Environmental Systems and Societies Flashcards for all of year 12

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Perspective

How a particular situation is viewed and understood by an individual, based on personal and collective assumptions, values, and beliefs.

Values

Qualities or principles that people feel have worth and importance in life.

Worldviews

Lenses shared by groups of people through which they perceive, make sense of, and act within their environment.

Environmental Value System

A model that shows the inputs affecting our perspectives and the outputs resulting from our perspectives.

Technocentric

A worldview that believes that technology will provide solutions to environmental problems.

Anthropocentric

A worldview that prioritizes human interests but acknowledges environmental responsibility.

Ecocentric

A worldview that places intrinsic value on all living things and ecosystems.

System

Sets of interacting or interdependent components.

Systems Approach

A holistic way of visualizing a complex set of interactions that can be applied to ecological or societal situations.

Storages

Components of a system where energy or matter is accumulated. Storages can be living (e.g., biomass) or non-living (e.g., atmosphere, soil, water bodies

Inflows and outflow

Processes that may be either transfers or transformations into a system, sink or source. When flowing out it will also result in a product or waste generated by exiting the system.

Negative Feedback Loops

Occur when the output of a process inhibits or reverses the operation of the same process, reducing change and stabilizing the system.

Positive Feedback Loops

Occur when a disturbance leads to an amplification of that disturbance, destabilizing the system and driving it away from its equilibrium.

Tipping Point

A point within a system where a small alteration in one component can produce large overall changes, resulting in a shift in equilibrium.

Model

A simplified representation of reality used to understand how a system works and to predict how it will respond to change.

Emergent Properties

Interactions between components in systems that can generate these.

Resilience

The tendency of a system (ecological or social) to avoid tipping points and maintain stability.

Sustainability

A measure of the extent to which practices allow for the long-term viability of a system for future generations. It compasses the environment, social, and economic.

Environmental Sustainability

The use and management of natural resources that allows replacement of the resources, and recovery and regeneration of ecosystems.

Social Sustainability

Focuses on creating the structures and systems, such as health, education, equity, and community, that support human well-being.

Economic Sustainability

Focuses on creating the economic structures and systems to support production and consumption of goods and services that will support human needs into the future.

Sustainable Development

Meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Environmental Justice

The right of all people to live in a pollution-free environment and to have equitable access to natural resources.

Ecological Footprint

A measure used to assess sustainability. If footprints are greater than the area or resources available, this indicates unsustainability.

Carbon Footprint

Measures the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced, measured in carbon dioxide equivalents (in tonnes).

Water Footprint

Measures water use (in cubic metres per year).

Biocapacity

The capacity of a given biologically productive area to generate an ongoing supply of renewable resources and to absorb its resulting wastes.

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

A set of social and environmental goals and targets to guide action on sustainability and environmental justice.

Planetary Boundaries Model

Describes the nine processes and systems that have regulated the stability and resilience of the Earth system in the Holocene epoch.

Doughnut Economics Model

A framework for creating a regenerative and distributive economy in order to meet the needs of all people within the means of the planet.

Circular Economy

A model that promotes decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials, and regenerating nature.

Biosphere

An ecological system composed of individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems.

Population

A group of organisms of the same species living in the same area at the same time, and which are capable of interbreeding.

Niche

Describes the particular set of abiotic and biotic conditions and resources upon which an organism or a population depends.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum size of a population determined by competition for limited resources.

Community

A collection of interacting populations within the ecosystem.

Habitat

The location in which a community, species, population, or organism lives.

Keystone Species

Species that have the largest role in the sustainability of ecosystems.

Biogeochemical Cycles

Ensure chemical elements continue to be available to living organisms.

Carbon Sequestration

The process of capturing gaseous and atmospheric carbon dioxide and storing it in a solid or liquid form.

Biodiversity

The total diversity of living systems and it exists at several levels. Including genetic, species and ecosystem.

Natural Selection

The process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce through inheriting advantageous traits.

Speciation

The generation of new species through geographically separating 1 species into 2 groups.

Simpson’s Reciprocal Index

Used to provide a quantitative measure of species diversity, allowing different ecosystems to be compared and for change in a specific ecosystem over time to be monitored.

Formula=N(N-1)/Σn(n-1)

Anthropocene

A proposed geological epoch characterized by rapid environmental change and species extinction due to human activity.

Invasive Alien Species

Can reduce local biodiversity by outcompeting native species for limited resources, and could result in predation, and introduction of diseases or parasites.

Conservation strategies

Strategies to preserve wildlife based on aesthetic, ecological, economic, ethical and social factors.

An example strategy would be in situ which keeps animals in a controlled version of their habitat(national parks), ex situ which is outside their habitat(zoos), and rewilding which returns an area back by removing human activity and introducing keystone species.

Tragedy of the Commons

Describes possible outcomes of the shared unrestricted use of a resource, with implications for sustainability and the impacts on biodiversity(fish in pond).

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

A UN treaty addressing both species-based(ex situ) and habitat-based conservation(in situ).

Ecotourism

Can increase interdependence of local communities and increase biodiversity by generating income and providing funds for protecting areas, but there can also be negative societal and ecological impacts.

Water Security

Having access to sufficient amounts of safe drinking water.

Water Scarcity

Refers to the limited availability of water to human societies.

Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY)

The highest possible annual catch that can be sustained over time, so it should be used to set caps on fishing quotas.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

Can be used to support aquatic food chains and maintain sustainable yields.

Aquaculture

The farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)

A measure of the amount of dissolved oxygen required by microorganisms to decompose organic material in water.

Eutrophication

Occurs when lakes, estuaries and coastal waters receive inputs of mineral nutrients, especially nitrates and phosphates, often causing excessive growth of algae blooms. Causing them to block sunlight, and oxygen depletion through bacteria breaking them down during decomposition resulting in dead plants, and dead fish from suffocation or no food.

Biotic Index

Can provide an indirect measure of water quality based on the tolerance to pollution, relative abundance and diversity of species in the community.

Soil

A dynamic system within the larger ecosystem that has its own inputs, outputs, storages and flows. They are split into three basic types based on particle size and physical properties being sand, silt, and clay

Soil Texture/structure

Defines the physical make-up of the mineral soil and depends on the relative proportions of sand, silt, clay and humus.

Green Revolution

Used breeding of high-yielding crop plants—combined with increased and improved irrigation systems, synthetic fertilizer and application of pesticides—to increase food security.

Food Security

The physical and economic availability of food, allowing all individuals to get the balanced diet they need for an active and healthy life.

Demographic Transition Model (DTM)

Describes the changing levels of births and deaths in a human population through different stages of development over time which also connect/correlates to population pyramid.

Lincoln Index/Capture Mark release recapture

A method used to estimate the size of a mobile population by catching, marking, releasing and then recapturing them.

Formula:\frac{\left(n1\cdot n2\right)}{m}

Population pyramid/age sex diagram

A graphical representation of a population's age and sex distribution, providing insights into its demographic structure and future trend such as

1. pyramid shape(wide bottom, narrow top)=fast growing population(inputs>outputs)

2. tombstone shape(constant bottom and top)=stationary population(inputs=outputs)

3. Narrow bottom and wide top=declining population(inputs<outputs)

Inputs and outputs of a population

Inputs=births & immigration

Output=deaths & emigration

Natural increase rate=birth-deaths(not immigration or emmigration)

Population dynamic factors

Economic, social, health, development and other natal policies factors that affect births, deaths, immigration, and emigration rate

Population dynamic: ways to quantify

Total fertility rate, life expectancy, doubling time(70/Natural increase rate) and natural increase(births-deaths).

Water management strategies

Saving water:Water efficient appliances, grey water, regulation via taxes, raise awareness

Finding more water:constructing dams, reservoirs, rainwater catchment systems, desalination, and enhancement of natural wetlands

Food systems:Drip irrigation, drought resistant crops, greenhouses, aquaponics(no need for soil)

Limiting factor

A resource or environmental condition that restricts the growth, distribution, or abundance of an organism or population within an ecosystem

Interactions and the different types

The ways living things (biotic factors) and non-living things (abiotic factors) affect each other and the overall ecosystem such as interspecific and intraspecific competition, Commensalism, predation, symbiosis, Mutualism and neutralism.

S and J curves

2 different types of graphical representation of population overtime. One of slow, rapid then slow/stabilized growth showing carrying capacity and the other significantly rising and dropping showing when there is a lack of resources.