Term 2 Flashcards
Land cover and land use
What is the difference between land cover and land use?
Land cover is the physical land type of an area (such as a forest). Land use is how people use the land
Land cover and land use
What where the first major changes is land cover?
Farming was the first change in land cover, causing deforestation and transforming vast natural areas. Industrialisation escelated land changes as well as the increase in concertation of humans in urban areas.
Land cover and land use
How has land cover changed recently? How does australia relate to this change.
Land cover has greatly changed to expand farmland and sustain an ever-growing popilation. Most natural land cover has changed and australia greatly reflects this decline in natural land
Land cover and land use
What are changes in land cover being initiated by naturally?
Changes in land cover can be initiated by natural processess including climate changes
Land cover and land use
When was the last major climate shift?
During the last glaciation (ice age). It was called the Pleistocene period. Reaching its peak around 24000 years ago which was markebly different from present climate. Which charactaristics such as large amounts of ice and snow cover.
Land cover and land use
What was the major event of the last major climate shift?
The main event of Pleistocene is when the Northern Hemisphere cooked so darasticly, snow from Canada spread to America creating vast sheets of snow.
Land cover and land use
What are some geological processes that initiate land cover change?
Geological processes such as tectonic plate movement, inclyuding earthquakes, volcanic activity and land slides. Others can be weathering, erosion and disposition.
Land cover and land change
How does fire affect land cover?
- It changes trhe structure of habitats and the mix and diversity of species present
- It impacts soil properties such as texture, porosity, organic matter, nutrient avalability and biota.
- Impacting plant life, drought, disease, insect onfestation, overgrazing or a combo of all.
Land cover and land use
What is plant, primary and secondary sucsession?
- Plant sucsession: the change in the types of plants occupying a given area over time
- Primary sucsession: the forming of a new unoccupied habitat uninfluenced by pre-existing communities
- Secondary sucsession: follows the distrubution of a pre-existing community and a climax community is the result of primary and secondary succession in a stable, self-prepetulating plants community it is called a climax community
Land cover and land use
How do fires and pests affect habitats? What is dieback?
Fires are major threats to forests, shrublands and grasslands changing structures of habitats and diversity of species.
Pests also threaten these habitats. They can cause something called ‘dieback’ in forests, the progressive death of trees within a year or two after symptoms appear.
Land cover and land use
What is deforestation?
It i the removal and destruction of forest on land that is converted to non-forest use
Land cover and land use
What is desertification?
Desertification is a type of gradual land degredation of fertile land into arid desert due to natural processes and/or human activities
Land cover and land use
outline how humans have impacted the nature and rate of land cover change.
Humans land cover change includes a rapidly growing population along with improves material starndards of living and tech advantage increasing human capacity to change landscapes. Mostly for clearing of tourists for mining, farming, terracing, urbanisation and irrigation.
Land cover and land use
How do population changes impact food and energy demands?
An increase in population also increases energy and food demands. Standards of developing countries will change to need more energy and food for a growing developed nation.
Land cover and land use
What is some evidence that supports claims made about anthropogenic climate change
Concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses are rising rapodly. After remaining below 300ppm for 400 yrs, CO2 concentrations rose to 421ppm in may 2022.
Land cover and land use
Explain why forests are critical to life on Earth
They provide a range of important environmental services, including habitats from plants and animals. They supply oxygen and protect Earths watersheds.
Land cover and land use
Disinguish between primary and secondary forests. What is a plantation?
- Primary forests: dominated by native tree species and there is no visible signs of human activity, leaving ecological processes largley understurbed
- Secondary growth: Forests result from secondary ecological sucsessiuon after disturbance bu human activity
- Plantation forests: commectially managed forests that account for 7% of the worlds forest area
Land cover and land use
What are three princible types of forest and charactaristics?
- **Coniferous forests: **
- core bearing trees, like pines and firs.
- Thrive in northern latitudes with warm summers and cold winters
- Temperate forests:
- covering 25% of land surface.
- Includes coniferous and broad-leafed trees such as oaks and elms.
- Trees turn red and yellow, in autumn(deciduous)
- Found in mid-latitudes with a temperate climate
- Tropical and sub-tropical rainforests:
- most biologically diverce and complex forests.
- Need abundant rainfall and warmth.
- FOund in equatorial regions.
- Act as carbon sinks soaking up CO2
Land cover and land use
What are the importance of tropical and sub-tropical rainforests?
- Most biologically diverse and complex forests
- Account for 80% of worlds terrestrial biodiversity and 50% of all biodiversity
- They act as ‘Carbon sinks’
Land cover and land use
What are the natural causes of deforestation?
- Forest fires
- Disease
- Parasites
- Extreem weather events like cyclones and floods
- (all of these can be increased or affected by human factors)
Land cover and land use
What is the pattern of how much forest has been lost in the year?
10 mil hectares, doen from 12 mil hectares in 2010-2015 and 10 mil hectares in 1990
Land cover and land use
What is the process of forest fragmentation? How does it contribute to the low of biodiversity?
Forest fragmentation is the division of forests into smaller and more isolated fragments.
It causes sever biodiversity loss from altering the charactaristics and connectivity of forests.
Land cover and land use
What is afforestation? To what extent does it offset forest loss?
Afforestation is the process of planting trees in an area with no previous tree cover or forests, typically to create new forest land.
It can offset forest loss largley depending on factors. However it is not a stable solution to deforestation.
Land cover and land use
Outline causes of deforestation.
- Population growth
- demographic trends
- economic development
- illigal logging
- illigal wildlife trade
- invasive species
- unsustainable agricultural practices
Land cover and land use
What is driving the effort to slow down deforestation?
- Growing appreciation for forest loss
- Understanding forest loss on the affect of the carbon cycle
Land cover and land use
What is the criteria needed to be met for a protection area to be affective?
- Large enough to allow ecological processes to be sustained without being negativley affected by surrounding areas
- Managed in ways that meet both intrests of local communities and demands of biodiversity conservation.
- Retention of biological corridors. (Areas of habitat that connects wildlife populatiuons seperated by humans)
Land cover and land use
what are the charactaristics/roles of NGO’s in terms of efforts to protect the worlds forests?
- NGO’s central to efforts to save forests
- Serve as watchdogs and agents of change
- Hold govorments and buisnesses to account by facilitating collective action and community engagment
- Have been successful in shaping public discourse and debate
Land cover and land use
How has consumer and shareholder action proved an affective way of batteling deforestation?
By pushing for consumer boycotts and puttin pressure on shareholders to modify corperate behavior