Final material Flashcards
Week 9 What are 4 natural ecological disturbances? What are four anthropogenic ecological disturbances?
Natural- Wildfires, Floods, inwd storms, drought
Anthropogenic- Invasive species, deforestation, habitat fragmentation, pollution
Are daily freeze thaw cycles small scale events?
yes
Are glaciations small scale events?
no, large scale events
are animal disturbances small scale events?
yes
Define disturbance?
Is a relatively discrete event in time that changes the structure of poplns, communities, and ecosystems, which causes changes in resource availability or the physical environment
What’s the difference between novel disturbances and frequent ones?
novel rare (for ex invasive species), frequent are casual
What is resilicience?
properties of ecosystem to enhance their capacity to sustain structure and function
What is the definition of ecological succession?
is the process of regrowth following a perturbation that open up a large space
Explain primary succession?
is when you just have rock which then goes to non living to forest community.
The pioneer stage is dominated by lichens, the intermediate stages are dominated by grasses and shrubs that are shade intolerant, and the climax community has shade tolerant trees
Explain secondary succession?
You start off with some degree of soil, get event like natural fire, and then get pioneer species, intermediate species, and climax community at a much faster time scale than primary succession.
What happens to the soil properties during succession? What do we see a increase in?
soil depth
nitrogen
organic matter ‘moisture retention
What happens to the soil properties during succession? What do we see a decrease in?
see decrease in pH and phosphorus
What ecosystem changes do we see during succession? What is increased?
biomass
primary production
nutrient retention
What are the three mechanisms that drive ecological succession? describe them
Facilitation (one species modifies the area which then allows other species to live there)
Inhibition (species modifies the area so that later species are inhibited through competition, parasitism, predation
Tolerance (species live in the area under stress and don’t effect settlement of other species)
What are the four phases of species in successional stages? Give examples
Establishment phase (ex grasses)
Early succession phase (ex shrubs)
transition phase-mid succesion phase (young forest, pines)
climax (mature forest)
What is a regime shift?
when the resilience of an ecosystem is exceeded, ie the boundaries and ecosystem condition are exceeded
High resilience ecosystems have what kind of diversity?
high diversity
When did Alberta experience an extreme fire season?
in 2019
What are the adaptations trees have to fire? List the four
serotinous cones (need heat to release seeds)
fire resistant bark
Crown sprouting (part of crown burns and causes dormant buds to grow)
Basal sprouting (subtearran buds regrow)
What are the 4 benefits of forest fires?
They promote plant diversity
It controls competition (by removiing dominating species)
it thermally prune slower limbs (good because they don’t acc provide energy, can’t get sunlight cause of shade.
Controls insect and disease by wiping the slate clean
What five things are needed for fire to be enacted as a management practice?
Low intensity fires
Supporting plants for food and basketry
Clearing out underbrush (reduces fire fuel)
facilitate shunting
knowing the history of fire suppression
What four things do forest fires get described by?
type (ground, surface, crown fire (which are hot and travel from surface and have intense long lasting damage)
frequency (more litter result in more frequency)
size
Intensity
How is climate change impacting fires?
It’s increasing wildfire season, increasing wild fires risk by driving up temps and making forests drier, and burning more land
Week 10 What is landscape heterogeneity?
Is patchiness (is areas that are similar), that are spatially complex
What is landscape heterogeneity formed by(four factors)?
Its formed in response to
topography (geologic processes that shape the dimensions of the landscape, can be water available at the tops of peaks versus bottom or soil)
environmental gradients (certain organisms can live in certain environmental conditions that forms a landscape patch)
disturbance (fire or anthropogenic disturbances affects landscape)
biological interactions (affects all other components)
What are the two levels we look at in landscape heterogeneity?
Habitat level (focuses on a set of conditions, looking at species that make use of those habitat)
Landscape level (looks at a variety of environmental conditions)
Whatare the ranges of environmental conditions impact on landscape heterogeneity?
If we have a set of conditions that work for most organisms you have optimal range, zones in which you still have organism outside of the optimal range do exist but the organisms have more physiological stress (physiological stress zone)
We can have zones in which the environmental conditions are too harsh and that results in an intolerance, zone, organisms can’t live there, this then effects which organisms we see where and what type of patchiness we see
What effects the optimal ranges of environmental conditions?
adaptation and compition
How does wind impact landscape heterogeneity? Use an example?
In areas with thick vegetation, air will move faster as wind moves through forest so open field has slow movement of air, simple structure has somewhat faster, primary forest has fastest
How does light impact landscape heterogeneity? Use an example?
If there’s shade in certain areas versus others that creates a temperature gradient which influences water availability as well which influences landscape heterogeneity
How does diurnal variation impact landscape heterogeneity?
Influences temperature, ocean movement, microhabitats which impact landscape heterogeneity
Why does landscape space matter?
Need it for migration, movement, and dispersal
What is spatial structure?
is focused on scale incorporates grain size (resolution, a coarse resolution of landscape will cause you detect changes at large scales) and extent (size of patch)
What is habitat fragmentation?
Is series of patches dissected by other things
What are edge effects? What are they caused by?
Edge effects are changes in biodiversity along the boundary of a habitat (to make it in a patch or on the edge of a patch)caused by fragmentation. More fragmentation equals more edge effect.
What are edge species? Where do we find them?
For example deer, they want to graze low lying grassy areas but also tuck into forests
What are interior species?
Species that need space to forage, or escape predators, they prefer staying inside the patch
What three things do edge effects impact?
structure, function, and biodiversity, but they don’t have always negative or positive effects for all species
Does habitat loss impact biodiversity?
yes negatively
What are the 6 impacts of habitat fragmentation?
Increased edges (as you increase perimeter area, skews community to be more edge populations)
Human-wildlife interactions (vehicular interactions, or domesticated areas, or increased patches you have to go through to forage food which leads them to be more exposed o predators)
Genetic inbreeding-isolating leads to this
exposure
disease
invasive species (colonizing)
What is a corddior?
an area that has been opened (for exmple powerline, pipeline, roads) these create habitat fragmentation and have edge effects on either side.
How do we minimize edge effects?
Have stepping zones- for example shrubs that slowly increase (stops sudden wind profile) or tiny patches to allow species to traverse wider spaces
What are negative effects of corridors?
Can corral animals and make them more vulnerable to predators. For ex: pipeline corridors- have taller shrub cover, this draws in prey which draws in predator- makes the risk for prey species like caribou higher
How can corridors be used as a conservation tool?
They can be protected routes that let wildlife move between habitats, it’s designed for the specific species behaviour, safety, and needs, and can be under or overpasses
What is the arguement against corridors?
That it creates a buffet for predators, found that it doesn’t happen
What is the yellowstone to yukon project?
building patchwork between these two areas to create path for animals, is a project that shows abiotic factor impact biology which impacts landscape and then impacts biology
What are ecosystem services?
Benefits provided by natural systems that contribute to our well being and health
What are some examples of ecosystem services? Why do we put a value to it?
pollination, wetland habitats that provide water, timber supply. Value it to show that they give more worth than maybe the anthropegenic projects that need to built on them
How does habitat fragmentation affect landscape level temperatures (abiotic factors)?
Yes, we know this through hypothesis called the edge warming hypothesis and vegetation breeze hypothesis
What is the edge-warming hypothesis?
Where the edges are warmer than the interior because they have more solar radiation and not shade within the patch
What is the vegetation breeze hypothesis?
There’s differences in evapotranspiration due to shade and stuff, makes movement of air through patch go up which creates precipitation which causes breeze and says there is less warming on patches.
What hypotheses is correct, edge warming or breeze?
Albedo and evapotranspiration determine the Land surface temperature which can go up and down depending on the fragmentation of the patches, on a more fragmentation patch level the evapotranspiration dominates- see vegetation breeze hypothesis dominant.
Week 11 Anthropogenic Impacts
What are the 5 climateimpacts of warming?
experience heatwaves (consecutive days with very high temps) or droughts (lack of ppt)
Heavy ppt events
Dust storms (wind picks up fine particles)
Desertification (ecosystem transfer to a desert type)
Shifting climate zones
- expansion of arid zones and contraction of polar areas
What do the 5 impacts of warming ultimately do to feedback loops?
Throws them off, disrupts them
Land use contributes how much to anthropogenic GHG emission?
25%
What are the sources of net anthrophogenic green house gas emission?
CO2 from deforestation at 13%
CH4 from rice and ruminant livestock 44%
N20 from fertilizer use gives 81%
What is bigger goals in controlling GHG emissions(4 goals)?
Reduce them, enhance carbon uptake, improve food security, and promote globally equitable diets
Describe the reservoirs, fluxes (long term and short term) of the water cycle?
Reservoirs- Sea, groundwater, glaciers ice caps and snow, permafrost, biological water
Fluxes- evaporationtranspiration, precipitation (short term, effected by seasonal variation but a lot more available)
groundwater movement and fluxes in deep ocean (reliable, operates at long time cycle)
The water cycle largely resides in what?
The ocean
How do warming of air impact the water cycle? How do land use changes impact soil moisture (like going from rainforest to pasture)?
Warm air holds more moisture which leads to more evaporation, precipitation and a feedback loop where wet areas become wetter and dry areas become dryer.
If you turn rainforest to pasture you get less sunlight absorbed, these land use changes can cause soil moisture content to decrease as it gets warmer and is important for land management (irrigate versus not irrigate)
What are the fast processes exchanged with in the carbon cycle? What about the slow processes?
When carbon gets exchanged with atmosphere and ocean, vegetation, soils, and freshwater.
Weathering of rocks and oceanic sediments will be slow fluxes of carbon
What are the 10 major pools in the carbon cycle? What are the 10 fluxes? Draw it out refer to slide 8 in week 11 1
Deep water
Surface water
Sediments
atmosphere
rocks
wetland soil
soils
permafrost
vegetation
biota
Fluxes are
ocean flux
fires
cement
fossil fuels
land use change
land sink
soil erosion
heterotrophic respiration
weathering
river outgassing
What is the role of the global carbon cycle? What effects can it do?
role as sink as increased CO2 results in a prolonged growing season and forest regrowth (increased forest cover)
This can cause cooling or warming effects, more forest cover in tropical regions results in cooling from enhanced evapotranspiration
increased forest cover in boreal regions results in warming due to reduced albedo
How does the global methane cycle effect the atmosphere? How long does it stay, what is it controlled by, how efficient is it?
Methane absorbs more infrared radiation then carbon dioxide so it’s more efficient, but gets broken down fast so it doesn’t stay in atmosphere as long as CO2, is produced under anaerobic conditions, the global methane cycle is controlled by geologic, pyrogenic and biogenic sources (for example weathering of methane reserves, burning (wildfires), (biogenic sources breakdown of materials).
What removes most of the anthropogenic atmosphere methane?
atmospheric reactions remove 95% of anthropogenic ch4, it doesn’t stay in as long as carbon
What biogenic contributer is large to atmospheric methane?
Methane released from livestock is a large contributor to methane release is a biogenic source
Methane can’t be broken down unless it’s what?
released
Land provides the basis of what?
the basis for human livelihoods and well being
What are the lands things that it gives us?
Primary productivity, supply of food, freshwater, and ecosystem services
What are the four main pressures on land ecosystems (what causes degradation of them)?
conversion of natural ecosystem to managed land, urbanization, pollution, and climate change
How does the global trend of population growth impact land ecosystems (what increases)?
Furthermore, what are the consequences of intensified land and freshwater use?
Global population growth impacts land ecosystems, cropland increases, and nitrogen fertilizer increases, also intensification of land and freshwater use result in the declining biodiversity, loss of natural ecosystems, and increase in GHG emissions
Week 11 part 2
What is the major pool in the nitrogen cycle?
atmosphere
How is nitrogen brought down from it’s large pool?
Through biological processes, make nitrogen available
How is nitrogen cycled once it’s made it’s way into biological systems?
It becomes tightly cycled in the terrestrial ecosystem
In general what produces more nitrogen? Human or natural production?
Human production
How is N2O produced (naturally and anthropgenically)?
nitrification and denitrification
is formed during fertilizer production
How much more effective of a GHG is N2O compared to CO2?
is 200x more effective
What kind of air particles do N2O form?What does this interact with in the atmosphere?
It forms aerosols that undergoes reactions in the atmosphere and interacts with ozone
What has more nitrogen transfer terrestrial to aquatic or vice versa?
You get increased nitrogen transfer from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems
What three ways is nitrous oxide released?
Agriculture
- is released through fertilizer and breakdown of N in manure and urine (so live stock increased, increases this)
Transportation
-Burning of fossil fuels (cars, trusks)
Industry
-Byproduct of synthetic fertilizer production
What three primary GHG contribute to climate change?
CO2, N2O, CH4
Is the nitrogen cycle and carbon cycle coupled?
yes
What happens to carbon cycle if nitrogen is limited?
You have reduced plant photosynthesis and growth
Plants grow more roots and less shoots (more brown ecosystem and less green)
soil microbes metabolize soil carbon slowly
What happens to carbon cycle if nitrogen is surplus?
Plant growth is enhanced
Plants grow more shoots and leaves, less roots
Microbes may metabolize soil carbon more quickly, releasing co2 to atmosphere
How has climate change shifted species ranges?
They’ve shifted species ranges to higher latitude/elevation (as it’s colder)
- Upward shift in forest/alpine tundra ecotone
-Northward shift in deciduous/boreal forest ecotones
(has more forests and is colder)
How has climate change shifted phenological events?
It shifts spring phenological events earlier because it becomes warmer earlier
How does climate change effect wildlife diseases?
Increases them
How does climate change effect population extinction?
Leads to local population extinctions
How does climate change effect wildlife and drought?
Increased area burned by wildlife, more drought
Terrestrial ecosystems remove how much carbon and emit how much?
They remove 2.5-4.3 Gt per year and emit 1.6 Gt per year
Terrestrial ecosystems are a vital what?
A vital global ecosystem service
What types of terrestrial ecosystems prevent release of stored carbon?
Tropical rainforests, artic permafrost, peatlands
How many Gt of carbon is in the vegetation, permafrost, and soil
3500
What regarding the ecosystem can shift terrestrial ecosystems from carbon sinks to carbon sources?
Deforestation, thawing of permafrost, drying/draining/burning peatlands (as they play large role in housing carbon)
How can climate change exacerbate land degradation processes? What 9 things does it increase and how sure are we that they do?
Rainfall intensity (likely)
Flooding (medium confidence)
Drought frequency and severity (medium confidence)
Heat stress (certain)
Dry spells (certain)
Wind
Sea level rise (very likely)
Permafrost thaw (very likely)
Coastal erosion
What is desertification?
Is described as land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub humid areas
What causes desertification?
It’s caused by increased air temp which causes evapotranspiration and decreased precipitation
About how much of land area is affected by desertification?
25% of total land area
What does desertification result in in terms of rangeland and cropland, and what does that then result in in terms of finance?
Results in degradation of rangeland and cropland, this results in widespread poverty
How does climate change effect food security?
How does it impacts on crop yields, animal growth rates, and the spread of agricultural pests and diseases affect the stability of global food production and trade, and what strategies can be implemented to mitigate these effects while ensuring sustainable access to food resources?
individual crop yields are impacted on latitude (maize and wheat decrease with increasing temps in low lat regions, maize and beats and wheat than increase in high lat regions), animal growth rates are effected by climate change, agricultural pests and diseases are caused by climate change (the range of species that shift can cause things we don’t want to shift around), can expedite food lost and waste (at 25-30%)
the variability in food production due to climate change causes increased variation in prices and yield, trade buffers this instability this can displace effects of overconsumption and impact flow of water and nutrients
What’s an example of food trade buffering climate change impacts on food production?
Taking tropical fish and farming them and then feeding them to BC salmon
What do we want to limit warming to? How do we do this?
1.5 degrees celsius, reduce emissions but also have nature based solutions
What are nature based solutions?
These are enhancing processes we already have and maximizes efficiency of mitigating emissions or carbons storage
What are the two types of solutions that we have? What do they impact?
Landscape solutions
Soil-vegetation solutions
They impact ecosystem services to reach our sustainable goals
To be effective what 3 things does nature based solutions require?
requires deep understanding of nature’s functioning and processes
Needs less maintenance (want it to be sustained over long time spans)
require long time spans
What kind of approach do nature based solutions require?
A system approach- look at the environment holistically
What kind of sectors of sustainable development goals (ecosystem services) do nature based solutions incorporate? What do they minimize? What do they maximize?
Maximize regulating, provisioning, and cultural
Minimize tradeoffs for things such as water supply reduction, wildfire risk, pollution, and reduced yields
What is the precautionary principle?
Lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used a reason for postponing cost effective means to prevent environmental deterioration
What is sustainable development?
Meet human development goals without compromising future generations
Week 12 part 1
What are tradeoffs?
decisions between environmental, social, and economic activities
What are the four components of economic frameworks of ecosystems? What do we want them to look like?
Natural capital (renewable and non-renewable resources)
Built capital (tools, machines, buildings)
Human capital (people’s health, knowledge, skills, motivation)
social capital (capacity to act collectively)
-Want a higher overall wealth of the system
What are the three ecosystem services?
Provisioning services (growth of food, wood, fuel)
Regulatory services (are things like climate regulation, water quality control, disease control)
Cultural services (is recreation, tourism, aesthetic/spiritual benefits)
If we want to maintain ecosystem processes what do we have to about the ecosystem services?
Manage them
If monetary value always wins over non monetary benefit what kind of benefit will we get?
Short term benefits
The valuation of ecosystem services is important why?
To show that loss of ecosystem services is not free, if we value money we get short term benefit
Ecosystem management aims to sustain/enhance what?
sustain/enhance functional properties of ecosystems such as:
soil resources
Biodiversity
Disturbance regime
What are the four state factors in social processes? What are social processes impacted by?
The four state factors are physical infrastructure, institutions, Citizens, businesses
These are all impacted by ecosystem processes
Describe the functional property of ecosystems called soil resources?
Soil resources are key variables that regulate ecosystem processes (provide important nutrients to plants and support higher trophic levels)
What 5 things effects the quantity of soil resources? How?
Weathering/deposition- increases soil resources
erosion- causes loss
plant canopy- increases soil resources by due to reduced precipitation of soil under the canopy
litter layer- if high increases soil resources, if removed increases erosion of soil resources
Decomposition- breaks down litter layer and increases soil resources
What ( 5 things) can biodiversity do for ecosystems?
-Helps ecosystems sustain a wide range of ecosystem processes
-Can minimize magnitude and extent of novel changes (disturbances to environments)
-Can support high production
-Resistance to invasive species (becauses there’s less niches to exploit and resources)
Pest control- makes system resistant to this as there’s natural predators which can control the pest outbreak
What is the disturbance regime and what does it do for ecosystems?
Shapes structure and functioning of ecosystems, promotes landscape diverisity and fosters resilience in a system
What 4 things can we make forest management do that supports ecosystem services?
Have nutrient supply rates to support rapid growth
have the harvest rates be equal to the rate og regeneration
have species diversity maintained
have logged patches
What’s the difference between steady state resource management and ecosystem stewardship?
stewardship more holistic, focuses on goals, sustaining socioecological systems, delivery of ecosystem services, embraces uncertainty, gets stakeholders involved, uses disturbance as feedback loops, and concerns itself with biodiversity, well being and adaptive capacity
Science needs to be salient means what?
that we provide the science and worh with the people using it in real time
What’s the difference between single and double loop learning?
in single loop you look at adjusting desires in double loop you reevaluate the entire model your looking at and alter policies
How is soil carbon becoming available into the atmosphere?
through disturbance, decomposition and eventual release
How do we reduce soil carbon becoming available in the atmosphere?
Improve retention of water, nutrients
▪ Promote growth and microbial diversity
▪ Biochar doesn’t break down as much as other organic matter, lower decomposition
rate, holds carbon
What’s the tradeoff of biochar?
When it mixes into the soil it creates tillage
How do forest carbon sinks shift to sources of carbon? What are barriers associated with it?
They have pests that affect soil health and forest fires that shift sink to source
How do we mediate forest carbon sinks?
reduce slash burning and using the residual material (wood fibre) [instead of burning it]
for bioenergy
What are barriers and solutions to accessing lower carbon power options?
Expensive retrofits
○ Grants and loans for energy efficient improvements of older buildings
○ Fluctuations of demand, rolling blackouts to manage high demand
○ Building codes
○ Biomass energy with CCS
What are the barriers and solutions to mitigating transportation fuels carbon output?
Barriers: lack of infrastructure
* Transition pathways: build corridor of cost-effective H2 suppl
What are the barriers and solutions to mitigating bio-products carbon output?
Barriers: many alternative fuels not better on emissions
* Solutions: green cement (replaces cement with other components) & cure mix with carbon
dioxide
