Unit 5

1.     Which agricultural practice leads to the greatest genetic diversity? 

  • traditional/sustainable

  • Mixed cropping, intercropping - planting different crops

  • perenial crops - no reseeding due to earlong plants , rqeuqire less plowing

2.     Which agricultural practice makes the greatest use of GMOs, pesticides, and fertilizer? 

  • industrial/conventional

    • due green revolution, mechanization

Resource coNSERCATION eTHIC : PEOPLE SHOULD MAXIMIZE REOSURCES USE BASED ON THE GREATES GOOD FOR EVERYONE

Synthetic Ferilizers - increase yield and profits BUT do excess nitrate and phosphate that runoff into water → algae blooms, requries fossil fuels for production

GMOs- genetically modified crops

  • helps have food agains drought, BUT less genetic diversity and easier to be killed off by disease

Green Revolution

  • new fertilizers, soil erosion

  • mechanization → fossil fuels, soil compactation→ decrease holding of water

3.     List the types of irrigation.

Advantage - food productivtiy

Disadvantage - overuse water deplete aquifers

Salinization - too much salt left from evaporation saltwater intrusion

  • Furrow Irrigation - fill up trenches, least efficency

    • easy and cheap

    • waterlogging and salinization, and evaporation

  • Flood Irrigation - flood fields, 70-80% efficent

    • easy and cheap

    • waterlogging , salination, waste water

  • Spray Irrigation - pumped through nozzles, 75-95%

    • efficent, less water

    • expensive and energy

  • Drip Irrigation- slow dripping through hose burried in ground

    • top soil dry, perennials reduce weed growth

    • expensive, remove to plow

4.     Describe how each of the following agricultural practice helps reduce soil erosion or improve soil fertility—

  1. No-till agriculture:

    • less erosion, oxidation and CO2

    • increase of herbicides due to weeds

  2. Crop rotation:

    • reduces demand on soil due to constant crop, promotes synergy, maintains the soils fertility

  3. Terracing:

    • series of wide flats steps constant slopes, decreases erosion

  4. Windbreaks:

    • protects crops from erosion

  5. Cover-crops:

    • aids in breakdown of nutrients and prevents soil erosion, helps with water retention allowing better soil quality

  6. Green manure:

    • animal + plant waste as fertilizers to amend soil with nutrients

  7. strip cropping - plant crops together working synergically

  8. crop rotation - helps with soil fertility and lesses demand on nutrients

  9. limestone - calcium carbonate agaisnt soil acidity

  10. rotational grazing -

5.     Which irrigation method is the most efficient and decreases the risk of soil salinization (11-32)? 

  • drip irrigation

6.     What is a CAFO and what are the three advantages and three disadvantages of them?

 CAFOs - concentrated animal feeding operation

  • high density animal farming, more water, land energy needed

  • beef cattle, dairy cows, hogs, poultry

  • positive: minimize land cost, efficency, increase food energy into production

  • negative: antibiotic resistance, disease (mad cow), waste disposal ( poop lagoons), nutrient runoff, ethical concerns, nutritional content is inadequate

    Free Range Grazing - most common use of land in US (grasslands) due to dry land → stream erosion, pollution of warer, overgrazing

     

7.     What is the Ogallala Aquifer? Why is it important to reduce the water use in both agriculture and livestock production?

  • aquifer in breadbasket area, one of largest aquifers, OPEN AQUIFER replentished by rain , gives water for irrigation in central plains

    • need to reduce cause rate it too high to be replentished in time

 

8.     What are the benefits and disadvantages of vertical gardening/aquaponics?

 Advantage: less space, less pesticides, less water used, closed loop with fish for nutrients

Disadvantage: cost, equipment, energy, labor expertise

 

9.     What are the dangers of using pesticides (herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, etc.)?

Disasbvantages : pesticide treadmill that leads to more resillience to pesticide by insects, poluttion groundwater, toxicity to humans, kill non target organism, bioacculumation and biomagnification

bioaccumulation - increase over time within an organism

biomagnification - increased over time within a food chain

herbicides - plants/weeds

fungicides - mold/ fungi/mushrooms

rodenticides - rodents

broad spectrum pesticide - insects

 

10.  What is Integrated Pest Management?

  • combinatio of methods to effectlyly control pest species while minize disruption to environment

11.  Explain Cultural, Chemical and Biological Control methods with an example of each type.

  •  cultural - crop rotation, sanitation, planting dates arrangement (farming methods)

  • biological - use predators , ladybigs and birds (use nature)

  • mechanical - traps, cultivation(labor)

  • chemical - pheromones, bioliogical and chemcial pesticides (used in moderation and at specific times) (use substances and natural weaposn)

 

12.  Describe the role and jurisdiction of the following government agencies.

a. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) - manage public lands grazing, mining, timber, recreation

  • public lands, mineral estates

b. US Forest Service (USFS) - timber, grazing, recreation

  • forests and grasslands

c. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) -wildlife, conservation, hunting, recreating

d. National Park Service (NPS) - recreation and conservation

  • national parks and historical monuments

 

UNIT 5: Land Use: Forestry

18.  Compare fire suppression to fire management. Which is the best practice? FIRE Managment

  • suppression: stop natural fires→ biomass buildup → worse fires in the future

  • managment: monitoring , prescribed burn → nutrient recycling

19.  Explain the effects of clear cutting on soils. 

  • soil erosion, increase soil and stream temperaute due to no shadow sby trees, flooding and landslides

20.  What is the most sustainable method of harvesting trees?

  • selective logging

    • strip cutting - some cut in area to preserve habitat and topsoil

    • us human animal labor to prevent compactation

    • replant speices

    • recycle wood to much for fields

21.  What is habitat fragmentation? 

  • breaking habitat apart into smaller isolated areas

How does habitat fragmentation affect gene flow and biodiversity of ecosystems? 

  • reduces species ranges to small populations at high extinction risk

UNIT 5: Land Use: Fishing

22.  What is meant by the “tragedy of the commons?” 

  • depletion of public resources due to individuals selfishness

How does it relate to world fishing? 

  • due t o commercially harvestable populatios and asia an dafricas reliance for protein, but theres a collapse with reduction by 90%

  • since ocean ist part of a nation, no one replentishes fished fishes → depletion but still demand

23.  Name 2 modern fishing methods/technologies that have significantly increases the amount of fish that are caught.

  • factory ships

  • new catching methods: bottom trawling

  • long liners

  • advanced technology of sonar and radar to find schools

  • purse sein

24.  What is by-catch?

  • accidental catching juveniles and non target species in nets

25.  Describe the following types of fishing gear/nets.

a.     Trawling - net dragged accrros ocean floor-. destruction of it , turbity , bycatch

b.      Long Line - setting out long hook on intervals to catch large fish → bycatch

c.      Purse seining (look it up) - net going down like a purse and closing down

  • To reduce by catch - TED (Turtle Exclusive Device)

93. What are the benefits of aquaculture?

  • fish farming and marine culture

Advantage: efficent, less fuel for travelling, small area of water used, less habitat deistruction

DisadvatageL fish waste contamination, disease, escapte and harm native species

  • To fix use Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA)

Videos info?

Restaurants use cheaper fish sometimes because poeple cant tell what it is

eat kelp and seaweed because easy to grow, easy to produce and good for environment → abundance can help feed more people

Singapore uses new vertical farming and aquacultrue due to space, use of more green areas and locally grown food to help wtih economy

Robotucs taht spray pesticide