REN R 105 Exam 1

Environmental Science

A interdisciplinary field of science that blends several sub-disciplines to understand and manage environmental systems

Gifford Pinchot

Argued for the 'greatest good' of the the use of resources (dam the hetch hetchy valley)
Utilitarian conservation

John Muir

Argued for protecting and preserving (the hetch hetchy valley)
Preservationist view of conservation

Aldo Leopold

Sand County Almanac (1949)
-Essays on conservation, natural history, and ethics
Widely considered the 'father' of conservation and wildlife movement in North America
-Established the first wilderness area
the Land Ethic

Rachel Carson

Silent Spring (1962)
-Focused on pesticides and more broadly on the dangers of the chemical industry
--Post-WWII chemical industry led to high levels of pollution in air and water in the 1940s-1960s
Helped ban DDT
Was an impetus for the star of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

David Schindler

1968 Experimental lakes in NW Ontario

The Experimental lakes

David Schindler
Established in 1968 in NW Ontario
1969 fertilization of Lake 227
1973 double basin eutrophication experiment on Lake 226 began
-226S fertilized with carbon and nitrogen
-226N fertilized with carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus

William F. Lloyd

The tragedy of the commons
-Overgrazing livestock on shared (commons) pasture

The tragedy of the commons

William F. Lloyd
-Related to the overgrazing of livestock on a shared (commons) pasture
Garret Harden
-Extended the concept to sharing any limited public resource
-Argued that a commons pitted short-term self-interest of individuals against the common good; this results in degradation of the resource for everyone

Garret Harden

Extended the tragedy of the commons concept
-Sharing any limited public resource
-Argued that a commons pitted short-term self-interest of individuals against the common good; this results in the degradation of the resource for everyone
-Because of self-interest everyone is doing the same thing, but this benefits no one in the long-term

Paul Ehrlich

The Population Bomb (1968)
Advocated for immediate actions to limit population growth (contraceptives, possible sterilization, taxes on children, etc.)

The Population Bomb

Paul Ehrlich
Predicted (in an apocalyptic manner) overpopulation, worldwide famine, and war by 1980 (i.e., a Malthusian trap)

Simon-Ehrlich Wager

1980-1990
Simon bet Ehrlich that if resources are scarce, they will increase in cost. Simon believed that costs will go down due to innovation and that the limiting resource is people (more people is better).
Simon let Ehrlich choose any raw material (Ehrlich chose copper, chromium, nickel, tin, and tungsten).
If Ehrlich is right, resources will be scare and thus increase in costs.
If Simon is right costs will decline due to more people and with that innovation.

Malthusian Trap

That population growth is potentially exponential, while the growth of food supply or other resources is linear, thus eventually triggers a population die-off
Malthus (1798)
Studies of populations demonstrate that the grow exponential if there are no limitations in the food supply, disease, or predation (or other 'environmental stochasticity' affecting these things)

Fritz Haber

Key development in allowing high food growth
Developed a method to convert atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3) by a reaction hydrogen (H2) using a metal catalyst under high temperatures and pressures
Solve Malthusian trap or delay it?
Combined with crossbreeding exploded agricultural yield

Norman Borlaug

Considered the 'Father' of the 'Green Revolution' (mid-20th century)
-Crossbreeding new strains of crops for high yield
Solve Malthusian trap of delay it?
Combined with NH3 fertilizers exploded agricultural yield

Environmental movement of the 1960s to the early 1970s

First Earth Day held on April 22,1970
-Was a way of promoting the need for protecting the environment at the level of individual citizens
The movements of led to a large number of policy changes and legislation in North America and Europe

The Acid Rain Issue

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from the burning of fossil fuels led to precipitation that was more acidic (~4.3pH) in the East
-Rain (and snow) leans slightly acidic (5.6pH) in unpolluted natural conditions
It impacted lakes and forests in the east (area downwind of the industrial region of the Midwest USA and southern Ontario)
Sulfate emissions were mandated to be cut starting in 1990 resulting in recovery

Jared Diamond

Helped build the discipline of Conservation Biology in the 1980s
-Developing concepts around threats to biodiversity loss (species extinction)
Evil Quartet (4-horsemen of the ecological apocalypse) (1984)
-Species extinctions are building due to:
--Overexploitation (over-hunting/fishing)
--Introduced (non-native) species
--Habitat loss (destruction)
--Chains of linked extinctions (trophic cascades, co-extinctions)
Later he and others added climate change as its own key threat

CFCs

Destroy ozone (O3) when a chlorine atom breaks lose from the CFC and interact with the oxygen atoms in the ozone molecule
Chlorofluorocarbons are carbon, chlorine and fluorine chemicals synthesized in the 1920s
-For refrigerants, solvents and in aerosol sprays
The UN Montreal Protocol of 1987 banned these

James Lovelock

Discovered in the 1960s that the 'haze' in the air around cities was ozone and that in the 1980s CFCs led to the destruction of the atmospheric ozone layer
Chlorine atoms react to UV (break off) and destroy ozone molecules
The ozone loss was worst over the south pole

Ozone

Is a gaseous molecule occurring in different parts of the atmosphere. It is chemically reactive and dangerous to plant and animal life when in the lower atmosphere (ground-level ozone from vehicle exhaust and anthropogenic emissions)
A protective 'shield' against the sun's ultraviolet light UV-B and UV-C (source of cancer)

James Hansen

Published a paper in 1987 showing recent climate change using meteorological stations
The date (2006) paper show that global surface temperature has recently (past 30-years) increased 0.2° per decade, as the warming predicted in his 1987 paper
This paper had a big influence on science, the discussion of climate change, and its implications, including policy

Science

Can be defined as a process of gaining knowledge about the natural world

What is science?

Scientists seek to understand the world and the way it operates
Key elements
-Scientific method
-Hypothesis
-Theory
-Law

Scientific Method

The use of experiments and observations to explain something in nature

Hypothesis

Proposed explanation of a phenomenon that can be tested

Theory

Widely accepted and tested explanation of a phenomena

Law

Description of how nature behaves under certain conditions

Hypothesis vs. Prediction

A good hypothesis explains 'why'
A prediction does not

Holism

Emphasizes a 'complex systems' approach to science
-The whole is more than the sum of its parts
-Focuses on a 'top-down' approach by studying high organization levels
-It is naturally suited to ecology, evolution, sociology, etc. where complex non-linear interactions are common
--Complexity theory and ideas of 'emergent' phenomena

E.O. Wilson

Key proponent of complexity, emergence, and more generally that nature is more than just the sum of its parts

Emergence

Properties of groups that cannot be entirely explained by their individual components (across scales)
-Consider the concept of 'ecosystem' as emergent from networks of species interactions

Reductionism

Describes systems by dividing them into smaller units to understand them through their elemental properties
-The whole is simply the sum of its pars
-Focuses on a 'bottom-up' approach to understand phenomena
-Can be expressed by "levels" of explanation, with higher levels reducible to lower levels

Francis Crick

Proposed that we can "explain all biology in terms of physics and chemistry"
Total reductionism

Normative Science

One of two school of science with respect to objectives/goals of learning and the use of knowledge
Information is developed or interpreted on an assumed, usually unstated, preference for a particular outcome or policy
-It seeks to achieve certain aims, goals, objectives, or purposes
--Common to environmental science
Domains
-Ethics, philosophy, aesthetics

Descriptive Science

One of two school of science with respect to objectives/goals of learning and the use of knowledge
Regular or traditional science
It does not presuppose an outcome or policy preference
Here one studies nature for the sake of understanding how nature works without a priori application
This science often uses experiments and deductions
Common to chemistry and physics

Deductive Reasoning

Common in basic sciences
'Top-down' approach

Inductive Reasoning

Common in applied sciences
'Bottom-up' approach

Karl Popper

Falsification of hypothesis
-Single hypothesis is disproved by confrontation with data

Thomas Kuhn

Paradigms, normal science, scientific revolutions
Single hypothesis used until there is so much contradictory information that it is 'overthrown' by a 'better' hypothesis

Michael Polanyi

Republic of science
-Multiple views of the world are allowed according to the different opinions of scientists; confrontation between these views and data is judged on: (i) plausibility, (ii) value, (iii) interest

Imre Lakatos

Scientific research program
-Confrontation of multiple hypotheses with data as arbitrator

Hypothesis testing is fundamental to science

A hypothesis must be testable to ensure that it is valid
It should also be falsifiable, meaning that it can be disproven by experimental results
To test a hypothesis, a researcher conducts experiments or collects data to eliminate one or more of the hypotheses
-A hypothesis can be disproven or eliminated but NOT proven

Multiple Working Hypotheses

MWHs (T.C. Chamberlin, 1980) distributes the effort, divides the affections (reduces ownership over ideas), and objectively evaluates the level of support for ideas

Example: Generate testable hypotheses

Step 1: What’s the problem/issue?
Step 2: Identify potential mechanisms (the why questions)
Step 3: Frame hypotheses based on mechanisms, but for testing make sure it contains testable predictions
Step 4: Identify methods/experiments to test the question (prediction)
Step 5: Iterate or consider multiple ‘competing’ hypotheses simultaneously

Manipulative experiments

HIGH Reliability
Involves intentionally manipulating some factors, while controlling as many other factors as possible to isolate the cause of the experimental results to the manipulation (vs. unmanipulated ‘control’)
Experiments can be simple tests in a lab that take a day to run to large-scale experiments in the real world that can takes years or decades to run

Natural experiments

MEDIUM Reliability
Some things aren’t easy to manipulate and thus not appropriate for direct experiments
However, these large-scale phenomena can sometimes be studied by observing the results of natural experiments. Natural experiments occur when nature performs an experiment for us.
The relevant experimental set-up thus already exists (but with less control and often less or no replication) and we observe the results

Observational (only) study

LOW Reliability
Some things don’t even have natural experiments
We can’t perform experiments, but we can test ideas by making detailed observations
Ex/ animals in their natural environment, erosion or natural movement of land, human behaviour or screen humans for disease

Reliability

Strength of test

Levels of evidence in the natural sciences

Weight of evidence for study results and conclusion is greater for a manipulative experiment than a natural experiment or an observational study
Meta-analysis is the review of many studies and is considered the highest quality of evidence

Meta-analysis

Means after-analysis or beyond-analysis
Is a method to:
-Synthesize multiple research studies
-Goal is to combine and analyze several studies to obtain a finding that is beyond the (single) effects found by analyzing data and studies separately
-One key outcome is to estimate an overall effect size (how big of a change given ‘treatment’) and to make sense of the resulting over pattern

The role of replication

Study findings should be replicable
This doesn’t mean every experiment/study be repeated but many are
-Especially those that produce surprising or particularly important results
-In some findings replication is done to ensure findings are not a fluke before publishing
This process is key to self-correction
When a study cannot be replicated it suggests that our current understanding of the study system or our methods of testing are insufficient

Replicable

To repeat a study using methods of equivalent to the original's and obtain similar results

Peer review and advancing science

Peer review and publishing is a key step in science
It is a process where scientists evaluate the quality of other scientists’ work
Through rounds of review, it weeds out problematic papers or points out limitations to improve/strengthen the paper
This helps ensure that science is relatively independent with aim of ensuring the work is rigorous, coherent, and adds to what we already know
Ensures consistency of academic outputs

Uncertainty

It’s unknown the value of a paper
-You won’t know till later
--Can be shown by how many times it is cited

Winner's curse phenomenon

Science looks for true relationships, but there is uncertainty
-Published articles, especially in very competitive journals, only the top results are to be published
-- Often what is published ends up being wrong and have on average exaggerated results
---Just because it is published does not mean it is right
----But these incite new studies

Diederik Stapel

Example of winner's curse (as fraud)
-Selfishness in carnivores:
--In another study he claimed to have shown that the very act of thinking about eating meat makes people behave more selfishly (again faked data)
Spent 20 years making up data
Students would bring up a hypothesis and tell them he already looked into it and gave the data to the student
Used controversial topics

Horrobin's Hypothesis

"The history of science has repeatedly shown that when hypotheses are proposed it is impossible to predict which will turn out to be revolutionary & which ridiculous. The only safe approach is to let all see the light & to let all be discussed, experimented upon, vindicated or destroyed" (1975)
Argues for acknowledging that peer review restricts sharing of ideas & that publications are really ideas, not truth
Even though its peer-reviewed doesn’t mean it’s right
The existing paradigm may not be open to new ideas
So, he created Medical Hypotheses
-Didn’t peer review beyond himself &/or journal board
-Controversial ideas that were published put pressure to shut down the journal

Desk rejections

Manuscripts that an editor decides not to send for peer review after an initial evaluation

Artificial Scarcity

Don’t publish papers to create a scarcity even though there is no limit

The file drawer problem

Researchers won’t submit for publishing because they know it doesn’t show positive or significant results
Threatens the ability for science to ‘self-correct’ itself

p-hacking

Use several statistical analyses & report those with the most significant results

HARK-ing

Hypothesizing after the results are known

Scientific literacy competencies

A scientifically literate person willing to engage in reasoned discourse about science can
-Explain phenomena scientifically
--Recognize, offer, and evaluate explanations for a range of natural phenomena
-Evaluate/design scientific inquiry
--Describe/appraise scientific investigations & propose ways of addressing scientific questions
-Interpret data/evidence scientifically
--Analyze/evaluate data, claims & arguments in a variety of representations and draw appropriate scientific conclusions

Civic Science Literacy

Science production: people, institutions, resources, processes, methods, norms, and goals
Relates to the production of scientific knowledge and creation of facts
Understand elements shaping the production of knowledge
-People, institutions, training, resources, methods, and norms of science
Understand incremental production of scientific knowledge
-One study rarely uncovers the mechanisms of a phenomenon
Understand issues of reproducibility and replicability in science
-Notion of uncertainty
Processes related to scientific publishing and how the scientists, institutions, and methods they rely on provide checks on their own and each other’s research
-Peer review and what makes a scientific journal trustworthy

Digital Media Literacy

Media and online information production: people institutions, resources, norms, goals, and technologies
Refers to the ability to access, understand and critically assess media and media content
-As well as create media content
Three key skills
-Ability to access science information
-Understand how science information travels through media systems
-Ability to evaluate pieces of science information in media messages
How are journalists producing information and for what purpose; how trustworthy are they? What information is highlighted and what might be missing? What is the headline, and does it match the content of the story?
What are science facts vs. opinions in media stories
What is original source information? Do they provide links to the original study?

Cognitive Science Literacy

Opinion formation: beliefs, heuristics, emotion, and motivations
Our pre-held beliefs, values, cognitive shortcuts, and biases can make us susceptible to the influence of misinformation
Having access to reliable sources of scientific information doesn’t mean information will be critically evaluated and in an accurate or nonbiased way
-Having more information may just mean being more extreme in their opinions
Individuals need some level of cognitive science literacy, or awareness of their own biases as they evaluate science and media
-Emotions affect reasoning
We tend to have poor statistical senses
-Give more weight to information that is salient or readily available in our minds

Cognitive dissidence

Despite evidence/data you are unwilling to believe because it contradicts your ideas and beliefs

The early beginnings

Big bang ~13.8 billion YBP (or Ga)
Earth forms in 4.54 Ga

Lithosphere

Is the solid out part of Earth including the crust and the upper part of the mantle
Different parts of the Earth’s _________ have different histories, dynamics, and characters that affect Earth’s environment

Eons

Phanerozoic
Proterozoic
Archean
Hadean

Era

Cenozoic
Mesozoic
Paleozoic
Precambrian

Period

Quarternary

Epoch

Holocene
Pleistocene

Igneous Lithosphere (2 Sub-types) of North America

Volcanic
Plutonic
Can be old or young
-Eastern North America they are old
-Western North America they are young

Volcanic

Rocks formed from lava lath flows on the Earth's surface

Plutonic

Rocks formed from magma cooling and solidifying underground

Metamorphic and Sedimentary Lithosphere of North America

Metamorphic
Sedimentary

Metamorphic

Rocks form by recrystallization minerals under high pressure or temperature
-Common to the Canadian Shield
By definition old

Sedimentary

Rocks form from pieces of other rocks 'glued' together (or organics like coal) or by minerals being precipitated from water
By definition young

Craton

Is a part of a continent that is stable, forming the central mass of a continent

Origins of Earth's first Lithosphere and Continents

The continents started forming when the planet was hotter and convection in the mantle was vigorous
-Rocks rose to the surface forming the lithosphere
-These floating pieces are cratons
--They stopped growing as the Earth cooled
Plate tectonics has added new margins to the original cratons, slowly expanding the continents
Continents stared forming at ~3 Ga

North American Cratons

Superior (4.3 to 2.6 Ga)
Slave (2.7 Ga)
Churchill (1.83 Ga)
Wyoming (3.0 Ga)

The continents have moved

The history of the location and movements of the Earth’s continents (i.e., continental drift) and its connections has had important implications to the distribution of Earth’s current biodiversity (biogeography)

Mesozoic Era

(252-66 Ma) means ‘middle life’
This is the time of the dinosaurs including the periods of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous (era of dinosaurs)
The era began at the Permian-Triassic (P-T) extinction event 251.9 Ma and was the Earth’s most severe extinction event
-Thought to be due to high temperatures and CO2 from massive eruptions on earth
Triassic Period: 252 to 201 Ma
-Recovery of extinction event; breakup of Pangaea; expansion of dinosaurs and gymnosperms
Jurassic Period: 201 to 145 Ma
-More tropical and humid; expansion of seas; dinosaurs begin to dominate; first true mammals evolve
Cretaceous Period: 145 to 66 Ma
-More expansion of seas; more seasonality; birds developing; volcanic eruptions affecting atmosphere

Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin

Alberta and surrounding area mostly formed in the late Cretaceous period
Also corresponds to the period of dinosaurs (hence Alberta's famous dinosaur fossil deposit)

Sedimentary rocks and Alberta

Cretaceous period sedimentary rocks dominate the plains of Alberta (in some places they are exposed)
The different ‘layers’ are called beds
The boundaries separating beds are called contacts
Dark black layer is coal (swampy conditions)
Exposed areas are world famous for dinosaur fossils

K-T (K-Pg) boundary and extraterrestrial impact

K-T boundary is the point between the Cretaceous (traditionally abbreviated K) and Tertiary periods (T), now called the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary
The boundary has been dated to 65.5 Ma when the large dinosaurs disappeared
The boundary in rock sediments has high concentrations of iridium (rare on earth but common on asteroids/comets)
Luis and Walter Alvarez studied the boundary and determined the impactor-based on iridium amounts must have been at least 10 km in diameter (equivalent to 100 trillion tons of TNT) and would have not only destroyed everything locally, but also obscured sunlight from dust globally for years thus blocking photosynthesis in plants (base of food chain)

The asteroid/comet of K-Pg

Researchers first found the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan of Mexico
Later craters found dating to the same time including one in Ukraine and India

Canadian Rockies

Were formed mostly for sedimentary rock (e.g., limestone and shale) in the late Paleozoic Era and uplifted 185 Ma (western parts) to 55 Ma (eastern foothills)
Layers of original sediment are quite evident and often now on angles
Mountains later shaped by glaciers (u-shaped valleys)

Mountains of the world

Make up of 30% the Earth's terrestrial surface

Hammond's landforms

Hills
Mountains
Plains
Tablelands

Water is fundamental to Earth

Oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface; freshwater 1%
1.4 billion cubic kilometers (km3) of water on Earth, but 97% is seawater (3% freshwater) so most not useable by humans
1% of water is useable for humans and 995 of that is groundwater
Great Lakes contain 21% of the world's surface freshwater by volume (22,671 km3)

Water (hydrological) cycle

Solar energy and gravity drive the water cycle (motion of water)
Water moves from oceans, rivers and lakes to the atmosphere by evaporation and from that the formation of clouds
Precipitation (rain and snow) from clouds return water back to the surface (water and land)
Water on land can return to the ocean by runoff, rivers, glaciers and subsurface groundwater flow, or again return to the atmosphere by evaporation or transpiration

Transpiration

Loss of water by plants to the atmosphere

Groundwater

Some precipitation is stored in the spaces between soil particles and fractures in the rock
-This is referred to as ________ and where substantial as aquifers
Some can be very old and referred to as an ancient water

Ancient groundwater and turnover

The West’s aquifers have some of the longest turnover times in the country
________ time is the amount of time required for groundwater to be replenished naturally
What does it mean for water to be ‘old’?
-Imagine a rainstorm over 15,000 years ago in California. As the storm rolls over what’s now San Francisco, most of the rain will fall into the Pacific Ocean, where it will eventually evaporate back into the atmosphere
--However, some rain falls into rivers and lakes and over dry land
--As the water seeps through layers of soil, it enters slowly trickling “flow paths” of underground water
--Some of these paths lead deeper and deeper, where water collects in crevices within the bedrock hundreds of meters underground
--The water gathered in these underground reserves is in a sense cut off from the active water cycle – at least on timescales relevant to human life

Groundwater Resources of the World

Some places have greater 'recharge' rates where water is being contributed back to the aquifer
In some places ancient water is being drawn for human use and recharge rates are low

Oceanic Divisions

Are based on depth and temperature with the first division being the epipelagic