Names and Dates Flashcards
JM Blaut
Argues against environmental determinism as he believes it validates Euro-centrism
Jared Diamond
Argues for environmental determinism/ factors influential in development were environmental in his book ‘Germs guns and steel’
Paul Crutzen
Popularised the idea of the Anthropocene
Monastersky
Argues against the Anthropocene
Erlandson
Argues that the Anthropocene should be merged with the holocene
Lewis SL
The argues that the Anthropocene should be a new GE because
- Atmospheric changes
- Marine Sediments
Proposes that it should start in 1610 or 1961.
What are the potential dates for the start of the Anthropocene?
a) 50,000-10,000 years ago
b) 11,000-5,000 years ago
c) 1452
d) 1750
e) 1950
50,000 - 10,000 years ago
- Megafauna extinction - loss of 4% of all mammals
- Pleistoncene - use of fire
11,000 - 5,000 years ago
Introduction of largescale organised farming
1452
Collision of Old and New worlds (the Orbis Spike)
- dip of CO2
- mixing of biomes
- smallpox epidemic –> population decrease –> carbon decrease
1750-1880
Industrialisation
- increase of carbon dioxide
- 1800 = 280ppmv
1950
The Great Acceleration
- large dams
- fertilizers
- CO2
When was the pleistocene?
11700 to ~2.6 Ma ago
When was the holocene?
11700-present (debatably)
Arthur Tansley (1935)
came up with the idea of the concept of the ecosystem
Arthur Miller
Tradgedy of the commons
Robert Horton
Invented infiltration capacity curve.
James Hutton
- Father of modern geology
- He originated the theory of uniformitarianism—a fundamental principle of geology—that explains the features of the Earth’s crust by means of natural processes
over geologic time
Define soil taxonomy.
Classifying soils.
Describe the soil taxonomy published by the US department of agriculture in 1960.
- Total number of 12 soil orders with six levels of classification
- order
- suborder
- great group
- sub group
- family
- series
Describe the United Nations FAO-Unesco soil portal
Soil divided into 10 sets with 28 major soil groupings
Define a histosol.
A soil consisting primarily of organic materials
Organic soils
- lowland/ arable
- also known as peat and muck
- northern peat best left untouched as is a system for carbon
Conditioned by: Humans (Anthrosoils)
- virtually any soil material, modified through cultivation or by addition of material
- Prior to the advent of chemical fertilizers, rye yields on
Plaggic Anthrosols were a mere 700 to 1100 kg per hectare.
Today, these soils receive generous doses of fertilizers;
average yield levels are 5500 kg per hectare.
Conditioned by: Parent material
- three main types
1. andosols (volcanic)
2. arenosols (sand) - dry zone
3. vertisols (clay) - distinct wet and dry seasons
Conditioned by: Topography
Lowland soils influenced by topography
- fluvisols
- gleysols (mucky mass)
High altitude soils influenced by topography
- leptosols - gravelly/ thin
- regosols
Conditioned by: Limited age
Cambisols
- brown/ arable
- found in the UK
Conditioned by: Climate. Name the different areas of influence.
- sub-humid tropics
- arid/ semi-arid regions
- steppes and steppics
- humid temperate
- permafrost
What are the 4 main functions of soil?
- plant growth
- water storage/supply/ purification
- modify atmosphere (carbon storage)
- habitat
What is the future of soil?
Amount of arable land per person set to decrease by half by 2050
Aristotle
Evidence for spherical earth
William Davis
Erosion
Ellen Semple
Environmental determinism
Green (2007)
Natural hazards as social constructs
1300s
major famines in Britain
