Ecosystem

&
Nitrogen Cycle

Presentation by Group 2
 Ecology

"The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else," according to Barry Commoner, this gives us an idea of
how our ecosystem works, which is what we are going to present today.

Good morning Ma'am and fellow students; we are group 2, and today we will explain a glimpse of our chosen ecosystem and one
of the biogeochemical cycles that act as pathways for essential elements for living matter.

First, we will introduce the assigned biogeochemical cycle assigned to us. Then, we will give a brief background of our chosen
ecosystem; after that, we will look at one human activity that disrupts this ecosystem and the damage it brought within the place.
Marinduque
Province
Verde Island
Passage
 1 Known as the Heart of the Philippines!
What is special about the
Island?
Sought out for its festivities such as Moriones
2 Festival and Gasang-gasang festival

The province is widely known nationwide to be

3 the butterfly capital of the Philippines, housing 75%
of the countries butterfly farms.

Marinduque is generally known in present time

4
as an agricultural province, primarily trading rice and
coconuts.
Nitrogen
Cycle
What is Nitrogen Cycle?
The nitrogen cycle is the circulation of nitrogen gas
throughout the Earth. Nitrogen gas is an important part
of many life
2 processes on Earth, especially plants and
crops.

Though the atmosphere is made up mostly of

nitrogen, it is unusable from that point. Four basic
processes make up the nitrogen cycle:
Nitrogen Cycle in Aquatic • Nitrification is a process that transforms soil ammonia into
Ecosystem nitrates. These can then used by plants as plant tissue.

• Nitrogen fixation occurs both biotically and abiotically. This

process “fixes” free nitrogen into reactive compounds such as
2
ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites.

⚬ Biotic process put microbes at the forefront. Microbes

attach nitrogen to carbon or oxygen so that plants can use it
to grow.

⚬ Abiotic processes include lightning, and ultraviolet rays.

Through the Haber-Bosch process, ammonia is produced.
Nitrogen Cycle in Aquatic
Ecosystem
• Nitrogen assimilation is the conversion of inorganic nitrogen
sources like minerals into components that resemble life like
2
amino acids and DNA.

• Denitrification is done by microbes to produce gaseous forms

from nitrate and nitrite, the opposite of nitrogen fixation.
 What?
One of the side effects of mining is its impact on the
nitrogen cycle. By discharging mining components and
other chemicals into water bodies, such as soil from coal
and other minerals.

Lower dissolved oxygen levels linked with chemical

pollution of water bodies and the presence of fecal
pathogens and waste components are all examples of
environmental degradation caused by these practices.
Eutrophication is considerably aided by the inadvertent
poisoning of water bodies with significant levels of Mining
nitrogen. Pit
 Where?
• The epicenter of the incident sourced from
the Marcopper Mining area.

• The burst of two separate dams spilled into

three rivers; Mogpog River, Boac River,
Makulapit River and Calanacan bay.

• The Calancan Bay area reportedly had an

active waste pipe dumping into it where active
fishing occurs today.
• The people responsible of the Marcopper Mining disaster is
partially owned by a Canadian firm named Placer Dome.

• Mogpog river was declared biologically dead in 1993. Any

potential food resource from the river is effectively killed.

• People in villages near the rivers and the bay are the ones
mainly affected.
Who?
• Deformities and various illnesses are ingested through water or
consumption of sea life laced with heavy metals from the mine
tailings.
 Tapian Pits
• The Tapian pits is one of the two major mining
sites of the Marcopper operation.

• It was completely depleted in 1990.

• It was known to be dumping waste on this lake

here and to the nearby Makulapnit water
reservoir.

• After resource depletion, the company

proceeded to continue operations in the San
Antonio pits, 3km from here.
 Mogpog River
• Mogpog river’s incident is classified as an acid-mine
drainage.
• While declared biologically dead, resistant strains of sulfur-
thriving bacteria can still thrive
• Such bacteria can make the leaked heavy metals in water
cause gastrointestinal ailments.
• The excess copper in the water is also causing plants to
have necrosis, and damage plant tissue since copper can
cause leakage of phosphorus and potassium ions.
• Maguilaguila dam the dam that burst and caused this
incident, may overflow when heavy rains hit this river.
 Makulapnit and Boac
River
• Two rivers that are interconnected.
• Makulapnit had its water reservoir and dam burst, that same
as Maguilaguila dam.
• Unlike Mogpog, some fish are starting to reappear, and
slowly recovering.
• According to residents, there are still visible ½ to 1-meter-
thick tailings on the river floor.
• When the burst happened, coral and seagrass were buried
under the tailings.
• Water appearance is described as “acidic, bluish-green
water.”
 Calancan Bay
• Instead of a dam, there is a waste pipe from the Marcopper
area to the Calancan Bay, dumping 25000 metric tons of
tailings at its peak.

• Heavy metals like zinc affected water and soil quality.

• The anchovy population were replaced by glassfish

• Heavy metals made it up into the ecosystem by the

consumption of sea life, causing deformities such as the
picture on the right.
Thank you!

for listening

-Group 2
this one!
 Sources:
• "Biolincs | Nitrogen Cycling In The Open Ocean". Hahana.Soest.Hawaii.Edu, 2021, https://hahana.soest.hawaii.edu/cmoreserver/cruises/biolincs/nitrogen.htm. Accessed 18 Nov 2021.

• Dizon, N. (2019, April 3). The Marcopper disaster: A tragedy that continues in people’s veins | MiningWatch Canada. MiningWatch Canada.

https://miningwatch.ca/news/2019/4/3/marcopper-disaster-tragedy-continues-people-s-veins

• Remembering the Marcopper mine disaster. (2016, April 14). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkdmXYDh4s

• Schneidel, A. (2021, August 18). Marcopper Placer Dome Mining Disaster, Marinduque Island, Philippines | EJAtlas. Environmental Justice Atlas.

https://ejatlas.org/conflict/marcopper-placer-dome-mining-disaster-marinduque-island-philippines

• Obligacion, E. J. (2017, January 21). Two demonic earth dams now torment the people of Marinduque. Marinduque Rising.

http://marinduquegov.blogspot.com/2017/01/two-demonic-earth-dams-now-torment.html

• http://www.nfrdi.da.gov.ph/tpjf/vol21/Effects%20of%20Mine%20Tailings%20on%20the%20Fishery%20Resources%20of%20Calancan%20Bay.pdf

• https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2000/ofr-00-0397/ofr-00-0397.pdf

• https://faspselib.denr.gov.ph/sites/default/files//April%2030%20%5BBUSINESS%20MIRROR%5D%20A%20nightmare%20that%20must%20never%20happen%20again.pdf

• Photographic illustrations. Piniterest. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.ph/

this one!