Metric Prefixes

Tera Giga Mega Kilo Hector Da/Deka Deci Centi Milli Micro nano pico

The Gay Man Kissed Henry’s Dog UNITS Dinosaurs can’t make music, never played.

12 9 6 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 6 9 12

10 to the power of ↑

Formulas

https://knowt.com/flashcards/512c9381-8eff-4be4-a4b5-b97ea81155c9

AP® Environmental Science Formula Sheet: List of Formulas (uworld.com)

Lists of chemicals that we need to know for APES last quiz Flashcards | Quizlet

Legislation

• Clean Air Act

  • One of the first comprehensive laws about pollution, Set limits for air pollutants and named them. Sulfur oxides SO_x, carbon monoxide CO, particulate matter PM, volatile organic compounds VOCs, nitrogen oxides NO_x, zone O3 (tropospheric), lead (Gasoline)

• Clean Water Act

  • To make all water fishable and swimmable. Made point-source pollution illegal, require the best technology is used to clean toxins and point-sources. Funds water treatment facilities, protects wetlands.

• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES)

  • International agreement regulating trade of living organisms and products of endangered species. Biologically sustainable trade.

• Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)

  • Superfund, Taxes on hazardous waste are used to clean up abandoned toxic waste sites. EPA has power to hold parties responsible for toxic waste release.

• Montreal Protocol

  • International treaty that eliminated ozone depleting substances to protect stratospheric ozone. Like Chlorofluorocarbons. Signed by UN. One of the most successful international environmental actions.

• Kyoto Protocol

  • International agreement to reduce and regulate greenhouse gas emissions. US was one of the few countries to not sign it.

• Endangered Species Act

  • Identifies endangered, threatened, and vulnerable species and restricts activities involving or harming them. Create recovery plans for all identified species to prevent extinction.

    • endangered: in danger of extinction.

    • threatened: likely to become endangered soon.

• Safe Drinking Water Act (SWDA)

  • Protect public health by regulating drinking water. Protects reservoirs, lakes, and rivers. Allowed EPA to set healthy water standards.

• Delaney Clause of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

  • Amendment to the Food, Drugs, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. States that additives that cause cancer and reasonable harm cannot be added to food or drugs.

  Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

  • Cradle to grave, EPA can control hazardous waste at all stages.

Course Overview

1. The Living World: Ecosystems 6-8%

• Introduction to ecosystems

  • ecosystems- result of biotic and abiotic interactions.

    • Biotic- Living

    • Abiotic-Nonliving

• Terrestrial and aquatic biomes

• Primary productivity

  • Rate at which solar energy is converted into organic compounds, through photosynthesis at a given time.

• Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water cycles.

  • Biogeochemical Cycles that help stabilize the flow of matter through ecosystems, can be disrupted by human activity.

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• Trophic levels

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• The flow of energy in an ecosystem and the 10% rule.

  • Only 10% of the energy flows up the trophic levels. ecological efficiency is how much of the energy travel up the trophic levels.

• Food chains and food webs

  • Understand how energy flows through ecosystems. Webs are more complex than chains.

2. The Living World: Biodiversity 6-8%

• Introduction to biodiversity 

• Ecosystem services

  • Provisioning- Goods and products directly

  • Regulating-moderate natural conditions like climate and air

  • Supporting- Things we do ourselves making them less expensive and easier.

  • Cultural- Revenue from recreational activities and profits from scientific discoveries.

• Island biogeography

  • Larger and closer islands have more total species.

• Ecological tolerance

  • The ability to bounce back after a disaster.

• Natural disruptions to ecosystems

  • Wildfires, tornadoes, Volcanoes, Earthquake, floods, and avalanches.

• Ecological succession

  • Predictable stages of growth

    • Primary Succession- Bare rock → Moss & Lichen turn rock to soil.

    • Secondary Succession- Starting from soil (Fire, soil, and tornado) → Plants grow (Moss, grass, Shrubs, Trees)

  • Pioneer → Intermediate → Climax Community

• Adaptations- random mutations that stay because they have benefits

  • Structural

    • Physical shape or color

    • Behavioral how an organism acts. Migration

    • Functional internal. camel have concentrated urine.

3. Populations 10-15%

• Generalist and specialist species

  • Generalist r (Invasive)

    • Broad niche, adaptable, high range of tolerance, advantage in varying conditions.

    • Lots of offspring, little parental care, short lifespan, fast pop. growth.

    • Rats

  • Specialist K (endangered)

    • Narrow niche, less adaptable, more likely to go extinct, easily affected by change, have the advantage in the constant conditions.

    • Less offspring, more parental contact, longer lifespan, slower pop. growth,

    • Humans

• Survivorship curves

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• Population growth and resource availability

  • Carrying Capacity is the highest number of organisms an ecosystem can support based off of its resources (Limiting factors like food and water).

  • Die-Off: sharp decline in population when overshoot happens. Can cause pop to fluctuate or to go extinct.

  • Higher population Density= More competition and greater chance of outbreak and depletion.

    • Some factors like food are dependent on pop density, others like Natural disasters are unaffected by pop density.

  • Distributions

    • Random-Trees

    • Uniform-Territorial Animals

    • Clumped-Termite Hills.

• Age structure diagrams

  • Age Cohorts-groups of similar aged individuals

    • Large 0-14= Current and Future Growth

    • Equal 0-14/15-44= Slight growth/Stable

    • Larger 15-44= Population decline

• Human population dynamics

  • TFR Total Fertility Rate: average # of children a woman will have.

    • Factors: High IMR= Higher TFR, development, women’s education Affluence, women’s rights, family planning/ contraception, later age of pregnancy, banned child labor, Government Policies.

  • Replacement Level Fertility: TFR needed to offset death rate. 2.1 MDCs higher in LDCs.

  • Infant Mortality Rate IMR: # of child death per 1000 people.

  • Malthusian Theory- Human carrying capacity based off of food production. Malthhusian catastrophe: Human population increases exponentially while food increases linearly.

    • Proven wrong by synesthetic fertilizers, GMOs, preservatives. Caused exponential increase of food production.

• Doubling time

  • The time it takes for a population to double.

  • Rule of Seventy: 70/ Growth Rate= Doubling time

• Increase Population:

  • Higher TFR

  • High immigration level

  • Increased access to water, food, healthcare, etc.

• Decrease Population:

  • Increased development

  • Increased education for women

  • Later age for having 1st child.

  • Later age for marriage.

• Demographic Transition

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4. Earth Systems and Resources 10-15%

• Tectonic plates

  • Seismic waves

    • Caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, and explosions.

    • P-waves move through everything and are fast. Longitude

    • S waves only move through solids. Traverse

• Soil formation and erosion

  • Soil is made of organic compounds and rock.

    • Sand: Bigger pores, air & water enter sand easier, Silt: Medium, Clay: Smallest pores. More sand more porous more clay less porous

      • Texture Triangle: In soil texture chart start with Sand (Diagonal ↗), then Silt (Diagonal ↖ ), then Clay (Horizontal →). Ensure total is 100%

    • Humus: most organic part of soil, Nutrients: Ammonium NH₄, Phosphates, Nitrates, water, air, & living organisms. (N, P, K, Mg²⁺, Ca⁺, Na⁺)

  • H₂O Holding capacity: amount of water retained by soil.

  • Weathering: Breakdown of rocks- Physical/wind, Biological/Roots, Chemical/Moss,

  • Erosion: The transport of rock fragments

  • Soil Horizons

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  • Soil Degradation: Soil losing the ability to support plant life-caused by loss of topsoil (tilling), Compaction (heavy machinery), Nutrient Depletion (Repeat Crops)

    • Too much sand-Dires out, Too much Clay- drown, Loam best mixture

• Earth's atmosphere

  • Nitrogen 78%, Oxygen 21%, Argon .93%, Water Vapor 0-4%, CO₂ 0.04%

  • The Snail May Tickle Ears

  • Exosphere

    • outermost layer, atm merges with space

  • Thermosphere

    • hottest temp, absorbs harmful UV radiation, aurora borealis.

  • Mesosphere

    • middle layer, burns meteors, colder higher up

  • Stratosphere

    • thickest ozone (O₃) layer absorbs UV-b UV-c

  • Troposphere

    • weather occurs here, most dense, O₃ is harmful here.

• Global wind patterns

  • 1. energy from sunlight 2. density properties of air 3. rotation of earth (Coriolis effect- deflection of objects traveling thought atm due to spin of earth)

  • Warm air rises and hold more moisture than cold, rising air expands and cools, cold air can’t hold as much H₂O, condenses → rain

• Watershed

  • All of the land that drain into a specific body of water, determined by shape and slope of land, vegetation, and soil permeability.

  • Human Activities

    • Clearcutting (Deforestation), Agriculture, Urbanization, Dams, and Mining.

    • Solutions: Cover crops, Animal waste management, Excessive Nutrient removal.

  • Chesapeake Bay Watershed is 6 states.

  • Water Health Indicators: Temperature, Dissolved O₂, Turbidity, Nitrogen, and pH.

• Solar Radiation & Earth’s Seasons

  • Insolation: Amount of solar radiation reaching an area. (watts/meters²). Depends on angle & atmosphere thickness (Latitude).

  • Seasons Caused by Earth’s axis, tilt toward or away from sun.

  • Equinoxes: June & December- N or S pole is turned the most toward sun, March and September N and S equally distant.

  • Albedo: amount of light reflected, high Albedo= Low Temp, Low Albedo= High temp.

• Earth's geography and climate

  • Climate determined by insolation.

  • Mountains disrupt wind- rain shadow effect

    • Rain shadow: dry area on leeward side of mountain

    • Formation: moist air rises, cools, releases rain on windward side

    • Leeward side: air descends, warms, absorbs moisture

    • Result: dry climate, little precipitation

    • Examples: Atacama Desert, Death Valley

• El Niño and La Niña

  • Like a bathtub, happens every 2-7 years

  • Thermohaline Circulation- Connects all oceans mixing salt, nutrient, & temps.

    • El Nino:

      • Warmer ocean temperatures in the Pacific

      • Weaker trade winds

      • Increased rainfall in South America

      • Drier conditions in Southeast Asia and Australia

    • La Nina:

      • Colder ocean temperatures in the Pacific

      • Stronger trade winds

      • Increased rainfall in Southeast Asia and Australia

      • Drier conditions in South America

5. Land and Water Use 10-15%

• The Tragedy of the Commons

  • Individuals using shared resources in own self-interest causing degradation.

    • Ex: Overfishing, overgrazing, groundwater depletion, water and air pollution.

  • Occurs because the blame is spread out over many parties, scarcity mindset (Others will overuse if I don’t), little to no penalties.

  • Solutions

    • Private land ownership → Responsibility (Tangible blame)

    • Fees/Taxes ex: permits for grazing, logging, hunting, etc.

    • Taxes, Fines, Criminal Charges for pollution

    • Legislation ex; clean air act, clean water act, safe drinking water act, etc.

    • Bureau of Land Management and Environmental Protection Agency

• The Green Revolution

  • GMO’s, industrial farms, synthetic fertilizers and pescticides.

• Types and effects of irrigation

  • Furrow: Rows of water, loses 1/3 water

  • Drip: holes in hose at plants, loses 1/20 water.

  • Flood: Flood entire fields loses 1/5 water. Waterlogs soil and causes salination.

  • Spray: Spray plants with water. better than furrow or flood.

  • Water Logging: all soil pores filled with water. No oxygen to roots

    • Solution: drip irig, soil aeration,

    • Soil Salination: salt build up in soil.

  • Human water use: 70% agriculture, 19% industrial, 11% municipal,

• Pest-control methods

  • Pests can become resistant to pesticides

  • GMO’s- give plants pest resistant genes

    • Ex. Bt corn

  • Round up make plants that are resistant to round up so you don’t have to kill the plants you want to keep.

• Meat production methods

  • Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s)

    • Pros: Maximize land use and minimizes costs

    • Cons: Animals given antibiotics, lots of manure, CO₂, and CH₃,

  • Manure Lagoons- Basin of animal waste for long term storage.

    • Pros: treat manure and protect water

    • Cons: potential spills damage environment.

  • Free Range Grazing

    • Pros: Healthier

    • Cons: Overgrazing →Soil Compaction →Loss of Vegetation

  • Overgrazing: compact soil causes more erosion. Due to overpopulated livestock or poor livestock management. Harms soil fertility and soil microbes.

  • Inefficiency of Meat: lots of time, money, and resources to produce meat. People find alternate foods, potentially cheaper. Meat production causes increased deforestation and pesticide use.

• Overfishing

  • Fishery collapse: overfishing causes 90% population decline population may not recover → decreased biodiversity, inability to find mates, and breeding.

  • Economic Impact: Loss of income for fishermen, loss of tourism.

  • Tragedy of the Commons

  • Bottom trawling: dragging a large net across the ocean floor.

    • Bycatch: unintended species like whales, dolphins, turtles caught in net

    • Effects: increases turbidity destroys coral reefs, decreases biodiversity (bycatch and coral reef destruction)

  • Trophic Cascades: if you remove lower layers, it will cause an effect upwards and make recovery harder. Small organisms increase causing eutrophication.

• The impacts of mining

  • Ore: deposits of concentrated minerals

  • Metals: conduct electricity and heat, used for building.

  • Reserve: known amount or reserve, measured in years.

  • Overburden: soil and vegetation that are removed to get to an ore deposit.

  • Tailings and Slag: waste material stored in ponds nearby.

  • Surface mining: removal of overburden to access ore near surface.

    • Ex: open pit, strip, mountain top erosion.

    • Environmental Impacts: Topsoil erosion, habitat loss, stream turbidity, increased PM in air.

  • Subsurface mining: Vertical shaft- elevators

    • Cons/Risks: More expensive (insurance & healthcare), poor ventilation and toxic gases, mineshaft collapse, falling rocks, lung cancer, asbestos, fires, explosions

    • Environmental Impacts: Rainwater carries sulfuric acid into water. Lowers pH, making mercury and aluminum more soluble, methane release, PM release (Coal), acid rain mixes with pyrite =sulfuric acid. Topsoil erosion, habitat loss, increased stream turbidity.

  • Mine Reclamation: fill in holes/shafts, restore original shape, return topsoil, replanting native plants/animals. Very expensive and takes a long time.

• Urbanization

  • Urbanization: replacing vegetation with impervious surfaces to convert natural landscape into a city. Prevents water seepage/ groundwater recharge.

  • Causes a depletion of resources and an increase in fossil fuel combustion.

  • CO₂ emissions: concrete production, construction machinery, deforestation, and landfills

  • Costal City population growth leads to saltwater intrusion, due to excessive groundwater withdrawal and rising sea levels.

    • People moving to urban areas for jobs, culture, and entertainment. (Minimizes driving and land use per person, decreasing personal environmental impact.)

    • People moving from urban areas to suburban areas. (Cheaper property, ease of cars, domino effect, fewer residents)

    • When so many people leave urban areas, businesses follow leaving empty buildings (Blight)

      • Causes: highway system

      • Solutions: urban growth boundaries, zoning laws, public transport, walkable cities, mixed land use.

• Urban Runoff

  • Decreased groundwater recharge

  • Pollutants: salt, sediment, fertilizers, pesticides, oil & gas

  • Solutions: Permeable pavement, rain Gardens, Public transport, Building up

• Ecological Footprint

  • how much a person consumes expressed in a measure of area.

  • Factors: food production, raw materials, housing, biologically productive, electricity, disposing waste.

  • Increase Footprint:

    • Affluence (Wealth), larger house, travel, resources for material goods, meat consumption, fossil fuel use

  • Decrease Footprint:

    • renewable energy use, public transportation, plant-based diet, less consumption, less travel, less energy use

  • US footprint is 5.1 earths. Global Footprint is 1.85.

• Introduction to sustainable practices including crop rotation and aquaculture

  • Crop rotations prevents nutrient deficiencies and erosion. Keeps up biodiversity.

  • Tilling causes erosion and PM. Slash and Burn causes air pollution and returns nutrients to soil.

• Sustainability

  • The ability to indefinitely sustain. Consumption vs production.

  • 3Es Economy, Environment, Equity make up sustainibilty

  • Cradle to Grave: companies are responsible for the entire lifespan of their products. RCRA

  • Indicators of sustainability: Biodiversity and global extinction rate

  • Food production

    • Major Threats: climate change, soil degradation, groundwater depletion, increasing meat production

  • As human population grows resource depletion follows.

6. Energy Resources and Consumption 10-15%

• Energy sources and fuel types, including fossil fuels, ethanol, and nuclear power

• Global energy consumption and distribution of natural resources

• Natural sources of energy, including solar power, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power

• Energy conservation methods

7. Atmospheric Pollution 7-10%

• Introduction to air pollution

• Photochemical smog

• Indoor air pollution

• Methods to reduce air pollutants

• Acid rain

• Noise pollution

8. Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution 7-10%

• Sources of pollution

• Human impact on ecosystems

• Thermal pollution

• Solid waste disposal and waste reduction methods

• Pollution and human health

• Pathogens and infectious diseases

9. Global Change 15-20%

• Ozone depletion 

  • Stratospheric Ozone- protects from UV rays,

• Global climate change 

• Ocean warming and acidification

• Invasive species

• Human impacts on diversity

  • Habitat Loss- Deforestation

  • Invasive Species-

  • Population Growth- Humans

  • Pollution-

  • Climate Change-

  • Over Exploitation-