APES Unit 4-6

convergent boundary

When two tectonic plates move towards eachother causing subduction.

Subduction

When a tectonic plate that is more dense moves under the plate that is less dense.

What do convergent boundaries cause?

Island arcs, oceanic trenches, volcanoes, mountains

What is seafloor spreading?

When divergent boundaries move apart causing magma to go up allowing rock to form due to the cool water.

Divergent boundaries

When two tectonic plates move away from eachother which causes seafloor spreading.

What do divergent boundaries cause?

visible fault lines, rift valleys, seafloor spreading, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

Transform boundaries

when techtonic plates slide past eachother

What do transform boundaries cause?

earthquakes

plate techtonics map

we can understand volcanoes and plate techtonics better by learning from the ring of fire.

What does a plate techtonics map do?

it helps people prevent natural disasters by helping create an understanding of where earthquakes may appear.

Why is soil formation important?

It helps plants have the ability to grow.

What three processes help form soil?

Weathering, erosion, deposition

What is a soil horizon?

Layers of soil made with different nutrients and parent materials

How are soil horizons formed?

When a layer of soil is formed with the parent materials, vegetation grows and organisms begin to interact with or in the soil. This helps create new soil horizons.

What are the layers of a Soil Horizon?

O Horizon (Humus)
A Horizon (Topsoil)
E Horizon (Eluviated)
B Horizon (Subsoil)
C Horizon (Parent Material)
Bedrock

What is O horizon?

Humus, or surface litter like leaves and decaying material

What is A horizon?

Topsoil or a mixture of organic materials and minerals

What is E horizon?

Eluviated or the Zone of Leaching, nutrients from upper horizons moves to lower horizons

What is B horizon?

Subsoil or Zone of Accumulation where minerals such as iron and other nutrient accumulate

What is C Horizon?

Parent Material or material that is broken down to create the soil.

Bedrock

The soild rock layer that lies beneath the parent material and soil

How does soil erosion effect water quality?

This negatively impacts water quality. Good soil filters water along with vegetation, no soil or vegetation can lead to unclean water and pollutants.

What is water-holding capacity?

the amount of water that soil can absorb with the effects of gravity on the soil.

What affects water-holding capacity?

Particle size, types of particles, porosity, permeability, and fertility

How does particle size affect water-holding capacity?

smaller particles particles allow better water retention while larger particles allow water to pass through the soil easily

How does the type of particles affect water-holding capacity?

Organic material tends to absorb water while inorganic material is less likely to retain water.

How does porosity, permeability, and fertility affect particle size?

A higher porosity means larger particles.
Permiability is the ability of nutrients to flow to the lower soils.
Fertility of the soil affects the nutrient levels and how much the soil can impact vegetation

What are the chemical properties of soil?

pH and cation exchange

How does PH affect soil?

It affects the acidity of the soil and how much it allows plants to grow. acidic soil can make it difficult for plants to grow.

Cation exchange

a process in which cations are displaced from soil particles by other cations, particularly H+ This helps regulate the acidity of the soil and the nutrients in the soil.

What is aeration?

The ability of a soil to take in nutrients water and oxygen. Good allows the needed amount of sunlight and nutrients to help plant growth.

What is soil compaction?

How compacted the soil particles are. This effects porosity, permeability, and aeration. When it is heavily compacted, there are fewer pockets of water, air and other essential nutrients.

What is permeability?

the ability to transport nutrients through water.

Soil triangle

Helps identify soil using the percentige of clay silt and sand on a map.

What are earth's major gasses?

Nitrogen, Oxygen, Water Vapor, greenhouse gasses, and Ozone

Why are greenhouse gases important to the atmosphere?

They warm the atmosphere

Why is the ozone important?

It absorbs harmful UV radiation from the sun. This is harmed by CFC (chlorofluorocarbons)

What layers are there of the atmosphere?

Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere

What is the trophosphere?

The layer closest to the earth which starts at ground level to 10 km in altitude. Within this layer temperature decreases as altitude increases

What is the stratosphere?

The layer that goes from 10km to 50km. It is composed of Earth's ozone layer, which protects from UV rays. Its temperature increases with altitude.

What is the mesosphere?

It goes from 50 to 80 km. The temperature decreases as you increase altitude, this layer is very cold.

What is the thermosphere/ionosphere?

It goes from 80 to 100 km. It is the thinnest layer. It traps protons, electrons, and other ions given off by the sun. As you increase altitude temperature increases because of the UV radiation from the sun.

What are convection cells?

they are cells of air that circulate from the equator to the poles.

Why do convection cells work?

As the earth is heated, hot air rises allowing cold air to sink, which allows warm and cold air to travel to different areas in the world.

What are Hadley cells?

they occur between 0* and 30* latitudes. At the equater these cells start with warm rising air and as it moves away from the equator, the air falls as cooler air. As they take moist air inwards, it leaves the land near the 30* line dry, causing deserts.

What are Ferrel cells?

They occur between 30* and 60* latitudes. Around the 30* lines, the cold, dry air of a Hadley cell falls pushing warm air up.

What are Polar cells?

They occur at latitudes greater than 60*. Polar cells start around the 60* line where warm air from Ferrel cells is pushed up, at higher latitudes, this air cools and falls as dry air on the poles.

How does pressure in the atmosphere effect wind?

Between two hadley spells there is little pressure, thus the wind will blow from the ferrel hadley boundry to the hadley hadley boundary. This keeps the cells separate with different wind directions.

What is the Coriolis Effect?

The effect of Earth's rotation on the direction of winds and currents.

What are trade winds?

winds that reliably blow east to west just north and south of the equator, due to the rotation of earth.

What is runoff?

water that moves over Earth's surface to other bodies of water

What are watersheds?

a channel (stream/river) that concentrates runoff to the discharge point in a watershed.

What are headwaters?

the beginning of a watershed, they tend to be from ridges or mountains.

what are Sub-watersheds?

When streams and rivers diverge, but discharges at one point, lake or ocean.

What are the characteristics of a watershed?

size, length, slope rate, and present plant life.

What is the importance of the size of a watershed?

It shows how much runoff there is and is discharged into the ocean or lake. It shows how much runoff can be held in the watershed.

What is the importance of a lenght and slope of a watershed?

Runoff is increased by steep slopes and allow water to flow downwards with gravity. and the lenght is the distance between headwaters, this impacts how long it takes for the runoff to be discharged.

What is the importance of the type of soil found in watersheds?

The type of soil impacts the amount of runoff absorbed by the soil and vegetation. If the soil is sandy, the soil will take in more runoff water, if the soil is firtile, there will be more vegetation. Soil can also filter water in a watershed.

How does vegetation impact soil erosion?

It can lessen the amount of erosion taking place.

How does solar radiation affect different biomes?

The angle of the sun in comparison to the earth, due to the earths axis, the length of light in the day changes based on the time of the year.

How does latitude effect solar radiaton?

The tilt of the axis causes those countries on or near the equator to experiance more solar radiation than all other countries.

How are seasons affected?

Seasons are affected by the tilt of earth's axis as it causes some places to have less access to light and therefore cause seasons.

What factors influence the climate?

The sun, earths orbit, greenhous gases, volcanoes, ocean currents, and land masses

How do volcanoes influence the climate?

they put out a lot of ashes and gases which cools down the earth's surface by blocking solar radiation. This effect will most likely last several decades and not a permanent alteration of the climate.

How do ocean currents influence our climate?

The ocean has a large heat capacity, which means that it can store heat present on earth, causing it to warm the climate.

How do land masses influence our climate?

the shape and elevation of earth's land, can block air masses, causing different temperatures and precipitation, as well as different conditions.

What is El Niño?

The warming of the pacific ocean due to trade winds weakening, causing the coast of South America to experience warmer waters.

What are the effects of warm waters on land?

It can cause drought and cold winters.

What is La Niña?

The cooling of the Pacific Ocean, when trade winds gets stronger and pushes warm costal wather further from the South American coastline causing cold waters to rise.

Upwelling

The movement of deep, cold, and nutrient-rich water to the surface

Thermocline

a layer in a large body of water, such as a lake, that sharply separates regions differing in temperature, so that the temperature gradient across the layer is abrupt.

How does El Niño affect the world?

It causes species relocation or suffering due to their specific comfort in different temperatures such as fish and birds.

Clean air act

Set emission standards for cars, and limits for release of air pollutants

clean water act

(CWA, 1972) set maximum permissible amounts of water pollutants that can be discharged into waterways; aims to make surface waters swimmable and fishable

convention on international trade in endangerd species of wild fauna and flora (CITES)

An international agreement regulating trade in living specimen and products derived from listed endagered species.

Comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act. (CERCLA)

A U.S. law passed in 1980 meant to clean up or containe toxic waste sites and hold parties responsible for any toxic waste release.

montreal protocol

(1987) phase-out of ozone depleting substances

kyoto protocol

controlling global warming by setting greenhouse gas emissions targets for developed countries

endangered species act

(1973) identifies threatened and endangered species in the U.S., and puts their protection ahead of economic considerations

safe drinking water act (SDWA)

the federal law that protects public drinking water supplies in the United States

Delaney clause of food, drug, and cosmetic act

requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban food additives which are found to cause or induce cancer in humans or animals as indicated by testing.

resource conservation and recovery act (RCRA)

Management of non-hazardous and hazardous solid waste including landfills and storage tanks. Set minimal standards for all waste disposal facilities and for hazardous wastes.

Tragedy of the Commons

situation in which people acting individually and in their own interest use up commonly available but limited resources, creating disaster for the entire community

TOC Oceans

Polluting the water or over-harvesting the biomass. Overfishing and insufficient endangered species protection efforts.

TOC Air

Adding pollutants by continuing to contribute to emissions

TOC Freshwater

Using or redirecting it as well as polluting it.

TOC Game/animals for hunting

Over-farming or overhunting; killing off more than a population's birth rate can adequately compensate for.

TOC Bureau of Land Management Land

Common land which can be used in ways that damage the environment surrounding it (off-road vehicles, pollutants)

TOC National Parks

Land set aside for public enjoyment experiencing environmental damage and overuse.

What ways can we regulate peoples actions?

Laws, Privatization, and Peer/community pressure

How do laws regulate people's actions?

Rules and regulations limit how people access a commons so that it is still available for everyone to use. For example, dividing a plot of land into solo plots which gives people equal access to land as a resource.

How does privatization regulate people's actions?

People are much more likely to take care of their own property. The purchase rights of land and ability to maintain it may regulate environmental damages.

How does peer/community pressure regulate people's actions?

Letting people know how their actions impact others and teach them about preserving a commons.

Clearcutting

The process of cutting down all the trees in an area at once

Clearcutting impacts

Quick growing trees will do well with a lot of sunlight. This technique increases wind and water erosion, sediments nearby streams, harms aquatic populations, mudslides, heating of water and potential desertification. Decreases transpiration, soil infiltration and formation. Increases albedo, atmosphere CO2, water evaporation from soil, etc.

The Green Revolution

A movement focused on increasing agricultural production

Norman Borlaug

Father of the Green Revolution

GMO

Genetically modified organism made when DNA is removed from one organism and placed within the DNA of what can be a very different organism.

Impacts of GMOs

Ecological impacts are greater than the health impacts. Conventional crops can breed with wild breeds.

Slash and Burn

A farming method involving the cutting of trees, then burning them to provide ash-enriched soil for the planting of crops