Environmental Science and Biotechnology

1. Environmental Science and Biotechnology Objective: Summarize the use of biotechnology applications in the field of environmental science.

2. Biotechnology Applications • Bioremediation- Use of living organisms to remove environmental contaminants from water or soil. • Photoremediation- specialized type of Bioremedation utilizing plants to clean soil and water in contaminated sites.

3. Biotechnology Applications • Immunoassay tests- tests utilizing antibodies produced in various animals to test for the presence of antigens in an environment or organism. • Rabbits, Guinea Pigs and other small animals are often used to produce antibodies. • Can be used to indicate the presence of specific pollutants, viruses, bacteria, and a variety of other harmful compounds.

4. Biotechnology Applications • Indicator species- Plant or animal used to indicate increasing levels of contaminants or antigens in an environment. • Often used to prevent dangerous levels of exposure to important plants and animals in a habitat or area. • Biosensors have recently begun to replace indicator species.

5. Biotechnology Applications • Biological control- methods utilizing naturally occurring organisms or compounds to control plant and animal pests. • Decreases the need of harmful chemical pesticides and herbicides. • Often uitilize genetically engineered organisms to kill or resist harmful organisms. • EX: Using ladybugs to control insect pests such as aphids. • Geese to control weeds in a production orchard

6. Biotechnology Applications • Biofuels- Alternatives to fossil fuels produced from organic matter. • Two common varieties: • Ethanol- alcohol based fuel produced from the fermentation of grains and other crops. • Burns cleaner and lessons dependency on oil. • Biodiesel- Fuel produced from the inclusion of certain additives into recycled vegetable oil. • Consists of almost pure vegetable oil, has almost no harmful emissions, exhaust smells like French fries.

7. Environmental Science and Biotechnology Objective: Describe the impact of biotechnology on sustainability.

8. Biotechnology in increasing sustainability • Sustainable Agriculture utilizes resources (plants and animals) that may be quickly replaced with little or no environmental impact. • Increase use of insect resistant crops resulted in the use of 46 million pounds of less pesticides. • Biotechnology techniques can be used to produce more versatile and effective organisms with increased speed. • Cloning is often used to produce a larger number of organisms useful for sustainable production.

9. Examples of Sustainable Resources • Agriculture prodcution of bamboo as an alternative to mature hardwoods in flooring • Production of rapidly reproducing bacteria to manufactor compounds usually extracted from endangered plants and animals. • Increased use of biofuels produced from organic material.

10. Biotechnology techniques and Environmental Preservation • Cloning, Artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and other reproduction techniques have been widely used to preserve and repopulate decreasing plant and animal populations. • Cloning could eventually allow the researchers to produce extinct organisms from preserved genetic material.

11. Concerns over biodiversity • The widespread use of conoing and controlled breeding has raised fears over decreasing genetic diversity. • The creation of monoculture in which all organisms are genetically identical can lead to devastation from disease or insects. • The use of genetically modified organisms with resistance to certain insects, or other organisms can increase surrounding genetic diversity.

12. Environmental Science and Biotechnology Objective Use scientific principles to conduct a simple experiment in contained bioremediation.

13. Experimental Principles in bioremediation • Organism Selection- • A wide variety of organisms may be used in bioremediation, though certain varieties or species will be much more effective than others. • Experimental Variables- • Altering the temperature, moisture content, and pH of soil or other host material can greatly compact the effectiveness of organisms in bioremediation. • Control group- used for comparison.

14. Experimental Principles in bioremediation • Monitoring Bioremediation success. • Immunoassay tests can be used to monitor the success f bioremediation efforts. • Digital probes are more accurate, take less time, and can provide real-time monitoring capabilities. • Some organisms, such as bacteria, produces gasses as byproducts while functioning.