Environmental chemistry is the study of the sources,
reactions, transport, effects, and fates of chemical species in the water, air,
terrestrial, and living environments and the effects of human activities
thereon. Some idea of the complexity of environmental chemistry as a discipline
may be realized by examining, which indicates the interchange of
chemical species among various environmental spheres. Throughout an
environmental system there are variations in temperature, mixing, intensity of
solar radiation, input of materials, and various other factors that strongly
influence chemical conditions and behavior. Because of its complexity,
environmental chemistry must be approached with simplified models. This chapter
presents an overview of environmental chemistry
The definition of environmental chemistry given above is
illustrated for a typical environmental pollutant. Pollutant
sulfur dioxide is generated in the anthrosphere by combustion of sulfur in coal,
which has been extracted from the geosphere. The SO2 is transported
to the atmosphere with flue gas and oxidized by chemical and photochemical
processes in the atmosphere to sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid, in turn, falls
as acidic precipitation, where it may have detrimentaleffects, such as toxic
effects, on trees and other plants in the biosphere. Eventually the
sulfuricacid is carried by stream runoff in the hydrosphere to a lake or ocean,
where its ultimate fate is to be stored in solution in the water or
precipitated as solid sulfates and returned to the geosphere.
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