Ch. 2 & 3: Responding to Global Environmental Change & Energy flows and Ecosystems Flashcards
What was the Montreal protocol and what did it show us about responses to environmental change?
- It was a successful international environmental agreement set in 1987 and set targets to remove the use of ozone depleting substances (like CFCs) that was removing layers of ozone in the atmosphere, which helps protect us from the sun’s ultraviolet light that could cause skin cancer, eye and immune system damage if exposed to us
-It was really successful due to the high public support, scientists involved that made it credible, and the chemical were identified clearly and there were alternative substances already available and cost effective - This protocol showed the economic benefits that can be gained from environmental friendly changes, and the multiple different stakeholders involved in order for the agreement to be as successful as it was: private sectors, the public, international communities and national govts, research and education institutions
What are the 3 distinct periods of international environmental agreements?
-1900-1972 - this period had a lot of limited international environmental principles or treaties, but it did have some local agreements that protected certain species of commercial value (ex/ Convention for Protection of Migratory Birds)
-1972-1992 - this period was coined ‘the development of basic framework’ for global environmental response because the focus of environ issues got more broad and treaties had more significant detail, and intruded on national sovereignty to a greater degree (ex/ Montreal protocol)
-1992-present - this period was coined ‘maturation and linkage’ of environmental response, consistent to third wave of environmental management; it has a greater attempt to link environmental laws to other areas of law, there’s more actors involved (non-govt org, multilateral banking institutions, and private sectors), and it focused more on ensuring plans in effect and compliance rather than legal docs and agreements (UN convention on Biological Diversity)
What are the sustainability development goals (SDGs)?
-It’s an overall framework created for responding to environmental challenge and change (it took over after MDGs in 2015, which only really helped human goals like poverty, and clean drinking water); this one focuses on improving human well-being as well as highlighting connections to sustainability
-A challenge is to put policies into effect that will raise consumption in developing countries and reduce it in developed countries that over-consume (ex/ Canada)
How are the different jurisdictions arranged in Canada?
-Responsibility for natural resources and environment is divided mainly between the federal and provincial govt, w/ territories, municipal govts, and Indigenous Ppls increasingly having a role
-Legislative authority (federal & provincial) tends to be a significant source of conflict because of the merging of responsibilities between them and other levels of authority
What role do corporate perspectives play?
-Private sector companies may volunteer to take environmental action, as they recognize their responsibility to communities and ppl they serve, or gov’t may impose regulations
-ex/ extended producer responsibility - laws that require manufacturers to accept their responsibility for their products after its useful lifespan; these laws then give motivation to companies to design recyclable/reusable products
What are life cycle assessments & eco-labelling?
- LCAs identify inputs, outputs, and potential environmental impacts of a product or service through out its lifetime
-Eco-labelling is when companies follow certain environmental standards and can therefore label their products accordingly
What is corporate social responsibility? What are the diff types of approaches?
-it’s corporation’s efforts to address social, ethical, and environmental concerns, beyond a focus mostly on profits
-Large corps usually adopt this approach because of their big visibility to the public & potential to face scrutiny
Approaches include:
- Environmental practices - focuses on reducing environmental impact of business operations
- Philanthropy - donating funds, goods, or services to social causes
- Labor practices - treating employees and communities in an ethical manner
- Volunteerism - sponsors or sends
representatives to charity events, to encourage employees to volunteer at them
What are Indicators?
They give info on environmental problems to enable policy makers to assess how serious they are, develop policies, set priorities, and check on how these policies affect responses
-Ecological footprint (a composite index, meaning has too many variables but great for decision makers) a measure of the demands humans put on nature to supply materials and dispose of waste
What are the three layers that make up the ecosphere?
-Lithosphere - outer layer of Earth’s mantle and crust (contains rocks, minerals, and soils)
-Hydrosphere - contains all the water on Earth; when its in frozen state, it’s called cryosphere
-Atmosphere - contains the gases surrounding the litho and hydrosphere; divided into 4 main layers:
- Troposphere - responsible for our weather; contains 99% of water vapour and 90% of air
- Stratosphere - contains main body of ozone that blocks ultraviolet radiation from sun
- Mesosphere - about 50 km from Earth’s surface
- Thermosphere - slightly above the mesosphere
What is energy?
The capacity do work; it’s also measured in calories
-energy that’s gotten from an object’s motion and mass is called kinetic energy
-Potential energy on the other hand, is energy stored for later use (ex/ gasoline); most energy available for use is called low-quality energy which is diffused and dispersed at low temp and hard to gather
- high-quality energy - easy to use and gather but the energy disperses quicker
-All organisms need energy for growth, tissue replacement, movement, and reproduction
What are the laws of thermodynamics? Why are these laws important for organisms?
1.) Law of conservation of energy - energy can’t be created or destroyed, rather, it changes from one form to the other (ex/ organisms get energy from their surroundings (through food, movement, etc), not by creating it; and when they die and decompose, their energy goes back into the environment)
2.) Law of entropy - when energy is transformed from one form to another, there’s always a decrease in the quality of usable energy ; some energy gets ‘lost’ as lower-quality dispersed energy
-These laws are important for organisms because:
-they have to continuously spend energy to maintain themselves
- Whenever they use energy some is lost
- if the losses exceed gains, then organism dies
- It also tells us that can’t be recycled; the more we transform it, the more some gets lost and dispersed, becoming less useful
How do energy flows in ecological systems work?
-The sun is the main source of energy for the basis of all life; from the sun:
- 1/3 or 33.3% is reflected by the atmosphere back into space
- 42% provide heat for Earth’s surface
- 23% causes evaporation of water
- less than 1% is the basis for our ecological system
What’s the difference between producers and consumers?
- Producers are organisms that have to ability to capture energy and manufacture matter by making their own food; they’re also known as autotrophs (ex/ algae)
-Consumers are all other organisms that can’t do that and instead eat other organisms to get energy; also called heterotrophs (ex/ humans)
Explain the way the food chain works
In the food chain, there are the producers (plants) which are the lowest level of autotrophs that make their own food, then there’s the primary consumers (herbivores) that eat those producer plant to get energy (ex/ mouse, insects); the secondary consumers (carnivores) eat the primary consumers to get energy (ex/ weasel, frog); then the tertiary consumers eats the secondary consumers for their energy (tigers, etc)
Why is it really important for an ecosystem to have many species?
Because the ecosystem is more likely to be resilient to stress; the many species can take on many different roles that all aid the ecosystem and food chain, so if one specie dies, another can easily take its place (aka ecological redundancy). If there’s not enough species and one is needed for a specific job and they die off, it could be very catastrophic for the food chain and ecosystem as a whole.
What is the main disadvantage to a longer food chain?
That more energy gets lost; as the different organisms eat other organisms to get energy in the biotic pyramid food chain, it gets transferred from one form to the other, resulting to energy loss as low-quality dispersed energy. so, If there are multiple species in the food chain, the energy loss will be twice as much logically. Species at the very top of the food chain, called apex predators are especially vulnerable to this.
What is gross and net primary productivity?
Gross primary productivity - the total amount of energy produced by autotrophs over a given period of time
Net primary productivity - the amount of energy left over after respiration
What are the most productive ecosystems? Why is this a problem in Canada?
The most productive ecosystems tend to estuaries, swamps & marshes, tropical rain forest, and temperate forest
-The problem that is Canada, these productive ecosystems are ruined by those spaces being replaced w/ industrialization and polluted lands, so Canada could be ruining strong environmental needed spaces
What is a biome, what are the six main biomes, and what are the two key factors that influence biome type?
-Biomes are distinct classified regions of certain life forms based on vegetation and adaptation of other organisms to that region
- Types of biomes: tundra, desert, marine, grassland, forest, and freshwater
-The key factors that influence biome types are temperature and water availability
What are abotic components?
They are components that aren’t living but are a part and assist the biotic or living components of ecosystems; they play an important role in how these biotic components are distributed in the ecosystem
-Includes things like: water, temp, light, wind, and soil characteristics
What is the limiting factor principle?
- all the factors needed for an organism to grow must be available in minimum quantities; if there more excess in a factor, it can’t compensate for lacking in another
What are fundamental and realized niches?
-Fundamental niche - a potential range of conditions a species can occupy
-Realized niche - range of conditions actually occupied by species
What’s the diff between specialized and generalized species? give examples
-Specialized species have smaller niches, meaning they need very specific conditions, food sources, and habitats to survive
ex/ Koala that only eats eucalyptus leaves would be in danger if those kind of leaves were no longer available
-Generalized species on the other hand, have much larger niches, so they can adapt to a variety of diff environments and food sources
ex/ Racoons are omnivores that can adapt to urban, rural, or forested areas; also humans also are known omnivores that can adapt to diff environments
What’s the diff between intraspecific and interspecific? and what are the diff types of biotic relationships?
Intraspecific - competition that occurs within same species
Interspecific - competition that occurs between diff species
Types of biotic relationships include:
Predation - when predator benefits at the expense of its prey (ex/ Lion hunting and killing gazelle for food)
Parasitism - when predator lives off or in its prey; in this type, the predator is usually smaller than prey so it uses prey as host and gets continual nourishment from host over a period of time, until there’s no more because the host dies off (leches, tapeworms, etc)
Mutualism - when the relationship between species helps both and results in enhanced nutrients and growth for each (ex/ bees and flowers; they get nutrients from the nectar and pollen and the flowers get fertilized, which helps them produce seeds and fruit
Commensalism - when only one species really benefits from another but doesn’t harm it (ex/ tree frogs using trees and plants as protection from predators)
What are keystone species? provide examples other than beavers
They are species that have strong influences over the structure and order of a community; removing them would cause significant changes to communities
ex/ Wolfs - predator animal that control the population of other species because they eat them for food
ex/ sea otter - help maintain kelp forest ecosystems by controlling sea urchin populations (sea urchin eat kelp)
Why are endemic species so important for biodiversity?
Because they’re only native to one place in the world, so they represent unique genetic lineage to certain environments, and with that it indicates the ecological health, and adds to the richness and complexity of ecosystem
