Paper 3: People And The Biosphere Flashcards
What does indigenous people mean?
Original people of the region that lead traditional lifestyles and use the area to survive
In tribes, what is shelter like?
Small circular houses are built from wood + leaves
In tribes, what are their strengths?
Use plants + wild honey to make traditional medicines
Whip men before hunting to strengthen them and for growth too
Whip women too
In tribes, what is the food like?
Gather wild yams, nuts, mushrooms + berries from the forest
Efe monkey + antelope for bushmeat + fish in the rivers
Hunt giant forest hog + sell its meat to others - buy + trade
What are the causes of deforestation?
Farming Cattle ranching Palm oil plantation Logging Mining Slash and burning
Why is there an increasing demand for resources?
Rising population - greater demand for resources e.g food - destruction of forests for farmland
Increasing wealth of people - means people use more energy and fossil fuels
Increasing urbanisation - more people living in towns and cities which have sprawled over biomes
What is carbon sink?
Natural stores of carbon containing chemical compounds like carbon dioxide and methane
How does a forest biome store the carbon which is found on this planet?
Stores carbon as biomass
When plants and animals die the dead biomass ends up in the soil
What 2 can humans destroy biomes and affect carbon stores?
Deforestation - so biomes absorb less and biomass such as tress are burned, and soil destroyed, releasing their stored carbon
What ways can humans affect the nutrient cycle?
By removing biomass e,g logging timber which takes away a large nutrient store
Through deforestation, once areas are deforested, they are at risk of soil erosion
How will removal of trees affect the water cycle?
Increased risk of flooding because the ground will get more saturated quickly as there are no trees to protect the large quantity of water causing flooding
What is Malthus’ theory?
There will not be enough resources to meet the demands of the growing population
What is Boserup’s theory?
Technology will provide resources for the growing population
What is exponential growth?
When a quantity increases constantly over to,e
What does the Malthusian view say about how food production differs?
It differs by only increasing arithmetically
What does the Malthusian view say about the outcome of population/resource growth?
Population will increase geometrically but food supply will increase only arithemtically
It can lead to a lack of food supply leading to a ‘population vs resources crisis’
Which two ways does the Malthusian view say the population falls to, to create a balance between food and population?
Positive checks - war starvation and famine would reduce population
Preventative checks - people marrying later and having fewer children
What is a biome?
A large area characterised by certain types of plants and animals
What factors affect biome location?
Sunlight Rainfall Temperature Altitude Rock type Drainage
Name all 8 biomes
Tropical savanna Tropical rainforest Arctic and alpine tundra Desert Temperature Boreal forest Temperature Deciduous forest Chaparral Grassland
How does rock and soil type affect biomes?
When rocks undergo chemical weathering, they release nutrients and chemicals into soils
Soils can be neutral, acidic or alkaline
The acidity/alkalinity of soil influences the plants that will grow there
How does water availability and drainage affect biomes?
Some plants can grow with their roots in waterlogged soil or boggy areas
How wet the soil is depends on factors:
Amount of precipitation
Amount of evaporation from soil
How permeable the soil is, sandy soils are dry and clay soils are wet
How does altitude affect biomes?
Height affects biome in 3 ways:
Temperature drops by 6.5 degrees for every 1000m increase in height
At high altitudes, below freezing temperatures are common, which limits the types of plants that can grow
Rainfall usually increases within height
What does biotic mean?
Part is made up of plant and animal life
