Exam 18: Soils and Chemical Pollution

Anaerobic decomposition of organic wastes in landfills results in the production of ______ gas which is often recovered and used.

Bioremediation of contaminated soil involves the use of _________ to ameliorate the soil pollution.

Which class of organic toxins is often intentionally applied to soils?

Toxic organic compounds that contaminate soils are an environmental problem because they may ____.

The greatest environmental or social cost of pesticide use in the United States is the damage to sport and commercial fishing.

If a soil is repeatedly polluted by a toxic organic compound over a period of years,the soil microbes will lose their ability to degrade the toxin.

Soil properties play a much more important role in choosing a site for a containment-type landfill than for a natural-attenuation-type landfill.

One disadvantage of bioremediation is that this technology is usually much more expensive than standard engineering approaches for decontaminating polluted soils.

The principal human health effect of exposure to radon is ____.

In the design of a _______ type landfill,biodegradation and colloid adsorption are important mechanisms of reducing pollution potential.

The adsorption of many pesticides is greater in strongly acid soils than in neutral to alkaline soils.

Organic chemicals whose structures have positively charged groups tend to be very immobile in the soil.

It has been found that continued,repeated application of an organic toxin to a particular soil will _____ the capacity of that soil's microflora to degrade the compound in question.

Maintaining soil reaction at pH 7.0 is likely to virtually eliminate any significant _______ by heavy metals applied to soils with sewage sludge.

In soils treated with excessive rates of high-metal sewage sludge,most of the cadmium and lead is likely to be found in the form of exchangeable ions on the clay and humus exchange complex in the soil.

Hyperaccumulators are plants that ________.

Which group of organic insecticides is most damaging to earthworms in soils?

A pesticide is more likely to contaminate groundwater if it has which of the following characteristics?

Most classes of pesticides include some kind of aromatic ring in their chemical structure.

Bioremediation of soils is often brought about by amending the polluted soils with fertilizers containing mineral nutrients.