Chapter 1- Studying The State Of Our Earth

Question 1

What happened to the Neuse River fish?

Answer 1

Surrounding towns dumped fertilizer into the river. The nitrogen and phosphorous run off from these fertilizers led to the growth of the parasite-like organism, Pfiesteria, which began to feed off of the fish in the river.

Question 2

Define environment.

Answer 2

Sum of all the conditions surrounding us that influence life.

Question 3

Define environmental science.

Answer 3

The study of interactions among human systems and other systems found in nature.

Question 4

Define system.

Answer 4

Interacting components that influence one another by exchanging energy or materials.

Question 5

Define ecosystem.

Answer 5

A particular location on Earth whose interacting components include biotic and abiotic components.

Question 6

Define environmentalism.

Answer 6

A social movement that seems to protect the environment through lobbying, activism, and education.

Question 7

Define environmentalist.

Answer 7

A person that participates in environmentalism.

Question 8

Define Environmental studies.

Answer 8

A broader field of environmental science that includes law, economics, literature, and ethics.

Question 9

How do people manipulate he environment?

Answer 9

Concert land to suburban, urban, and agricultural areas. 
Pollute air, water, and soil. 
Manipulate animals. 
Technology. 
Population growth.

Question 10

Define ecosystem services.

Answer 10

The processes by which life-supporting resources are produced.

Question 11

Define environmental indicators and what the five indicators are.

Answer 11

Environmental indicators describe current state of an environmental system.

1. Biodiversity
2. Food production
3. Average global temperature and CO2 concentrations.
4. Human population
5. Resource depletion

Question 12

Define biodiversity.

Answer 12

Biological diversity. The diversity of life forms in an environment.

Question 13

Define genetic diversity. What is good about having good genetic diversity?

Answer 13

A measure of genetic variation among individuals in a population.
High genetic diversity responds better to environmental change.

Question 14

Define species diversity.

Answer 14

Indicates number of species in a region or in a particular type of habitat.

Question 15

Define species.

Answer 15

A group of organisms that is distinct from other groups in its morphology, behavior, or biochemical properties. They can breed amongst each other and produce offspring.

Question 16

Define speciation.

Answer 16

Evolution of new species. Happens very slowly.

Question 17

Define background extinction rate.

Answer 17

The rate at which species go extinct over the long term. Happens very slowly.

Question 18

Define ecosystem diversity. What makes a healthy environment?

Answer 18

A measure of diversity of ecosystems or habitats that exist in a given region.
Healthy an productive ecosystems create a healthy environment overall.

Question 19

Define food production.

Answer 19

The ability To grow food to nourish human population.

Question 20

How has the human population affected food production?

Answer 20

Changing climatic conditions.
Too much human energy is required to harvest and bring to market, which decreases the amount and quality of land under cultivation.
Irrigation, soil degradation, and crop diseases.
Grains are used to feed livestock and for fuel.

Question 21

Define greenhouse gases. What is the most important one and how is affecting the planet?

Answer 21

Greenhouse gases are heat trapping gases. The most important is carbon dioxide. Greenhouse gases keep earth at a temperature in which life can flourish but carbon dioxide has been considerably increasing in the last two centuries due to human activity (anthropogenic).

Question 22

How does the growing human population affect the planet?

Answer 22

There are about 212,000 new inhabitants on earth each day. THe increasing number of people means constant demands on natural systems for food and water. More humans require more resources.

Question 23

Give some examples of non renewable resources.

Answer 23

Coal, oil, uranium.

Question 24

Define development.

Answer 24

Improvement in human well being through economic advancement, which influences human lifestyle (cars, PCs…).

Question 25

What is living sustainably?

Answer 25

Acting in a way that activities that are crucial to human society can continue.

Question 26

What kinds of needs do humans have? What is biophilia?

Answer 26

Humans need physical things such as food and shelter.

Biophilia is love of life. Humans need social connections too.

Question 27

What is the ecological footprint? What does it show?

Answer 27

A measure of how much a person consumes, expressed in an area of land.
Using more land than available means you are living unsustainably.

Question 28

What are the steps of the scientific method?

Answer 28

1. Observations and questions.
2. Forming hypothesis.
3. Collecting data.
4. Interpreting results.
5. Disseminating findings. (conclude)

Question 29

Define accuracy and precision.

Answer 29

Accuracy describes how close a measurement is to its true value.
Precision describes how close repeated measurements are to each other.

Question 30

Define uncertainty.

Answer 30

An estimate of how much a measured or calculated value differs from the true value.

Question 31

Define inductive and seductive reasoning.

Answer 31

Inductive reasoning is making general statements from facts or examples.
Deductive reasoning is applying a general statement to specific facts or situations.

Question 32

What is a theory?

Answer 32

A hypothesis that has been tested many times and is accepted as true.

Question 33

What is a natural law?

Answer 33

A theory to which there are no exceptions.

Question 34

What is a natural experiment and how does this relate to the unique challenges that environmental science presents?

Answer 34

A natural experiment is when natural events act as a experimental treatment in an ecosystem. Results from These kinds of experiments are difficult to interpret because the experiment is uncontrolled.
In environmental science, there is a lack of baseline data (no control planet), subjectivity to different types of substances, interactions (differ from place to place), and unfair environmental equity (distribution).