Stage 4 Flashcards
Humans affect regional and global environments through
Agriculture. Development, and industry
Invasive pest
Imported animals and plants that affect negatively and ecosystem.
In what ways do humans affect regional and global environments
In ways that have an impact on the quality of Earth’s natural resources (soil, water and the atmosphere).
Agriculture, one of the most important ___________ in human history.
Inventions
A dependable supply of food that can be stored for later use enabled humans to
gather in settlements that grew into towns and cities, which encouraged the growth of modern civilization.
Monoculture
Practice of clearing large areas of land to plant a single highly productive crop year after year.
Monoculture enables
Efficient sowing, tending and harvesting of crops using machines.
Environmental effects of human development
Increase in production of wastes, consumption of farmland and division of natural habitats into fragments.
If the wastes are not disposed of properly, what happens
They affect the air, soil and water
Industry and scientific know how provide us with
The conveniences of modern life.
From where do we obtain most of our energy?
By burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas).
Goods (in economics)
Things that can be bought and sold, they have a monetary value.
Services (in economics)
Processes or actions that produce goods.
Ecosystem goods and services are
The goods and services produced by the ecosystems that benefit human economy.
Example of ecological goods and services
Drinking water and breathable air.
What happens when nature can’t provide the natural goods and services
Humans must spend money to produce them.
Ecosystem goods and services are classified as
Renewable and non renewable resources
Renewable resource
Resource that can be produced or replaced by a healthy ecosystem
Nonrenewable resources
Resources that cannot be replenish by natural process in a reasonable amount of time.
Ecological science can teach us …
How to use natural resources to meet our needs without causing long term environmental harm.
Sustainable development
Using resources in an environmentally conscious way.
It provides for human needs while preserving the ecosystems that produce natural resources.
Healthy soil supports
Agriculture and forestry.
Top soil
Mineral- and nutrient-rich portion of the soil.
What does good top soil do?
Absorbs and retains moisture, yet allows water to drain; it is also rich in organic material and nutrient, while low in salts.
How is top soil produced
By long term interactions between soil and the plants growing in it.
Soil erosion
The removal of soil by water or wind. It is often worsen when soil is left barren between plantings after the land is plowed.
What happens when soil is badly eroded?
The organic matter and the minerals that make it fertile are carried away with the soil.
What can cause desertification?
A combination of farming, overgrazing, season droughts and climate change in dry climates.
Desertification
Process by with farmland is turned into a desert.
Deforestation
Loss of forest.
Effects of healthy forests
Provided wood,hold soil in place, protect the quality of fresh water supplies, absorb carbon dioxide and help moderate climate.
Are old-growth first renewable or Nonrenewable resources
Nonrenewable.
Deforestation can lead to severe ___________, especially on mountainsides
Erotion
Grazing or plowing after deforestation can
Permanently change local soils and microclimates in ways that prevent the growth of trees, for example.
What happens to topsoil in tropical rain forest after they are cleared for resources?
It is fertile for only a few years, since after that it becomes a wasteland thanks to the harsh conditions.
How can we minimize soil Erotion.
Though careful management of both agriculture and forestry.
Methods to prevent soil erosion
Leaving stems and roots of previous year’s crops, corp rotation, contour plowing, altering the shape of the land, terracing.
Crop rotation
Planting different crops at different seasons or in different years.
Terracing
Shaping the land to create level steps
Irrigation
When fresh water is brought in from other sources.
Pollutant
A harmful material that can enter the biosphere.
Fresh water is considered a __________ resource while some sources of fresh water are ______________.
Renewable and nonrenewable
Point source pollution
When pollutants enter the biosphere form a single source.
When pollutants a enter the biosphere from different smaller sources, there are called
Nonpoint sources.
Primary sources of water pollution
Industrial and agricultural chemicals, residential sewage, and non point sources.
Biological magnification
A process that affects organisms that rely directly or indirectly of a resource that ha been contaminated. It occurs when a pollutant is picked up by an organism and it is or broken down nor eliminated form the body; so, this pollutant is multiplied as if passes up the food chain from producers to consumers.
Residential sewage can effect ecosystems because they contain
Nitrogen and phosphorous
What can large amounts of sewage stimulate
Blooms of bacteria and algae that rob water of oxygen and make oxygen-poor zones called dead zones
Watershed include
All the land whose groundwater, streams, and rivers drain into the same place.
You must clear up the polluting in a local area or in the entire watershed to archive long lasting results?
The entire watershed.
Drip irrigation
A delivery process in which water is delivered drop by drop directly into the roots of the plants that need it.
The atmosphere provides us with
Oxygen, protection from UV radiation in sunlight provided by the ozone (form of oxygen found in the upper atmosphere) regulation of global temperature by greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, water vapor).
What happens when the quality of earth’s atmosphere decreases
Respiratory ceases are made worse and skin deceases tend to increase.
Common forms of air pollution
Smog, acid rain, greenhouse gases and particulates
Smog
Gray-brown haze formed by chemical reactions among pollutants released into the air by industrial processes and automobile exhaust. One of these compounds is ozon
Ozone (pros and cons)
It protects us from UV Rays in the atmosphere while at ground level it threaten the health of the people.
Acid rain
Produced from the release of nitrogen and sulfur compound that combine with water vapor in the air to form nitric an sulfuric acids. It can affect ecosystems by changing the the chemistry of the soil and surface water releasing Mercury and other toxic elements and by damaging a plant’s leaves.
Greenhouse gases
When they are in excess, they contribute to global warming and climate change.
Particulates
Microscopic particles of ash and dust release by certain industrial process and certain kinds of Diesel engines.
Biodiversity
The total of all the genetically based variation in all organic sum in the biosphere.
Biodiversity exist on three levels:
Ecosystem diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity.
Ecosystem diversity
The variety of habitats, communities and ecological processes in the biosphere
Species diversity
The number of different specifies in the biosphere, or Ina particular area.
Genetic diversity
The sum total of all different forms of genetic information carried by a particular species, or by all organisms on Earth.
Biodiversity is one of Earth’s
Greatest natural resource
Biodiversity’s benefits to society include contributions to
Medicine and agriculture and provision of ecosystem goods and services.
What can we do through pan breeding or genetic engineering
Transfer genes that have disease or pest residence, along with other useful traits From wild plants to crop plants.
Scientist estimate that _____ percent of the species that have ever lived are now extinct.
99
How do humans affect diversity?
Thought the alteration of habitats, hunting, introduction of invasive species, real we of pollution into food webs and contribution to the climate change.
Habitat fragmentation
When development splits ecosystems into pieces called habitat islands
Biological island
Any patch of an habitat surrounded by a different habitat
Animals are hunted for
Their meat, for commercially valuable hides or skins or because people believe their body parts have medicinal properties.
Ecological hot spot
A place where a significant number of species and habitats are in imminent danger of extinction. They were created by conservation biologist to help concentrate conservation efforts in important places.
To conserve biodiversity we must
Protect individual species, preserve habitats and ecosystems, an make certain that human neighbors of protected areas benefit from per ticketing in conservation efforts.
Ecological footprint
Describes the are total area of functioning land and water ecosystems needed both to provide the resources an individual or population uses and to absorb and make harmless the wastes that individuals or a population generates.
A origin to one data set the American has
An ecological footprint over four times larger that the global avera
The future of the biosphere depends on
Our ecological footprints, global population growth and technological development.
The basic principles of ecology can guide us toward a
sustainable future.
We can have a positive impact on her global environment by
Recognizing a problem in the environment
Researching that problem to determine its cause
And by using scientific understating to change our behavior.
Ozone hole
An are of Lowe ozone concentration
Aquaculture
Framing of aquatic animals. A good alternative to commercial fishing with limited environmental damage if properly managed.
Global warming
Incense in average global temperatures
Climate change
Changes in patterns of temperature, rainfall, and other physical factors that can result of global warming.