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.