Environmental Midterm Practice

What is the Enviroment?

Sum Total of our surroundings

What is a Biotic Factor?

A living thing

What’s a Abiotic Factor?

A non-living thing

Are humans apart of the environment?

Yes

What is Interdisciplinary

Integrating knowledge from many different disciplines

What is Multidiciplinary?

People from different disciplines working together, drawing their expertise

Environmental Science is…

A science that searches for answers

Viking Civilization and Easter Island made what mistake?

Annihilating their civilizations by destroying their environment through population growth and excessive resource use.

What are the 5 Critical Factors that determine survival of civilization?

Climate change, hostile neighbours, trade partners, environmental problems, response to environmental problems.

Applied Goals?

Finding sustainable solutions to environmental problems using the triple bottom line approach

Environmental Pollution Includes what elements?

Air, Land, Water

Pollution Problems are becoming…

Less visible, more global, more long-term or chronic and complex

Land resources include

Agriculture, forestry, and mining

We have converted _____ of earths land surface for framing, grazing, and timber production

~50%

More food production has cause increased __________ Damage

Environmental

Aquatic Resource Issues Include

Freshwater/marine pollution, fisheries, water supplies

Non-Renewable sources include

Fossil fuels, metals, rare elements

Biodiversity Decline includes

Habitat fragmentation and loss, invasive species, network disruption, overharvesting.

Why is Biodiversity loss the biggest environmental problem

We cannot correct our mistakes later. Once a species is extinct its gone forever

What are the four major threats of biodiversity loss

Habitat fragmentation, invasive species, over exploitation of resources, disruption of interactive networks

Wicked problems?

Problems with many causes/ many stakeholders with different goals

Human populations are ________ on earth

Unevenly distributed

Carrying capacity?

Max population size that the area can support or sustain long term.

Renewable sources cannot be depleted? T or F

T

Non-renewable sources can be depleted/? T or F

T

What is the Tragedy of the commons?

Social trap that emerges when many people are using. A commonly held resource

What is the social trap Time delay?

An action that is beneficial today but causes issues later

What is the Social Trap Sliding Reinforcer

Something that is beneficial at first but changes conditions such that their benefit declines overtime

What is the Triple Bottom Line?

Finding ways to promote social justice (people), environmental quality(planet) and economic well being (profit)

What is Biodiversity?

The variety of all life on earth

Where are most species found?

Tropical Rainforests and Coastal areas

Genetic Diversity is…

Variations in the genes among individuals of the same species

Species diversity is….

The variety of species present in an area

Ecological diversity is….

The variety of habitats, niches, trophic levels, and community interactions

Endemic Species are

Only found in one region of the world naturally

Threatened species

Likely to becom endangered

Endangered species

In danger of becoming extinct

Expiration species

Locally extinct throughout its entire range

Extinct Species

Has become extinct throughout its entire range

Instrumental Value

Species valued by usefulness to humans

Intrinsic Value

Species have value in themselves

What is a Biodiversity hotspot?

Relatively small area with high concentration of endemic species and a large number of endangered and threatened species

What is a Gene Pool?

A collection of all versions of different genes present in a population of a particular species at a given time and place

What a total genetic information?

Available to population

Genetic Drift is caused by

Random mating

Bottleneck effects are caused by

Random events

Founder effects are caused by

Random movements

Allopathic Speciation

Species formation due to a physical separation

Sympatric Speciation

Species that became reproductively isolated

Minimum Viable Popluation

Smallest number of individuals that would still allow a population to persist

Developing Countries

Uses less resources per person

Developed Countries

Use more resources per person

T or F 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earths natural resources

T

IPATS Model stands for what

Impact on, Population, Affluences, Technology, Sensitivity

Direct cost to make something?

Internal cost

Views environmental only as an external factor of production?

External costs

The bottom line

Focuses on immediate usefulness measured as profit

Weather is ____ Conditions over ___ time periods

Atmospheric, Short

Climate is _____ conditions across large geographic regions over ____ periods of time

Atmospheric, Long

Earths Climate has 3 influences what are they

Sun, atmosphere, oceans

2 Climate factors involved

Average annual Precipitation , average annual temperature

IPCC report that climate is ____, _____ are the cause, the change is extorting impacts that will become ____ severe

Changing, humans, more

What types of hazards are there?

Physical, Cultural , Chemical, biological

Physical hazards occur ____

Naturally

Cultural hazards are caused by

Our occupation, behavioural choices, smoking, diets, drug use, crime, mode of transportation

Chemical Hazards have 2 catagories what are they?

Natural and Synthetic

Pollutant

Contaminate the environment can harm to human or the environment

Contaminant

Occur in an environment at above normal levels that can be postitive or negative

Toxin

A toxic substance produced by organisms other than humans

Poison

An chemical agent or substance that produces harmful biological effects