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Environmental Science > Unit 3 > Flashcards

Unit 3 Flashcards

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1
Q

What is sustainability?

A

Sustainability is the relationship or balance between social, economic and environmental issues.

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2
Q

What is sustainable development?

A

The development that meet the needs of the present without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

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3
Q

Why is global food demand increasing rapidly?

A
  • Rising Population
  • Changing consumer habits
  • Improvements in development
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4
Q

What are the reasons for population growth?

A
  • Better health systems therefore less people are dying
  • Lack of contraception
  • People are living longer
  • People are having more than one child
  • Children are seen as an economic asset
  • Abortion is illegal in some countries
  • High infant mortality rate in some countries
  • Religious reasons/cultures
  • Better sanitation and homes
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5
Q

What is food security?

A

Food security is when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

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6
Q

Why is it not possible to achieve 100% food security?

A

Disease and diet

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7
Q

What are agrochemicals?

A

They destroy organisms harmful to cultivated crops or animals and include herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and ensure a good harvest with plenty of food.

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8
Q

What are the advantages of using argrochemicals?

A
  • Helps to produce more food
  • Produces crops more efficiently
  • More food being produced means more profit for farmers.
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9
Q

What are the disadvantages of using agrochemicals?

A
  • Causes eutrophication, bioaccumulation and biomagnification which can affect the food chain.
  • They are very expensive
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10
Q

What mechanisation?

A

When new modern technology is being deployed in agriculture to boost productivity. This includes ploughs, tractors, sprayers, combine harvesters.

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11
Q

What are the advantages of mechanisation?

A
  • Makes farming easier for farming.
  • Crops are produced faster
  • More crops being produced means a greater profit for farmers.
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12
Q

What are the disadvantages of mechanisation?

A
  • Are very expensive and cost a lot of money to run i.e. petrol
  • Hedgerows and ponds and being removed to make space for the machinery. This causes habitat destruction and decrease in biodiversity
  • Increased release of Carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide as they run on petrol.
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13
Q

What is irrigation?

A

Irrigation is the artificial application of water on to the land and involves taking water from rivers, lakes/ponds and underground water and putting it onto the land.

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14
Q

What are the advantages of irrigation?

A
  • Increases wheat yield by three times in ELDC’s
  • Good for countries with lack of water
  • Pumps for the water are cheap to install
  • More crops means increased profits for farmers.
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15
Q

What are the disadvantages of irrigation?

A
  • 60% of water does reach crops by evaporation, leaks and spillage.
  • Can contribute to water shortages, pollution, land degradation and waterborne diseases. It also lowers the water table.
  • Over pumping
    lowers water table, causes wells to dry up or have a poor water quality.
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16
Q

What are high yield variety crops?

A

Are plants that are selectively bred to produce a high yield.

17
Q

What are advantages of using high yield variety crops?

A
  • Starvation and famine has been reduced in ELDC’s
  • Can produce 10 times usual crop yield.
  • Able to grow crops 3 times per season
18
Q

What are the disadvantages of using high yield variety crops?

A
  • Requires a lot of fertilisers and water to grow.
  • They are very expensive to buy and grow
  • Increases pollution.
19
Q

What are GM crops?

A

They are crops where scientists have altered the DNA in order to produce a characteristic such as disease resistant, high yield, taste better or grow bigger.

20
Q

What are the advantages of GM crops?

A
  • increased crop yields
  • larger crops could be produce
  • may need less fertilisers
  • reduces the amount of raw materials used in manufacturing farming chemicals.
  • Could help hunger in developing countries
  • Do not require a lot of water and therefore droughts would no longer cause famine.
  • engineered to last longer so less food wasted
21
Q

What is Hydroponics?

A

A method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solution in water without soil. They control the light temperature and humidity the plants receive.

22
Q

What are the advantages of using hydroponics?

A
  • Produces yield faster meaning more can be produced.
  • This means they can be grown all year round
  • Could create new jobs
  • there would be less pests.
  • could lower fuel and transportation costs as families would grow their own.
  • lowers food miles.
23
Q

What are the disadvantages of using hydroponics?

A
  • Expensive to buy but beneficial in the long term
  • Requires a lot of water to run and could lead to water shortage
  • Still uses fertilisers which could cause bioaccumulation and biomagnification
24
Q

What are vertical farms?

A

When plants such as herbs and vegetables are grown vertically in stacked layers. Temperature, light intensity and humidity are controlled.

25
Q

What are the advantages of using vertical farms?

A
  • They don’t require a lot of space.

- Reduces food miles.

26
Q

What are the disadvantages of using vertical farms?

A
  • Very expensive to run and includes heating and lighting costs.
27
Q

What is crop roatation?

A

When farmers rotate crops to keep the soils fertile. This prevents monoculture and allows soil to regenerate.

28
Q

What is agroforestry?

A

planting trees which helps bind soil and also provides shad and windbreaks. This prevents soil erosion and the trees take a while to grow.

29
Q

What are stone lines?

A

A way of reducing soil erosion and loss of water by overland flow. Reduces the speed at which water flows at.

30
Q

What are the advantages of stone lines?

A
  • Higher yields
  • Less soil erosion
  • More food produced
31
Q

What are the disadvantages of stone lines?

A
  • Requires a long time to construct and requires many people to do so
  • You need lots of big stones
32
Q

What is aquaculture?

A

Is the intensive farming of aquatic animals in fresh, brackish or marine water. Types carried out in Scotland include finfish such as Atlantic salmon, shellfish such as mussels, oysters and scallops and seaweed.

33
Q

What are the advantages of salmon farming?

A
  • Employs 7000 people
  • Waste produced by the fish in indoor fish farms can be used to produce energy required for the pump used in the farm
  • Contributes £1.9billion to the Scottish economy annually
  • Fish can be produced at an affordable price.
  • More fish produced increases consumption which prevents heart disease and helps Scotland’s poor diet as the fish are rich in oil, omega 3 and vitamin d.
34
Q

What are the disadvantages of salmon farming?

A
  • Creates a breading ground for sea lice which kill salmon
  • Sea lice is spreading to wild fish
  • Causes a collapse of sea trout numbers
  • Treatment of sea lice uses chemicals which can affect the environment.
  • Could cause eutrophication due to the amount of faeces produced
  • Chemicals for treatment are expensive causing a decrease in profit.
  • The sea bed of the farm is almost known as an ecologically dead zone
  • Salmon can escape from the farm and breed with other fish and weaken the gene pull
35
Q

What is legislation?

A

Laws that are passed by the government

36
Q

What is a policy?

A

A plan of action that focuses on a specific target.

37
Q

What is a strategy?

A

The methods and principles needed to achieve a policy are set out in a strategy.

38
Q

What is diversitfication?

A

Means branching out into other activities not just growing crops and rearing animals. This is done to help farmers make more money

39
Q

What are the aims Common Agricultural Policy and what do they do?

A

The Aims of CAP:
- Increase food production in Europe
- improve the standard of living of farmers
- Secure food supplies for Europe
- to provide food for consumers at reasonable prices
They do this by offering farmers grants, subsides and introducing tariffs which restrict imports from outside the EU meaning there is more demand for food.

Environmental Science (4 decks)

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