Students learn the fundamentals of using microbes to treat wastewater. They discover how wastewater is generated and its primary constituents. Microbial metabolism, enzymes and bioreactors are explored to fully understand the primary processes occurring within organisms.

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Discuss the biogeochemical cycles of water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfurExplain how human activities have impacted these cycles and the potential consequences for Earth

This lesson plan helps students understand the factors that affect water quality and the conditions that allow for different animals and plants to survive. Students will look at the effects of water quality on various water-related activities and describe water as an environmental, economic and social resource. The students will also learn how engineers use water quality information to make decisions about stream modifications.

This is a short module on fertilizers. In it, you will find the following different topics such as: definition of a fertilizer, dharacteristics of organic and inorganic fertilizers. the process of eutrophication and its relationship to fertilizer use, the purpose for and definition of compost (sustainability), and how to compost.In addition to being an introduction on fertilizers, this module is also designed for students to start thinking about sustainability and how to limit negative impacts on the environment. 

In this activity, students will learn how water can be polluted by algal blooms. They will grow algae with different concentrations of fertilizer or nutrients and analyze their results as environmental engineers working to protect a local water resource.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The relationships between cnidarians such as corals and their symbiotic microbes, including algae, bacteria, and other microorganisms, are key to reef health. However, along with ocean warming, eutrophication threatens these relationships by overwhelming the algal symbionts with dissolved nutrients. Some cnidarians with symbionts, including certain jellyfish, are very tolerant of eutrophication, and understanding these host-symbiont units (holobionts) could provide insights for reef preservation. A recent study investigated nutrient cycling in the eutrophication-resistant upside-down jellyfish. Isotope labelling revealed that the jellyfish shared carbon and nitrogen from food with their algal symbionts, but the algae had very limited access to nitrogen dissolved in the water. According to DNA metabarcoding, symbiotic jellyfish had lower bacterial diversity than algae-depleted (aposymbiotic) jellyfish, and lower diversity was correlated with lower nitrogen assimilation..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this lesson, students will explore the causes of water pollution and its effects on the environment through the use of models and scientific investigation. In the accompanying activities, they will investigate filtration and aeration processes as they are used for removing pollutants from water. Lastly, they will learn about the role of engineers in water treatment systems.

The course material emphasizes mathematical models for predicting distribution and fate of effluents discharged into lakes, reservoirs, rivers, estuaries, and oceans. It also focuses on formulation and structure of models as well as analytical and simple numerical solution techniques. Also discussed are the role of element cycles, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus, as water quality indicators; offshore outfalls and diffusion; salinity intrusion in estuaries; and thermal stratification, eutrophication, and sedimentation processes in lakes and reservoirs. This course is a core requirement for the Environmental MEng program.