Unit 3
Chapter 10: Water; Hydrologic Cycle and Human Use
10.1: Water a vital resource
75% of the Earth's surface is water
Streams, rivers, ponds, swamps, estuaries, ground water, bays, oceans, and the atmosphere represent the capital goods and serves vital to human interests
0.8 billion people in developing countries still lack access to safe drinking water
2.1 billion people to have access to sanitized drinking water
Climate change plays a role as warming increases evaporation and worsens the effects of drought
10.2: Hydrologic Cycle and Human Impacts
Transpiration: the loss of water vapor as it moves from the soil through green plants and exits through leaf pores
Relative Humidity: the amount of water vapor as a percentage of what the air can hold at a particular temperature
Adiabatic warming: occurs as cold air descends and is compressed by higher air pressure in the lower atmosphere
Adiabatic cooling: warm air encounters the lower atmosphereic pressure at increasing altitudes, it gradually expands and cools
10.3: Getting enough, controlling excess
Sources: 25% of domestic water USA comes from ground water
Estuaries: bays and rivers where freshwater and sea water mixes
10.4: Water Stewardship, Economics, and Policy
The hydrologic cycle is entirely adequate to meet human needs for freshwater because it processes several times as much water required today
More than 2 billion people depend on groundwater supplies
Agriculture is the largest consumer of fresh water. 40% of the world's food is grown in irrigated soils
Most crops in developing nations is dependent on rain fed water for their crops
Chapter 11:Soil Foundation for Land Ecosystems
11.1: Soil and plants
Soil is a solid material of geological and biological origin that is changed by chemical, biological, and physical processes, giving it the ability to support plant growth
Soil and carbon storage: Soils hold carbon from leaf liter and dead organisms. It is estimated that soils hold as much as three times of carbon held in the atmosphere
11.2: Soil Degradation
soil degradation: occurs when water and wind pick up particles of soils and carry them away
Practices that cause erosion
Erosion is the main element of soil degradation
practices that expose soil to erosion include overcultivation, overgrazing, and deforestation. all of which are a consequence of unsustainable management practices
nutrient mining: removal of nutrients and degrades the fertility of soil
11.3: conserving and restoring soil
National farm policies play a major role in determining how soils are conserved
Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Initiative (SARD) facilitated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is one of the worldwide efforts to empower farmers to protect their soils
Making a difference: use fertilizers that use organic products and ones labeled "slow-release", because "quick release" fertilizers cab be easily washed out and pollutes ground water
There has been international effort to protect and restore soils by reversing deforestation and desertification
Chapter 12: The Production and Distribution of Food
12.1: Crops and Animals: Major Patterns of Food Production
Subsistence farmers live 0n small parcels of land that provides them with enough food for their households and, it is hoped, a small cash crop
The US has the largest area of arable land in the world
The Green Revolution: The technologies that gave rise to the agricultural revolution in the industrialized countries were eventually into the developing worlds
12.2: From Green Revolution to Gene Revolution
Genetic engineering makes it possible to combine characteristics from genetically different organisms and to incorporate desire traits into crops lines and animals, producing transgenic or genetically modified varieties
Concerns about genetic engineering technologies involve three main considerations: food safety, environmental problems, and justice issues
12.3: Food Distribution and Trade
Worldwide governments trade to maintain 70 days worth of grain stored in reserves
12.4: Hunger, Malnutrition, and Famine
To address obesity and nutriention the USDA created the graphic of a daily food intake
12.5: Feeding the world as we approach 2030 - 2050
Almost 70% of the US domestic grain is used to feed livestock not people