Exam revision (semester 1 content) Flashcards
Define environment
Key concepts of land cover change
Environment means the living and non-living elements of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. It includes human changes to the Earth’s surface.
E.g., croplands, planted forests, buildings, and roads.
Define natural biome
Key concepts of land cover change
A biome is a community of life forms adapted to a large natural area.
Natural biomes are those which have not had sustained direct human interactions.
E.g., aquatic, desert, forest, grassland, and tundra.
Define anthropogenic biome
Key concepts of land cover change
A biome is a community of life forms adapted to a large natural area.
Anthropogenic biomes are biomes that are the result of sustained direct human interactions with ecosystems.
E.g., urban, rural or villages, croplands, and rangelands.
Define land cover change
Key concepts of land cover change
Land cover change refers to the changes that have taken place in natural environments due to a variety of natural and/or human induced causes.
Define ecosystem structure
Key concepts of land cover change
An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals in a non-living environment.
The ecosystem has a structure made up of the biotic and abiotic elements, with a hierarchy of organisms, that is, trophic levels.
Includes producers, consumers, and detritus.
Define ecosystem dynamics
Key concepts of land cover change
An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals in a non-living environment.
The ecosystem is dynamic, that is, there are relationships between biotic ad abiotic elements, which includes the flow of energy between the elements.
E.g., food chains and food webs. There is also an exchange of matter, i.e., the nutrient cycle.
Define biodiversity loss
Key concepts of land cover change
The extinction of species (plant or animal) worldwide, and also the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat.
Define climate change
Key concepts of land cover change
A long-term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over pediods of time that range from decades to millions of years.
E.g., rainfall in the southwest of WA has reduced by approximately 20% over the last 50 years.
Define sustainability
Key concepts of land cover change
Sustainability is meeting the needs of current and future generations through simultaneous environmental, social, and economic adaptation and improvement.
Describe deforestation
Processes of land cover change
Deforestation is the removal or clearing of forests generally for other uses, such as agriculture and urban development.
Between 1700 and 2018, one-third of the world’s forest were lost, half of which has occurred in the last century.
Borneo
Example for deforesation
Processes of land cover change
Borneo, an island in Southeast Asia, once had dense rainforests and mangroves, but much has been converted to industrial oil palm and timber plantations.
Since 2000, 40% of deforestation in Borneo has been driven by the expansion of oil palm plantations.
Describe the expansion of agriculture
Processes of land cover change
The expansion of agriculture refers to the increasing amount of land available for agriculture.
Currently, over a third of the world’s terrestrial land is dedicated to crop and livestock production.
Describe the intensification of agriculture
Processes of land cover change
The intensification of agriculture refers to an increase in the output from existing agricultural areas. By adjusting factors such as labour, fertilisers, seeds, or technology.
E.g., there has been a 300% increase in food crop production since 1970.
Describe the growth of urban settlement
Processes of land cover change
The land required to support urban areas undergos a transformation including clearing native vegetation and building infrastructure.
E.g., urban areas have more than doubled in size since 1992.
Describe mining
Processes of land cover change
Mining affects biodiversity and land cover change, with significant amounts of land being cleared, use and release of chemicals, dust, and aerosols.
E.g., sediment movement from Madre de Dios in Peru has degraded many ecosystems along connecting rivers in Brazil.
Remote sensing
The science of obtaining information about objects or areas from a distance, typically from aircraft or satellites.
Copernicus Sentinel-2, 2019 Queensland floods
Remote sensing example
A remote sensing operation that provides many bands of data, including infrared and spatial resolution from two satellites.
E.g., shows sediment moving into Great Barrier Reef lagoon after 2019 Queensland floods.
Outline the impacts of world population growth
Population, affluence, and advances in technology on land cover change
The rate and extent of land cover change has increased as there is a higher demand for resources such as food (agricultural land use) and urban settlements must expand.
Outline the impacts of affluence
Population, affluence, and advances in technology on land cover change
More affluence, more demand for resources, including eat. Diets of more affluent countries tend to have higher rates of dairy and meat consumption.
Half of habitable land is used for food production.
Outline the impacts of advances in technology
Population, affluence, and advances in technology on land cover change
For example, changes in time it takes to cut a tree; from handsaws and chainsaws to large, efficient machines which have sped up the process of deforestation.
Related to intensification of agriculture.
Mosaic burning
Impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Mosaic burning is the use of regular, relatively controlled, low intensity burns in a patchwork system. It was used to clear native vegetation, reduce bushfires, and assist in seed germination.
Impact of mosaic burning over time
Impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Areas were gradually changed from dense forest or bush to more medium scrublands. It ensured forests were not destroyed and assisted in the growth of new vegetation (such as the acacia).
Loss of habitat
Impacts of land cover change
Loss of habitat can include the thinning, fragmentation, or destruction of a habitat, often due to processes of land cover change such as deforestation.
Loss of biodiversity
Impacts of land cover change
Is linked with loss of habitat. Loss of habitat results in loss of biodiversity, endangerment and extinction of species, and ecological imbalance.
Carnaby’s black cockatoo
Loss of habitat and biodiversity example
Impacts of land cover change
The population has more than halved in the last 45 years, locally extinct in many parts of Wheatbelt. Due to large-scale clearing for agriculture and urban development.
Ocean acidification
The degradation of aquatic and marine environments
Impacts of land cover change
Ocean acidification can occur because of the dramatic rise in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, created from processes of land cover change, such as agriculture.
As oceans absorb the carbon dioxide, the pH levels decrease, and the water becomes more acidic.
Ocean acidification, Industrial Revolution, marine life
The degradation of aquatic and marine environments example
Impacts of land cover change
Since the Industrial Revolution, 30% increase in ocean acidity. This affects marine life, corals and clams, have greater difficulty creating and building their calcium based shells.
