Lecture 1 Flashcards
Four Phases of Climate Change:
- Stable Cool Period
- Rapid Rise
- Slight Decrease
- Rapid Rise
The environment includes:
- atmosphere
- hydrosphere
- cryosphere
- lithosphere
- biosphere
Resources:
specific components of the environment (forests, wildlife, oceans, rivers and lakes, minerals and petroleum
Anthropocentric View:
value is defined relative to human interests, wants, and needs
Eccentric or Biocentric View:
resources are seen as having independent of human wants and needs
Disciplinary:
associated with one academic discipline
Multidisciplinary:
work in isolation: work only with others from same discipline or profession
Cross-Disciplinary:
uses other disciplines to enhance their perspetive
Interdisciplinary:
specialists work together
Transdisciplinary:
seeking a holistic understanding that transcends disciplinary boundaries
Which discipliners should be used to better understand complex environment systems>
Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches
DISCO = ?
Dominion Iron and Steel Company
What is coke?
Fuel made by burning or heating coal
What is evidence for toxic material in the Sydney Tar Ponds?
- the impact on animals, fish, grass and aquatic life
- deformities in the bones of fish
What remediation technique is being testing in the video about eh Tar Ponds?
solidification - cementing = cement +flyash +slag
What properties of the cement make it a good solidifier in the video of Sydney Tar Ponds?
- water isn’t permeable
- Strength
What ecological test would prove that remediation is effective regarding the Sydney Tar Ponds?
- increase in the # of species
- Disappearance of deformities
What were the 5 demands stated by the BC government before they would agree to the pipeline?
- completion of an environmental review process
- Proper marine oil spill repose, prevention and recovery system
- Proper land oil spill response “ “ “
- Address aboriginal rights and benefits
- BC receives its fair share of dismal and economic benefits reflecting the level of risk borne
Sustainable Development:
development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
Economic Development:
conducing without depletion of natural resources (AVOID)
Sustainable Livelihoods:
emphasize the conditions necessary to ensure the basic human needs are satisfied
Resilience:
the ability of a system to absorb disturbance and still retains basic function and structure
Three types of resources;
- Perpetual: direct sunlight, winds, oceans,
- Renewable: fresh air, fresh water, fresh soil
- Non-Renewable: fossil fuels, metallic minerals, non-metallic miners (clay, sand)
Sustainable Yield:
the highest rate at which renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing it available supply
Environment Degradation:
depletion of a potentially renewable resource that is used after than it is naturally replenished
Two examples of depletion of renewable resources.
- Ogallala Aquifer
2. Oral Sea
Population pressure:
increase in number and consumption
Bubonic Plague:
large decrease in population due to fast spreading of disease
4 Main phases as a population passes through a demographic transition:
- high equilibrium; preindustrial
- high expanding; early stages
- Low expanding; western societies
- low equilibrium; balance
Demographic Transition:
transition from high birth and death rates to low rates
9 Main Planetary Biophysical Processes
- Global Fresh water
- Change in land use
- biodiversity loss
- Atmospheric aerosol loading
- chemical pollution
- climate change
- Sean acidification
- stratospheric ozone depletion
- nitrogen/phosphorus cycle
aspects for improvement involving sustainability:
- implementation gap existed b/c policy direction was not translated into effective action often enough
- lack of coordination and integration was frequent because may pressing issues required shared responsibility amongst agencies
- Inadequate review processes prevented senior managers an parliamentarians from knowing what was being accomplished, and how successfully
Biocapacity:
the amount f biologically productive area available to meet humanity needs (crops, pasture, forest)
The DPSIR indicators:
- driving forces
- pressure indicators
- state indicators
- impact indicators
- response indicators
Science based management approach:
- focus the since on key issues and communicate it in a policy-relevant form
- use scientific info to clarify issues, identify potential manager options, and estimate consequences of decisions
- clearly and simply communicate key scientific findings to all participants
- evaluate whether or not the final decisions is consistent with scientific info
- avoid advocacy of any particular solution
The Living Planet Index:
shows a 35% reduction overall in the plAnets ecological health since 1970
Ecological footprints:
show the extent of human demand on global ecosystems
Energy:
the capacity to do work and it measured in calories or Joules
Potential energy:
is troef energy that is available for later use
Kinetic Energy:
energy derived from an objects motion and mass
what are the green pigments in plants that absorb light from the sun called?
Chlorophylls
can energy be destroyed or created?
no it can only be changed
photosynthesis produces __________.
oxygen
organisms with the ability to capture energy and manufacture matter are known as what?
autotrophs OR producers
if an organism is not a producer, it must be a ________.
heterotroph or consumer
what are the two kinds of autotrophs?
phototrophs or chemoautotrophs
_______ get their energy from light.
phototrophs
_______ obtain their energy from chemicals in the envrionment.
chemoautotrophs
biomass = ?
living matter
________ must have access to oxygen for cellular respiration to take place, or they will die.
Aerobic organisms.
which types of organisms can survive without oxygen?
anaerobic organisms
Level of Food Chain:
- Primary Consumers: eating plants
- Secondary Consumers: eating herbivores
- Tertiary ConsumersL eating animals that are secondary consumers or higher
Food Chain:
the flow of energy from organism to another organism
Trophic Levels:
an organisms feeding status in a food web
Food Webs:
a network of food chains
how much energy is lost with each trophic level?
90%
Omnivores:
consume meat and plants
Scavengers:
costume carcasses (crows)
Detritivores:
consume debris/waste (ants)
Decomposers:
consume all animal and plant waste (bacteria)
Decomposer food chains are based on the dead organic material called what?
detritus
the ecosphere is composed of what?
lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere
what does the atmosphere consist of?
troposphere
stratosphere
mesosphere
thermosphere
Give an example of low-quality energy.
low temp heat (oceans)
Give an example of high-quality heat.
fire, hot coal or gasoline
which two laws of physics describe the energy transformation ?
- law of conservation of energy
2. second law of thermodynamics
the more transforming of energy, what happens to that energy?
becomes less useful and lower quality
Are all plants autotrophs?
NO
_____ food chains dominate marine ecosystems.
Grazing food chains
_____ food chains dominate forest and freshwater ecosystems.
Detrital food chains
Which type of soil dominates Canada?
cryosolic (perma frost)
The longer the food chain the _____.
less effiecent
Gross Primary Production:
the overall rate of biomass production
GPP = ?
GPP = NPP + R
A group of individuals of the same species is what?
a population
all of the population of all species in an environment are known as a ______.
Community
all of the population of all species in an environment are known as a ______.
Community
ecozones:
groups of ecosystems with similar dominant vegetation and animal communities
what can be grouped into biomes?
ecozones
state the order of an ecosystem from smallest to largest.
organisms population, community, ecosystems ecozones, biomes
key abiotic factors:
light, temp, wind, water, soil
inorganic materials = ?
minerals with no carbon content
Soil Profile:
is the view across these horizons
Humus:
decomposed organic material
Loams:
socials that contain a mixture of humus, clay, silt, sand, and gravel
what is the main determinate of soil permeability
texture
Limiting Factor:
factors that determine whether an organism can survive in a given ecosystem
Dominant Limiting Factor:
the weakest link in the chain of various factors necessary for an organisms survival
Range of Tolerance:
range of conditions that is ideal for a species
Zone of physiological stress:
conditions can be tolerated by certain individuals within the population, but are not optimal, so fairly few individuals can exist (arctic)
Extinction:
entire species ceasing to exist
Niche:
food it eats, where it lives, where it reproduces, relationships with others
Infraspecific competition:
occurs among members of the same species; regulates population size
Specialized species:
have narrow niches and are vulnerable to environmental change (panda)
Generalist species:
may have a very broad niche (black bear)
Interspecific competition:
occurs between different species
resource partitioning:
resources are used at different times or in a different way but species with overlaps of fundamental niches (reducing competition)
Optimal foraging theory:
point fo compensation between the benefit f obtaining prey and the costs of doings - then predator will adjust prey to optimize benefits
Parasitism:
a special type of predator-prey relationship; predator lives on its prey (host)
Commensalism:
interactions that seem to benefit only one partner but does not harm the other
Mutualism:
relationship benefits both species
Keystone species:
species with a strong influence on the whole community
Genetic diversity:
variability in genetic makeup among individuals of the same species; the ultimate source of biodiversity at all levels
Species diversity:
the total number of species in an area
Ecosystem species:
the variety of ecosystems in an area
Biodiversity hotspots:
areas with high numbers of endemic species found daily in tropical areas
Endemic species:
are particular to a certain area, and found nowhere else on Earth
