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
