CH1: ISLANDS, PEOPLE, & KNOWLEDGE Flashcards
EFFECTS OF POLLUTION, DISTURBANCE, AND HUMAN INTERFERENCE WITH THE NATURAL WORLD
Environmental Damage
TOO MANY PEOPLE; CONSEQUENCES: ECONOMIC LOSS, HEALTH IMPACTS, SOCIAL DISRUPTION
Overpopulation
USE AND ABUSE OF NON-RENEWABLE AND RENEWABLE NATURAL ____________
Resources
VALUES, RIGHTS, AND OBLIGATIONS OF HUMANS TO THE ENVIRONMENT ESPECIALLY IN REGARDS TO PROTECTION AND SUSTAINABILITY
Environmental Ethics
value based on USEFULNESS of something TO human welfare
(ex: trees for wood, houses, clothes, clean air, etc.)
Utilitarian Values
value based on an appreciation of BEAUTY
(ex: beaches - tourism)
Aesthetic Values
related to the utility of something to BOTH humans and other species as well as natural ecosystems
(ex: coral reefs - clean water, habitat, tourism; bees - ecosystem service, pollinate trees, provide fruit)
Ecological Values
insists that all entities have inherent worth and a right to exist regardless of the needs of the people; things may not have value now, but may have value in the future. therefore, we must save them in the event they become utilitarian
(ex: cobalt - worthless in 1950s, valuable now for computer chips)
Intrinsic Values
latin - “to know”
scire
a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge; must be EMPIRICAL and MEASURABLE
Scientific Method
the capacity for a particular result to be observed or obtained more than once
Reproducibility
repeating studies or tests to verify reliability
Replication
deriving testable predictions about specific cases from general principles
(ex: all spiders have 8 legs; a black widow is a spider; a black widow has 8 legs)
GENERAL PREMISES to SPECIFIC CONCLUSIONS
Deductive Reasoning
inferring general principles from specific examples
(ex: mahi have shown every December for the past 8 years, therefore, they must migrate and show up again this December)
SPECIFIC PREMISE to GENERAL CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION IS NOT ALWAYS TRUE EVEN IF PREMISES ARE TRUE
Inductive Reasoning
the study of the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data
useful way to assess patterns and numbers can measure confidence in observation
measurable data that identifies patterns to help us in everyday life
Statistics
“study of the house;” the study of the relationships of organisms and their environment; science of distribution and abundance of organisms
Ecology
environmental influences caused by living organisms; predator prey interactions; inter & intraspecific competition for resources; parasitism and infection; reproduction
(ex: house vs mourning geckos for resources in light/dark)
Biotic Environment
complex of biotic, climatic, and edaphic factors that act upon an organism and determine its form of survival
Biophysical Environment
ecology levels from smallest to largest
organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems, biomes, biosphere
ecology of islands are based on…
types of rock and soil that form them; range of elevations above sea level
4 Categories of Islands
volcanic, low limestone, raised limestone, continental
single volcanic peak rising from sea floor with a fringing reef or sometimes barrier reef
(ex: O’ahu, Bora Bora, Rarotonga, Pohnpei, Chuuk)
Volcanic Island
made of reef material (coral remains); 1 small island or several forming an atoll on a barrier reef; on tips of volcanoes
(Ex: Marshall Islands, Kiribati atolls, Cocos Island, most of Micronesia and Polynesia)
Low Limestone Islands
Old coral reefs or atolls are pushed up above sea level
(Ex: Guam, Saipan, Palau, Tongatapu, Nauru
Raised Limestone Islands
made of rocks characteristic of continent (old, metamorphic, mineral rich) instead of isolated volcanoes
(Ex: New Caledonia, Fiji, Philippines)
Continental Islands
piece of land surrounded by water less than or equal to 10,000 km2 (based on ecology of the land)
Island
climate and all other factors that affect organisms at a particular place
Habitat
isolated land surrounded by water with fewer species and more distinct ecosystems because everything that occur naturally had to fly or be transported
Oceanic Island
outlying pieces of continent (close by or once a part of)
Continental Island
built from 1 or more hypotheses that have already been supported by some tests; an explanation of a fairly broad or widespread phenomenon that is widely supported by the results of various experiments and observations and accounts for relevant data; well established; lots of supportive data
Theory
gap inside coral collar between the shore and outer (barrier) reef
Lagoon
rim of coral with some reef islands around a shallow lagoon
Atoll
one that explains underlying causes; often HISTORICAL (evolutionary biology)
ultimate questions
addresses an immediate cause, things going on right now (functional biology)
proximate questions
any situation where different individuals are trying to get the same, necessary resource–food, space, mates, etc.
Competition
use the same resource but do not interact (differ in how fast or efficiently they use it); limited resources
Exploitation
one individual prevents another from using the resource or limits its access to that resource through fighting or threatening
Interference
parts of an experiment in which the test factor is not applied or the test factor is at its natural level
Experimental Controls
some condition that may influence a species in an experiment
Factor
when two things consistently occur together at the same time or one after the other
Correlations
when two events occur together but only randomly, not consistently
Coincidences
all the individuals of one species in a defined area or total anywhere
Population
all the populations of different species living in the same habitat or geographic place (biological ___________)
Ecosystem
the places or environmental conditions in which organisms live
Habitat
study of the environment, particularly the effects of human populations on environmental processes
Environmental Biology
Why study the Pacific?
Interesting natural histories; small with high biodiversity (easily damaged/vulnerable)
What are the 2 main rock types?
Basalt and Limestone
rich in iron and aluminum; denser than continental crust; igneous; VOLCANIC ROCK
Basalt
skeletons of dead marine organisms; primarily calcium carbonate; sedimentary; made of fossilized coral and dead marine organisms
Limestone
does not view an ecosystem as a random grouping of communities, populations, etc. confirms them as intrinsically connected and interdependent in varying degrees
Ecosystem Approach
measure of human demand on the earth’s ecosystem; measured by landmass (how much land is necessary to sustain current levels of resource consumption and waste discharge by that population)
Ecological Footprint
the animal and plant life of a particular region, habitat, or geological period
Biota
