The Horse 2020/21

We have created a crossword to test the knowledge from the Chemistry workshop.

Test your knowledge right here

created by Alexa and David 

What is salinization? 

That is the level of salts or salt content in water or soil.  
A lot of salts do we leach out or wash out of our body with sweating or with peeing. 

But how do those salts come into the soil?  
There are two different ways of that. 

The first one is natural salinization. Where the water picks up salts from weathering rocks. 

The second one is human-induced salinization, when the water, in which the salts are dissolved, is used to irrigate a crop. This crop only uses the water and, unless there is adequate drainage, the salts are left behind in the root zone. 

There are as well two different classifications of soil salinity. 
The first one is the saline soils. Those are the total salt levels in soil that are harmful to plant growth. 
The second one is the sodic soils. Those are sodium salt levels that have a negative effect on soil and plant health. 

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What is a thermostat? 

A thermostat is a controller that reacts to a set temperature (temperature controller). Depending on the setting and measured temperature, it influences the flow of a fluid - for example, for cooling an engine, in a refrigerator, a fixture in the kitchen or bathroom, or on a radiator. 

How does a radiator thermostat work? 

The temperature controller of a heater reacts to the existing room temperature. The set temperature is adjusted at the thermostat head. 
 
 

If it is warmer in the room than the temperature set at the thermostatic head, a pin at the bottom of the valve is pressed in and the opening of the valve is restricted or closed. Thus, less or no heating water flows into the radiator. 

If it is colder in the room than the temperature set on the thermostatic head, the valve is opened. This allows more heating water to flow through the radiator until the set temperature is reached. Then the valve automatically closes a little to maintain the set temperature in the room. 

Hi folks

In order to test your knowledge in chemistry we created a crossword about elements and chemistry in general. Have fun solving it!

https://learningapps.org/watch?v=ph1eyx9f321

or you can also access via this QR code:

 - by Rico, Claudio and Kadir

With the help of edx.org we learned more about Sustainable Soil Management. We found the course (Module 7) which talked about soil pollution interesting. In this module, we learned about a distinction between point pollution and diffuse pollution. We also learned about the main sources of soil pollution, how different pollutants behave in the soil and why it is important to know about natural background levels of heavy metals in soils.

There are many different sources of soil pollution. Some main sources are industrial sources, urban sources as waste and traffic, and agricultural sources. These sources all release pollutants and these pollutants are then mostly transported in three different ways.

The first one is via air. Transportation via air is a very widespread, long range transport and it can be carried over thousands of kilometres to other places. The pollutant which are in the air are then deposited by rain fall, snow, or by dry position as particulates into the soils.

The second next important transport way is water. If waste water is not sufficiently cleaned, it ends up into the rivers and is there transported over thousands or hundreds of kilometres to many different cities and many even countries.
Could you imagine what would happen when dirty water would be used to water agricultural soils or what would happen if dirty rivers would overflow?

The third transportation way is a more direct pathway and that is land deposition. This means Pollutants can be directly deposited on land.

But the big question is how organic pollutants get into the soil and into our plants and into the water in the soil?

The answer this question, you need to imagine these pollutants are deposited on the soil and it rains afterwards. If this takes place on a smooth slope or a bigger slope, these pollutants can be transported with the rain water and end up into lakes and rivers downstream. What can also happen is that the pollutants can be transported in the soil water and can enter “clean” ground water sources.

Another thing that can happen is that the pollutants remain in the soil. This depends on the properties of the pollutants. Pollutants can be strongly adsorbed by the soil and they remain there for many years, depending on their decay. Organic pollutants undergo different durations of decay and these decays can vary between several hours and decades of years.

We hope you learned something new and interessing just as we did :)

Kind regards, Cindy & Alexa

Links: learning.edx.org

What is water erosion ?

Water erosion is the removal of the top layer of land by water from irrigation, rainfall, snowmelt, runoff, and poor irrigation management. Ultimately, rainwater is most frequently to blame when it comes to this issue. The flowing water moves the soil organic and inorganic particles alongside the land surface, depositing them in the lower landscape. The result of this would be flooding in the long run. The eroded soil material can either form a new soil or move to water reservoirs nearby.

Different types of water erosion

splash erosion

This is the first stage in the erosion process that is caused by rain. Raindrops basically “bombard” the exposed and bare land, moving its particles and destroying the structure of the top layer.

sheet erosion 

This type of soil degradation by water occurs when the rainfall intensity is greater than the soil infiltration ability and results in the loss of the finest soil particles that contain nutrients and organic matter.

rill erosion 

Rill erosion follows after, when the water concentrates deeper in the soil and starts forming faster-flowing channels. These channels can be up to 30cm deep and cause detachment and transportation of soil particles.

gully erosion 

This is an advanced stage of land damage by water when the surface channels are eroded to the extent when even tillage operations wouldn’t be of any help. 

tunnel erosion

This is the so-called “hidden” type of land degradation by water that can cause severe disruption even before any signs are evident to the eye. It begins when large water mass starts moving through the structurally unstable soil.

What Are The Negative Effects Of Water Erosion?

Flooding 
Severe land degradation by water can negatively impact the ecosystems  by causing flooding. The washed away topsoil loses its water absorption ability, greatly increasing the possibility of flooding in areas that are predisposed to it. It could be low-lying landscapes and soils with limited drainage ability. Ultimately, heavy flooding can be extremely disruptive to the extent of ruining roads and buildings. That is why it’s critical to spot negative changes in farmland health to prevent the situation from getting to that point.

Impact of water quality
Apart from affecting animals, plants, and farmland, water erosion also significantly decreases the quality of water itself. The particles of the eroded soil eventually reach the water sources nearby, changing the water chemical content and reducing its oxygen levels. Besides, the water from eroded farmlands contains harmful chemicals (due to previous pesticides application), washing them off to lakes, streams, and rivers.


How to stop water erosion and its management 

Water erosion control is vital in battling the issue of land degradation caused by water. And the
water erosion solutions differ depending on the , topography, climate, crop rotation, and land use. However, there are water erosion prevention measures for its every type.

QUIZ 

Which of these different types of water erosion does not exist?

a) splash erosion 
b) sheet erosion 
c) rill erosion 
d) gully erosion 
e) tunnel erosion 
f)drill erosion 

Source

eos.com

written by Leandro and David 

Soil Fertility - edX Programme 

Farmers want to realize an optimal crop yield, with a good crop quality. The key to this, is to have a fertile soil. 

1. When plants are growing, they form roots in the soil.
2. Soil is composed of a matrix of minerals, organic matter, air, and water.
3. Plants use their roots to take up nutrients, which they need to grow.
4. But plants can only take up nutrients from water. In other words, plants do not eat soil,
5. rather their roots take up nutrients that are dissolved in what we call the soil solution.

Another important aspect of a fertile soil is a good soil structure so that plants can penetrate and explore the soil with their roots. A fertile soil also has to supply sufficient water to plants.

Fertilily = Fruchtbarkeit 

Crop quality = Pflanzenqualität

Crop yield = Ernteertrag

Information Source eDx programme: Soil Fertility

Emre & Tonia

We have an oil heating from weishaupt. 

Oil condensing technology allows particularly economical and environmentally friendly use of oil as a fuel. Weishaupt condensing boilers convert the fuel into comfortable heat - simply and efficiently. Ideal for modernizing old oil heating systems, suitable for a wide range of buildings.

Link:
www.weishaupt.de [weishaupt.de]

The wastewater from Wetzikon is treated in the Flos wastewater treatment plant, which was built in 1961. However, not only the water from Wetzikon, but also from Aathal/Seegräben, Auslikon (Pfäffikon) including the baths, Ober-Balm (Hittnau) and Grüt (Gossau).
It is located at the Flos collection point on Usterstrasse, just by the Aabach.
At that time it was designed for 22,000 population equivalents. Due to population growth, the Flos wastewater treatment plant was expanded at a cost of 43 million Swiss francs. The idea was not only to cope with the growing population but also to keep the plant at the latest technical level, which was achieved with the help of new filter systems. After the conversion, the plant treats 37,000 population equivalents.

The municipal wastewater treatment plant is working at an average capacity of 120 %. For this reason, preparatory work for an expansion of the plant has been underway for some time.

Link

ARA Flos [www.wetzikon.ch]

My personal WWTP is in Rüti ZH, right next to my old primary school. The ARA of my town is designed for 14'500 residents.