Midterm #2 Review Terms to Know

Natural Resource

• Anything in natural environment that might be useful to humans → cultural appraisal of material world

• Indv aspects of environment can vary across diff. times & places between being positive or negative

  • Ex: bears valued for fur vs. feared as dangerous animals

• Also incl. ecosystem services categorized into provisioning (food, water), regulating (climate, water purification), supporting (soil formation, nutrient cycling), & cultural (recreation) services

Negative Resource

• Anything in environment that humans perceive as detrimental or harmful to them

• Ex: deforestation, air pollution, & mining

• Determined by cultural perceptions & can change based on context, culture, & era

Renewable Resource

• Naturally regenerate over time, provided their capacity to do so is not irreversibly damaged by natural catastrophes or human activity

• Ex: plants, animals, clean water, & soil

  • Human/extrinsic resources → ppl, skills, & institutions

• Replenished on human timescales

Non-Renewable Resource

• Available in specific places & only in finite quantities → rate at which they are generated is extremely slow on human timescale

• Ex: fossil fuels, other minerals, & some groundwaters

• Total quantity on Earth declines w/ use

Thomas Malthus

• British scholar who published An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1796

• Argued that “the power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must, in some shape or other, visit the human race”

• Predicted that human growth would eventually exceed Earth’s carrying capacity → inevitable population decline

George Perins Marsh

• US diplomat & author of 1864 book Man & Nature

• Described destructive impact of human civilization of natural environment

• Emphasized urgent need to use natural resources sustainably → acting as foundational voice in early American conservation

John Muir

• Naturalist who explored wilderness between Alaska & California & founded Sierra Club

• Championed preservation of wilderness in its untouched, pristine state rather than viewing nature strictly as a resource or crop

• Worked alongside conservationists like Pres. Roosevelt to establish national parks to protect vanishing wilderness

Rachel Carson

• Biologist w/ U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service & author of influential 1962 book Silent Spring

• Documented destructive ecological effects of synthetic pesticides (specifically DDT) on wildlife populations

  • Such as bald eagles whose eggshells were weakened

• Written for non-scientific audiences, Silent Spring raised public awareness & served as major catalyst for modern environmental movement

Lacey Act

• U.S. fed. law passed in 1900 & sponsored by Congressman John Lacey

• Made interstate transport of illegally harvested wildlife a fed. offense

• Created in response to alarming slaughter of birds for fashion industry (decorating ladies’ hats) → marked major milestone in early fed. wildlife protection

Endangered Species Act (ESA)

• U.S. fed. law passed in 1973 designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction resulting from economic growth & development untempered by adequate conservation

• Protects all groups of organisms, incl. mammals, reptiles, amphibians, plants, insects, & marine/aquatic life

• Ex: protects species such as the Vaquita & Javan rhinoceros

Clean Water Act (CWA)

• U.S. fed. law passed in 1972

• Eliminated releases of high amnts of toxic substances into water, aimed to eliminate additional water pollution by 1985, & ensured surface waters meet standards necessary for human sports & recreation by 1983

• Applies to “navigable waters” (rivers, lakes, streams, oceans); establishes water quality standards & legal chemical limits; regulates both point-source & non-point-source pollution

Clean Air Act (CAA)

• U.S. fed. law passed in 1963 (w/ major amendments in 1970, 1977, & 1990) designed to control air pollution on national level

• Addresses vehicle & manufacturing emissions, ozone protection (banning CFCs), prevention of air quality deterioration, & hazardous airborne contaminants

• Prompted in part by historical air pollution disasters like Great Smog of London (1952); 1990 amendments added provisions for acid rain, ozone depletion, & toxic air pollution

Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA)

• U.S. fed. law passed in 1972

• Prohibits “take” of marine mammals & enacts moratorium on import, export, & sale of any marine mammal or any marine mammal part/product w/in U.S.

• Ex: critically endangered southern resident killer whales off Washington’s coast

Moratorium

• Official, temporary delay, suspension, or freeze on specific activity, law, or legal obligation

• Formal “timeout” rather than permanent ban

Point-Source Pollution

• Pollution coming from single, identifiable, localized source

• Applies to air, water, thermal, noise, or light pollution

• Ex: industrial factory discharge pipes or smoke-stacks from specific facility

Non-Point-Source Pollution

• Pollution originating from diffuse, widespread, & unidentifiable sources

• Ex: agricultural runoff containing fertilizers & pesticides, or urban stormwater runoff

Take

• Defined under MMPA as “act of hunting, killing, capture, &/or harassment of any marine mammal; or, the attempt at such”

Harassment

• “Any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance which has the potential to either: a. injure a marine mammal in the wild, or b. disturb a marine mammal by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, which incls., but is not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering”

Primary Forest

• Forest undisturbed by human activities

• Old-growth or virgin forests that have developed naturally w/o significant human intervention or industrial-scale logging

• Maintains complex multi-layered structure, high biodiversity, & natural ecological processes

Secondary Forest

• Forest that has regrown after human disturbance or major natural events (ex: fire, agriculture, logging) through natural processes or human planting

• In practice, 60-80+ yrs old forests sometimes treated as primary in FAO assessments → structure closely mimics old-growth forests

Open Forest

• Fire-dependent forest ecosystem characterized by single layer of large, fire-tolerant trees & relatively sparse midstory

  • Canopy cover ranging from 10-40%

• Allows sunlight to reach ground → supporting diverse herbaceous layer, scrublands, & savannas

  • Required periodic fire to maintain structure & return ash to soil

• Ex: Cerrado (Central America & Brazil) & Miombo Woodlands (Africa)

Closed Forest

• Closed-canopy, dense forest where tree crowns & undergrowth cover high proportion of ground, blocking significant light from reaching forest floor

  • Canopy cover typically over 40-60%

• Creates shaded environment → limited undergrowth & distinct plant species adapted to low light

  • Ex: ferns, orchids, bromeliads, moss, elephant ears, kapok trees

• Ex: Amazon Rainforest & Congo River Basin Rainforest

The Cerrado

• Vast tropical savanna & open forest region located in Central America & Brazil

• Features open forest structure w/ fire-adapted flora, scrublands, & grasslands

• Serves as major biodiversity hotspot facing high rates of conversion for agriculture

The Miombo Woodlands

• World’s largest dry forest ecosystem, located in Southern & East Africa

• Comprises open-canopy deciduous woodlands adapted to seasonal rainfall & periodic fires

  • Supporting local livelihoods, carbon storage, & wildlife

Amazon Rainforest

• World’s largest tropical closed-canopy rainforest, located in South America (primarily Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, etc.)

• Extremely high biodiversity, dense canopy blocking sunlight, & home to giant trees like kapok tree

• Historically impacted by large-scale gov’t resettlement, ranching, logging, & 1990s agribusiness expansion (soybean plantations)

Congo River Basin Rainforest

• World’s 2nd-largest tropical rainforest, located in Central Africa (incl. Democratic Republic of Congo)

• Features dense closed-canopy rainforests, high carbon sequestration & rich biodiversity

• Facing increasing deforestation pressures from wood extraction, subsistence agriculture, & mining

Atlantic Rainforest Biome

• Complex mosaic of tropical forest types located along southern coast of Brazil

• Noted for high endemism & species diversity

• Flooded areas w/in biome support greater species diversity due to Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH) → prevents competitive exclusion

Condensation

• Phase change of water from gas (water vapor) in atmosphere into liquid water droplets, forming clouds, fog, or dew

• Warming surrounding environment

• Requires condensation nuclei (dust particles) to form droplets in troposphere

Precipitation

• Any form of water (ex: rain, snow, sleet, hail) that falls from atmosphere to Earth’s surface as part of hydrological cycle

• Occurs when cloud particles grow too large to remain suspended in atmosphere

Evaporation

• Phase change of liquid water from sources like oceans, lakes, & rivers into gas (water vapor) that rises into atmosphere

  • Driven primarily by heat from sun

• Cools surrounding environment

• Largest hydrologic flow occurs directly between oceans & atmosphere

Transpiration

• Process where plants take in water through their roots & release water vapor & oxygen into atmosphere from their leaves (via stomata)

• Water transported up plant via xylem & down via phloem

Runoff

• Water from precipitation, snowmelt, or irrigation that doesn’t infiltrate soil

  • Instead flows over land’s surface (surface runoff)

  • Or through ground into streams, rivers, & other water bodies

Loess

• Windblown sediment composed predominantly of silt-sized particles deposited directly from atmosphere during glacial or periglacial periods

• Forms some of world’s most fertile agricultural soils (found extensively in China & U.S. Midwest)

• Serves as important paleoclimate archive for reconstructing past climates

Drylands

• Areas that experience deficiency in water availability on annual basis, where precipitation is characterized by high variability in both time & space

• Divided into hyper-arid, semi-arid, & dry subhumid zones

• Highly vulnerable to land degradation, desertification, & climate fluctuations

Sahara Desert

• World’s largest hot desert, spanning North America, characterized by hyper-arid conditions, sparse vegetation, & vast sand dunes

• Acts as major source of atmospheric mineral dust (Saharan dust) → travels across Atlantic Ocean

  • Influencing cloud formation, suppressing Atlantic hurricanes (introducing dry air, wind shear, dust particles) & fertilizing ecosystems like Amazon Basin