An aquifer is an underground layer of

water-bearing permeable rock or

unconsolidated materials (gravel,
sand, or silt) from which groundwater
can be extracted using a water well.
The study of water flow
in aquifers and the characterization
of aquifers is called hydrogeology.
Osmoregulation is the active
regulation of the osmotic pressure of
an organism's fluids to maintain the
homeostasis of the organism's water
content; that is, it keeps the
organism's fluids from becoming too
diluted or too concentrated.
Biomagnification refers to the
accumulation of toxins through the
trophic levels of a food chain. It results
in an increased concentration of the
toxin in the higher organisms of the
food chain.
The two main cations that cause
water hardness are calcium (Ca) and
magnesium (Mg). Calcium is dissolved
in water as it passes over and
through limestone deposits.
Magnesium is dissolved
as water passes over and through
dolomite and other magnesium
bearing formations.
Causes of water scarcity
Population expansion
Just 50 years ago, the total number of
people on earth has doubled and
continues to grow. This is a result of
larger family sizes and access to
better health care and lifestyles. This
means that use of wholesome water
for drinking, cleaning, cooking and
sewage has tripled. Humans are a lot

more careless in recent time, and we

waste more water than ever before.
This has placed a lot of pressure on
the same amount of water that we
have.
Urbanisation
Cities are growing and expanding
more than ever before. Cities also tend
to hold more people than towns and
villages. This means there an
increased need to take care of
sewage, cleaning, construction and
manufacturing.
Pollution
Water, air and land pollution together
contribute to the reduction of water
quality. Sewage, oil discharges from
industries, waste dumping into water
bodies, radioactive waste from mining
activities as well as dirty water fro
sanitation work in hospitals, hotels, oil
companies, mining, schools and
restaurants all end up polluting our
waters. Water contamination and
wastage from some mining industries
through Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking)
has also been a worry for many
people. Click here to learn more about
Fracking.
Vegetation destruction and
Deforestation
Trees help prevent excessive
evaporation or water bodies. They also
enrich and condition the climate. This
means the destruction of forests by
fire, logging and farming has exposed
soil moisture and water bodies to the
suns intense heat, leaving them dried
out.

Climate change
All over the world, places that used to
have lots of rainfall do not have
enough again and dry places suddenly
are getting colder and wetter. Both
cases result in clean water shortage
because less rainfall means less water,
and excessive rains cause flooding
and which brings all sorts of debris
and destroy water treatment
installations.

Ways to increase water supplies

1) Construct more water catchment
areas

water to our homes will result in more

water reaching our taps.
Important roots
absorption of water and inorganic
nutrients
2) anchoring of the plant body to the
ground
3) function in storage of food and
nutrients
4) in response to the concentration of
nutrients, roots also synthesise
cytokinin, which acts as a signal as to
how fast the shoots can grow.
The expected demand in a water
supply system can be estimated like

With the construction of more water

catchment areas, more rainwater can
be collected. This rainwater can be
treated and sent to our homes. Thus,
increasing water supply.

qet = qnl + 0.015 ( qn - qnl ) + 0.17

( qn - qnl )1/2
(1)

2) Improve relations with neighbouring

countries

qnl = demand of largest consumer (l/s)

If Singapore were to have better

relations with neighbouring countries,
we can therefore be able to purchase
freshwater from them.
3) Build more water treatment centres
If we build more water treatment
areas, the treatment of water will take
an even shorter time to be treated and
therefore, increasing more water
supply.
4) Construct more pipes to transport
water.
Constrcting more pipes to transport

where
qet = expected total water flow (l/s)

qn = total theoretical water flow - all

fixtures summarized (l/s)
Many factors affect water quality
Sedimentation
Runof
Erosion
Dissolved oxygen
pH
Temperature
Decayed organic materials
Pesticides
Toxic and hazardous substances

Oils, grease, and other chemicals

Detergents
Litter and rubbish
Causes of Ocean Pollution
There are various ways for how
pollution enters the ocean:
1. Sewage: Pollution can enter the
ocean directly. Sewage or polluting
substances flow through sewage,
rivers, or drainages directly into the
ocean. This is often how minerals and
substances from mining camps find
their way into the ocean. The release
of other chemical nutrients into the
oceans ecosystem leads to reductions
in oxygen levels, the decay of plant
life, a severe decline in the quality of
the sea water itself. As a result, all
levels of oceanic life, plants and
animals, are highly afected.
2. Toxic Chemicals From
Industries: Industrial and agricultural
waste are another most common form
of wastes that are directly discharged
into the oceans, resulting in ocean
pollution. The dumping of toxic
liquids in the ocean directly afects the
marine life as they are considered
hazardous and secondly, they raise
the temperature of the ocean, known
as thermal pollution, as the
temperature of these liquids is quite
high. Animals and plants that cannot
survive at higher temperatures
eventually perish.
3. Land Runoff: Land runof is
another source of pollution in the
ocean. This occurs when water
infiltrates the soil to its maximum

extent and the excess water from rain,

flooding or melting flows over the land
and into the ocean. Often times, this
water picks up man-made, harmful
contaminants that pollute the ocean,
including fertilizers, petroleum,
pesticides and other forms of soil
contaminants. Fertilizers and waste
from land animals and humans can be
a huge detriment to the ocean by
creating dead zones.
4. Large Scale Oil Spills: Ship
pollution is a huge source of ocean
pollution, the most devastating efect
of which is oil spills. Crude oil lasts for
years in the sea and is extremely toxic
to marine life, often sufocating marine
animals to death once it entraps them.
Crude oil is also extremely difficult to
clean up, unfortunately meaning that
when it is split; it is usually there to
stay.
In addition, many ships lose thousands
of crates each year due to storms,
emergencies, and accidents. This
causes noise pollution (excessive,
unexpected noise that interrupts the
balance of life, most often caused
by modes of transportation), excessive
algae, and ballast water. Often times,
other species can also invade an
ecosystem and do harm to it by
interrupting the life cycles of other
organisms, causing a clash of nature
that has already been damaged by the
overflow of pollution.
5. Ocean Mining: Ocean mining in
the deep sea is yet another source of
ocean pollution. Ocean mining sites
drilling for silver, gold, copper, cobalt
and zinc create sulfide deposits up to
three and a half thousand meters

down in to the ocean. While we have

yet the gathering of scientific evidence
to fully explain the
harsh environmental impacts of deep
sea mining, we do have a general idea
that deep sea mining causes damage
to the lowest levels of the ocean and
increase the toxicity of the region. This
permanent damage dealt also causes
leaking, corrosion and oil spills that
only drastically further hinder the
ecosystem of the region.
6. Littering: Pollution from the
atmosphere is, believe it or not, a
huge source of ocean pollution. This
occurs when objects that are far inland
are blown by the wind over long
distances and end up in the ocean.
These objects can be anything from
natural things like dust and sand, to
man-made objects such as debris and
trash. Most debris, especially plastic
debris, cannot decompose and
remains suspended in the oceans
current for years. Animals can become
snagged on the plastic or mistake it
for food, slowly killing them over a
long period of time. Animals who are
most often the victims of plastic debris
include turtles, dolphins, fish, sharks,
crabs, sea birds, and crocodiles.
In addition, the temperature of the
ocean is highly afected by carbon
dioxide and climate changes, which
impacts primarily the ecosystems and
fish communities that live in the
ocean. In particular, the rising levels of
Co2 acidify the ocean in the form
of acid rain. Even though the ocean

can absorb carbon dioxide that

originates from the atmosphere, the
carbon dioxide levels are steadily
increasing and the oceans absorbing
mechanisms, due to the rising of the
oceans temperatures, are unable to
keep up with the pace.

Kelp forests are underwater areas

with a high density of kelp. They are
recognized as one of the most
productive and dynamic ecosystems
on Earth. The kelp forest is a forest,
but it is not a forest of trees. It is made
of seaweed called giant kelp. Giant
kelp grows in cool coastal waters
where sunlight can go down to a rocky
sea floor.
Causes of Coral Reef Destruction
Coral reefs fill many of our oceans.
They provide homes for a variety of
species of sea life. However, in the
past years, particularly since the
1980s, our reefs are changing.
According to Ocean World ten percent
of our reefs have been destroyed and
others are in danger. Some of the
causes for the destruction of our reefs
include:
Overfishing
Pollution
Chemicals
Global warming