Human influences on the environment and the environment

Water vapour
Carbon dioxide
Nitrous oxide
Methane
CFCs

When fossil fuels are burnt without enough air supply, they produce carbon monoxide
It's a poisonous gas that binds with haemoglobin in red blood cells, preventing them from carrying oxygen
Mostly released in car emissions

Comes from sulfur impurities in fossil fuels when they are burned
When it mixes with rain clouds, it forms dilute sulfuric acid, falling as acid rain
Car engines and power stations are the main causes of acid rain

Can cause lakes and rivers to become more acidic, killing many plants and animals (as they are sensitive to changes in pH)
Can kill trees by damaging leaves and releasing toxic substances into the soil, making it hard for the trees to take up minerals

Released naturally by respiration
Released by burning fossil fuels (cars, industries) and by deforestation (as carbon is trapped inside trees)
To reduce the quantity in the atmosphere, we should plant more trees and switch to renewable energy sources

Released naturally by rotting plants in marshland and rice plants
Released by cattle rearing and rice growing
To reduce the quantity in the atmosphere, we should reduce meat production

Released naturally by bacteria in soils and in the ocean
Released by vehicle engines and from soils after fertiliser is used
To reduce the quantity in the atmosphere, we should use electric cars

Released by aerosol sprays and some fridges
To reduce the quantity in the atmosphere, we should ban them (most countries have)

Released naturally by evaporation, respiration and transpiration
Released by steam

When gases in the atmosphere absorb most of the heat that would normally be radiated out into space and re-radiate it in all directions, including back towards Earth

The Earth heating up due to the enhanced greenhouse effect
A type of climate change

Reduced greenhouse effect
Less ice caps melt
Less habitat destruction
Less species extinction
Less migration
Slowed global warming
Less climate change

Extreme weather such as storms and drought
Rising sea levels and flooding due to the polar ice caps melting
Habitat loss which could affect food webs and crop growth

Room for agriculture
Room for new roads and houses
Needed for wood and to make paper
Source of food
Creates new habitats for other organisms

Carbon stored inside trees is released into the atmosphere
Leads to soil erosion as tree roots hold the soil together
Nutrients get leached away, leaving infertile soil
Flooding as less roots to absorb water
CO2 not taken in by the trees
Habitat loss
Biodiversity loss
Disturbs evapotranspiration (processes of water evaporating from Earth's soil and from plant transpiration)

Process of a waterway dying due to deoxygenation (due to excess fertiliser/sewage)

Nutrients from fertilisers washed into rivers and lakes

Fertiliser applied to land
Nutrients leached into waterways
Nutrients fertilise algae and plants, causing algal bloom
Algal bloom blocks sunlight to lower plants
Plants die
Algae dies (circle of life)
Bacteria feed on dead plant material and numbers grow
Bacteria respire, using up the oxygen
Water becomes deoxygenated
Fish can't respire so die
Otters die as they starve
Eutrophication has occurred

Aerobic process
Good process within nitrogen cycle (nitrates are produced)
Nitrogen gas goes to nitrates
Happens if lightning strikes the soil or if rhizobium bacteria (who live in the root nodules of legumes) perform the process

Intermediate process
Aerobic process
Turns organic stuff (dead stuff, faeces or urea) into ammonia (NH3)
Done by decomposers (bacteria or fungi)

Good and aerobic process
Turns ammonia into nitrites (NO2) into nitrates (NO3)
Done by nitrifying bacteria

Bad and anaerobic process
Turns nitrates into nitrogen gas
Done by denitrifying bacteria