as dissolved oxygen can react with exposed lead pipes causing soluble Pb²⁺ ions to enter the supply. To solve the problem, phosphate ions (PO₄ 3–) are added to the water supply. This creates a protective layer on the inside of the pipe. These negative polyatomic ions help to create lead(II) phosphate (Pb₃(PO₄)₂), an insoluble, mineral-like crust on the inside of the pipes. Chemical reactions caused the problem and are also being used to resolve the problem; thus, chemical reactions may have a negative impact on the environment, but they can also be used to address environmental challenges. This item concerns the Flint water supply and is directly related to the theme.

Chemical reactions may have a negative impact on the environment, but they can also be used to address environmental challenges.

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In addition to the loss of the phosphate protective layer in the pipes, two other problems occurred, as well.

First, the Flint River water had some unusually high levels of chloride ions, which can accelerate the corrosion of the pipes. In part, these high chloride levels came from salts used to treat roads during the cold and snowy Michigan winters. Often, chlorides enter rivers as run-off from the roads. This is actually an example of connections between different applications of chemistry: De-icing Michigan's slippery roads has some immediate and obvious benefits, but the run-off of chloride ions can be an unintended consequence.

Second, the pH of the water from the Flint water treatment plants was too low. By maintaining a relatively high pH (around 10), the solubility of another lead compound that contributes to the protective layer, lead(II) carbonate (PbCO ₃), decreases. This helps to maintain the protective layer on the pipes. If the pH is too low, then the protective layer may dissolve and fall off. We can explain this by considering Le Châtelier's principle, which states that a system that is shifted away from equilibrium acts to restore the equilibrium by reacting in opposition to the shift.

Lead(II) carbonate is relatively insoluble in water, but does dissolve a little, and in the process sets up this equilibrium:

The carbonate ions that are produced can then react with any hydrogen ions (acid) present in the water supply, according to this equation:

The lower the pH, the more hydrogen ions that are present in solution and the more the carbonate ions react. The removal of carbonate ions from the equilibrium system of lead(II) carbonate in the first equation results in an increase in the concentration of lead ions. To restore the equilibrium, the chemical reaction shifts to the right, so that additional carbonate ions (and lead ions) are produced.

To ensure that the number of lead and carbonate ions is the same on the right side of the equation, the reaction then shifts to the left and to the right a few times until a new equilibrium is reached. In this new equilibrium, the number of lead ions is the same as the number of carbonate ions, but the number of lead ions is larger than what it was during the original equilibrium (before the carbonate ions were removed), resulting in more lead ions at equilibrium than before.

Flint's water was found to have pH values between 7 and 8, which is not basic enough to prevent lead carbonate from dissolving. The lack of a protective layer in the iron pipes can cause a similar oxidation reaction to the one occurring in the lead pipes:

The aqueous iron ions can cause the water to turn an unsightly rust color, but it can also have another troublesome side effect. This time, elemental chlorine (Cl ₂) can be reduced to chloride ions (Cl ⁻). When the electrons are given up by the iron and picked up by the chlorine molecules, the following reduction reaction occurs:

The loss of elemental chlorine is a potentially huge problem for public health. Chlorine is added to the water supply to eliminate water-borne pathogens. The removal of elemental chlorine via reduction can mean that water-borne pathogens have a better chance of surviving, causing disease.

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The Flint Water Crisis: What's Really Going On? - American Chemical Society

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In addition to the loss of the phosphate protective layer in the pipes, two other problems occurred, as well. First, the Flint River water had some unusually high levels of chloride ions, which can accelerate the corrosion of the pipes. In part, these high chloride levels came from salts used to treat roads during the cold and snowy Michigan winters.

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Meet the ace Canadian heart surgeon who 'does the stuff other doctors are too scared to do'

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Meet the ace Canadian heart surgeon who 'does the stuff other doctors are too scared to do'

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Robert James Cusimano is a world-renowned heart surgeon and is called Canada’s ace of hearts. He has become the go-to-surgeon for removing heart tumours and was able to diagnose a patient while several other doctors couldn’t. People call him a fixer of leaky valves and blown arteries, a transplant specialist and remover of heart tumours. The human body is made of specialized cells that can become mutated and turn into cancer cells. It is important to understand that plants and animals, including humans, are made of specialized cells, tissues, and organs that are organized into systems that work together. Heart surgeons are trained to perform surgery on the heart, lungs, esophagus, blood vessels and other organs in the thoracic cavity. The heart pumps blood and there is plasma in the blood which is 92% water, thus connecting to the theme of water.

Plants and animals, including humans, are made of specialized cells, tissues, and organs that are organized into systems.
Identify and describe a variety of careers related to the fields of science under study, and identify scientists, including Canadians, who have made contributions to those fields.

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Brian Voykin had a persistent itch and would sweat profusely, to the point that he would be at work and look as though he had just climbed out of a swimming pool. Fully clothed. At night, the accountant's heart would jackhammer away in his chest, racing some invisible race.

Doctors in Calgary couldn't say what was wrong. The itch was diagnosed as an itch of indeterminate cause, while the recommended treatment involved placing a fan on his desk to keep cool and taking allergy medication to alleviate the flaming urge to scratch.

Voykin was still itchy when he moved to Toronto with his wife and two children - with a third on the way - about eight years ago. He was convinced he was suffering from an anxiety disorder - and wouldn't that have been nice, since what was actually ailing him was a rare and almost certainly lethal, heart-sized tumour, wrapped around his heart.

Voykin needed help. He needed Robert James Cusimano - a.k.a. "RJ" - Canada's ace of hearts. The 56-year-old surgeon is a world-renowned fixer of leaky valves and blown arteries, a transplant specialist and remover of heart tumours of the sort that had a young accountant treading in the grey zone, sweating profusely, teetering between life and death.

The typical cardiac surgeon might encounter one heart cancer case in a career. About 30 to 40 cases pop up per year in Canada. Almost by default, and lately by design, RJ Cusimano has become the go-to-surgeon for removing them. It is a cardiac specialty so specialized that it isn't even recognized as a specialty yet.

"If this guy can't help you - nobody can," Voykin says. "He does the stuff that other doctors are too scared to do. I knew I couldn't possibly be in any better hands anywhere in Canada. But the downfall of that was that I was in those hands because I needed to be."

One of those hands, the right one, went fishing into the pocket of a surgical coat to answer a ringing cellphone on a recent afternoon. A patient was running a fever on the ward upstairs at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre in Toronto General Hospital, and the nurse at the other end of the call was asking if she could start him on something.

"Yup," came the reply from the doctor who once operated on live television in China for an audience of 105 million.

'If this guy can't help you - nobody can'

Cusimano will be back in the spotlight on Thursday, when he hosts an international all-star team of physicians at the first cardiac tumour conference in Toronto.

"We want the ball to start rolling so that when a doctor finds a mass in your heart they are not thinking you're dead, but that there is a guy in Toronto or Houston or Oslo doing this surgery," Cusimano says.

In a rare bit of downtime between surgeries, patient rounds and conference planning, Cusimano sat down in his office to talk about death. And life, and faith and that fantastic thing: the living, beating, human heart.

"I am still amazed to touch someone's heart," he says. "If you look at a person's lung, you don't really see it moving. But you look at the heart - it beats - it moves."

Cusimano slept at the hospital the previous night and apologized for being unshaven and asked to keep his surgical cap on - to hide his messy hair. He comes from a family of eight, a brood that includes a brain surgeon, a family doctor, an architect, an accountant and some teachers. (His wife is also a doctor. The couple have two children.)

Salvatore Cusimano, the family patriarch, is a Depression-era son of Italian immigrants, who was forced to quit school after Grade 8 to help support his family.

"Education was my father's big thing," Cusimano says. "He put eight kids through university."

RJ was third in line. The family lived, and the parents still do, in the Toronto suburb of Don Mills. Cusimano envisioned becoming a teacher, until he became interested in physiology and glimpsed his first heart at Toronto General in 1977.

"The most interesting thing about him is his compassion," says Juglans Alvarez, a young Brazilian physician who came to Toronto on a fellowship in 2013 and met Cusimano. "He takes on higher risk, difficult surgeries, and he accepts patients that other doctors refuse and why he does this, I think, is because he thinks about the patient.

"He thinks about what giving them and their family a chance means - and he lives this compassion. It is at the base of his work. When you see these patients and they survive, it is a beautiful thing."

'I am still amazed to touch someone's heart'

But patients don't always survive. Cusimano remembers every death, none more so than the first. He can picture the man lying lifeless on the operating table, and remembers walking out to give the family the news.

"It wasn't a surprise that he died, it was a risky thing," he says. "But what was a surprise was the family - how grateful they were...

"I am not saying everybody is thankful when someone dies. People are angry - and they should be. But I have been taken by how people react to a bad outcome, where they are almost consoling to me. And it's because I think they see how much a bad outcome affects me.

"My patients have taken care of me as much as I have taken care of them."

Cusimano is Catholic and he leans on his faith during difficult moments, whispering to himself during high-stakes procedures: "God be with me now." He believes in miracles and has performed the same procedure on two different patients and watched as one died and the other lived. Why is that, he wonders.

"You do the operation but you don't determine the outcome," he says. "I believe there is something more than my expertise."

Brian Voykin isn't religious and attaches an earthly label to the man who saved his life five years ago.

"Rock star works for me," he says, laughing.

Voykin has often thought about sending Cusimano a thank you, but any gift he can think of doesn't equal the magnitude of the gift he has been given.

"I wouldn't be around today if not for him," he says. "The only way you can thank somebody for that is to live your life as well as you can, and to somehow show him that he didn't waste his effort."

National Post
* Email: joconnor@nationalpost.com | Twitter: oconnorwrites

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Meet the ace Canadian heart surgeon who 'does the stuff other doctors are too scared to do'

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Brian Voykin had a persistent itch and would sweat profusely, to the point that he would be at work and look as though he had just climbed out of a swimming pool. Fully clothed. At night, the accountant's heart would jackhammer away in his chest, racing some invisible race.

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New Research Suggests Smaller Wetlands Capture More Nutrients

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New Research Suggests Smaller Wetlands Capture More Nutrients

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Two Waterloo environmental research scientists, Frederick Cheng and Nandita Basu have discovered that “smaller, distributed wetland areas are more effective at nutrient capture.” The results of their study suggest that “small wetlands play a … large role in landscape-scale nutrient processing.” The authors describe that the loss of wetlands has a huge environmental impact, revealing the importance of small wetlands and not just the large ones people are focussed on preserving. Reduced nitrogen removal could lead to nitrogen build up and climate change. This is because Earth’s climate is dynamic and is the result of interacting systems and processes. Overall, wetlands contain water, are a body of water, and connect to the theme. Environmental scientists conduct scientific studies, prepare reports, and develop management plans to study the environment and make sure it is not in danger. They provide scientific knowledge and advice to decision-makers so that the environment is protected when development occurs. Often, environmental scientists are found in the lab, the office, or in the field. The researchers are environmental scientists who have contributed to their field of study and the magazine, Water Canada, has many writers that are environmental scientists.

Earth’s climate is dynamic and is the result of interacting systems and processes.
Identify and describe a variety of careers related to the fields of science under study, and identify scientists, including Canadians, who have made contributions to those fields.

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A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo, has found that smaller, distributed wetland areas are more effective at nutrient capture.

Biogeochemical hotspots: Role of small water bodies in landscape nutrient processing, published in the journal Water Resources Research, "synthesized data from 600 lentic systems around the world to gain insight into the relationship between hydrologic and biogeochemical controls on nutrient retention."

Conducted by Nandita Basu and Frederick Cheng, both of the University of Waterloo's Department of Civil Engineering, the results suggested "that small wetlands play a disproportionately large role in landscape-scale nutrient processing-50 per cent of nitrogen removal occurs in wetlands smaller than 10 2.5 m ² in our example," wrote the authors.

"With agriculture and urbanization, Canada has lost a huge portion of its wetlands, which have had a number of environmental impacts," said Basu to the Water Institute, of which she is a member. "While we have made some progress in protecting larger wetlands that act as habitat for wildlife, we have been less successful in protecting smaller ones that continue to be removed to make way for things such as new housing subdivisions.​"

The reason for this difference in nutrient capture between small and large wetlands has to do with the exchange between water volume and the soil in the wetland; the more exposure water has to soil at the bottom or shoreline of the wetlands, the greater the nutrient exchange between land and water. "Studies such as those by Millar (1971) and Hayashi and Rosenberry (2002) found that the water level recession in wetlands are highly dependent on the perimeter-area ratio which accounts for the higher surface areas allowing for evapotranspiration or groundwater exchange," wrote the authors in a supplementary document.
Removal rate constant versus hydraulic residence time. Credit: Bansu, Cheng, University of Waterloo, Water Resources Research.
"What is often not appreciated," said Bansu, "is that different wetlands serve different purposes."

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New Research Suggests Smaller Wetlands Capture More Nutrients-WaterCAD

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A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo, has found that smaller, distributed wetland areas are more effective at nutrient capture. Biogeochemical hotspots: Role of small water bodies in landscape nutrient processing, published in the journal Water Resources Research, "synthesized data from 600 lentic systems around the world to gain insight into the relationship between hydrologic and biogeochemical controls on nutrient retention."

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Genetically modified fish are injected with growth hormones to increase food supply. Despite this benefit, there are many ethical and social implications because the fish could be harmed. If released into the wild, the fish could destroy the marine ecosystem and the effect on human health has not been evaluated enough. It is very important to understand that advances in technology can have social and ethical implications. Since fish live in water, this is related to the theme. The fish were modified by genetic engineers who use a variety of molecular tools and technologies to rearrange fragments of DNA. The overall goal is to enhance organisms so that they are better able to thrive in certain environments.

Developments in medicine and medical technology can have social and ethical implications.

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Atlantic salmon, when altered with genetic material from a Chinook salmon and ocean pout, can grow to market size twice as fast as wild salmon. But CBS News' Alison Harmelin reports that for some scientists and stores, the genetically modified fish is proving to be a tough sell.