Lecture Quizzes Flashcards
What does the term “sustainability” mean?
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Which populations on Earth are largely responsible for unsustainable resource consumption?
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Why is land use a critical issue for sustainability?
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What are the main anthropogenic sources responsible for the increases the greenhouse gasses CO2, CH4 and N2O?
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Why are the greenhouse gasses CH4 and N2O often expressed as “CO2-equivalents”?
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What are “ecosystem services”? Can you give examples of provisioning, regulating and cultural services?
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What proportions of land are used by people for crops, pasture and timber globally?
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Why is global cereal production rising faster than food calorie production?
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Describe how trend climate warming can increase extreme heat events even without any increase in climate variability. Base your explanation around the bell-shaped curve of temperature distribution.
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How does warming lead to more extreme heavy rainfall events?
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Approximately what percentage of the GHG emissions of the UK does DEFRA estimate to come from agriculture and why does this underplay the role of this sector in overall emissions?
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According to Goucher et al (2017) what proportion of the carbon footprint of a loaf of bread comes from wheat growth?
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What is meant by co-benefits and trade-offs between SDGs?
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Can you provide some examples of each?
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Define what scientists mean by the terms “ecosystem” and “biome”.
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Are ecosystems open or closed systems with respect to energy and materials?
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Describe in broad terms the pattern of biome distribution with temperature and precipitation.
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According to the Al-Mufti hump back curve (also called “Grime’s hump back curve”) why are there low levels of plant diversity in ecosystems with very low and very high levels of productivity?
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What are positive and negative feedbacks?
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Can you give an example of positive and negative feedback within the Earth System and explain how they influence climate?
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Can you explain what we refer as the geological carbon and how it works?
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Can you explain why forests are not the ‘lungs of the Earth’?
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Can you explain how the geological carbon cycle can be used to sequester carbon via enhanced rock weathering?
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What are the three main pools of phosphorus in the environment and which processes result in their production and consumption?
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What is the definition of rhizodeposition? How will this be altered by future climate change and how will this influence the ‘CO2 fertilisation effect’?
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What are the issues surrounding the use of rock phosphate fertiliers?
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What is the interaction between ‘phototrophs’ and ‘heterotrophs’?
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How quickly is applied ammonium fertiliser nitrified?
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What is the main function of denitrification?
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What are the main environmental factors affecting denitrification that cause variation in the release of N2O and N2?
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How good are mammals at breaking down cellulose?
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A cow can produce several hundred litres of saliva a day; why do they produce so much?
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Why can we not simply kill methanogens in the rumen to solve the issue of methane release from cows?
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What are external influences on climate, and give an example?
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Water vapour is a greenhouse gas but it does not “cause” global warming. Explain what we mean by this.
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Describe one pro and one con for an organisms adapting to climate change using “plasticity” or “evolution”
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Why is climate velocity fast in flat landscapes and slow in mountainous landscapes?
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What are the three main mechanisms that allow plants to grow more with elevated CO2.
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Which terrestrial biomes of the world will show the greatest increase in productivity in response to elevated CO2.
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When using a repeat survey approach to monitor biodiversity change, what is an advantage and a disadvantage of collecting occupancy data?
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When describing ecosystem responses to climate change, what is “resistance” and “resilience”?
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What are the top three threats to global biodiversity and which of these is considered the most important in tropical regions?
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Biodiversity loss is often greater in habitats that are more disturbed by humans. Name three factors that help or facilitate disturbance by humans.
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Describe how permafrost thaws by deepening of the active layer?
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Arctic greening is caused by longer and warmer summers. What change to vegetation results in the greening?
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Describe the seeder-feeder effect that can increase N deposition in upland and mountainous areas.
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Which methodologies currently available to reduce emissions from livestock production can be applied with no overall cost?
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Why can both reduced fertilisation and increased fertilisation reduce emissions from arable agriculture?
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Why are novel methods desparately needed to mitigate agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases?
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What do we mean by Net Zero?
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What is climate intervention and what are the two main actions that can be achieved?
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What CO2 removal (CDR) consists of? Give some examples
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What are land-based CDR strategies and can you give examples that could be deployed to reach net zero?
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What is solar radiation management? Give some examples
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Within the carbon cycle, can you define what are fluxes and in which units are commonly reported?
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Can you define carbon pool, identify the main carbon pools within the Earth System and what units are typically reported?
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