Final Exam
No description yet. This curated deck is ready for daily study.
Card preview (24)
Written Answer Question What can you do to tread lighter on our environment? How will this benefit you?
There are a few ways I can reduce my envinronment impact. This includes reducing consumption rather than solely relying on recycling. This will help me more relfect on what is actually a necessity rather than a want or luxury. I could also reduce plastic consumption and not wasting food and water. Lastly,
Written Answer Question What is a trophic cascade? Example?
A trophic cascade is a phenomenon where the removal or addition of a top predator in a food web significantly alters the populations of species at lower trophic levels. For example, when apex predators are hunted by humans, they become fewer in number, leading to a cascade in which abundance of herbivores goes up, abundance of plants goes down, and abundance of nutrients goes up. Example: Wolves & Aspen * Yosemite wolves absent from 1926 * Reintroduced in 1995 –> Wolves became more numerous –> Elk dropped in abundance –> Cottonwoods became larger —-> Wouldn’t be eaten by elk –> Willows had a larger growth increase shortly after reintroduction –> Aspen trees became taller
Written Answer Question How does the concept of non-market value pertain to the environment?
Written Answer Question Compare the three dominant fossil fuels in terms of pollutant emissions (CO2, SO2) for each unit of energy produced.
• Natural gas: CO2 - 0.5 kg CO2/kWh (157 stack emissions) SO2 - 0.12 kg kWh-1 • Oil: CO2 - 0.75 kg CO2/kWh (215 stack emissions) SO2 - 135 kg kWh-1 • Coal: CO2 - 0.90 kg CO2/kWh (278 stack emissions) SO2 - 310 kg kWh-1
Tragedy of the Commons What is a technical solution in reference to Tragedy of the Commons?
Anything involving science and technology
Tragedy of the Commons What are the assumptions of the Tragedy of the Commons?
• World and its resources are finite • People require resources • World can support finite number of people
Tragedy of the Commons What are the “commons”?
International areas (e.g., oceanic waters) not owned by any single country (i.e., resources owned by nobody)
?
Tragedy of the Commons What are examples of “commons”?
Water bodies, air, public land areas
Tragedy of the Commons How are ways of preventing a tragedy of the commons?
• Food-producing areas –> legislation; build fences • Waste disposal –> laws • Protect recreational areas –> set number of entry tickets/permits; ensures that too many people do not overuse this resource • Overpopulation
Agr. impacts - CAFOs Concenctrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)
Agr. impacts - CAFOs CAFO Environmental impacts
• Conc waste production, polluting air and water -> methane (GHG) -> ammonium -> sulfide • Intensive use of antibiotics, growth hormones
Agr. impacts - eutrophication Eutrophication
over-fertilization of the natural environment (i.e., enrichment of nutrients and increase of phytoplankton in bodies of water)
Agr. impacts - eutrophication How does eutrophication happen?
Phytoplankton are supplied with sulfur and phosphorus -> leads to extreme phytoplankton growth
Agr. impacts - eutrophication What are the impacts of eutrophication?
• Algal blooms - rapid population increase of algae • Red tides 3.Dead zones - aquatic areas with low oxygen concentrations and few organisms
Anthropocene
period of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems
What are the manifestations of the Anthropocene?
• dense urban living • energy use (-> resource use) • global change • biodiversity loss • geomorphological manipulation (farming, mining, landfills, dams, coastal reclamation) • New materials (e.g., plastics) • fertilizer
Biosphere experiment What were the methods of the biosphere 2 experiment?
1991 missions: * two-year closure of eight humans (“Biospherians”) * Humans are placed inside * Raised many plants (e.g., bananas, papaya) * Included some animals
Biosphere experiment What was the purpose of the Biosphere 2 experiment?
To examine the role of ecology and see if we can survive the journey to another planet
Biosphere experiment In what ways did the biosphere experiment fail?
• oxygen dropped from 21% -> 14% • Weight loss (male: 16%, female: 9%) • High CO2 concentrations - started off at 80 parts/million - current concentrations: 422 parts/million • cockroaches, other insects flourished • all pollinators died (bees, moths) • 19 of 25 vertebrate animal species died • Not a closed system: deliveries of O2, seeds, vitamins, mouse traps etc.
What did the Biosphere 2 demonstrate?
We don’t understand the functioning of ecological systems well enough to replicate them to go elsewhere (e.g., a different planet)
Climate change Climate change is one aspect of ______________.
global change