How do nuclear power plants affect the aquatic ecosystem? a) microbial agents used in nuclear power plants are deposited into the aquatic ecosystem. b) nuclear power plants are being built on land that used to be the habitat of aquatic life. c) heated water from nuclear power plants are deposited into the aquatic ecosystem. d) nuclear power plants pollute the air near the aquatic ecosystem.

volcanoes (an event in the geosphere) release a large amount of particulate matter into the atmosphere. these particles serve as nuclei for the formation of water droplets (hydrosphere). rainfall (hydrosphere) often increases following an eruption, stimulating plant growth (biosphere).

step 1: initiation

initiation is the beginning of transcription. it occurs when the enzyme rna polymerase binds to a region of a gene called the promoter. this signals the dna to unwind so the enzyme can ‘‘read’’ the bases in one of the dna strands. the enzyme is now ready to make a strand of mrna with a complementary sequence of bases.

step 2: elongation

elongation is the addition of nucleotides to the mrna strand. rna polymerase reads the unwound dna strand and builds the mrna molecule, using complementary base pairs. there is a brief time during this process when the newly formed rna is bound to the unwound dna. during this process, an adenine (a) in the dna binds to an uracil (u) in the rna.

step 3: termination

termination is the ending of transcription, and occurs when rna polymerase crosses a stop (termination) sequence in the gene. the mrna strand is complete, and it detaches from dna.