5.1-5.2 Tragedy of the Commons & Clearcutting Study Guide

Divide it up into parcels and assign it to the individuals

Many communities experience the tragedy of the commons. What is one way a local community might regulate a shared and limited resource and reduce the tragedy of the commons?

Water pollution from oil rigs concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, Depletion of an aquifer by regional farmers, Accumulation of plastics in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Overgrazing of public land by privately owned livestock

List the examples of the tragedy of the commons.

evaporation of water from the soil will increase

What changes to the local hydrologic cycle will result if large areas of land experience clear-cutting?

The concentrations of nitrates in streams running through the region will increase

What is most likely to occur in a forested region that has been recently clear-cut?

clear-cutting

What is a commercially used method in the USA for harvesting trees and is most likely to lead to a fragmented landscape with serious impacts on biodiversity?

more carbon dioxide will be added to the atmosphere and increase the anthropogenic climate change

What environmental consequences will most likely result from clear-cutting deciduous forests for logging?

carbon dioxide

It has been observed that forest fires can produce up to 40 percent of the mean annual global emissions of what gases?

all of the trees in a forest are cut down adn removed in one operation

Describe the most unsustainable method of clear-cutting forests to harvest timber.

Yellow (40% fish taken)

This graph shows how much money was made each round when people took 75% of the fish (blue, leftmost), 50% of the fish (red, center), and 40% of the fish (yellow, rightmost). What does this graph tell us about the best way to fish from the lake?

The clear cutting on branch 1 caused a higher sediment load

Two branches of a river have different sediment loads. Based on the diagram, what is most likely to lead to the differences in the amount of sediment in the two branches of the river?

When recycling no longer happens in a cleared plot it soon becomes infertile. Torrential tropical rains quickly wash nutrients out of the soil when it is left bare after harvest.

What are the effects of slash and burn farming?