Environmental Biology Review

Flashcards based on Environmental Biology lecture notes.

What is unique about Hom sapiens?

Homo sapiens is the only living species of its genus, Homo.

How does survival relate to contributing to the next generation?

Individuals with traits best suited to survive contribute more offspring to the next generation.

What traits are known to contribute to increased brain size?

Improved tool use and communication.

Among the primates, what is unique to humans regarding birth?

Humans have particularly difficult births, with high rates of maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality.

What is Culture?

Shared skills, ideas, customs.

What is science?

Inquiry in which questions raised by observation are tackled by a reasoned study of evidence and a testing of ideas.

According to the IPAT equation, what three factors determine human impact?

Population, affluence, and technology.

What are the characteristics of a pre-agricultural ecosystem?

Solar energy input, little input and output of matter, mainly recycling of matter, heat output.

What caused the extinction of the Diprotodon 46,000 years ago?

Environmental and ecological factors at the end of the last ice age and hunting pressures.

What are the characteristics of modern agriculture inputs?

High inputs of energy (fuels and solar) and matter (fertilizers, pesticides).

What are the outputs from agricultural systems?

High outputs of heat and organic matter, moderate outputs of inorganic matter, and some recycling.

What are the inputs of an urban ecosystem?

Large inputs of food, raw materials, and energy; large oxygen input.

What are the outputs of an urban ecosystem?

Huge waste output: CO, CO2, water vapour, SO2, hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, solid waste, manufacturing waste.