Chapter 6

Question 1

What are the sources of excess CO2?**

Answer 1

Forest fires, volcanoes, cars, and the burning of other fossil fuels.

Question 2

What are CFC’s?**

Answer 2

are chlorofloric carbons that could damage the ozone layer.

Question 3

What are DDT’s?**

Answer 3

pesticides.

Question 4

How do CFC’s harm the environment?**

Answer 4

they slowly damage the ozone layer.

Question 5

How do DDT’s harm the environment?**

Answer 5

when the pesticides kill animals in a ecosystem it can affect the food chain.

Question 6

What threatens biological diversity?**

List at least two types of activities that threaten biological diversity.

Answer 6

Humans Activity to include the following:

1. Altering habitats
2. Hunting species to extinction
3. Introducing Foreign Species to new enviroments

Question 7

Why is biodiversity important to humans?**

Give at least two examples of how humans have benefitted.

Answer 7

Because other species have provided us with many natural resources to include the following:

1. Foods
2. Industrial Products
3. Medicines

Question 8

What is an ecological “hot spot?”**

Answer 8

where significant numbers of habitats and species are in immediate danger or extinction as a result of human activity.

Question 9

What is global warming?**

Answer 9

increase in the average temperature of the biosphere.

Question 10

Are fossil fuels considered renewable or non renewable resources?**

Answer 10

Non renewable because when they are burned they are gone forever.

Question 11

What does it mean if a pollutant is non biodegradable?**

Answer 11

It means it does not break down naturally.

Question 12

Whose goal is it to protect the ecosystem?**

Answer 12

The government and conservation groups.

Question 13

What does the ozone layer do?**

Answer 13

It absorbs a good deal of harmful UV rays because they can cause cancer, damage eyes, and decrease organisms’ resistance to disease.

Question 14

What trophic level is most affected bu DDT’s?**

Answer 14

Tertiary/ Top level consumers.

Question 15

What is sustainable development?**

Answer 15

a way to use natural resources without depleting them.

Question 16

What is biodiversity?**

Answer 16

The sum total of the genetically based variety of organisms in the biosphere.

Question 17

What is biological magnification?**

Answer 17

concentrations of a harmful substance increase in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food chain or food web.

Question 18

What are the effects of Global Warning?**

Answer 18

Sea levels may rise enough to flood coastal area’s, affecting coastal ecosystems, as well as human communities.

Question 19

Define the term Agriculture.

Section 6-1

Answer 19

Is the science and art of farming, which includes the cultivation of field soils, production of crops, and the raising of livestock.

Question 20

Define the term monoculture.

Section 6-1

Answer 20

Practice of growing crops in which fields are panted with a single variety year after year. That is, one plant type planted year after year.

Question 21

Define the term green revolution.

Section 6-1

Answer 21

The development of highly productive crop strains and the use of modern agricultural techniques to increases yields of food crops.

Question 22

List three types of human activities that can affect the biosphere?

Answer 22

1. Hunting and gathering
2. Agriculture
3. Industry
4. Urban development (extra…learn it)

Question 23

Identify three (3) of Earth’s resources on which humans and other organisms depend for the long-term survival of their species.

Answer 23

1. Breathable Air
2. Drinkable Water
3. Fertile Soil

Question 24

Define the term biodiversity.

Section 6-3

Answer 24

Is the sum total of the genetically based varierty of all organisms in the biosphere.

Question 25

What is Ecosystem diversity?

Answer 25

This includes the variety of habitats, communities, and ecological processes in the living world.

Question 26

What is Species Diversity?

Answer 26

This refers to the number of different species in the biosphere.

Question 27

What is Genetic Diversity?

Answer 27

This refers to the sum total of all the different forms of genetic information carried by all organisms living on Earth today. Within each species, genetic diversity refers to the total of all different forms of genes present in that species.

Question 28

What is acid rain?

Answer 28

Rain containing nitric and sulfuric acids.

Question 29

What is a nonrenewable resource?

Answer 29

Resources that cannot be replenished by natural processes.

Question 30

What is a pollutant?

Answer 30

Is a harmful material that can enter the biosphere through the land, air, or water.

Question 31

What is a mixture of of chemicals that occurs as a gray-brown haze in the atmosphere?

Answer 31

SMOG

Question 32

Provide the term that describes the raising of aquatic animals for human consumption?

Answer 32

Aquaculture.

Question 33

What is the most significant side effect of Deforestation?

Answer 33

EROSION. Erosion can wash away nutrients in the topsoil…and can also make certai lands more susceptable to land and mud slides.

Question 34

What does the term “tragedy of the commons” mean. As an example, this often occurs in the fishing industry in certain fishing grounds.

Answer 34

The tragedy of the commons is the depletion of a shared resource by individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one’s self-interest, despite their understanding that depleting the common resource is contrary to the group’s long-term best interests. In the case of fisheries, man depletes the fish inventory to meet their needs without thought of how this impacts eveyone else…or common resource…thus tragedy of the commons.

Question 35

What is habitat fragmentation?

Answer 35

The splitting of ecosystems into small fragments. This occurs when habitats are altered by human interference and development. The resulting “small fragments” become biological islands which become quite different and vulnerableto outside change.

Question 36

What is biological magnification?

Which trophic level is most affected?

Answer 36

That is when concentrations of a harmful substance increase in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food chain or food web. Biological affects the entire food web, however, top level carnivores are at the highest risk.

Question 37

What are two major global changes affecting the biosphere today?

Answer 37

1. Ozone layer depletion

2. Global Warming