The Aerojet General Corp. in Rancho Cordova is a Superfund Site: it needs to have its soil, water, and air cleaned after chemical manufacturing industries have dumped unknown quantities of hazardous waste chemicals on site.
Visit the website to get more information on the site. Some classes will focus on air, others on soil, and others still on water. Leading Edge classes will focus on creating an ecosystem that will help clean up and reclaim the site, while PFAA classes will focus on designing infographics that will provide information on the pollution, the solutions found by LE students, etc.
https://www.calacademy.org/educators/habitat-earth-in-the-classroom
Check this document to see the vision and targets that the UN has for the world, regarding biodiversity.
EPA's page on Superfund: https://www.epa.gov/superfund
EPA's page on Cleaning Up Our Land, Water and Air: https://www.epa.gov/cleanups
What is contaminated land? https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/contaminated-land
How we do revitalize cleaned-up lands? https://www.epa.gov/land-revitalization
PBS NewsHour: 2018 update on the Superfund program, started in 1980: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA0zYfWomvY
Did you know that there is a World Water Day (every March 22nd)? Did you know that 1981-1990 was the International Drinking Water Decade, and that 2005-2015 was the Water for Life Decade?
http://www.unwater.org/water-facts/ecosystems/ Water and Ecosystems facts from United Nations
https://www.unescwa.org/sites/www.unescwa.org/files/events/files/arab_regionem_tot_module_4.pdf: Presentation on "The structure and function of ecosystems" by the United Nations' Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. (*Start on slide 10: "Ecosystem Functioning" and end on slide 22: "Ecosystem structure"*)
https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/water/water-for-the-environment/about-water-for-the-environment/what-is-it/why-do-we-need-it "Why do we need water for the environment?" by the New South Wales government (Australia)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230251/ (long... pick and choose!)
California Department of Water Resources: https://water.ca.gov/ and information about groundwater: https://water.ca.gov/Water-Basics/Groundwater
California My Water Quality program: Are our aquatic ecosystems healthy? https://mywaterquality.ca.gov/eco_health/index.html
Get data at the USGS California Water Science Center: https://ca.water.usgs.gov/data/nwis/
Oil Spill Cleanup video by TeachEngineering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi-HuV4Yi5A
Using plants to clean up contaminated environments: https://clu-in.org/download/citizens/a_citizens_guide_to_phytoremediation.pdf
Did you know that there is a World Soil Day (every December 5th)? Did you know that 2015 was the International Year of Soils?
The Living Soil Beneath our Feet from the California Academy of Sciences: https://www.calacademy.org/educators/the-living-soil-beneath-our-feet
https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/12/638332-caring-planet-starts-ground-we-walk-un-says-world-soil-day 2017 World Soil Day proclamation.
Soil Functions: http://soilquality.org/functions.html
Healthy soils: https://www.wur.nl/en/Research-Results/Research-Institutes/Environmental-Research/Programmes/Sustainable-Land-Use/Healthy-soils.htm
How does Soil Function? by the United States Department of Agriculture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ee8Dg1COrweTFbxSr16slulkFaon47Um/view?usp=sharing
An Introduction to Soil Ecology: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cxf8CvLUAIrB9Y3WroKG4-agB6z3Xxq8/view?usp=sharing
Plants that remove contaminants from the environment: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DHAgiXtO7rVx-HtkKHV5ExOL3deq9i69/view?usp=sharing
Using plants to clean up contaminated environments: https://clu-in.org/download/citizens/a_citizens_guide_to_phytoremediation.pdf
The soilSHOP (Soil Screening, Health, Outreach and Partnership) program by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/soilshop/index.html
Did you know that there is an International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (every September 16th)?
Air pollution, ecosystems and biodiversity http://www.unece.org/environmental-policy/conventions/envlrtapwelcome/cross-sectoral-linkages/air-pollution-ecosystems-and-biodiversity.html by the UNECE
Trees and air pollution: https://blog.nature.org/science/2017/04/06/trees-air-pollution-balance-ecosystem-services-ozone/
Planting Healthy Air report, 2016, by The Nature Conservancy: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vyvib-L1szBniPP2PisvuPYT_K1i7DaS/view?usp=sharing Look at pages 44 and 45 of the report "Planting guidelines for healthy air", to get characteristics of tree species and types of plantings that work well to clean the air in various urban areas.
Creating or supplementing an ecosystem to clean up contaminated soil is not new, and there are several ways to go about it. Here are some resources to start your research on Bioremediation, including using organisms (bacteria or invertebrates) or plants (also known as phytoremediation).
Articles:
Phytoremediation: using plants to treat environmental pollution
Probiotics help poplar trees clean up toxins in Superfund sites
Videos:
Phytoremediation Removing Heavy Metals
7 Organisms That Can Clean Toxic Waste
What are Bioleaching and Phytoextractions?
Oil-Eating Bacteria Could Be a Solution to Spill Cleanups
Bioremediation using Archaea microbes