APES Midterm Final yay! (study guide + warm ups + jeopardy for the multiple choice)

What is an example of positive feedback with respect to climate change and the melting of permafrost? Hint: CH4 (methane) is stored in frozen permafrost.

The carbon that is being released to the atmosphere in the form of methane

A change in a system can either be increased or decreased by what?

any amount of heat

What are all the 'hidden costs' associated with a car?

The cost of gas, and repairs, the degradation it does to the environment

People living in ______ (not a country) often degrade forest and soil resources, negatively impacting the environment.

poverty

What event led to the exponential growth of the human population?

The deaths of the old and the boost of babies.

List 4 examples of the degradation/destruction of natural capital.

Rapid urbanization, excessive water extraction and unsustainable aquaculture

__________ growth starts off slowly, but after only a few doublings, grows rapidly.

population

List 4 ways humans can avoid suffering from the 'nature deficit disorder'.

Direct exposure to nature, put away electronics, go for a walk and talk to a friend.

Define anthropogenic.

originating in human activity

Sketch a line graph (x and y axis) and indicate which has the dependent and which has the independent variable.

independent = x-axis and dependent = y-axis

define energy

Power from the utilization of physical or chemical resources, especially to prove light and heat to work machines.

What's the difference between a positive and negative feedback loop?

Positive feedback loops enhance or amplify changes and negative feedback tends to dampen or buffer changes

List 4 characteristics of crude oil.

Black, thick, gooey, destructive.

Explain the process of fracking. ​​Drill down into the earth before a high pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside.

Drill down into the earth before a high pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside

If ________ costs of the use of coal were included in the price, the use would most likely ______.

hidden, stop

What method of storing radioactive nuclear waste do most scientists and engineers agree is the safest and cheapest?

Geological repositories/ deep underground

MATH: How do you calculate the number of half-lives and how to calculate the years.

a(1/2)^n

n= number of lives

a = original amount

List the major parts of a nuclear reactor used to create electricity and describe what each does.

There's the fuel, moderator, control reds and blades, coolant, pressure vessel or pressure tubes, steam generator and containment. The reactor separates the fissionable nu dealer material. The moderator slows the speed of the neutrons. The coolant is used to carry the heat produced by the fission reaction to an external boiler and turbine, where it is turned into electricity. Control rods control the fission rate of the nuclear fuel by adjusting the number of slow neutrons present to keep the rate of the chain reaction at a safe level. A reactor has to withstand high temperatures and pressures and must protect operating personnel from the radiation.

True or False: Coal can be blamed for the depletion of the ozone layer.

true

MATH: how do you calculate a percentage change?

difference between old & new values, divided by old value

ex: old=$400, new=$500

% change = (500-400)/400 x 100 = %25 increase

ex: grace bought shares of a stock at $35 per share on January 1st. On February 1st, the stock was worth $45.50. by what percentage did her share value increase?

45.50-85 = $10.50

10.50/85 = 0.3 x 100 = 30%

List 4 hidden costs of gasoline

hurts the environment, air pollutants, asthma, death

List 4 ways of saving energy in the transportation sector. Hint: saving energy would also benefit the environment.

Keep car tuned, make sure the tires are properly inflated, don't store unneeded things in your trunk and choose energy conserving oils

What device converts solar energy directly into electricity?

Photovoltaic cells

Which countries lead the world in terms of geothermal electricity production?

The US, Indonesia, Philippines, Turkey and New Zealand

List 4 commonly used biofuels

Ethanol and biodiesel, methanol and palm oil

For each increase of 1 on the Richter scale, ___ times more energy (magnitude) is released.

32

Which of the following materials combined with topsoil would allow for the fastest percolation rate?

a. silt heavy soil

b. clay heavy soil

c. sand heavy soil

c. sand heavy soil

What are the 3 types of plate boundaries?

Convergent, Divergent, Transform

Which plate boundary destroys the Earth's crust?

convergent

Which plate boundary creates a new crust

divergent

List characteristics of mineral resources.

They are nonrenewable, definite chemical composition, and material comes from inorganic processes

MATH: how do you identify a soil type based on percentages of sand, silt, and clay?

use the percentage triangle

draw a line following each of the percentages

identify soil type where the lines meet

True or False: Mineral resources are always economically worth mining.

False

List 4 environmental hazards associated with surface mining.

the soil, reduce fertility, pollute water and drain water reserves

List 4 advantages of recycling aluminum cans.

Saves energy, time, money and natural resources

List as many methods involved in integrated pest management as you can.

Biological, fumigation, field burning, heat treatment

MATH: how do you do a productivity math problem. You are given the GPP and NPP and will have to calculate the biomass lost through respiration.

ex: imagine we run an experiment on the algae Cladaphora Glometra. we place equal amounts of algae into a light bottle and a dark (covered) bottle. we measure the dissolved oxygen in both bottles and find it as 10/mg/L. we let both bottles sit for a week. in one week, the light bottle has dissolved oxygen value of 11mg/L and the dark bottle has a value of 5mg/L.

Calculate the amount of respiration, the NPP and GPP for the species of algae.

light=gnl= NPP -> 11mg/L - 10mg/L/week = 1mg/L/week

dark=respiration -> 10mg/L- 5mg/L/week

NPP=GPP-respiration

1mg/L = GPP-5mg/L

6mg/L= GPP

NPP = 1mg/L/week

GPP = 6mg/L/week

respiration = 5mg/L/week

The major goal of industrialized agriculture is to increase crop _____.

Yield

Define salinization.

The process by which water soluble salts accumulate in the soil

Define waterlogging

Saturate with water, or make something water logged

List 4 methods that could be used to reduce/reverse desertification.

-Plant more trees

-Improve the quality of the soil

-reduce soil erosion

-Reintroduce selected species

How much energy from a lower trophic level gets transferred to the consumer? ____ This means that approximately ____ is lost as heat.

10%, 90%

List all of the major gasses in the troposphere that absorb long-wave infrared radiation contributing to the greenhouse effect.

water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane

What are the 2 reactants for photosynthesis?

carbon dioxide and water

What are the 2 products for photosynthesis?

glucose and oxygen

What provides the energy for the reaction of photosynthesis?

sunlight

Which of the nutrients spends no time in the atmosphere within the N cycle, P cycle, or C cycles?

the p cycle (phosphorus)

Which process found within all nutrient cycles must happen in order to 'recycle' the elements for future use? Hint: many of the organisms who do this are microscopic.

biochemical cycle

What's the difference between a biotic component and an abiotic component in an ecosystem?

Biotic factors are living things within an ecosystem, like plants and animals. Where the abiotic are non living components like water and soil

If polar regions become warmer due to climate change, what might organisms who live in warmer regions currently do in the future?

they may go extinct or some may adapt to their new environment, but it's most likely they will go extinct because they need the cold to survive, migrate

What is the main human activity/human related activity causing species to become endangered and extinct?

unsustainable hunting and harvesting, we have to much meat

Which type of diversity allows organisms to adapt to and survive environmental changes?

natural selection

What is the importance of species richness?

it will stabilize the ecosystem more

If a species is found over a large geographic region and can feed on many different things, it is categorized as a (check one) specialist or ______.

generalist

Earth's biodiversity is determined by a balance of what two things?

speciation and extinction

List the most important reason for the elephants as a keystone species in the African Savanna. Hint: think of the most important producer for the food webs there.

the balance the natural ecosystems, for example they trample forests and dense grasslands, which makes room for smaller species to coexist

Define the greenhouse effect.

when the sun's warmth is trapped in a planets lower atmosphere

What phenomenon is caused by the rotation of the Earth that deflects the atmosphere in different directions in the N and S hemispheres?

the Coriolis effect

What is the biggest reason tropical regions get more rain than other regions?

the sun's radiation is strongest near the equator. More evaperation = more rain

Define the rainshadow effect.

the side of a mountain where the precipitation is noticeably less than on the windward side, and because the moisture bearing air mass loses most of its moisture on the inward side before reaching the lee side

Why are the soils in temperate deciduous forests so rich in nutrients?

because the trees shed their leaves each fall and the leaves decay which leaves nutrients that is absorbed by the soil

True or False: the location of mountain ranges and the shapes of continents have the largest influence on global air circulation patterns (wind currents).

False

True or False: terrestrial habitat loss is a human threat to marine ecosystems.

False

List as many ecosystem services coral reefs provide as you can.

They protect coastlines from erosion, provide a source of food and homes and help with water purification. They also create tourism and recreation

What are the biggest causes of pollution in Chesapeake Bay

Huge amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus which comes from fertilizers, wastewater and also air pollution and runoff from cities and farms, and overfishing

What are the 4 distinct zones in large lakes

littoral, limnetie, profundal and benthic

List 3 characteristics of a euphotic lake

Topmost layer, net primary production and sunlight

What's the biggest reason for ocean acidification?

the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which dissolves in the ocean

If a population overshoots the ecosystem's carrying capacity, what will begin to happen? Hint: carrying capacity is the greatest population that an ecosystem's resources can support

resources will become scarce and water will be an issue, poverty will increase and malnutrition and hunger will worsen

When different species use a resource in different locations, different times of the day, and different times of the year, it is called what?

resource partitioning

True or False: Camouflage is used by both predators and prey to increase their rate of survival.

true

Define mutualism

The ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit

Define commensalism

a long-term biological interaction in which members of one species gain benefits while those of the other species neither benefit nor are harmed

define parisitism

a relationship between the two living species in which one organism is benefited at the expense of the other

_______ succession begins on bare rock, where _______ succession begins with existing soil.

primary, secondary

True or False: Exponential growth of a population is common when there is a high amount of intraspecific competition.

false

What would an age structure diagram look like for a country with a declining population, an increasing population, and a stabilized population?

the first one would be small at the top and bigger at the bottom, the second one would be small at the bottom, the second one would be small at the bottom and bigger at the top and the third one would look the same throughout the years

What will likely happen to a population that has more young people than old people? What about more old people than young people?

with more young people, the economy will be better and there will be more kids being brought into the world and with an older population, the economy would slow and there would be very few families bringing children into this world

MATH: how do you calculate doubling/halving time given a growth rate (both + and -)?

doubling time = 70/annual growth rate (%)

ex: if a country were doubling its population every 85 years, what would its growth rate be?

DT = 70/r

85 = 70/r

r = 70/85 = 2%

MATH: how do you calculate the growth rate given births, deaths, immigration, and emigration?

Hint: don't forget to multiply by 100 to get it into a %

((births + immigration)-(deaths + emigration)/total population)x 100

True or False: the number of elderly will influence current birth and fertility rates?

false

List 4 things that could decrease the total fertility rates in a population.

marriage, reduction of age in marriage, subfertility and timing of births

Which industrialized nations are facing a declining population this century?

China

after what event did the human population begin growing exponentially?

industrial revolution

what 2 compounds are pulled out of the air for photosynthesis?

Water (g) and CO2

nutrients are considered 'non-living'. What scientific word describes this?

abiotic

which nutrient cycle does not have a part in the atmosphere (gas phase)?

phosphorus

True or False: development of renewable energy sources is an example of natural capital degradation

false

what type of population growth stats off slowly but quickly grows to very large numbers?

exponential

True or False: reading about being outside in nature can help people suffering from nature deficit disorders.

False

What process is important to the C, N, and P cycles?

Decomposition

_______ _______ enables life on earth to adapt and deal with changes to the environment.

genetic diversity

the balance b between speciation and extinction determines the earth's ______.

biodiversity

species that are common over large geographic ranges and can feed on a variety of foods are considered to be _____.

generalists

the greater the sustainability, the greater the species ______.

richness

______ is the ability to do work.

energy

Feedback can either increase or decrease a change in a ________.

system

A ________ feedback loop is one where the result increases the process to occur again.

positive

why do temperate deciduous forests have such nutrient-rich soils?

yearly leaf dropping

the deflection of the atmosphere due yo the spin/rotation of Earth is called the ______ ______.

Coriolis effect