Chapter 11 Environmental Science Review Questions Ecosystem Capital

Chapter one ~ Ecosystems and Humans

Key Concepts

1. Define environmental science and distinguish it from related fields such as environmental studies, ecology, and geography.
2. Explain the complexity of the universe through a hierarchical framework that includes consideration of World, life, and ecosystems at various scales.
3. Identify key principles of the ecosystem approach to conserving natural resource.
4. Describe how environmental stressors and disturbances can affect species and ecosystems.
5. Explain the history of human cultural evolution in terms of an increasing ability to cope with environmental constraints on the availability of natural resources and other aspects of economic development.
6. List at least iii means in which humans direct influence environmental conditions.
7. Place four broad classes of environmental values.
8. Depict five important world views.
9. Sympathize the various problems of the environmental crisis by classifying them into three categories, and give several examples within each of them.
10. Talk over the environmental effects of humans as a function of ii major influences: increases of population and intensification of lifestyle (per-capita effects).
11. explain the differences between economic growth and ecologically sustainable evolution.

Environmental Science and Its Context

1. the causes and consequences of the rapidly increasing homo population
2. the apply and depletion of natural resources
3. damage caused by pollution and disturbances, including the endangerment of biodiversity

1. How large is the homo population probable to be in Canada, or on Globe, in l or 200 years?
2. How tin the use of fossil fuels be integrated into a sustainable economy, in view of the fact that they are non-renewable resources that exercise non regenerate?
3. How can we harvest renewable resources (which practise have the potential to regenerate) in ways that do not dethrone their stocks, such as cod in Atlantic Canada, wild salmon in British Columbia, wheat and other grains in the Prairie provinces, and forest resources across much of the land?
4. What ecological damages are caused by diverse kinds of pollution, such as acid pelting, ozone, pesticides, and sulphur dioxide, and how can these effects be prevented or repaired?
5. Are man influences affecting global climate, and if and then, what are the causes and consequences of this effect?
6. Where and how quickly are species and natural habitats becoming endangered or extinct, and how can these calamities be prevented?

1. The extraction, processing, and use of non-renewable resources, such as fossil fuels and metals, in means that do not cause unacceptable environmental damage, while also moderating their depletion to some possible degree (for example, by re-cycling certain materials)
2. The harvesting and direction of biological resources, such as those in agriculture, fisheries, and forestry, in ways that allow them to fully regenerate so their stocks tin can be sustained into the future
3. The growth of renewable sources of energy, such as the various forms of solar energy (including biomass fuels, hydroelectricity, photovoltaics, and current of air), as a mode of replacing non-renewable fossil fuels and thereby making the energy economy more than sustainable
4. The prevention and repair of ecological damages, such as those related to endangered biodiversity, degraded land or water, and the management of greenhouse gases

World, Life, and Ecosystems

Effigy i.2. Hierarchical Organization of the Universe.

1. individual organisms, which are living entities that are genetically and physically discrete
2. populations, or individuals of the same species that occur together in time and space
3. communities, or populations of diverse species, also co-occurring at the same time and identify
4. landscapes and seascapes (collectively, these are ecoscapes), which are spatial integrations of various communities over large areas
5. and the biosphere in its entirety, which is composed of all life and ecosystems on Globe

Species and Ecosystems

Stressors and Responses

Human being Activities are Environmental Stressors

• the discovery of ways of making improved weapons for hunting animals
• domestication of the dog, which as well greatly facilitated hunting
• domestication of fire, which provided warmth and allowed for cooked, more digestible foods
• ways of cultivating and domesticating plants and livestock, which resulted in huge increases in nutrient availability
• techniques for working raw metals into tools, which were much meliorate than those made of wood, stone, or bone The rate of new discoveries has increased enormously over time. More recent technological revolutions include the following:
• methods of using machines and energy to perform work previously done by humans or draught animals
• farther advances in the domestication and tillage of plants and animals
• discoveries in medicine and sanitation
• extraordinary strides in communications and information-processing technologies

Ethics and World Views

The Environmental Crisis

• Population

  In 2015, the human population numbered more than 7.3 billion, including about 34 million in Canada . At the global level, the homo population has been increasing because of the excess of nascence rates over decease rates. The recent explosive population growth, and the poverty of so many people, is a root cause of much of the environmental crunch. Directly or indirectly, large population increases consequence in all-encompassing deforestation, expanding deserts, country degradation by erosion, shortages of water, change in regional and global climate, endangerment and extinction of species, and other great ecology issues. Considered together, these damages represent changes in the character of the biosphere that are as cataclysmic equally major geological events, such as glaciation. We will discuss the human population in more detail in Chapters x and xi.

• Resources

  Two kinds of natural resources tin exist distinguished. A non-renewable resource is present in a finite quantity. As these resources are extracted from the environment, in a procedure referred to every bit mining, their stocks are inexorably diminished and and then are available in increasingly smaller quantities for time to come generations. Non-renewable resources include metals and fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal. In contrast, a renewable resource tin can regenerate after harvesting, and if managed suitably, can provide a supply that is sustainable forever. However, to be renewable, the ability of the resource to regenerate cannot be compromised by excessive harvesting or inappropriate management practices. Examples of renewable resources include fresh h2o, the biomass of trees and agricultural plants and livestock, and hunted animals such equally fish and deer. Ultimately, a sustainable economy must exist supported by renewable resources. Too ofttimes, however, potentially renewable resources are not used responsibly, which impairs their renewal and represents a type of mining. The subject area of natural resources is examined in detail in Chapters 12, 13, and 14.

• Environmental Quality

  This subject area deals with anthropogenic pollution and disturbances and their furnishings on people, their economies, other species, and natural ecosystems. Pollution may be caused by gases emitted by power plants and vehicles, pesticides, or heated water discharged into lakes. Examples of disturbance include clear-cutting, angling, and wood fires. The consequences of pollution and disturbance for biodiversity, climate change, resource availability, risks to human being health, and other aspects of environmental quality are examined in Chapters 15 to 26.

Environmental Impacts of Humans

• I is the total environmental impact of a human population
• P is the population size
• A is an estimate of the per-capita affluence in terms of resource use
• T is the degree of technological development of the economic system, on a per-capita basis

Image 1.4. Places where people live, work, grow food, and harvest natural resources are affected by many kinds of anthropogenic stressors. These issue in ecosystems that are non very natural in graphic symbol, such as the pavement and grassy edges of this major highway in Toronto. Source: B. Freedman.

Ecologically Sustainable Evolution

• increasing efficiency of use of non-renewable resources, for case, by careful recycling of metals and past optimizing the use of free energy
• increasing use of renewable sources of energy and materials in the economy (to replace non-renewable sources)
• improving social equity, with the ultimate goal of helping all people (and not merely a privileged minority) to accept reasonable access to the basic necessities and civilities of life

Conclusions

Questions for Review

1. Define environmental scientific discipline, environmental studies, and ecology. List the cardinal disciplinary fields of cognition that each includes.
2. Describe the hierarchical structure of the universe and list the elements that comprehend the realms of biology and ecology.
3. Place the central environmental stressors that may be affecting an ecosystem in your surface area (e.thou., a local park). Make sure that you lot consider both natural and anthropogenic stressors.
4. What is the difference betwixt morals and cognition, and how are these conditioned by personal and societal values?
5. Explain how cultural attributes and expressions can touch the ways that people view the natural world and interact with environmental issues.

Questions for Give-and-take

1. Describe how you lot are connected with ecosystems, both through the resources that you lot consume (food, energy, and materials) and through your recreational activities. Which of these connections could you practise without?
2. How are your personal ethical standards related to utilitarian, ecological, aesthetic, and intrinsic values? Recall about your world view and discuss how it relates to the anthropocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric world views.
3. According to information presented in this affiliate, Canada might exist regarded as being equally overpopulated as India and China. Do you believe this is a reasonable conclusion? Justify your answer.
4. Make a list of the nigh of import cultural influences that accept affected your own attitudes near the natural world and environmental bug.

Exploring Issues

1. You have been asked by the Un to devise an alphabetize of national and per-capita environmental impacts that will be used to compare various adult and less-developed countries. Until now, the Un has used extremely simple indicators, such as energy use and gross domestic product, merely they now want to use more realistic information. How would you design improve indicators? What practise y'all call back would be the near important components of the indicators, and why?

References Cited and Farther Reading

eckleyhonval83.blogspot.com

Source: https://digitaleditions.library.dal.ca/environmentalscience/chapter/chapter-1/

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