Environ-mental Health Blog

By: Maggilyn Cardenas  Savannas found in West Africa have been converted to croplands and are one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. The deterioration of soil fertility and the decrease in crop yields seen in this area has been a threat to food security and human livelihoods. The annual population growth in Ghana from 2000 to 2008 was 2.81%, while the annual food increase rate was 1.26%. Therefore, the availability of water and nutrients is thought to be critical. This not only affects West Africa but the whole world, given that Savannas are globally important ecosystems vial to human economies, cover one-fifth of the earth's land surface and support a large proportion of human livestock and wild herbivore mass. Because of climate change, the changes in the distribution and dominance of different species and constraints from soil nutrient availability could change the savanna for the better. Soil nitrogen is thought to have decreased. If this limitation to land produ...

  Figure 1: Fruits  Renewable alternatives to reduce the usage of fossil fuels are being generated. Fossil fuels are a harmful pollutant in the environment as they lead to global warming. Alternatives have been created by using different parts of plants, wood, grass among others as research has shown they share similar properties to fossil fuels. These properties include low viscosity and boiling point enhancing the evaporation of these biofuels. Examples include eucalyptus, pine, lemongrass, and turpentine oil. One remarkable finding is using fruit peels for biodegradable fuel more and more research is going into replacing fossil fuels with these biodegradable renewable sources. In this study, scientists focus on using lemon peel oil as diesel fuel.  Lemon peel oil was tested at different concentrations and compared using different parameters including brake thermal efficiency (BTE), specific fuel consumption, and heat release rate. In the results, lemon peel oil worked ...

     With the continuation of pollutants entering our environment, starting with soil, creates a huge impact as we rely on soil for vegetation and agriculture purposes. With contaminants seeping into soil specifically petroleum, our livestock and crops would be affected, affecting us in the end as we eat them including other soil dependent organisms. Decreasing contaminates in the soil goes through a process called bioremediation, being the most effective way of removing pollutants in soil. How would this work though, what machine can do such a thing? That’s where mushrooms come into play, specifically Agaricomycetes mushrooms. In this study different concentrations of spent mushroom compost were tested in removing petroleum in contaminated soil with or without added soil enriching compounds.  By increasing the amount of mushroom concentration, the lower amount of petroleum was found in soil after. With 10% of spent mushroom compost and fertilizer removed 65% of tot...

  By: Victorhugo Campos           "Figure1. Examples of Aquaculture regulation (Hallie Templeton, 2020)                    There is a certain feeling of security when it comes to the fish that we eat. Its comforting knowing they always sell fish at Walmart or H-E-B. But will there ever be a lack of fish, or even how we are currently affect the populations of fish and marine life by eating them? Due to the high demand of fish and the constant need for more, various species have already been impacted in a negative way. So what can be done to stop this? Well there is a big demand for fish farms or hatcheries. These farms essentially keep fish in protected enclosures until they reach a desired number and are healthy enough to be released into the wild. Lots of big companies feed the idea of  how the aquacultures have so much potential to deliver a constant stream of food security. But in reality i...

By: Jasmine Rodriguez Organic farming as we know it is has taken off as the main system to diversify plant production to a global standard. The innovation and attention to small details of a sustainable metric excels on all four cylinders such as productivity, environmental impact, economic viability and social wellbeing. With high demands globally, there is certainty to a good balance in how farmers produce crops to meet every sustainable goal required. However, the importance in maintaining sustainability is required to for infrastructure to the economic barriers of organic practices to diversify agricultural farming systems. Some practices that lack sustainability include lack of information and knowledge, unreliable infrastructure and economic halts, and misperceptions to cultural biases. A challenge to the farming system is policymakers forming a certain environment to a greater complex arrangement to a standard sustainable distribution of policies with food and ecosystem security...

  Although it’s been clear that human activities have been and continue to be one of the biggest influences on climate and the environment, it is time that we give importance towards microorganisms, ‘the unseen majority,’ and how they too are being affected by climate change and human activities. It is clear that human activities have caused a loss in biodiversity, an extinction in plant and animal species and a loss of different communities and habitats. Nonetheless, microorganisms are not usually taken into consideration in the context of climate change, but their role is to maintain a healthy global ecosystem. Even though the effects of human impact are not visible on microorganisms, it is vital to recognize the importance of microbial processes in regards to creating an environmentally sustainable future.   Figure 1. The effects of human activities and agriculture on microorganisms.  Microorganisms are involved in carbon sequestr...