Final Exam Flashcards
Written Answer Question
What can you do to tread lighter on our environment? How will this benefit you?
There are a few ways I can reduce my envinronment impact. This includes reducing consumption rather than solely relying on recycling. This will help me more relfect on what is actually a necessity rather than a want or luxury. I could also reduce plastic consumption and not wasting food and water. Lastly,
Written Answer Question
What is a trophic cascade? Example?
A trophic cascade is a phenomenon where the removal or addition of a top predator in a food web significantly alters the populations of species at lower trophic levels. For example, when apex predators are hunted by humans, they become fewer in number, leading to a cascade in which abundance of herbivores goes up, abundance of plants goes down, and abundance of nutrients goes up.
Example: Wolves & Aspen
* Yosemite wolves absent from 1926
* Reintroduced in 1995
–> Wolves became more numerous
–> Elk dropped in abundance
–> Cottonwoods became larger
—-> Wouldn’t be eaten by elk
–> Willows had a larger growth increase shortly after reintroduction
–> Aspen trees became taller
Written Answer Question
How does the concept of non-market value pertain to the environment?
Written Answer Question
Compare the three dominant fossil fuels in terms of pollutant emissions (CO2, SO2) for each unit of energy produced.
- Natural gas:
CO2 - 0.5 kg CO2/kWh (157 stack emissions)
SO2 - 0.12 kg kWh-1 - Oil:
CO2 - 0.75 kg CO2/kWh (215 stack emissions)
SO2 - 135 kg kWh-1 - Coal:
CO2 - 0.90 kg CO2/kWh (278 stack emissions)
SO2 - 310 kg kWh-1
Tragedy of the Commons
What is a technical solution in reference to Tragedy of the Commons?
Anything involving science and technology
Tragedy of the Commons
What are the assumptions of the Tragedy of the Commons?
- World and its resources are finite
- People require resources
- World can support finite number of people
Tragedy of the Commons
What are the “commons”?
International areas (e.g., oceanic waters) not owned by any single country (i.e., resources owned by nobody)
?
Tragedy of the Commons
What are examples of “commons”?
Water bodies, air, public land areas
Tragedy of the Commons
How are ways of preventing a tragedy of the commons?
- Food-producing areas –> legislation; build fences
- Waste disposal –> laws
- Protect recreational areas –> set number of entry tickets/permits; ensures that too many people do not overuse this resource
- Overpopulation
Agr. impacts - CAFOs
Concenctrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)
Agr. impacts - CAFOs
CAFO Environmental impacts
- Conc waste production, polluting air and water
-> methane (GHG)
-> ammonium
-> sulfide - Intensive use of antibiotics, growth hormones
Agr. impacts - eutrophication
Eutrophication
over-fertilization of the natural environment (i.e., enrichment of nutrients and increase of phytoplankton in bodies of water)
Agr. impacts - eutrophication
How does eutrophication happen?
Phytoplankton are supplied with sulfur and phosphorus -> leads to extreme phytoplankton growth
Agr. impacts - eutrophication
What are the impacts of eutrophication?
- Algal blooms - rapid population increase of algae
- Red tides
3.Dead zones - aquatic areas with low oxygen concentrations and few organisms
Anthropocene
period of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems
What are the manifestations of the Anthropocene?
- dense urban living
- energy use (-> resource use)
- global change
- biodiversity loss
- geomorphological manipulation (farming, mining, landfills, dams, coastal reclamation)
- New materials (e.g., plastics)
- fertilizer
Biosphere experiment
What were the methods of the biosphere 2 experiment?
1991 missions:
* two-year closure of eight humans (“Biospherians”)
* Humans are placed inside
* Raised many plants (e.g., bananas, papaya)
* Included some animals
Biosphere experiment
What was the purpose of the Biosphere 2 experiment?
To examine the role of ecology and see if we can survive the journey to another planet
Biosphere experiment
In what ways did the biosphere experiment fail?
- oxygen dropped from 21% -> 14%
- Weight loss (male: 16%, female: 9%)
- High CO2 concentrations
- started off at 80 parts/million
- current concentrations: 422 parts/million - cockroaches, other insects flourished
- all pollinators died (bees, moths)
- 19 of 25 vertebrate animal species died
- Not a closed system: deliveries of O2, seeds, vitamins, mouse traps etc.
What did the Biosphere 2 demonstrate?
We don’t understand the functioning of ecological systems well enough to replicate them to go elsewhere (e.g., a different planet)
Climate change
Climate change is one aspect of ______________.
global change
Climate change
Climate
long term pattern of atmospheric conditions
Climate change
Global warming
increase in Earth’s average surface temperature
Climate change
What factors influence climate?
- Sun - energy source; provides heat for Earth
- Atmosphere - absorbs, reflects, transmits energy
- Oceans - stores, transports energy; moderates heat
Climate change
What is the Earth’s Energy Budget?
Describes the balance between the radiant energy that reaches Earth from the sun and the energy that flows from Earth back out to space
Climate change
Describe the Earth’s Energy Budget before human modification.
- Incoming solar energy/radiation
- Some absorbed by clouds
- Large amount absorbsed by gases in atmosphere
- Most asborbed by land and oceans
- In equilibium: in = out (balanced by energy that leaves)
Climate change
Describe the Earth’s Energy Budget after human modification.
- Amount of solar energy/radiation absorbsed by atmospheres and cloud have increased
- Not balanced
- Less energy/heat leaving –> Earth is warmer
Climate change
What are greenhouse gases (GHGs)?
gases that absorb infrared radation, trap heat in the atmosphere, and contriute to the greenhouse effect
Climate change
Global warming potential
relative ability of one molecule of a given greenhouse gas to contribute to global warming over 100 years
Climate change
What are the global warming potentials of the following GHGs: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide?
Carbon dioxide - 1
Methane - 23
Nitrous oxide - 296
Climate change
Carbon dioxide increases due to:
- fossil fuel burning
- rainforest clearing
Climate change
Methane is described as a ____ process.
Anaerobic
Climate change
Methane has increased ____ % since 1750.
150%
Climate change
Nitrous oxide has increased ____ % since 1750.
17
Climate change
Causes of increase in methane?
- fossil fuel extraction
- landfills
- rice paddies
- cattle
Climate change
Causes of increase in nitrous oxide?
- auto emissions
- feedlots
- agriculture
- chemical industry release
Climate change
List the greenhouse gasses (GHGs).
- Water vapor
- Carbon dioxide
- Methane
- Nitrous oxide
- Ozone
- Chloroflouorocarbons (CFCs)
Climate change
What are the impacts of climate change: physical changes?
- Oceans temps increasing
- Greater incidence of severe storms (e.g., increase in precipitation)
- sea level rising (ca. 3.2 mm/year)
- Ocean acidification (CO2 + H2O –> 2H+ + CO2-/3)
Climate change
What are the impacts of climate change: biological changes?
- Northward shifts in distribution
- “Feed-need” disjunction
- Shifts in phenology
Climate change
What are the fates of trees as a result of climate change?
- Migrate to track “temperature window”
- Adapt to altered contions (in place)
- Disappearance (extirpation)
Climate change
Phenology
- study of environmental conditions that trigger important life events (e.g., loss of leaves in the fall)
- timing of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena (usually in relation to climate)
Climate change
What is the outcome of “feed-need” disjunctions?
Phenology shifts:
* elevated temps -> predators don’t concur with prey
* Herbivores 6 days earlier, upper trophic levels < 3 days earlier (herbivores arrive before upper trophic levels; decoupling between predator and prey)
Climate change
What are approaches to dealing with global change?
- Reduce energy use
- Shift from fossil fuels -> alternative energy (electrification)
- Carbon capture and storage
- Geoengineering
- Birth control?
Climate change
What are ways of reducing energy use to deal with global change?
- More efficient vehicles
- More efficient buildings
- Smart growth
Climate change
Smart growth
- Maximize benefits of urban infrastructure and simultaensly preserve green space and protect agricultural lands
- Build and renovate in ways that make things accessible
Climate change
What is carbon capture and storage?
- Suck CO2 out of atmosphere and make it solid, then bury it somewhere
- Captured carbon dioxide is pressurized into a liquid and injected deep underground for permanent sotrage
Climate change
What are the functions of geoenginerring in helping deal with global change?
- CO2 removal:
* pull CO2 out of atmosphere
* Reforesting/replanting - Solar radiation management
Conservation of biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biological diversity; variety of life at all organizational levels from genes through ecosystems
Conservation of biodiversity
Biodiversity is biological variety typically measured by:
- number of unique species in an area
- diversity among, within species, and across ecosystems
Conservation of biodiversity
Why do we love biodiversity?
- Habitat degradation/loss
- Invasive species
- Pollution
- Over-exploitation
Conservation of biodiversity
What describes conservationists?
Good management of resources
Conservation of biodiversity
What describes preservationists?
Land should remain untouched
Conservation of biodiversity
What are the causes of the current 6th Mass Extinction Episode?
- Habitat loss, degradation
- Overharvesting
- Non-native species
- Global change
- Pollution
Conservation of biodiversity
Explain how overharvesting contributes to the mass extinction episode?
- Problem in ocean > on land
- On land: overharvesting + paired with other threats = endangered
- Tiger claws: supposed to solve insomnia
Conservation of biodiversity
Invasive species
introduced species (non-native to environment) that establishes itself, threatens endemic species and biodiversity, and has potential to cause major ecosystem changes
Conservation of biodiversity
What is an example of how non-native species endanger species?
Australian paperbark tree
* Require lots of water
* Replaced native plants (>400,000 acres of soFL)
* Increased fire frequency, intensity
* –> Acts as a fire source
- Native birds, mammals in decline
- Not liked as a food source
- Native birds will not nest
Conservaiton of biodiversity
What ties of all the causes of the 6th mass exinction together?
- People, population
- Per capita resource demands greater than ever before
Conservation of biodiversity
What do the following exctinct/endangered species have in common: dodo, passenger pigeon, tasmanian tiger, greak auk, steller’s sea cow, carolina parakeet, ivory-billed woodpecker, pinta island tortoise, hawaiian crow, javan tiger, W. Arican black rhino, zanzibar red banana bat, bubal hartebeest?
- All birds and mammals
- Greater resource demands than other animals (e.g., reptiles)
Conservation of biodiversity
Poverty and ecotourism
Biodiversity “hotspots”
Conservation of biodiversity
“pro-poor approah” (e.g., WWF)
Poverty and ecotourism
Poverty traps
Poverty and ecotourism
The phase “poverty begets poverty” best describes?
Poverty traps