food production

• An increasing human population requires an increasing food yield.
• Fertilisers can help increase the food yield as they provide chemicals such as nitrates which increase crop yield.
• Pesticides can increase crop yield, by killing unwanted animals and plants that would reduce crop yield.
• Nitrates are dissolved in the soil and absorbed by the plants through the roots.
• Plants use nitrates to produce amino acids which are used to make proteins.
• Animals consume plants or other animals to gain the amino acids needed for protein synthesis.
• Fertilisers can be added to the soil to increase the nitrate concentration.
• Fertilisers can leach into fresh water rivers and streams. This adds unwanted extra nitrates into the water. This leads to a series of events causing Eutrophication.
• the events of eutrophication:

  • Fertilisers leach into rivers and streams adding nitrates
  • The algal population increases causing algal blooms
  • Algal bloom on the surface of the water reduces the light, killing aquatic plants
  • Dead plants and dead algae become food for bacteria
  • Bacteria in the water increases
  • Bacteria use up a large quantity of oxygen form the river
  • Reducing the oxygen for other living organisms
  • Decreasing biodiversity
• he use of genetically modified crops can reduce the use of fertilisers and pesticides.
• Pesticides sprayed onto crops can accumulate into the bodies of organisms over time. As they are passed along the food chain, the toxicity increases and can reach lethal levels.
• Bioaccumulation is the build-up of toxic substances in living organisms.
• Biological control involves the use of natural predators to manage pest populations, reducing the reliance on chemical pesticides
• Genetically modified (GM) crops are engineered to have specific traits such as pest resistance or increased nutrient levels, which can decrease the necessity for chemical fertilisers and pesticides in agriculture.