environmental change and management Flashcards
Environment:
the surrounding or conditions in which a person, animal, plant lives or operates.
Differentiate between a human environment and a natural environment?
- Involvement of humans
- Whether it’s built or existed without human’s interference
Some challenged to sustaining natural environments include:
- population growth
- energy use
- climate change
- pollution
- land degradation
- habitat loss
- exploited seas
“Our natural environment protects and supports life on Earth, in turn, we need to care and take responsibility for it.”
- unable to recreate an artificial working environment
- to protect future generation’s of flora and fauna habitat
Source:
it’s ability to supply the food and materials on which we need
e.g. water soil, timber, fish, minerals
Sink:
it’s ability to break down, recycle or absorb waste
e.g. gaseous emissions, rubbish
Spiritual:
it’s recreational, psychological, aesthetic and spiritual value to people
e.g. moved by a sunset or marvelled at a rainbow, Uluru
Service:
is the processes that support our life without requiring human action to produce them
e.g. Earth’s natural greenhouse effect keeps the Earth warmer at night, ozone layer block ultraviolet radiation, photosynthesis, water/ carbon cycle
Ecological integrity:
refers to the ability of an ecosystem to support and maintain ecological processes and a diverse community of organisms
Global warming:
the gradual rise in average temperature brought about by an increase in heat- absorbing gases present in the atmosphere
Habitat:
The physical environment in which a community of plants and animals lives
Poverty:
The inability to meet the basic needs for living
Bioaccumulation
The accumulation of substances such as pesticides in an organims
Fossil fuels
A non- renewable resource formed from the remains of a living organism
Carbon cycle
The naturally occurring process in which carbon is exhanged between organisms and the environment
Land degradation
The downgrading of the productive capacity of land due to the activities of people
Greenhouse effect
The atmospheric processes that maintain an average surface temperature of 15 degrees celcius
Desertification
The expansion of deserts due to overgrazing, soil erosion, climate change or drought
Ecological
The relationships between living things (including people) and their physical environment
Biodiversity
The variety of all living forms (plants, animals, microrganism), their ecosystems and interaction
