EARTH 122 - PART 2

Monsanto vs Percy Schmeiser

accidental blowing of seeds, owed $238,000 bc of copyright for GMO seeds

Traditional Agriculture

biologically powered with human and animal power, subsistence families make enough for selves

industrialized agriculture

large-scale mechanization and fossil fuels to boost yields, much monoculture (25% of cropland, last 100 years)

food security

guarantee of adequate, reliable, available food to people at all times

grain fallen by 9% since 1985, soil decline, little land left

undernourishment

person receives less than 90% of daily caloric needs

malnutrition

shortage of body’s required nutrients (vitamins and minerals)

overnutrition

receiving too many calories (48% of adults in Ca heavy and 14% obese)

green revolution

increase in agricultural productivity during mid-late 20th century

more food, more energy, more fertilizer, pesticides

extensification vs. intensification

using more land vs. using same land better

green revolution impacts

* less conversion, less deforestation
* more water fossil, fuels and pesticides (pollution, desert, salin, erosion)

irrigation impacts

only 43% of water applied is used, waterlogging and saline

monoculture impacts

efficient, bad biodiversity, disease and pests, 90% of food from 15 crops and 8 livestock

pesticides

target pests! insecticides, fungicides, herbicides. 91% pesticides for agriculture, 85% herbicides

biocontrol issues

unpredictable, hard to stop, nontarget effects

IPM (integrated pest management)

biocontrol, chemicals, population monitoring, habitat alteration, crop rotation, alternative tillage, mechanical

pollination

male plants fertilize female, 1$.2b in canada, 90% of plants, 73% bees

biotechnology

material application of bioscience to create organism derived products

transgenic organism

contains DNA from other species, transgenes move

GM crops

50% soy beans! corn, cotton, canola

134mh, %10,5bI

US, Brazil, Argentina

seed banks

preserve seed types as living museum of genetic diversity

norway doomsday vault (SGSV)

feedlots

huge warehouses deliver energy-rich food to animals at high densities (factory farms), more production and less space but pollute cause disease and many antibiotics used

feed input for 1kg

20 beef

7 pork

4 eggs

2\.8 chicken

1\.1 milk

aquaculture

raising aquatics organisms for food in controlled environment

50% fish, 20% plants and molluscs

aquaculture pros and cons

reliable, sustainable, reduces overharvesting

disease, waste, escape

sustainable agriculture

does not deplete soil, pollute, or decrease diversity

no-till agriculture

depth and frequency of ploughing and tilling are kept to a minimum to protect soil moisture and compaction

low-input agriculture

uses smaller amounts of pesticide, fertilizers, growth hormones, water, and fossil fuel energy than industrial agriculture

organic agriculture

Uses no synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, or herbicides

2006 standards, 95% organic, logo, 20% annually, 50000ha in Canada

community supported agriculture

consumers pay farmers in advance for share of yield, fresh and guaranteed

community gardens

areas where resident can grow food

30000people in cuba, 30% of city

GIS is

digital info in points, lines, areas, and imagery, at any scale on a device

key GIS activities

visualizing spatial info (maps) analyzing spatial info (asking questions of the maps)

5 elements of GIS

data collection and models, datasets, process and workflow, maps and globes, metadata

metadata

data about data (area covered, currency, accuracy, etc) Locate, extract, evaluate, employ

data collection

primary (direct or indirect measurement)

secondary (converting/geo-rectifying unusable or analog data)

data transfer (file conversions)

discrete objects vs. fields

objects with defined boundaries in empty space

variables defined at positions and interpolated to create a smooth field

raster vs. vector

points, lines, polygons

cell, grid, one value per cell

can code discrete or field

grid data structure

extent (rows and columns), spacing (cell sizes), no data value info

values are real integers

datum dependent

raster sampling

values sampled at nodes, in cell centre, or average for whole cell

shuttle radar topography mission

february 2000, elevation map covering 60N-60S

aster g-dem

topography 83N - 83S 1.3 million scene ASTER archive

Canada and geothermal energy

high capacity, renewable, spread everywhere, more data needed 1million times cinsumption

freshwater

relatively pure with few dissolved salts, 2.5%, only 1% available to us

watershed

area drained by river and tributaries

laminar vs. turbulent flow

parallel unmixing vs mixing and lots of erosion

hydrograph

discharge vs. time, peak is a storm

discharge

volume moving past a point, v x a

velocity variables

shape, width, roughness, slope, vegetation

suspended load

clay and silt kept suspended by fluid turbulence

controlled by velocity

bed load

large gravel and sand

saltation load

intermittent bouncing/slipping

compotence

size of particles carried, function of velocity

capacity

total load, function of discharge

osbow

extreme bend

floodplain

nearest river, flooded often

usually riparian (super high species richness and productivity)

wetlands

combine wet and dry! slow runoff, recharge aquifers, filter pollutants

freshwater marsh: plants grow above surface

swamps: shallow water in forests

bogs: covered in floating mats

inland seas

lakes so big they adapt to open-water conditions

aquifer

Porous formations of rock, sand, or gravel that hold groundwater

water table

transition into saturated zone

aquifer recharge

area where water infiltrates surface

artesian vs unconfined

having less permeable upper layer and high pressure vs no

climate change impacts on hydrology

more runoff, northward rain-belt, more evaporation, drier summers, warmer rivers, lower water levels in lakes, higher oceans

consumptive vs. non-consumptive

removing water from source and not returnins vs. not or temporarily removing

water-mining when faster than replenishes

central arizona project

lost 80% of volume due to diversion

pesticide dust, less temp regulation, jobs lost

desalinization

distillation hastens evaporation and reverse osmosis uses membrane

pathogens and waterborne diseases

enter supply due to badly treated

toxic chemicals, suspended matter, thermal pollution

water indicators

bio (diseases), chemical (pH, odor, taste, nutrient, O2), physical (turbidity, colour, temperature)

walkerton e. coli from manure

primary and secondary treatment

physical removal

aeration to allow bavteria to decompose pollutants

biodiversity

sum of all organisms, species, genetic, and ecosystem diversity

most speciated life form

insects

Canadian SARA

extinct, extirpated, endangered, threatened

background rate of extinction

natural, 1/1000 species every 1-10000 years

extinctions

5 major! lost 50% of species, 6th because of us

vulnerable

species have characteristics making them susceptible to our actions

greatest causes of biodiversity loss

farming, grazing, dams, urbanization, rats

amphibian decline

mostly due to habitat loss, also pollution and fragmentation

ecotourism

costa rica, australia, belize

conservation biology

understanding factors that influence loss and protection of diversity

eq theory of island biogeo

how species are distributed over islands

eq between immigration and extirpation, size and distance from mainland

flagship species

large and charismatic

biodiversity hotspots

prioritizing regions important globally, important for endemic species

34 of them

community-based conservation

biologists engage local people in protecting land and wildlife

debt-for-nature

conservation pays off developing contries debt for reserve

conservation concession

prganizations pay nations to conserve resources

world heritage sites

national sovereignty overseen by UN

biosphere reserves

exceptional biodiversity, presrvation and sutainable development

core: preservation

buffer: education, research, tourism

transition: development, sustainable agriculture

old-growth

complex primary, at least 150 years old

variable retention

logging selectively to retain characteristics of ecosystem

tree requirements

temperature, air, water, light, soil, micro and macro

forest components

canopy, subcanopy, understory, shurb layer, forest floor, soil, snag

boreal

high-lat, coniferous, cold dry

temperate

mid-lat, deciduous, seasonal

tropical

eq-lat, wet tropical

drylands

shurblands, savannah (open grasses and trees), grasslands (non-woody)

north

boreal (expect NS and PEI)

west

subalpine, montane, columbia, coast

east

deciduous, great lakes-st lawrence, acadian

softwood and hardwood

coniferous and deciduous

aforestation

reforesting after 50 years

maximum sustaimable yield

cutting after quickest growth period