Conservation of Natural Resources: Exam 2

What are the 5 aspects of variation?

Niche, Temperature, Rainy Season, Dry Season, Nitrogen and Phosphorus Concentration.

What is Equilibrium?

State of balance between opposing forces. Ecologically, refers to a system that varies from the baseline.

What are the aspects of the biological clock?

Plants and animals have an internal clock, a memory system of photoreceptors which combined help to provide organisms with a sense of time, which can track environmental changes.

What is a biological community?

An association of populations that interact based off the nature of the place they interact with. Are self regulating, influencing each other and the environment.

What is Ontogeny?

A systems life cycle that progresses to an endpoint, with regards to environments.

What are short and long term forms of Ontogeny?

Short Term: Changing with the seasons

Long Term: Succession or aging through time.

What is seasonality?

Based off fluctuations that occur, communities adapt to these fluctuations and return to the normal state once the baseline is reached again.

Primary vs Secondary Sucession?

Primary occurs after a natural disaster or otherwise, is uninhabited prior.

Secondary occurs as the taxa(plant) that is dominant changes over time.

What is each degree of disturbance?

Non-Directional: Not permanent change, but does produce a pattern that repeats.

Directional: Permanent changes caused by consistent succession, or multiple major disturbances.

What does the Fire disturbance encompass?

Caused by lightning and humans. Forest fires occur in intervals of 10-25 years, typically burning understory. However, crown fires(everything) can occur, and have more with climate change.

What does the Invasive species disturbance encompass?

The presence can change an ecosystem, when removed or added it can be a chain reaction(also keystone).

Infectious disturbance?

Can range from fruit or leaf damage to plant death. Have killed off keystone species before, causing chain reactions.

What is water quality?

Collective term referring to the chemical/physical/biological/radiological aspects of water.

How is water quality assessed?

Through comparison to various standards, which can be improved by treatment.

What are the three types of water treatment?

Human consumption, domestic use, or environmental health.

USGS monitoring network.

Collects data from 1.9 million sites, looks for various indicators.

Types of Biological Indicators?

Coliform Bacteria, organic pollution

Fathead Minow, Toxicity tests

Planktonic Chlorophyll, nutrient pollution

Benthic Inveritbrites, nutrient pollution/low oxygen/low flow

Mussels, sediment pollution//low oxygen/low flow

Chemical Indicators

pH, Atmospheric deposition/acid mine drainage

Dissolved oxygen, organic pollution/low flow

Heavy metals, Industrial waste/acid mine drainage

Phosphorus, agricultural waste/land run off

Nitrogen, agricultural waste/atmospheric deposition

Pesticides, agricultural waste/land run off

Physical Indicators

Water Temp, Thermal pollution/climate

Conductivity, Chemical pollution

TDS, sediment loading/nutrient pollution

Turbidity, sediment loading/nutrient pollution

Odor, biological contamination

Taste, biological contamination

What are some occuring hypoxic events

Lake Erie - seasonal, impacts habitat/species loss, 15k square kilometers affected

Gulf of Mexico - seasonal, impacts habitat/species loss, 20k square kilometers affected

Baltic sea - persistent, stress/species loss, 100k square kilometers affected

Phosphorus concentrations?

Air - <1×10^5

Water - Dissolved: 80,000×10^5, Biota: 770 ×10^5

Land - Soil: 160,000×10^5, Biota: 2,600×10^5

Earth - Rock: 19,000×10^5, Sediments 840,000,000 ×10^5

Nitrogen Concentrations?

Air - 3,900,000 ×10^5

Water - Dissolved: 22,758 ×10^5, Biota: 570×10^5

Land - Soil: 460×10^5, Biota: 15×10^5

Earth - Rocks: n/a, Sediments: 400,120 ×10^5

Sources of Deposition?

Natural: Volcanoes, Sulfur Dioxide, Hydrochloride acid, Organic compounds, soil/wetlands/decaying vegetation.

Human: Fossil Fuels, Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrous Oxides

What is the increase in NOx and SOx emissions since 1900?

12-20 times

Four steps to deposition?

Emission, transport, transformation, deposition.

Emission?

NOx and SOx produced from utilities, cars, furnaces.

Transport?

Atmospheric residence time of 1-5 days, ~750 miles

Transformation?

Carbon dioxide to carbonic acid, Sulfur Oxide to sulfuric acid, nitrous oxide to nitric/nitrous acid

Deposition?

Wet deposition(40-80%), precipitation dissolves acid, brings rain water of pH 4-5 to land.

Dry Deposition(20-60%), suspended particle bind with gas, material eventually falls to surface.

Acid Rain effects?

Respiratory/toxic damage to brains or kidneys.

Degrades various stone infrastructure.

Removes ions from roots faster then they can recharge.

Harms plant life, causing death and decay.

Aquatic Effects of Acid Rain?

Plankton population decrease,

Reduction in fish population

How to remediate areas harmed by acid rain?

Use of lake liming, which helps to neutralize acidity

However is expensive, short term

Scrubbers can react the sulfur with limestone, etc to create gypsum

Ideal pH for plants?

6-7

Farm % employed over time?

Most people in 1800s, 1960s 19% tied to, now its less than 5%

Farm size shift?

Shifted from many small farms to fewer large farms.

Most were less than 200 acres pre 1960s, now most are over 500

People living on farms?

44% to 2% by 1995. Only 650k are farmers now.

Ecological Benefits of Agriculture?

High efficiency production

Sets back succession to pioneer

Improved soils through subsidy

Population regulation through management

How did industrialized agriculture come about?

Reduced use of varied crop and animal types

Removal of predators

Planting annual crops

Monoculture crops.

Pesticide use?

Chemicals to reduce pest populations

Meant to harm target only, mimics plants defenses

DDT?

Can harm non target species, bound to fat which concentrated through each trophic transfer

Run off contaminates fish