APES - Unit 5: Land and Water Uses Modules 24-25

Public land

-Classified according to usage

-About 14% of terrestrial areas and 3.4% of marine areas are protected globally

-42% of US land is publicly held

National parks

-International category of public land

-Managed for scientific, educational, and recreational use, and sometimes for their beauty or unique landforms.

-~3400 national parks in the world (~2.7% of land surface)

Managed Resource Protected Areas

-International category of public land

-Designated for the sustained use of biological, mineral, and recreational resources.

Habitat/Species Management Areas

-International category of public land

-Actively managed to maintain biological communities.

Strict Nature Reserves and Wilderness Areas

-International category of public land

-Set aside to protect species and ecosystems.

Protected Landscapes and Seascapes

-International category of public land

-Permit nondestructive use of natural resources while allowing for tourism and recreation.

National Monuments

-International category of public land

-Designated to protect unique sites of special natural or cultural interests.

Bureau of Land Management

-(BLM): grazing, mining, timber harvesting and recreation

U.S. Forest Service

-(USFS): timber harvesting, grazing, and recreation

National Park Service

-(NPS): recreation and conservation.

Fish and Wildlife Service

-(FWS): conservation, hunting, and recreation

Humans use land for

-Food

-Shelter

-Resources

-Intrinsic beauty

Tragedy of the Commons

-When a resource belongs to everyone, it is therefore regulated by no one, which commonly results in the resource being overused

EX:

-Global fisheries

-Public land

-The atmosphere (pollution and greenhouse gases)

-Oceans (pollution)

Externalities

-Costs which result from, but are not directly included in, the purchase price of the good or service.

-Should be taken into account for tragedy of the commons

Rangelands

-Dry, open grasslands primarily used for grazing cattle, and the most common use of land in the US.

-When overused due to grazing, biodiversity is lost and erosion can occur.

Forests

-Land areas dominated by trees and other woody vegetation, and can be used for commercial logging.

-National forests were established as a steady source of timber, so commercial companies pay a fee to use the land through royalties of sales.

Clear cutting

-Involves removing all or almost all the trees in an area

Clear cutting: pros

-Less expensive

-Easiest method

-Ideal for fast-growing tree species w high sunlight req

-Can inc habitat diversity in heavily forested regions

-Can create suitable habitat for certain desired bird and mammal species

Clear cutting: cons

-Facilitates erosion

-Reduces biodiversity

-Inc sunlight can raise temp of soils and rivers/streams nearby

-Release of CO2 and contribution to climate change

Selective cutting

-Removes single trees or a

relatively small percentage of trees at a time.

Selective cutting: pros

-Idea for shade-tolerant tree species

-Less extensive environmental impacts

Selective cutting: cons

-More expensive

-More difficult

-Still requires logging roads

-May select against desirable individuals or species

Ecologically sustainable forestry

-Removes trees in ways that do not unduly affect the viability of other noncommercial tree species

-^Achieved by using animals to avoid soil compaction, as well as other methods, to keep forests in their natural state.

Ecologically sustainable forestry: pros

-Maintains forests in as natural a state as possible

-Often done w/o fossil fuels

Ecologically sustainable forestry: cons

-Costly

-More difficult

-Yields less timber

After-the-fact

-Approach to forest management --> areas can be reforested, planting more forest that was previously clear or selectively cut.

Tree plantations

-Areas that are planted with a single, fast-growing species for the purpose of logging

-EX: christmas trees

National Environmental Policy

Act (NEPA)

-Mandates an environmental assessment before use of federal money or federal lands

-Regulates land

Endangered Species Act

-Protects plants and animal species

-If a species is found on land and is considered endangered or may become endangered, then the land can't be used commercially

First Agricultural Revolution

-11,000-12,000 years ago

-Species of plants and animals were separated from wild populations and became domesticated.

Second Agricultural Revolution

-1600s to the 1930s

-Beginning the mechanization of farming for plowing, planting, and harvesting

-US and western Europe moved away from Subsistence farming

Third Agricultural Revolution

-1920s

-Green revolution

EX:

-Mechanization

-Fertilizers

-Irrigation

-Pesticides

-Monocropping

Industrial agriculture (agribusiness)

-The modern form of growing food, using mechanization and standardization of food production.

Organic fertilizers

-Composed of organic matter from plants and animals

P: Cost-effective, ecologically friendly, better tolerated by soil microbes

C: Low nutrition content, slow decomposition

Synthetic fertilizers

-Produced commercially with the use of fossil fuels

-Calcium --> limestone

P: Dissolves quickly, performs better, has primary + secondary nutrients, promotes better crop yields

C: May lead to soil acidification, can lead to eutrophication through run off, reduces soil microbe population, created = production of fossil fuel

Pesticides

-Remove pests from crops, and can be classified in different ways according to the pest targeted:

^Insecticides – those that affect insects and invertebrates that eat crops

-^Herbicides – those that target weed plants that compete with crops for nutrients

Pesticide range

-Broad-spectrum pesticides – those that kill many species, quickly

-Selective pesticides/Narrow-spectrum pesticides – those that target a narrow range of organisms

Monocropping

-Using one species of crop

-^May attract more pests, waterlogging and salinization, may deplete soils, etc

Artificial selection

-Choosing which animals or plants should reproduce rather than allowing reproduction to naturally occur

-Genetically modified organism (GMO).

Genetically modified organism (GMO): pros and cons

Pros:

-Increased crop yields

-Increased profits

Cons:

-Possible allergies to GMO's

-Effects on biodiversity (all GMO's are the same, so more susceptible)

-Regulation of GMO's (not consistent)

Central pivot irrigation

-Groundwater pumps

-Basically a giant sprinkler with a pivot in the middle that waters the crops in a circle

-Water saving method

Ogallala Aquifer

-Largest aquifer in North America.

-Slowly drying out bc of mass irrigation occurring --> cant replenish as fast as its being used