Final unit 1

Unit 1

• The Greenland viking collapse- why did it happen? 1)natural climate change 2) failure to adjust to change 3)environmental damage 4) hostile neighbors 5) loss of friendly neighbors 

• Sustainable development: meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own 

• Environmental literacy: basic understanding of how ecosystem function and the impact of our choices on the environment 

• “Wicked problems”- Challenges that are difficult to solve because they have many causes and consequences

• Environment: all the physical, chemical, and biological processes and factors that determine the growth and survival of organisms 

• Ecology: focuses on the abundance and distribution of organisms in relation to their environment 

• Evolution: a unifying concept in biology based on inherited changes in a population over time 

• Ecosystems: All organisms and their physical and chemical environments (Biotic and Abiotic) (integrated system where energy and matter flow) 

• Environmental Biology: interdisciplinary field or research that focuses on natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities in order to understand the natural world and our relationship to it 

• “Tragedy of the Commons”- Tendency of an individual to abuse a public resource in order to maximize their own personal interest

• The Triple Bottom Line: Planet, People, Profit (environmental, social, economic) (Trade-offs necessary) 

• Population: the number of organisms of the same species that live in a particular geographic area at the same time, with the capability of interbreeding 

• Community: a group or association of populations of two or more different species occupying the same geographical area in a particular time 

• Ecosystem Services: the various benefits that humans derive from healthy ecosystems 

• Provisioning services: supply us with resources (food, water, fiber, air) 

• Regulating services: control important conditions/services (climate, flow of water, absorption of pollutants) 

• Cultural services: spiritual and recreational benefits 

• Supporting services: basic ecosystem processes (nutrient cycles, soil formation, pollination) 

• Energy: the ability to do work

• Matter: a substance that has mass and volume (cycles)

• Closed ecosystem: theoretical/ man-made, exchange energy but not matter 

• Open ecosystems: found in nature, matter can enter and leave, energy exchanged 

• Law of Thermodynamics/principles: Matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed (instead transformed)

• Law of energy and Mass Conservation: everything goes somewhere (pollution does too) 

• Ecosystem Stability: regulated by biotic and abiotic factors 

• Dynamic homeostasis: systems adjust to reduce change back to normal 

• Negative feedback: system reverses a directional change (ex: nutrients and algal growth)

• Positive feedback: system reinforces change  (ex: forest loss and erosion)

• 4 fundamental principles of acting sustainably: 1) managing resources 2)understanding boundaries 3)maintaining balance and integration 4) embracing change 

• Environmental Economics: study of the cost-effective allocation, use, and protection of the world’s natural resources 

• Supply and Demand: price and production set through supply & demand interactions (equilibrium of buyers and sellers) 

• Positive externalities: third party benefits 

• Negative externalities: third party suffers 

• Economic valuation: the price tag for nature that people are willing to pay

• Marginal value: willingness compared to alternative 

• Travel cost valuation: amount people will pay for travel to visit an ecosystem 

• Hedonic valuation: difference of real estate price affected by environmental alternatives 

• Contingent valuation: value based on what people will pay for actions aimed at conservation 

• Ecological Valuation: value of ecosystem measured by cost of possible loss of an ecosystem 

Natural Capital: all the earth’s resources that are necessary to produce the ecosystem services we depend on