AICE Environmental Management Paper 1

Nonrenewable resources examples (fossil fuels)

Oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear energy

Only People Can Eat Big Burritos, Nerd

Organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere, niche

Photosynthesis equation

6 H2O + 6 C02 + Sunlight = C6 H12 O6 (Glucose) + 602

What happens if temperature is increasing during photosynthesis?

The plant will photosynthesize faster until it reaches its optimum temperature. It will slow down from then on after.

Intraspecific competition

Competition within the same species (Heeseung V.S Jungwon)

Interspecific competition

Competition within the same species (Heeseung V.S Mark)

Example of ectoparasites

Live outside → ticks on a dog

Example of endoparasites

Live inside → tapeworm, parasite in fish’s mouth that eat its tongue

Carbon cycle

• Abiotic stage: carbon is present in the atmosphere and ocean-floor sediments

• Biotic stage: carbon is stored in living organisms

• Abiotic → biotic through photosynthesis

• Biotic → abiotic through organism death and respiration

Aerobic respiration

Breaks down glucose to release ATP, carbon, and water (reverse photosynthesis) (needed for daily functions)

Paleoclimate records

Ice cores, tree rings, sediment cores, and coral reefs → determine past climate conditions and long-term trends

Capture-recapture pros and cons?

Pros

• Detailed data

• Cost-efficient

• Minimal equipment

Cons

• Paint could increase predation risk

• Paint could wear off

• Doesn’t account for birth, death, and migrating organisms

Sweep nets pros and cons?

Pros

• Rapid sampling

• Cost-efficient

• Simple-to-use equipment

• Catches small organisms

Cons

• Potential damage to delicate organisms

• Selectivity bias (depends on person’s swings)

• Only applicable in certain weather conditions

Radio-tracking pros and cons?

Pros

• Tags are lightweight

• Tags are inexpensive

• Tags have long-lasting battery lives

• Good way to track small animals who don’t move much

Cons

• Requires close proximity

• Labor-intensive to follow the animal around

What is “big data?”

Data that exceeds the analytical abilities of individuals

Pros: fast, trustworthy, and descriptive data

Cons: requires sophisticated data models, technological costs

Environmental factors influencing population density?

• Topography

• Favorable climate

• Natural resource access

• Vulnerability to natural disasters

Economic factors influencing population density?

• Cost of living

• Wages

• Job oppurtunities

Social factors influencing population density?

• Culture

• Religion

• Politics

• Healthcare

• Infastructure

• Education

• Quality of life

Governmental factors influencing population density?

• Immigration laws

• Political freedom

• Armed conflicts

Dependency ratio formula

Young + Old ÷ People 15-64

What does this chart represent?

LIC

• High birth + death rate

• High infant mortality rate

• Limited healthcare/contraceptive access

• Limited employment/education oppurtunities for women

What does this chart represent?

HIC

• Low birth + death rate

• Aging population

• Strong education oppurtunities

• Many job oppurtunities

• High urbanization

What does this chart represent?

MIC

• Wide base → mostly young people

• Gradual taper → decreasing number of elderly

• Some in highest age categories

High dependency ratio impacts?

• Pressure on health care

• Lower tax revenues

• Pressure to raise retirement ages

• Increased demand for workers → economic recession

Pro-natalist policy?

Aims to raise birth rates

• Ineffective: Italy’s 2020 policy that pushed to raise birth rates by offering financial compensation.

• Effective: Poland’s provision of monthly payment for familys of 2 or more.

Anti-natalist policy?

Aims to lower birth rates

• Effective: China’s one-child policy enforced from 1975-2015

• Effective: South Korea’s two-child policy in the ‘50s lowered birth rates from 6 to less than 2.

Desert biome characteristics?

• Arid climate

• Low precipitation

• Drought-resistant vegetation

• Shallow, well-drained soil

Tropical forest characteristics?

• Warm, equatorial climate

• Heavy rainfall

• Relatively thin + easily eroded soil

• Lush vegetation

• Extensive biodiversity

Tropical forest characteristics?

• Moderate, seasonal climate

• Deciduous (changing) and evergreen trees

• Fertile, well-developed soil

Boreal forest/taiga characteristics?

• Long winters and cool summers

• Acidic, nutrient-poor soil

• Coniferous (never-changing) trees (fir, pine, spruce)

Grasslands?

• Semi-arid/humid

• Grasses, shrubs, scattered trees

• Deep, nutrient-rich soil

Tundra?

• Cold and extremely long winters

• Strained vegetation

• Permafrost (massive carbon storehouse due to ancient organic matter)

• Acidic and nutrient-deprived soil

GPP?

Gross Primary Production = all energy made by a plant during photosynthesis.

NPP

Net Primary Production = GPP - energy used in respiration

Biomass

The collective mass of living matter in a given place or time.

High biomass = high productivity.

Causes of the energy lost during transfer?

• Waste

• Indigestable material

• Energy lost through respiration

• Incomplete consumption

Benefits of conserving biodiversity?

• Preserves resources for medicine

• Food, wood, fibers, oil

• Ecological services (oxygen production, water cycle, flood moderation, climate stabilization)

• Cultural and recreational value

Protocols for conserving biodiversity?

• CITES: Bans selling, capturing, and hunting endangered species—protects 30,000

• IWC: Prevents whale bycatch and entanglement

• EUCFP: Determines whether certain states can catch certain types of fish

• IUCN: Provides critical info about species that makes conserving their population easier

• ITTO: Conserves tropical rainforests

• EDGE: Protects the world’s rarest species

Methods for conserving biodiversity?

• Captive breeding

• Biosphere/nature reserves

• National parks

• Eco-tourism

• Protective legislation

• Sustainable harvesting

Impacts of human actions on Antarctica?

• Climate change

• Habitat degradation

• Ozone depletion (affects photosynthesis, reducing productivity)

• Overfishing

• Tourism (causes pollution)

Food security

Long-term access to affordable and healthy food.

How do climate change and shortages in water lead to food insecurity?

Water shortages limits the amount of water avaliable to crops. Climate change is responsible for droughts and natural disasters, leading to crop failure.

How does global homogeneity in diets cause food insecurity?

Lack of variety in food production and increased vulnerability to crop failure.

Biofuel?

Fuel extracted from land and crops → cause food shortages as crops sustain the food supply

Price-setting?

When the market determines the cost of food → leads to food insecurity when demand is higher and supply

How can GMOS improve food security?

GMO crops are…

• Bacteria & pest-resistant

• Less vulnerable to disease

• Designed to grow in strenous weather conditions

• More nutritionous

How can selective breeding improve food security?

Selective breeding specifically grows crops with specific characteristics, like drought-resistance, allowing them to survive longer and sustain one’s diet.

Intensification V.S. Extensification?

• Intensification: higher yields through higher inputs

• Extensification: clearing land for crop production

Hydroponics

Farming crops with additional water and nutrients.

• Uses less space

• Consumes less water

• Faster crop growth

• Reduces the need for pesticides

Long-term energy security V.S short-term?

Long-term energy security rooted in an area’s economic and environmental needs, whilst short-term energy security can easily be shaken by sudden changes.

Causes of energy insecurity?

• Fossil fuel depletion

• Inequality in global energy resources

• Population growth

• Climate change

Forms of renewable energy?

• Biomass

• Hydroelectric

• Solar

• Geothermal

• Wind

Pros and cons of renewable resources?

Pros

• Infinite supply

• Mitigate global warming

Cons

• Require extraction, degrading the land

• Can be labor-intensive to extract

How does coal, oil, and gas form?

• Decomposed material falls to the ground.

• Covered by sediments.

• High temperatures and pressure.

Why does nuclear power > fossil fuels?

• Uranium doesn’t release greenhouse gases. But, it heightens the risk of explosion.

Impacts of energy insecurity?

• Disrupted electricity supply to homes + infastructure

• Increased demand and prices for energy

• Increased poverty

• Lower living standards

• Reliance on other countries to recieve energy

• Civil disruption

Acid deposition?

Air pollutants that fall from the sky as acidic wet (with a pH <5.6) or acidic dry deposition.

Wet deposition?

• Snow, rain, hail, fog

• Sulfuric acid and nitric acid (secondary

pollutants)

• Fall far from source

Dry deposition

• Dust and gases

• Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide

(primary pollutants);

• Fall close to source.

Impacts of acid deposition

• Killing of fish

• Impacting the food cycle by killing these organisms, which sustain others’ diets

• Impacts how remaining fish are able to breathe by damaging their gills

• Reduced photosynthesis

• Defoiliation

• Changes to soil composition by changing pH

• Erases detailing on stone structures (statues, tombstones)

Photochemical smog

A mix of pollutants and ozone on the Earth’s surface, which causes

• respiratory damage

• eye irritation

• decreased crop yields

How to manage air pollution?

• Reduce cars on the road

• Promote buses/public transport instead

• Limit fossil fuel use

• Implement legislation like the 1990 Clean Air Act

Impacts of ozone depletion

• Cataracts/skin cancer

• Decreased crop yield

• Chloroplast damage

Infrared radiation

What the Earth processes the sun’s rays as and releases back into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases trap in this radiation, causing to the increased greenhouse effect.

Alternatives to CFCs?

• HCFCs

They only have two chlorine atoms, decreasing the amount of damage dealt on the atmosphere.

• F-gases

They have no chlorine at all, but are severe contributors to global warming.

Impact of climate change?

• Rising sea levels

• Habitat degradation

• Melting of glaciers

• Biodiversity threat

• Food shortages

• Water insecurity

Kyoto Protocol?

1992 policy working to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Paris Agreement?

2016 international agreement that vowed for the prevention of global warming.

Ways to counteract climate change?

• Switching to renewable energy

• Boycotting fossil fuels

• Implementing legislation

• Promoting ecotourism

• Recycling

• Reforestation

• Implementing geo-engineering strategies

Strategies for removing carbon from the atmosphere?

• Establishing more carbon sinks

• Planting more trees

Percent change formula?

Final - Initial / Initial * 100

Strategies for increasing recycling?

• Provide incentives for those for recycle

• Increase recycling campaigns for awareness

Incineration pros and cons?

• Lessens land pollution

• Generates energy (methane)

• Releases high amounts of greenhouse gas

• Produces ash

• Expensive

• Some waste cannot be burnt

How can tourism be controlled in protected environments?

• Only allowing scientists to enter

• Nature reserves

• High travel costs

• Implementing permits and fines

Crop control methods that control pests, other than insecticide?

• Pest-resistant crops

• Biological control (letting out bugs that eat pests, like ladybugs)

• Releasing sterile insects so they don’t reproduce

Why don’t certain countries have reforestation programs?

• Costly

• Not deemed as important

• Lack of volunteers to plant trees

How does hydroponics reduce competition?

Provides equal…

• Space

Each plants has enough space to thrive

• Water

Water is distributed evenly through pipes to each plant

• Sunlight

The plants are situated on a slope, allowing them all to recieve the same amounts of sunlight

Pros and cons of hydroponics?

Pros

• Increased yield

• Higher quality crops (because of meticulous attention)

• Reduced pesticide consumption

• Upholds food security

Cons

• Expensive

• Need for skilled workers

• Energy consumption

• Only good for leafy greens

Strategies for managing food security?

• Substinence agriculture (grows crops for consumption only, not trade)

• Intensification/extensification

• Fertiliziers

• Pesticides

• Genetically modifying crops

• Rationing

• Large-scale stockpiling

• Vertical farming

• Reducing food waste

• Aquaculture

Dam?

Wall that controls the flow of water

Reservoir?

Artificial body of water used for storing

Aquifer?

An underground reservoir

How does air pressure and density changes with increase altitude?

As you move above sea level, the density of air molecules gets lower, causing cooler temperatures

How does piracy disturb energy insecurity?

Steals and lowers the oil supply, raising prices and demand.