Transcript Environmental Studies Spring Review

Environmental Studies Spring
Review
2013
1. Describe a demographic…
• A pyramid shaped model shows that there are
few old people in the population and lots of
mortality early in life
• A reversed pyramid shows that the population
is shrinking and the elderly population will
have difficulty getting services
• A vertical walled pyramid shows the
population is stable
2. Describe life expectancy in
developing nations…
• Life expectancy in developing nations is short.
As the nation transitions to industrial, the life
expectancy increases causing the population
to explode. When the nation is post industrial
the life expectancy is long and birth rated
decrease potentially causing an imbalance in
generations.
3. What are several of the
characteristics…
• Educated women who take charge of their
reproductive health and manage family size.
4. The human population is growing
out of control.
• Discourage high birth rate
• Educate women of their reproductive rights
• Prevent people living in environmentally
sensitive regions
• Build large population centers and avoid
urban sprawl
5. What are the factors that can
increase…
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Lack of education for women
Good medicine
Available water and food
Immigration
6. What are the factors that can
decrease…
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Infant mortality
Emigration
Poor medicine
Education for women
7. What factors lead to the human
population growing…
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Limited food
Poor medicine
Lack of education
Lack of resource
No industralization
8. Describe what will happen to the
human…
• The standard of living will continue to increase
and those who have will have more and those
who don’t have will have less for a while.
Then the haves will have noting like the have
nots.
9. Describe a population that has a
stable…
• A growing population in which the
proportions of individuals in the different age
classes remain constant
10. Explain the relationship between…
• More people…more resources used.
• More technology…more resources used.
• Higher standard of living…more resources
used
• More resources used…more resources wasted.
11. How do you estimate population…
• 1. Round all numbers
• 2. divide population by square land
measurement
• 3. when you have this estimate you can
compare other factors like water usage per
land area
12. Be able to read…
• Be able to read charts, graphs and data tables.
Be able to think through data and deduce
reasonable answers from a list of answer
choices. (which one of these is not like the
others)
13. What is exponential growth?
• Exponential growth is when growth is
doubling at a rapid rate.
• Compared to linear growth which is growth
that only goes up by a fixed number every
year.
14. What are fossil fuels? Why…
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Coal, oil and natural gas
We use them because they are easy to get
Inexpensive
Reliable
We have always used them
Big money
15. What are the problems…
• Fossil fuels primarily introduce sequestered
carbon into the atmosphere where it adds to
the global CO2 levels resulting in a green
house effect that is raising the temperature of
the planet at a rate that is more rapid than
natural climate change.
16. What factors are involved in…
• New technology that allows for current
standard of living
• Availability
• Cost
17. What are renewable resources?
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Wind
Solar
Hydroelectric
Biomass
• Most used is solar
18. What are some of the results…
• We run out
• The price goes higher
• The dependence on these brings devastation
to the standard of living
• Population grows rapidly outgrowing the
source.
19. List several reasons the federal…
• To get people to do it
• To avoid the political lobbyists
• It is the right thing to do
20. Approximately how many…
• Even with the newly developed technique of
fracking we only have a reasonably
dependable supply of affordable oil for 50
years.
21. List several reasons why oil…
• The standard of living increased allowing more
consumers to purchase cars
• We all wanted to be mobile
• Women started working instead of staying
home
• Oil was cheap
• Vehicle standards were not in place to reduce
fuel consumption MPG standards.
22. Draw a typical population…
23. What might population growth…
• It could predict population carrying capacity
• Time it will take to reach carrying capacity
• The amount of resource the population will
consume in the ecosystem
• How to best manage a population of
organisms
24. Draw a food web…
25. What would likely happen if one…
• The web could collapse with a niche unfilled
• The populations would get out of balance
• Some organisms would benefit and some
would decline
26. Explain the statement energy…
• Energy flows from the sun into plants who
undergo photosynthesis converting the sunlight
into sugar. The sugars are consumed by
herbivores and then passed on to the carnivores.
• Nutrients cycle, like carbon in the atmosphere is
transferred into plant tissues, then animals
tissues and then back to the atmosphere. All
nutrients undergo this process. Water, nitrogen
and many others.
27. Where does all energy…
• With the exception of some deep sea bacteria
that convert chemicals into energy, all energy
comes from the sun
28. Define succession
• New land is generated, sometimes after a
natural disaster like a fire.
• Organisms colonize this new land (pioneer
species)
• They transform the land into a habitable place
for other organisms to live
• Then eventually a stable ecosystem will be
generated.
29. What is an old growth forest?
• A forest that has been undisturbed for
hundreds of years. It is the climax community
and the land has not undergone succession in
many, many years.
• Old growth forests are being rapidly cut down
and destroyed for timber all around the globe.
30. Define keystone species
• An organism that is so important to an
ecosystem that it is in danger of collapse with
out that species.
• Sharks are keystone species on coral reefs.
31. Define indicator species
• An indicator species is very sensitive to
environmental conditions.
• They are the first species to die out in an
ecosystem
• If they are present in an ecosystem it is very
healthy
• Often amphibians are indicator species
32. Define invasive species
• A species that is not native to a habitat.
• It is directly competing with another species that
is native.
• The invasive has no natural predator in the new
ecosystem
• So the invasive takes over the space and kills off
the native species it competes with and all native
species that rely on the native.
• Invasive are really bad
• Asian carp, bush honeysuckle, wild hogs
33. Define foundation species
• The first species to enter a newly created
ecosystem
• They are critical in establishing new life on the
new land area.
• Lichen and bacteria
34. The following…
• The following is the correct order of soil
particles in order of increasing size:
• Clay—silt—sand
35. How can nitrogen enter the…
• Nitrogen is an inert gas in the atmosphere.
• It is a very important nutrient for living
organisms
• The nitrogen cycle involves atmospheric
nitrogen being “Fixed” by bacteria in the roots
of certain plants.
• The nitrogen is now available for the plants to
use
• These plants are called legumes and beans are
a major legume
36. Ecologists refer to “r” and “K”.
• The strategy is that by sheer reproductive
number, something will survive. The species
are referred to as “r-Species”.
• This species has very few offspring, often 1, at
a time, with lots of parental care.
37. Describe Eutrophication.
• Excess nutrients enter an aquatic ecosystem
after a late summer rain event
• The nutrients are immediately used by plants
and an algae bloom proceeds.
• The algae die and decomposers use the
oxygen in the water to break down the dead
algae
• The other organisms can not use oxygen as
efficiently as the decomposers so they die off
38. Describe biodiversity
• The type and number of organisms in a given
ecosystem
• Generally the higher the biodiversity, the
more stable and healthy the ecosystem
39. What is the effect…
• Greater species diversity leads to more stable
ecosystem
• Greater competition leads to more fit species
• Greater biodiversity leads to larger gene pool
with lots of variety. This is critical in the
maintenance of a healthy ecosystem
40. How do we best protect…
• Preserving habitat. If there is no space for the
species to live they will die
• Stop urban sprawl
• Stop destruction of rainforest, coral reef, local
forests.
41. What is the usual effect of…
• The invasive will disrupt the native habitat
• No native species will use the invasive as food,
shelter or space
• The invasive can cause ecosystem collapse.
• After hundreds of years some invasive species
become a part of the natural ecosystem after
the natives have been killed off.
42. What does the statement…
• A catch phrase to discuss how we should live
in harmony with the natural world.
• Don’t destroy but rather enjoy!
43. List several results of…
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Higher standard of living
Overconsumption of resources
Waste of resource
Loss of native habitat
44. What is a biological control…
• A natural predator is recruited to eat and
control a pest
• Often does not work
• Just introduces an new invasive species
• Japanese beetles
45. Define and describe
biomagnification
• As pesticides accumulate and are passed up the
food chain they become more toxic
• Bald Eagles ate fish that ate bugs that were killed
by DDT
• DDT accumulated in the tissues of the fish but the
dose was too small to kill them
• However the Eagles ate the fish and ate so many
that the DDT did accumulate in their tissues
• This resulted in their egg shells being thin and
very few offspring causing the BE to be
endangered
46. What is an introduced or…
• A species that is let go in the environment that
it is not native
• If it survives it will displace native organisms
• It will not be food, or shelter for native
organisms
• It can result in completely altering the native
environment with countless species dying out
47. Describe the following methods…
• Selective cutting is where loggers harvest only the
trees that are best suited for the purpose
• clear cutting is the practice of cutting all trees in a
forest regardless of their economic viability
• slash and burn clearing is the practice of cutting
some trees and then burning the remainder so
the land is available for other purposes like
farming. This practice is often utilized by the
poor and is not sustainable.