Chapter 6- Humans in the Biosphere

Question 1

Describe monoculture.

Answer 1

the practice of clearing large areas of land to plant a single highly productive crop year after year.

This enables efficient sowing, tending, and harvesting of crops using machines

Question 2

What is a renewable resource?

Answer 2

can be produced or replaced by a healthy ecosystem

Question 3

What is a nonrenewable resource?

Answer 3

natural processes cannot replenish them within a reasonable amount of time

Question 4

How can you describe sustainable devolopment?

Answer 4

the use of resources in an environmentally conscious way

Question 5

How do our daily activities affect the environment?

Answer 5

Humans affect regional and global environments through agriculture, development, and industry in ways that have an impact on the quality of Earth’s natural resources, including soil, water, and atmosphere

Question 6

What is the relationship between resource use and sustainable development?

Answer 6

Sustainable development provides for human needs while preserving the ecosystems that produce natural resources

Question 7

Describe desertification.

Answer 7

a combination of farming, overgrazing, seasonal drought, and climate change in areas of the world with dry climates can turn farmland into desert

Question 8

Describe deforestation.

Answer 8

loss of forests; can have a negative effect on soil quality

Question 9

What is a pollutant?

Answer 9

a harmful material that can enter the biosphere.
When coming from a single source (factory or oil spill) it is called point source pollution.
When coming from a variety of sources (automobiles) they are called nonpoint sources.

Question 10

What is biological magnification?

Answer 10

occurs if a pollutant, such as DDT, mercury, or PCB, is picked up by an organism and is not broken down or eliminated from its body. The concentration of the pollutant when moving up the food pyramid increases by a factory of about 10 at each step.

Question 11

Describe smog.

Answer 11

a gray-brown haze formed by chemical reactions among pollutants released into the air by industrial processes and automobile exhaust

Question 12

Why is ozone good at times and bad at times?

Answer 12

good- high up in our atmosphere to help protect life on Earth from ultraviolet radiation.
Bad- at ground level (smog) ozone and other pollutants threaten the health of people, especially those with respiratory conditions.

Question 13

Describe acid rain.

Answer 13

A lower than normal pH of rain water that is made when certain chemicals such as nitrogen and sulfur combine with rain water.

Question 14

Why is soil important and how do we protect it?

Answer 14

Topsoil can be a renewable resource if it is managed properly. Preventing soil erosion through careful management of both agriculture and forestry.

Question 15

What are the primary sources of water pollution?

Answer 15

industrial and agricultural chemicals, residential sewage, and nonpoint sources

Question 16

What are the major forms of air pollution?

Answer 16

Common forms of air pollution include smog, acid rain, greenhouse gases, and particulates

Question 17

Define Biodiversity.

Answer 17

the total of all the genetically based variation in all organisms in the biosphere

Question 18

Describe ecosystem diversity.

Answer 18

refers to the variety of habitats, communities, and ecological processes in the biosphere.

Question 19

Describe species diversity.

Answer 19

the number of different species in the biosphere, or in a particular area

Question 20

Describe genetic diversity.

Answer 20

the sum of all different forms of genetic information carried by a particular species, or by all organisms on Earth.

Question 21

Describe habitat fragmentation.

Answer 21

The splitting of ecosystems into pieces (can separate ranges of organisms)

Question 22

What is an ecological hot spot?

Answer 22

a place where significant numbers of species and habitats are in immediate danger of extinction

Question 23

Why is biodiversity important?

Answer 23

biodiversity exists on three levels:

1) ecosystem diversity
2) species diversity
3) genetic diversity

Benefits to society include contributions to medicine and agriculture, and the provision of ecosystem goods and services.

Also, allows life to withstand evolutionary constraints

Question 24

What are the most significant threats to biodiversity?

Answer 24

humans reduce biodiversity by altering habitats, hunting, introducing invasive species, releasing pollution into food webs, and contributing to climate change.

Question 25

How do we preserve biodiversity?

Answer 25

we must protect individual species, preserve habitats and ecosystems, and make certain that human neighbors of protected areas benefit from participating in conservation efforts.

Question 26

What is an ecological footprint?

Answer 26

total area of functioning land and water ecosystems needed both to provide the resources an individual or population uses and to absorb and make harmless the wastes that individual or population generates

Question 27

How does the average ecological footprint in America compare to the world’s average?

Answer 27

the average American has an ecological footprint over four times larger than the global average

Question 28

How can ecology guide us toward a sustainable future?

Answer 28

1) recognizing a problem in the environment
2) researching that problem to determine its cause
3) using scientific understanding to change our behavior to have a positive impact on the global environment