Environmental Science Test 1

Devil’s Hole, Nevada

Pupfish, endangered, farmers wanted drain, implicit reservation of resources by government to fulfill that specific purpose

Preservationism

environment is separate from humans, should be set aside and preserved

Transcendentalism

humans and environment are interconnected, environmental value transcends material and rational

Conservationism

environment is a resource for humans, should be conserved for human utility

Cappaert v. United States

Farmers sue US

Lithosphere

Continents and Ocean floor, earth system processes, hardest to predict

Hydrosphere

Oceans, lakes, rivers, etc, >70% of Earth’s surface

Atmosphere

oxygen, nitrogen, water vapor, ozone, 50km high

Biospehere

earth’s living organisms, dynamic and fluid

Supply Services

can it be modeled economically, can we put a number on it? property, rarity, energetic, economic, maintenance of supply of natural products, can include immediate value and future projected value

Supporting Services

economic value in absence, hard to quantify in presence, support human and natural wellbeing, what does it do to life? wind strengthening trees, leaves filtering air

Cultural Value

intangible benefits, aesthetics, spiritual value, recreation, value is in what we leave for the future

Internal costs

cost for corporation when they use environmental resources, buildings, electricity, fuel, trees, labor equipment, time, land, water

External Costs/externalities

cost for corporation when they use environmental resources, air pollution, soil erosion, health problems

Linear System

input: energy extraction and resource extraction, outputs: waste, society pays for externalities

Replacement Cost

how much would we pay to get these services through human effort? can work well when externalities are close, harder in larger environments

Present Value

current + projected future cost of environmental products, thinking about nature as something

Stated Preference

subjective measure of total cost as is, cultural value, personal value, gain quantification of cultural/social value

Planetary Boundaries

thresholds within which humanity can survive, develop, thrive for generations to come, safe operating limit for survival

Climate Change

one planetary boundary

Biodiversity integrity loss

~species facing threat of extinction, constant demand for food, water, natural resources, need policies to promote reforestation, enhance habitats and improve connectivity

Altered biogeochemical cycles

fertilizers increase gases in atmosphere, boundary of 25% value of nitrogen

Land Systems change

forests, wetlands, grasslands —> agricultural land to sustain population, be fit for use, affects water flow, biodiversity, CO2 concentrations, must consider lands function and georgraphical distribution

Freshwater use

by 2050, 500mil people will experience water scarcity

Ocean acidification

¼ of CO2 into atmosphere goes to oceans, then to carbonic acid, and decreases the pH of surface water, less corals, shellfish, change in ocean systems

Chemical pollution + novel entities

novel entities: new chemicals and changed life forms, decrease fertility, bird populations, marine animal development, increase potential of genetic damage, no boundary right now

Ozone layer

filters out harmful UV rays from sun, hole created in 1980s

Atmospheric aerosol loading

can formulate clouds that cool/warm outside standard natural cycles, monsoon systems, affects reaction and absorbtion of solar rays, ~800k die a year

great oxidation event time

origin of life time

Archean, ~3.8 billion years ago

origin of animal life time

Cambrian period, ~538-485 mil years ago

when the dinosaurs died time

Cretaceous, ~66mil years ago

Hadean Eon

>4 bill years ago, Earth molten and bombarded by asteroids

Archean Eon

5bil→2.5 bil years ago, oceans formed, first single cell life, subtle shifts in carbon distribution, isotopes, Oxygen is dangerous, Great Oxidation event

Proterozoic eon

Ediaceran

Phanerozoic eon

Paleozoic, mesozoic, cenozoic

Great Oxidation Event

first big mass extinction, photosynthesis evolves, increase in oxygen in atmosphere, orange from CO2 and methane, green iron ocean, photosynthesis turns ocean red and rust settles, where we get our iron, sky blue from algae eating methane and CO2

Ediacaran Period

first multicellular fossils, oldest multicellular life, earliest trace fossils

Cambrian Period

rapid burst in evolution, mass experimentation in being an animal, origin of animals and animal fossils, rapid diversification of animals, evolution of every body form we have in animals today and more, only in ocean, continents bare

Ordovician Period

Great Ordovician-Biodiversification event: surge in marine life, first fish jawless, first plants on land, draw down carbon and mass extinction from cold

Silurian Period

climate warms, first jawed fish, early vascular plants, terrestrial revolution, animal life moves onto land, first terrestrial fungi

Devonian Period

sharks evolve, then trees, lobed finned fishes are on land, first modern land/terrestrial ecosystem

Carboniferous Period

forested world, no ice, massive carbon drawdown, pensylvanian and mississippian, coal, first eggshells evolve, animals huge because of abundant oxygen supply, CO2 drawdown into ice age

Permian Period

firs reptiles, synapsids (our ancestors), drier, vlcanic range erupts and sets massive coal deposit on fire, Great Dying

Mesozic

triassic, jurassic, cretaceous

Triassic Period

ichthyosaurs, archosaurs, dinosaurs

Jurassic Period

famous dinosaurs, evolution of first mammals and birds, heavy ferns

Cretaceous Period

T rex and flowering plants, meteor and nuclear winter mass extinction

Cenozoic Era

paleogene, neogene, quaternary

Paleogene

paleocene, eocene, oligocene

Neogene

miocene epoch, plates moving and making mountains, proconsul (similar to modern apes), cooling world creates smaller forests and spreads grasslands, warming leads to pliocene epoch and humans appear

Paleocene

rapid diversification and new mamalls, then global warming

Eocene

warmer so more reptiles, 5-8 degrees celsius increase, more arid, true primates, azolla event, mass extinction

Azolla event

algae eat up CO2 and severely decrease temperature, mass extinction

Oligocene

grasslands appear, herbivores evolve, split among simians and monkeys appeared, mammals diversify

Miocene epoch

continental plates movement creates mountains

Pliocene epoch

first hominin and homo genus

Carbon Cycle

atmosphere: photosynthesis (CO2 from atmosphere into oxygen and sugar)—> oxygen and sugar in biosphere. Biosphere: animals respirate and pass gas—> atmosphere. Animals die and decompose—>lithosphere. Lithosphere: burning of fossil fuels (combustion of fossil fuels or natural)—> atmosphere

Isotopes

atoms with element of extra neutrons, C12 is 98.9%, C13 is 1.1%, stable if not radioactive decay

How do we know CO2 levels are changing because of human activity

fossil fuels are coal and oil from tree/plant/algae fossils (photosynthesizers), plants prefer the lighter C12 bc less energy to break down, the ratio of C12 is higher in atmosphere than normal

Climate

long term average trend in measurable variables over years (30 years per NASA)

Weather

specific environmental changes occurring on the order of hours to days

Milankovitch cycles

cycles in Earth’s orbit/rotation where slight variability can affect climate

circular system

inputs: energy extraction and resource extraction, waste is reclaimed and reused for energy production, unused waste disposed of so that it can be assimilated by environment

observing carbon

OCO2/OCO3: carbon orbital observatories, measure from space on sunny days. Unstable isotopes: use half life, locked when C14 starts nuclear decay, amounts of C14 used to measure time passing up to 50k years ago, in dead plants/ice glaciers, others like nitrogen and oxygen found in igneous rock

orbital variation/eccentricity

Earth’s orbit changes slightly over 100k years

Tilt/Obliquity

Earth shifts back and forth in its tilt relative to the su, over 40-50k years

Wobble/Precession

Earth “wiggles” when it rotates, over ~26k years

9 planetary boundaries

climate change, biodiversity integrity loss, altered biogeochemical cycles, land systems change, freshwater use, ocean acidification, chemical pollution and novel entities, ozone layer, atmospheric aerosol loading

Time chronology

Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic (Ediacaran), Phanerozoic: Paleozoic (Cambrian, Ordivician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous (pennsylvanian and mississippian), Permian), Mesozoic (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous), Cenozoic (Paleogene (paleocene, eocene, oligocene), Neogene, Quaternary), era then period then epoch